1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 03/12/2015 03:59 AM

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/262
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Gov. Kate Brown has unveiled plans for three bills that she says would improve Oregon’s ethics and transparency laws. Brown’s announcement follows her pledge to restore trust and transparency to government in the wake of an ethics scandal that led her predecessor, John Kitzhaber, to resign. Brown wants the Legislature to order an audit of how state agencies comply with the public records laws.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Jeanne Atkins has been sworn in as Oregon’s new secretary of state. Atkins, a Democrat, recently retired as the state director for U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a post she’d held since 2009. Before that, she was Merkley’s chief of staff when he was speaker of the state House.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Gov. Kate Brown has ended a state contract with former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s forest adviser, who collected nearly $400,000 in fees and expenses while also running a consulting business. The Oregonian reports that environmentalists and a timber industry leader said they questioned the roles of Tom Tuchmann, but they say they didn’t raise objections publicly for fear of alienating Kitzhaber. Tuchman said he did nothing wrong.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The hazards strippers can face at work are plentiful – broken glass, holes in the stage, injuries, staph infections. So a group of dancers are working with Oregon social workers to promote bills they crafted to improve work conditions in strip clubs. One of the bills would require strip clubs and other live entertainment venues to display a poster outlining the rights of performers.

 

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.