State Police are looking for a blue 2000 Dodge Durango after an early morning shooting south of Florence yesterday.  Troopers say a young couple brought their child with them on a ‘visit’ to a residence at 1:30 AM yesterday, and an arguement began with the residents of the house.  A 27 year old woman was shot in the stomach with a shotgun, and her 26 year old boyfriend was struck with the weapon, but was not shot.  The man carried his girlfriend to their car and fled with the child to a nearby gas station to call 9-1-1.  The woman was taken to a local hospital, and later flown to a Springfield hospital with serious injuries.  Police are looking for 46 year old Victor Caron and his 40 year old girlfriend Tanya Mintey, in the blue Durango with Oregon licence plate number 811DSW.

The Brownsville City Council has ammended a city ordinence that got a bow-hunter three years probation.  Charles Williams was arrested under the current statute that bans all shooting in the city–slingshots, bows, b-b guns, or firearms.  The new law would let archers practice with permission of the property owner as long as the arrows don’t leave the property.  City councillors may vote on it later this month.

There is a warning  about travel through the Coast and Cascade ranges for the next few days.  Lots of rain has fallen and is predicted, so authorities warn of possible dangerous debris flows.  Watch out for landslides at the bottom of steep terrain, at the mouths of mountain streams, or along roads where adjacent hillsides have been excavated.  Officials also urge you to listen–to commercial or weather radio stations for warnings, and to listen for unusual sounds that could signal a debris flow, such as  trees cracking or boulders knocking.

Yes, it’s been wet and cold.  In some parts of Oregon where they keep records, May was the wettest and coldest in almost a decade.  All of that rain is dampening the spirits of Willamette Valley farmers.  Some are as much as three weeks behind on plowing and planting because of the mucky field conditions–and a wheat rust fungus has proliferated.  Meteorologists say the mild winter and wet spring are typical of El Nino years.

The Linn County SWAT team–Sheriff’s deputies and police from Sweet Home, Albany, and Lebanon–were called out to Holley yesterday to a domestic disturbance situation that became a standoff.  23-year old Maja Howery reported at about 4:15 AM that her 34-year old boyfriend Ryan Holley had been violent, and moody over the weekend.  She was escorted to safety, and officers surrounded the house.  They entered after using tear gas, but Holley was gone.  He turned himself in later, and was taken to jail on assault, strangulation and menacing charges.

The projected 562.6 million dollar State of Oregon budget defecit for the rest of the biennium has grown to 577 million dollars….because of smoking.  The State Economist’s  office says it missed something….cigarette tax revenues are down 14.5 million dollars.  Governor Kulongoski wants across-the-board nine percent agency cuts to make up the defecit.  Republicans and even some Democrats say the legislature should be called into special session to make targeted cuts more in line with the priorities of Oregonians.

A woman and her two kids were stuck on a back country road in the snow by her gps unit over the weekend in southern Oregon.  Rescuers say she was just 15 minutes away from her campsite destination along the Rogue River when her gps unit sent her on a snowy detour.  Thankfully, her cell phone had a signal, and rescuers actually say her errant gps unit helped them reach her by giving them her latitude and longitude.

Senator Jeff Merkley wants to end subsidies and tax credits that encourage domestic oil drilling for the country’s biggest oil producers.  Merkley and two other senators are also calling for punative measures against what they call tax loopholes, like the one that allows oil companies to claim oil drilling and production as manufacturing, and the provision that allows oil companaies to claim depreciation on their wells as they peter out.  He says big oil companies are doing well, even in the recession, so it’s time to penalize them and use the money he estimates at 20 billion dollars to subsidize green energy companies.  The bill would only apply, he says, to oil companies with revenues of 100 million dollars a year or more.

The next time you go to Springfield, you can drop a couple of quarters into a red parking meter and help a homeless person smell sweeter.  City officials are putting up two dozen used parking meters,  freshly painted red, to collect donations for the homeless.  Fifty cents buys a shower, a dollar buys a meal, and so on.  The program is modeled after one in Denver that really cut down on downtown panhandling.  Springfield hopes businesses will ‘sponsor’ more meters to make the program grow.

The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service is releasing some background info on the man who stole a dead three year old’s i.d. years ago.  The man calling himself Jason Evers has refused to give his real name.  Agents say he would have dissappeared from his old life in 1996 at age 17 to 25.  He speaks with an East Coast accent and sometimes uses street-type Spanish.  He may have gone by the nickname Smiley.  He may have a father in the Florida prison system.  He is reported to be of above average intelligence, and he’s a very good chess player.  If you think you who he really is, call–collect if you need to–206-220-7721.

Food Stamp use is way up in Oregon.  More than 700-thousand Oregonians got free government food last month…about the population of Portland and Salem combined.  That means nearly one out of every five Oregonians is on the dole–up from one in six just months ago.  The national average is one in eight.  State welfare officials say they’re seeing more first-timers apply, as their unemployment benefits run out.  The biggest jump in Food Stamp demand was in the Portland area.

Just days before the 30th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption, Mount Hood may be rumbling to life.  Mount Hood has been the scene of a swarm of earthquakes, which can precede a dormant volcano coming to life again.  The largest quake measured 3.o on the Richter scale, Friday afternoon.  U.S. Geological Survey volcanologists say swarms of small quakes have shaken the mountain for about a month.  They say they don’t think Mount Hood is going to erupt, but they’re watching their instruments.

Sweet Home Police arrested four adults and took three children into DHS protection during a drug raid Wednesday morning.  Chief Bob Burford said the raid on 1155 Elm Street yielded numerous pre-packaged bags of methamphetamine, prescription drugs, scales, drug records, two pistols and a shotgun.  The same house had been raided in January after a burglary at a local funeral home.  Arrested on various drug and child neglect charges were 33-year old Jonathon Keil, and 28-year old Catherine Denton.  They were taken to jail.  25-year old Christina Marr and 63-year old George Drexler were arrested for frequenting the place.  They were cited and released.

A 23-year old Oregon City man broke down and blubbered like a three year old in court as he was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the brutal scalding and near-drowning of a three year old boy.  Derek Piskorski exibited ‘sadism’ and took no responsibility for the torture, according to the Clackamas County judge who handed down the sentence.  Police say Piskorski began dating the boy’s mother about six months before his January arrest.  The mom pleaded guilty to reduced charges for failing to stop the abuse.

The new University of Oregon president wants the legislature to let him issue a billion dollars worth of bonds.  He says the bond issue would be the first of its kind in the nation.  It would be designed to assure that the U of O is well-funded even if  Oregonians go through another recession and have to cut back.  Richard Lariviere’s plan didn’t sit well with lawmakers–even Liberal ones.  House Speaker Dave Hunt compared the idea to giving his kids a 30-year advance on their allowance.

Trucks over 10,000 pounds GVW are banned from the highway 99E bridge in Harrisburg this week, while repair work is done.  Damage from a May 3rd incident in which a boom truck hit the bridge was worse than initial estimates.  So this week, only cars and pickups will be allowed to use the bridge…heavier trucks will be detoured around Harrisburg.  The bridge may close completely tomorrow night  and Wednesday night.  Repairs should be completed this weekend.