News Digest:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:41 AM PDT
Good Afternoon
Oregon
Merkley leads Novick in fundraising for Ore. Senate seat
SALEM (AP) — Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley continues to lead Steve Novick in the race for cash in their testy contest for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.
Figures released by Merkley’s campaign show he received $455,000 in the first quarter of the year. That brings his total fundraising to $1.3 million.
Novick got $346,000 in the first quarter. That pushes his total to $893,000. Merkley and Novick are battling for the chance to take on Republican Senator Gordon Smith.
Police: Dead man identified after shooting by officers
ROSEBURG (AP) — Authorities say a man shot after a four-hour standoff at the Douglas County Fairgrounds was 46-year-old Donald Lowry of Myrtle Creek.
Police say they were investigating a suspicious vehicle at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Sunday when they saw Lowry with a rifle and a handgun, appearing nervous.Officers tried to stop him and get him to surrender, but he brandished a weapon.
Oregon uses infrared to catch truckers skipping weigh stations
ASHLAND (AP) — Since infrared cameras went up, Oregon highway workers at Ashland have nailed about a trucker a day cheating on the requirement to stop at a weigh station.
The $8,000 camera system at the Ashland port of entry is the state’s first, but state Department of Transportation officials say truckers should expect them at other weigh stations.
IDAHO
Canada ups incentives in competition with ID for ethanol plant
IDAHO FALLS (AP) — A company considering building an ethanol plant in eastern Idaho now has an attractive set of financial incentives from Canada to put the plant in that country, instead.
For the last two years, Iogen Corp., a Canadian biotechnology company, has leaned toward building a cellulosic ethanol facility near Shelley.
The location would put the plant close to farmers already under contract to provide the wheat and barley straw, corn stover and switch grass used to produce ethanol.
A U.S. Department of Energy spending package also includes loan guarantees and an $80 million grant for the project, estimated in 2006 to cost up to $350 million.
But last month, the Canadian government announced it had allocated $500 million in government funding for projects to build next-generation biofuels plants in Canada.
Iogen has had a pilot plant near Ottawa since 2004, and is considering Saskatchewan as the other site for its new plant.
