News digest
Sunday, September 28, 2008 12:15 AM PDT
GOOD MORNING
OREGON
Chief financial officer charged with theft
BROOKINGS (AP) — The chief financial officer of a Brookings contracting business has been charged with aggravated theft after a company attorney called police to report that at least $300,000 may have been stolen.
Curry County sheriff’s deputies said the investigation began when Tidewater Contractors attorney Ted Fitzgerald contacted Sheriff John Bishop to report possible embezzlement. Deputies reviewed evidence with company representatives at the Tidewater office in Brookings before arresting chief financial officer Gary A. Green.
THE WEST
House again rejects timber payments
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time this week, the House Friday rejected a Senate-backed measure to extend a multiyear program of payments to rural counties hurt by federal logging cutbacks.
Democratic leaders rejected several attempts by Oregon lawmakers to add the measure to legislation approved on Friday, including a package of tax breaks and a short-term economic stimulus plan. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he and other supporters of the timber program have ‘‘tried every angle, every option, every tactic available’’ to get the timber payments extension through the House.
‘‘I’ve been blocked at every turn by a Democratic leadership that is pushing rural counties off a cliff,’’ Walden said.
IDAHO
Otter orders 1 percent cuts; more possible
BOISE (AP) — Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter on Friday ordered state agencies and institutions to immediately cut $27 million more in fiscal year 2009 spending and told them to delay another $40.8 million in expenditures on worries that the economy will worsen. His decree slashes Idaho’s budget by 1 percent and holds an additional 1.5 percent in reserve. Those most affected by the cuts are the state colleges and universities, which lose $2.8 million, and the Department of Health and Welfare, down $5.4 million. Public schools will lose $14.2 million, but that will be made up from an education reserve fund.
