News Digest

Monday, August 6, 2007 10:45 AM PDT

OREGON - Kulongoski looks to ’09 to fill Oregon road funding hole

PORTLAND (AP) — A dispute between cities and businesses over what road construction projects need funding around the state could mean the money will not be available until the 2009 legislative session.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has promised to throw his weight behind the issue in 2009 after business and local government leaders failed to convince state lawmakers to set aside $350 million for road projects this session. Transportation ‘‘will be a top issue for the governor in the ’09 session,’’ Anna Richter Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kulongoski, said Friday.

‘‘Education and health care will always remain a priority,’’ Taylor said, but she added the governor ‘‘does believe it’s time for transportation to come to front stage.’’

IDAHO

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Idaho State University reaching out to boost

enrollment

POCATELLO (AP) — The president of Idaho State University says the school is looking outside the state and even overseas to increase diversity and boost sagging enrollment.

University President Arthur Vailas said the school plans to set up recruiting networks any place that has a large concentration of the school’s graduates who can help persuade prospective students to attend ISU.

‘‘We’re creating a network in the Phoenix area,’’ Vailas told the Idaho State Journal.

THE NATION

Secret call log at heart of challenge to domestic wiretap program

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In open court and legal filings it’s referred to simply as ‘‘the Document.’’

Federal officials claim its contents are so sensitive to national security that it is stored in a bombproof safe in Washington and viewed only by prosecutors with top secret security clearances and a few select federal judges. The Document, described by those who have seen it as a National Security Administration log of calls intercepted between an Islamic charity and its American lawyers, is at the heart of what experts say may be the strongest case against the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program. The federal appeals court in San Francisco plans to hear arguments in the case Aug. 15.