News Digest
Friday, April 6, 2007 11:43 AM PDT
OREGON - Oregon voters one step closer to weighing in on double majorities
SALEM (AP) — Oregonians would get to vote on amending the state’s ‘‘double majority’’ requirements for tax measures, under a resolution that passed the House Thursday on a 46-11 vote and is headed to the Senate. The double majority was added to the Oregon Constitution in 1996. Measures to raise property taxes need not just a majority vote, but also voter turnout of at least 50 percent of registered voters.
IDAHO
Otter names Westerberg to Idaho education board
BOISE (AP) — Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter on Thursday named Richard Westerberg to the state Board of Education.
The eight-member board oversees Idaho’s public schools, colleges and universities. Westerberg’s term expires in 2009.
‘‘Richard will be a great addition to the board, bringing an important local government perspective to consideration of issues that affect all Idaho communities,’’ Otter said in a statement.
THE NATION
Without immigration, big metros would shrink
WASHINGTON (AP) — Without immigrants pouring into the nation’s big metro areas, places such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston would be shrinking as native-born Americans move farther out.
Many smaller areas, including Battle Creek, Mich., Ames, Iowa, and Corvallis, Ore., would shrink as well, according to population estimates to be released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
Substitute teacher accused of quieting kindergartners with clothespins
AMANDA (AP) — A substitute teacher’s tool for silencing chatty kindergartners — clothespins — doesn’t wash with school officials. Four boys said spring-type clothespins were placed over their upper or lower lips for talking too much in class, Amanda-Clearcreek Primary School principal Mike Johnsen wrote in a letter to parents this week.
