Legislative Session keeping apace - Inundation Zone help - Food Share increasing produce

Cooperation still crossing party lines in Salem.

The Oregon Legislature is just short of the midway point on this year’s session and, according to the leadership in the House of Representatives, lawmakers are making headway.
200 – “I think we’re meeting the deadlines we’ve set for ourselves to this point. We are still in that process of making things work. Our co-co-chairs and co-speaker thing seems to be going forward in a positive way.”

Coos Bay Democrat and House Co-Speaker Arnie Roblan says the top issue on everyone’s mind continues to be balancing the state budget for the coming two-year period.
202 – “The tough issues with respect to how do you cut three billion dollars or over from the budget is still out there looming and how that looks and what it means to individual groups and communities is still a little ways away. But, hopefully we’ll get a co-chairs budget out here in the near future.”

He said cooperation between he and his Republican counterpart, Bruce Hanna of Roseburg has been high.
201 – “I continue to see that happening. My co-speaker and I have done a number of town halls, we’re going to do another one, couple of them. One in Cottage Grove and then another one in Reedsport here coming up within the month.”

Both of those town hall meetings will be Saturday, April Ninth.

A website, maintained by a partnership of fishing industry, government agencies and educational institutions has a very easy method of helping northwest residents determine if their home is in a tsunami inundation zone or not. It’s called the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems. NANOOS maintains an interactive map on their website… residents need only type in their address and it will bring up a map of their immediate area… showing two inundation zones… one for a distant quake, such as the March 11th Honshu quake that triggered a surge on the Oregon Coast… the other zone shows the possible inundation area if there’s a large offshore quake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. That website…www.nanoos.org.

Two years ago Florence Food Share increased the amount of fresh produce they were offering to low income residents. Food Share Director Karen Lyn noticed that prices had gone up and people, in an effort to make their food-dollar stretch as far as they could take it were opting for lower-price and less healthy alternatives. Her answer, increase the amount of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables that they could put on their shelves for the estimated 600 households that visit the emergency food pantry each month. With the help of local volunteers and an enlarged community garden, last year they distributed 1800 pounds of fresh food from local gardens. She says that may not sound like much, but most of that was leafy greens… that don’t weigh very much. Lyn says this year they’ve already begun planting the gardens and she hopes to increase this year’s crop to more than 25-hundred pounds.

Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

BEND, Ore. (AP) - Central Oregon health officials are
investigating the possibility of a connection among three
meningococcal infections in two weeks, the latest of which led to
an infant's death. The Bend Bulletin reports that if they're from
the same strain of bacteria, Central Oregon could be experiencing a
small outbreak of meningococcal disease. Meantime, a 24-year-old
man diagnosed with meningococcal disease is in critical condition
at a Bend hospital, while a 16-year-old boy is recovering.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A crash involving three teens on a firewood
run for a spring break camping trip has killed one young man and
injured another. A Jackson County sheriff's spokeswoman says a
pickup driven by 19-year-old Brandon Hollingsworth of Central Point
went off Carberry Creek Road and rolled yesterday.
Eighteen-year-old Andrew C. Roberts of Eagle Point was killed in
the crash.

TOLLGATE, Ore. (AP) - Oregon State Police say a 52-year-old man
was critically wounded when a Umatilla County sheriff's deputy and
a state trooper say he aimed a rifle at them and they fired when he
refused to drop it. Lt. Gregg Hastings says the uninjured deputy
and trooper have been put on paid leave while the Tuesday night
shooting is investigated. The names of those involved weren't
released.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Developers of a natural gas pipeline to
bring new supplies to the Portland metro area have pulled their
application from federal regulators, citing the bankruptcy of an
LNG terminal on the Columbia River, low demand for the gas, and
development of a new route through the Mount Hood National Forest
and across the Cascade Range. Palomar Gas Transmissions, LLC, has
notified the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission it's withdrawing
the Palomar Pipeline project.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Tossing a cigarette butt to the ground could
bring a smoker a $90 fine for littering under a law before Oregon
lawmakers. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday on a
3-2 vote. The Register Guard reports it would create a subset of
the current littering law specifically for tobacco products.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon lawmakers will hear public testimony
on three bills that would increase cigarette taxes. One bill would
nearly double the tax on smokes, raising them from 65 percent to
just over 120 percent. Stores selling cigarettes would also have to
pay taxes on cigarettes in their inventory.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Lawmakers will consider a proposal to force
Oregon commercial salmon fishermen off the main stem of the
Columbia River and into side bays and estuaries. Today a Senate
committee hears from the public about the idea, which is supported
by the sport fishing industry. But the gillnet fleet says the plan
has no real conservation benefit, and would ultimately spell the
end of one of the last commercial freshwater fisheries in the
country.

BEND, Ore. (AP) - The city of Sisters is on the verge of cutting
off email communication with two persistent activists irate over a
proposed water rate increase. The Bend Bulletin reports City
Manager Eileen Stein says the two men are "serial requesters" of
data and take up too much of the city staff's time. The men, Ed
Protas and Mike Morgan, say the city is wrong.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Some Oregon lawmakers want to require
teens to take a driver's education course before they can get a
provisional license. The bill that passed the House Transportation
Committee yesterday would start the requirement for teens in the
Portland area - Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Police say a wrong-way driver is dead
after a head-on crash last night with a semi-truck on I-405 in
Portland. Police say a 52-year-old woman drove her SUV south in the
northbound lanes of the Highway 30 exit from the interstate and
collided with the semi, which was pulling two trailers.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

TAKING A LOOK INTO COAST RADIO SPORTS:

It’s off to Omaha for Oregon… the Ducks downed Boise State last night 79-71, turning back a late game surge by the Broncos to hold on. Joevan Catron (jo-vonn KAY-tronn) had 24 points and 11 rebounds in the CBI Men’s Basketball Semi-Final win. The victory puts the Ducks into the best-of-three championship series against Creighton, the school that first-year Oregon coach Dana Altman left last spring after 16 seasons. The opening game will be Monday night, five o’clock in Omaha.

Siuslaw Viking Baseball came away from Elmira yesterday with a split of a non-league double-header. The Vikings ran away with game one, winning 13-1. Alex Snow was four-for-five at the plate with four RBI and a triple. The Falcons came away with the nightcap, winning 9-6. Riley Rankin was two-for-three batting in game two.