Last modified: Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:57 PM PDT News Digest: GOOD AFTERNOON OREGON Plane crash kills 2 near Estacada ESTACADA (AP) — Two men died late Tuesday when a small plane crashed southeast of Portland. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office says a resident reported hearing a series of crashing sounds shortly after a plane flew over his house with no lights on. A few minutes later, the authorities learned that the pilot had called a friend on the ground to report that the 1964 Cessna had electrical problems and was inoperable. Spotted owls not the only danger Ore. voles face ASTORIA (AP) — A tree-dwelling rodent that’s one of the favorite meals of the endangered northern spotted owl is itself a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is launching a yearlong study of the dusky tree vole, which is found in the northern Oregon Coast Range. Protecting the vole would likely require restricting logging in Clatsop and Tillamook counties. Threatened and endangered species protections for the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet already restrict logging on 28,000 acres of the Clatsop State Forest. Dusky tree voles are brownish red, smaller than average house mice and nest on top of older Douglas fir trees and other conifers. Oregon dad who assaulted baby gets 7 years ASTORIA (AP) — An Astoria man convicted of assaulting his baby daughter was sentenced Tuesday to 71⁄2 years in prison. Clatsop County Judge Philip Nelson said he wished he could have given Jose Gutierrez Sanchez a longer sentence, given the severity of the injuries. Police said the girl’s tongue was ripped loose from the base of the mouth clear back to her tonsils, and partially torn.  Her lower jawbone was showing through an open wound on the inside of her mouth.  She also had a skull fracture and doctors said it’s unknown whether there will be lasting nerve damage to her face and tongue. Nelson said neither he, nor the surgeons who operated on the child, had ever seen such injuries.