News Digest

By OREGON
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 11:50 AM PDT

Thousands of public retirees will get an increase in checks

SALEM (AP) — Thousands of retired public workers will see an increase in their monthly pension checks as the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System restores cost-of-living adjustments to many workers who retired from April 2000 through March 2004.

The action applies to about 22,500 retired workers, many of whom had their COLAs frozen from 2003 to 2006 after a series of legislative reforms, court decisions and an out-of-court settlement.

IDAHO

E. Idaho air base supplies retardant for fires

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POCATELLO (AP) — About 1 million gallons of fire retardant have been flown out of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Pocatello air attack base to be dropped on fires in the region so far this year, said an official responsible for loading the airplanes. Shilo Gardner said this fire season has been one of the busiest he can remember. The base is located at the Pocatello Regional Airport in eastern Idaho.

Gardner and five others are employed at the base by ICL Performance Products LP, a supplier of fire management chemicals with its corporate base in St. Louis, Mo.

THE NATION

Thousands of crime-scene guns traced last year,

despite ban on releasing case details

WASHINGTON (AP) — Local police forces last year asked the ATF for help investigating whether an estimated 284,000 weapons were legally sold, officials said Monday. But U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acting Director Michael J. Sullivan said he’s worried that fewer police departments will request assistance because of new legislation barring public release of so-called gun trace data, which tracks gun sales in specific cases.

‘‘My biggest concern is we have law enforcement departments out there that believe that they can’t get access to trace information, so they’re not even asking for it,’’ Sullivan told reporters at ATF headquarters.