News Digest

Saturday, September 1, 2007 10:43 PM PDT

OREGON - Investigation starts after Ore. trooper strikes

child in stroller

JUNCTION CITY (AP) — An investigation is under way in Lane County, after an Oregon State Police patrol car hit a stroller carrying a child on Oregon 99 at Junction City.

The Lane County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the accident.

The one-year-old child was seriously injured, and was airlifted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, where he is listed in stable condition. The officer, Trooper Clay Core, was not hurt.

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The accident happened at 8:15 p.m. on Friday, when Core was responding to a call about a disorderly person on a Greyhound bus.

Witnesses tell police that Core was headed through the intersection at a reasonable speed, with his overhead lights flashing. After the accident, Core provided medical aid to the child until the Junction City Fire Department arrived at the scene.

Oregon taxpayers to get record amount of kicker rebates

SALEM (AP) — State officials say the next kicker refund for Oregon taxpayers will be the largest in state history. The refunds to individual taxpayers are expected to total more than $1 billion, or about 19 percent of their taxes. The checks are to be mailed in December.

Officials said Friday the median refund would be $297.

THE WEST

Feds file trespass

complaint against Nevada ranchers

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Renewing a decades-long feud over grazing and property rights on public lands in the West, the federal government has filed civil trespass charges against the estate of late Nevada rancher Wayne Hage, his son, and another cattleman.

The complaint filed by Justice Department lawyers this week claims Hage — who came to epitomize Nevada’s Sagebrush Rebellion before his death last year — his son, Wayne N. Hage, and Goldfield rancher Ben Colvin have repeatedly defied the government by grazing cattle without permits the last three years on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.