News Digest:
Monday, November 19, 2007 10:16 AM PST
OREGON — Report says rail line closure justified
COOS BAY (AP) — A report by the Federal Railroad Commission concludes that the Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad was justified in closing its Coos Bay rail line earlier this fall.
The report was ordered by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. and supported a private engineering firm’s report that three tunnels in the Florence-Mapleton area along the rail line are unsafe.
THE WEST
Large settlement reached in priest sexual abuse cases
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Roman Catholic religious order has agreed to pay $50 million to dozens of Alaska Natives who were victims of sexual abuse by Jesuit priests, their lawyer said Sunday.
The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus is the largest one yet against a Catholic religious order, said Anchorage lawyer Ken Roosa. However the superior of the Oregon Province called the announcement premature.
The Oregon-based province covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
He called the settlement ‘‘a great day’’ for the victims in which the truth of what had occurred over many years was recognized.
OREGON
Man faces sentencing in massive ATM scheme
OREGON CITY (AP) — Wells Fargo Bank depositors began complaining in February about money missing from their accounts.
For months, bank employees matched the complaints to ATM withdrawals in California. The same man appeared repeatedly in surveillance photos, linking him to nearly 400 victims and $463,000 in missing money.
At the same time, agents from the U.S. Secret Service and the Manhattan district attorney’s identity theft unit in New York were tracking a network of tech-savvy identity thieves believed responsible for 95,000 stolen credit card numbers and more than $4 million in ID theft.
See story Page A3.
It all came together May 30 in Oregon, when a check-cashing teller in the town of Clackamas recognized Eduard Kholstinin, a 30-year-old Russian national.
His capture offered new insight into cybercrime, which accounts for $67.2 billion stolen each year from U.S. businesses.
He was convicted Oct. 22 in Clackamas County of identity theft and money laundering and awaits sentencing.
Cybercriminals trade stolen credit and debit card information over the internet on the international black market, then disappear.
Eduard Kholstinin’s arrest was a fluke.
Audra Kelley was working as a teller at the Clackamas branch of Cash Connection when she saw a familiar face.
She recognized him from the day before, when she was working elsewhere.
