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Latest Oregon news, sports, business and entertainment at 3:20 a.m. PDT

OFFICER SHOOTING

Officer and gunman shot south of Portland, hostage OK

GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say SWAT snipers shot a man at a Subway restaurant after the man shot a police officer and took a woman hostage in Gladstone, about 17 miles south of Portland.

Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Brian Jensen said Monday night that Gladstone police Sgt. Lee Jundt stopped a man on a bicycle Monday evening for a violation.

Jensen says the man pulled a gun and shot Jundt in his police vest before entering Subway and taking a woman hostage.

A SWAT team responded and tried to negotiate with the man, whom Jensen said made several demands and was not giving up.

Jensen says SWAT snipers fired at the man, hitting him, and once he was down, officers entered and got the woman out safely.

SWAT surgeons were sent in and the man was taken to a local hospital by ambulance. His condition wasn’t known.

PENSION RANKING

Ducks football coach bumped as top public pension recipient

(Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com)

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A former neurosurgeon has replaced former University of Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti as the state’s top public pension recipient.

The Register-Guard reports Dr. Johnny Delashaw receives an annual benefit of $663,354 a year — $55,279.53 a month — from the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System, the agency’s latest data shows. That’s 24 percent higher than Bellotti’s annual benefit of $536,995.

Delashaw was a neurosurgeon at Portland’s Oregon Health and Science University.

Bellotti had been Oregon’s top PERS beneficiary since the retirement agency started releasing data in late 2011.

The pension is funded by public agency or agencies — schools, local governments or state agencies — for whom the recipient worked. Oregon’s schools and state and local governments are bracing for large hikes in their mandatory contributions to the PERS system in the next two-year budget, which starts in July.

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BLM LAND PLAN-LAWSUIT

Federal agency hit with lawsuits over land plan for Oregon

(Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com)

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The federal government is already facing two lawsuits over its plan to manage about 2.5 million acres of land in western Oregon that would increase the potential timber harvest by an estimated 37 percent.

The Statesman Journal reports the American Forest Resource Council and Earth Justice have both filed suits against the Bureau of Land Management since the plan was enacted Friday.

The BLM estimates 278 million board feet per year could be harvested once the plan is fully implemented. It also predicts it’ll increase job growth, tourism and recreation.

The council claims the logging levels laid out in the plan are still too low, while environmentalists cite concerns over threatened species, such as the Northern Spotted Owl.

Levy said the BLM doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

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BODY FOUND-PORTLAND MOTEL

Police investigate suspicious death at Portland motel

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a Portland motel room as a possible homicide.

Portland police Sgt. Pete Simpson says motel staff discovered the man, believed to be in his 50s, on Monday. He has not yet been identified.

Officers say the circumstances surrounding the death are suspicious, but have not elaborated.

The medical examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on Tuesday to determine the man’s cause of death.

BODY IN THE HOUSE

No charges against sister after body found in their home

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A district attorney in Oregon says he won’t file charges against a woman who lived for months in a house with the dead body of her sister, saying that while norms of decency may have been violated, no crime was committed.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said Monday that Christine Freise, 63, died in November 2015 of natural causes in La Pine. Her sister, Elizabeth Freise, left her in her bed. In April, paramedics came to the house after Elizabeth was injured, and noticed a stench. Authorities discovered Christine Freise’s decomposed body, several dead and live cats and garbage covering the floors.

Hummel said that Elizabeth Freise wasn’t her sister’s legal caregiver and that while her handling of her sister’s death was “shocking and appalling,” her inaction wasn’t criminal.

TRUMP FUNDRAISER

3 Portland businessmen disavow affiliation with Trump event

(Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com)

SEATTLE (AP) — Three Portland businessmen listed on an invitation for an upcoming Seattle fundraiser for Donald Trump say they have no plans to attend the Republican presidential nominee’s event later this month.

The Seattle Times reported Monday that Peter Stott, president of Portland-based Columbia Investments, said he had no role in the campaign and did not approve the use of his name for the Aug. 30 event.

Gordon Sondland and Bashar Wali, Portland-based executives of Provenance Hotels, issued a statement to the Willamette Week citing Trump’s treatment of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, as one reason they don’t support Trump.

A month ago, Sondland had been announced as Trump’s Oregon finance chairman.

Republican state Sen. Doug Ericksen, a Trump campaign leader in Washington, said the draft invitation had been prematurely circulated before plans had been finalized.

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OREGON ZOO-BUTTERFLY RELEASE

Oregon Zoo releases last of summer’s silverspot butterflies

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Zoo has released the last batch of its zoo-raised silverspot butterflies into the wild as part of a summer program aimed at boosting their numbers.

The zoo said Monday it’s transported nearly 450 butterfly pupaes to four sites along the Oregon Coast this summer.

There, the insects complete their transformation inside mesh nets to protect them from predators — and flit away once they emerge.

The silverspot was once common in coastal grasslands from northern California to Canada, but is now listed as threatened due to the loss of its host plant, the early blue violet.

The zoo’s effort began in 1998, but this is the first time the butterflies have been released atop Tillamook County’s Mount Hebo.

TAX MEASURE

Foes, fans of corporate tax measure raise millions

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Millions of dollars have been raised by the two groups campaigning on opposite sides of a November ballot measure that would increase corporate taxes.

Measure 97 would create a 2.5 percent tax on sales exceeding $25 million for some corporations. Last week Gov. Kate Brown endorsed the measure, which would be the largest tax hike on corporations in Oregon history.

The Statesman Journal reports Our Oregon, the group supporting the tax, has raised $1.5 million so far. The money is from just two donations of $750,000 each by the Oregon Education Association and SEIU Local 503, the state’s largest public sector unions.

The business-backed Defeat the Tax on Oregon Sales is campaigning against Measure 97, and has raised more than $5 million from nearly 800 donations. Most contributions are from corporations or their executives.

The campaigns are likely to spend heavily on television, radio and digital advertising.

 

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.