Sweet Home Police say their detectives went along on a mail route yesterday.  Police were notified that a piece of U.S. mail addressed to a local resident contained drugs–pills.  The police mail carriers arrested 52-year old Steven Ray Grantham when he received the package.  He was booked into the Linn County Jail on a charge of Delivery of a Controlled Substance.  Public records show he recently was an independent contractor.

Rabies is still out there.  Animal officers have confirmed two new cases of rabies in southern Oregon wild foxes, caught in the Cave Junction area.  That makes ten rabid foxes caught in southern Oregon since the beginning of 2010.  Vets say all pets should get rabies shots–and so should horses.  They advise not to leave cats outside at night, and never, never, feed or try to handle wild animals.

Police have arrested a total of three men now for the home invasion robbery of Columbia Sportswear matriarch Gert Boyle.  The 86-year old was accosted in her driveway last week and forced inside her home at gunpoint, beaten, and tied up.  She managed to hit the panic button on her alarm system.  Nestor Caballero, an illegal alien, ran off when police arrived…he was caught later.  Yesterday, Jose Luis Arevalo  and Ramon Alberto Midence, both of Beaverton , were also taken into custody.  So far, police won’t say how they are accused of helping Caballero.  Boyle testified before a Grand Jury yesterday.  All three men arrested are Honduran immigrants living in the Beaverton area.  Authorities have not released the immigration status of the two recently arrested men.

Traffic deaths for young pedestrians quadruple on Halloween evening, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The state AAA says that’s due to trick-or-treaters forgetting about safety and drivers not watching out for the youngsters.  The AAA offers these tips for parents:  Add reflective tape to costumes, and make sure they can be easily seen at night.  Tell kids to stay on sidewalks, and cross the street only at corners.  Tell them to stay in a group with supervision.  For drivers, the AAA says:  Slow down on Halloween, even if you don’t see kids about.  Be extra cautious in residential areas.  Watch for kids in dark costumes, or costumes that restrict their vision.  Watch out for kids crossing in the middle of a street.  And, finally, see and be seen–turn your headlights on well before dark.

HEY THERE!!!  IT’S JUST A FEW DAYS UNTIL THE VERY IMPORTANT ELECTION, AND WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!  THURS-FRI-MON, ON KFIR AT 720 AM IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY, OR STREAMING ON KFIR720AM.COM, WE’RE OPENING THE PHONE LINES UP TO ANYONE WITH ANY POLITICAL OPINION….YOU CAN SUPPORT A CANDIDATE, SUPPORT OR OPPOSE A MEASURE, OR JUST OPINE!!!!!!  541-367-5115 OR 866-907-2346 GETS YOU ON THE AIR….7-9 AM PACIFIC TIME.   YOU CAN ALSO SEND AN EMAIL TO MAILBAG@KFIR720AM.COM AND WE’LL READ IT ON THE AIR.  THIS MEANS ANYONE….EVEN CANDIDATES…..THANKS, STEVE, MARTY, AND SPOT.

Unemployment in Linn County held steady in September at 12.7%–unchanged from August, and the same as September, 2009.  Benton County’s jobless rate dipped to 6.7%–one of the lowest in the state.  Linn County’s 12.7% figure is not as high as the misery index in quite a few rural Oregon counties.  The Bend area reports 15.5% unemployment.  Other counties with over 15% unemployment include Crook, Douglas, Grant, Harney, and Jefferson.

More than 1100 walkers and runners raised more than 60 thousand dollars this past weekend in Albany, during the 15th annual ‘Walk for the Cause/Run for a Life’ event. The Sweet Home satellite event is this coming Saturday, October 9th.  You can still pre-register, and some people are still needed to help.  The event supports people with breast cancer.

The Oregon Youth Authority wants more foster homes in Linn and Benton Counties.  The Authority says if not enough homes are found, kids taken into state custody have to be placed out-of-area–which is not good for them.  They’re not promising you a rose garden…some of the kids needing foster homes are on parole, probation, or in various stages of treatment for serious offenses.  Others are simply taken from natural parents for their safety.  Foster parents do get a monthly check from the state.  They have to pass a criminal background check and the Youth Authority says they should be ’emotionally mature’.  If that doesn’t leave you out, call 541-967-2049 for more information.

If you pay taxes or get services, get ready to pay more or get less, thanks to  PERS public employee pension system investment managers and their bad bets during the recession.  The system is contract-bound to fund public employees’ pensions in Oregon.  Because of investment losses, the PERS board has decided to force school districts, cities, counties, and the state to more than double their contributions to government retirees.  On average, now, governments kick in an extra five percent of salaries to PERS.  That will have to go up to about 10.8 percent—on average.  The PERS contributions by some governmental entities will quadruple.  That means huge tax increases or service cuts to fund public employee pensions.  If a 60-year old government employee retired in 2009, he/she would get about $2700 a month.   The PERS board says the inmpact across the state will be in the billions of dollars.

OSP says it could have been alot worse over the weekend, as a 30-foot long hay flatbed trailer caught fire on I-5 south of Cottage Grove.  OSP says the fire probably started from a tossed cigarette…the driver noticed in his rear view, and pulled over.  But when the hitch was too hot to disconnect, troopers say he did the wrong thing–he climbed back in his truck and took off again.  That fanned the flames, and burning bundles of hay came flying off his trailer onto the freeway.  No one was injured, and troopers did get the man to pull over and stop again.

Two more reservoirs have been listed as dangerous by the Oregon Health Department because of blue-green algae blooms.  Blue River and Dorena reservoirs, both in Lane County have been put on the algae list.  Blue-green algae-infested water is toxic to humans, and can be fatal to pets and small children.  Until further notice, you shouldn’t drink the water from those lakes, eat fish from them, or even breath water spray.

Congressman Peter Defazio wants the Feds to review the use of foreign forest workers by contractors on several Obama stimulus handout projects.  The contractors filed the required forms certifying that they could not find American workers to do the jobs.  Defazio sent a letter to the Labor Department disputing that, saying that with double-digit unemployment in Oregon’s rural areas, it is unlikely that the contractors could not have hired Americans.  He accused the contractors of abusing U.S. immigration law to undercut American workers.  He and his Republican challenger Art Robinson meet in the first of their four joint appearances this Friday in Eugene.

The Oregon average for a gallon of regular has dropped below three dollars a gallon.  Marie Dodds says the highest prices of the year usually come between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and tend to drop in September and October.  She says the price of oil is hovering between 70 and 80 dollars a barrel, set more by commodities speculators than supply and demand, with U.S. inventories of petroleum at 20 year highs.

New unemployment numbers are out.  For July, Oregon’s jobless rate gained a tenth of a point to 10.6%.  The state lost more government jobs than expected, and gained some construction jobs, but not enough to offset job losses.  The price of gas in Oregon dropped a fraction of a penny to about $3.03 a gallon, on average.  Oregon has the fifth-highest priced gas in the nation.  Since Memorial Day, the average price has gone up 1.7 cents a week.  If that seemingly gradual increase holds for a year, Oregonians will be paying four dollars a gallon next Summer.

This time the fun-killing alert from health officials covers Dexter Lake, east of Eugene.  That’s the 11th body of water to get an algae bloom warning this summer.  Swallowing the water or   breathing in its droplets can cause severe illness in adults, and can even be fatal to animals.  On a brighter note, state health officials suggest hiking around the lake, or boating so slowly that you don’t cause spray that you could breathe.

The U.S. Senate has passed a package of 26 billion dollars in aid to states with legislatures that wouldn’t balance their state budgets–and Oregon is sure one of those.  Oregon gets 274 million dollars if the hastily-recalled U.S. House does likewise next week.  Most of the money goes to teachers and social programs.  Senate Democratic leaders attracted enough GOP support to pass the handout by promising to pay for it later with program cuts or new taxes.  The windfall is just half of Oregon’s expected revenue shortage for the next biennium, so state legislators still have tough choices to make early next year.