1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 10/31/2012 03:59 AM

OR–1st NewsMinute/335
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Candidates for offices up and down the ballot are running out of time to win over voters as the final week of campaigning sets in and thousands of ballots are returned every day. State figures yesterday showed one in four registered voters had already returned a ballot. Still, two new polls showed there were plenty of voters left to be persuaded. The surveys showed a large number of voters were still making up their minds in the secretary of state and labor commissioner races.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A Multnomah County sheriff’s spokesman says a deputy and his drug dog located three pounds of methamphetamine during a traffic stop in the Portland area. Lt. Steve Alexander says two men and a woman in the vehicle were arrested late Monday night for investigation of meth delivery and possession. A loaded handgun was found as well. Deputies later found an additional two pounds of meth at a hotel room rented by one of the three people arrested.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – An Eastern Oregon rancher and his adult son, who were found guilty of setting fires on federal rangeland, have been given sentences far below the mandatory minimum. The Register-Guard reports that on Tuesday in Eugene, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan sentenced 70-year-old Dwight Hammond Jr. to three months and gave 43-year-old Steven Dwight Hammond a sentence of a year and a day. The Harney County men were convicted last June in Pendleton for a 2001 fire.

MOLALLA, Ore. (AP) – The city manager of the small Oregon town of Molalla will leave after a year under a mutual agreement approved by the City Council. The plan approved last night calls for Ellen Barnes to remain at City Hall for 30 days or until the city chooses an interim city manager. She’ll receive severance pay totaling $21,000 over the next three months, unless she accepts a job within that period. Barnes said “philosophical disagreements” contributed to her departure.

 

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.