News Digest
Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:23 AM PDT
OREGON - Background checks for school employees spotty
PORTLAND (AP) — Until he was charged this week with sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl, nobody at Southridge High School knew the details of two criminal convictions against the cheerleading coach before he was hired. David Aaron Chatman, 32, was hired at Southridge in 2003. His alleged victim was a member of the Tigard-based West Coast Extreme All-Star Cheerleading team, where he also worked. See story Page A3.
Lawmakers eye new
requirements on
initiative campaigns
SALEM (AP) — For weeks now, paid petition carriers have been collecting signatures for a pair of get-tough-on-crime measures Salem Republican Kevin Mannix is hoping to place before Oregon voters in November 2008.
The proposed initiatives, to require tougher penalties for property crimes and to earmark a portion of state lottery profits to crime-fighting programs, are being bankrolled largely by Mannix’s longtime political patron, wealthy Nevada businessman Loren Parks. See story Page A3.
Crook County sheriff
indicted
PRINEVILLE (AP) — Longtime Crook County Sheriff Rodd Clark was indicted Friday on charges of undue influence and official misconduct involving an alleged threat to fire challengers to his 2006 re-election.
THE NATION
Blue Angels regroup for N.C. show, their first since crash killed team member
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. (AP) — After 21 years as a U.S. Navy pilot, his career boasting nearly 900 aircraft carrier landings and air combat during the first Gulf War, tragedy comes as no surprise to Cmdr. Kevin Mannix.
That includes last month’s fatal crash of a fellow Blue Angels pilot during a show in South Carolina. But for Blue Angels pilots, whose demeanor is a key part of the job, the tragedy offers another opportunity to perform the mission they were first given six decades ago: promote the U.S. Navy.
and U.S. Marines Corps to the world.
