1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute,323
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
UNDATED (AP) – Plans to resume killing California sea lions that
eat endangered salmon at Bonneville Dam are on hold again. The
Humane Society of the United States has gone back to court
challenging the federal government’s latest approval of the program
that has removed 41 salmon-eating sea lions since 2008. The states
of Oregon and Washington have agreed to hold off plans to resume
trapping and lethally injecting sea lions pending a hearing
tomorrow in federal court in Washington, D.C. The states had been
set yesterday to resume the program.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A Republican candidate for Oregon labor
commissioner is filing suit against Democratic Secretary of State
Kate Brown over the date of the election. Republican Bruce Starr
argues that elections officials are misinterpreting an obscure 2009
law that Brown says requires the race for labor commissioner to be
on the ballot in November rather than May. Starr accuses Brown of
playing politics to help Democratic candidate Brad Avakian. He said
the November ballot, with the presidential race, could help
Democratic candidates.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon employers shed thousands of jobs in
February, surprising state economists who said there was little
optimistic news in a monthly report on unemployment and jobs.
Weakness in construction and retailing stood out in the state
Employment Department’s report. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the
state lost 6,400 jobs. The state unemployment rate, which has been
moving down for more than two years, remained at 8.8 percent.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon’s parole board has decided that a
man convicted of the 1990 rape and killing of a high school
classmate could be released in 2018. Conrad Engweiler was accused
at 15 of strangling 16-year-old Erin Reynolds. The two went to
Sunset High School. Her family says Reynolds had stopped seeing
him. His defense attorney told jurors Engweiler was so high on LSD
that he didn’t know what was happening when he killed her.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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