Art Crino, a John Birch Society council member, will come down from Tigard to deliver a speech on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, nicknamed the North American Union.

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On May 1, members of the Jackson County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Task Force arrested Daniel Zainez-Pena and Juan Leonardo Garcia-Perez in Roseburg.

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Senator Ron Wyden says a war-spending bill under consideration includes $400 million in payments to rural counties in Oregon and other states.

The Oregon Democrat says he has received assurance from Democratic leaders on the Appropriations Committee that a Senate bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan includes money for rural areas that once depended on federal timber money to pay for schools, libraries and other services.

The funding could not come soon enough for Oregon's rural schools and communities, who depend on it for basic services.

If approved by the Appropriations Committee next week, the bill would go to the full Senate.

The House version of the war-spending bill does not include money for rural schools.

Senator Barack Obama's trip to Oregon got off to a good start before he even arrived.

Congressman Peter DeFazio, a superdelegate, says he will support the Illinois senator. Congressmen David Wu and Earl Blumenauer had already come out in support of Obama, while Congresswoman Darlene Hooley and Governor Ted Kulongoski chose Clinton.

Obama will appear today in Beaverton, Albany and Eugene.

Obama will remain in the state and hold a town hall meeting tomorrow at Summit High School in Bend.

A U.S. Forest Service forensics lab in Ashland has examined the heads of six sea lions found dead in traps at Columbia River's Bonneville Dam but has not released its findings.

Lab director Ken Goddard said Thursday that results have been sent to federal authorities.

National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Mark Oswell said nothing found yet requires toxicology tests for possible poison.

The animals were found Sunday in two traps, with the doors closed. Initially, the service thought they'd been shot, but that assumption was dismissed on Wednesday.

The trappings, temporarily suspended, are part of a removal program to reduce the number of salmon the sea lions eat.

Hoarse from a cross-country campaign trip through three states, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told die-hard supporters in Central Point that she would keep running for president, and pressed her opponent to debate on Oregon issues.

With Senator Barack Obama returning to Oregon, Clinton said it would be a great time to debate while Oregonians consider how to cast mail ballots that are already hanging on refrigerators in households across the state.

The ballots will be counted May 20th.

Clinton repeated portions of her Oregon Compact, saying she favored restoring federal payments to timber-dependent counties, and criticized Obama for voting for an energy bill that took away states' authority over siting liquefied natural gas terminals.

She also called for thinning forests to provide jobs and reduce the danger of wildfire.

Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared at a town hall meeting in Central Point tonight.

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A 19-year-old Rogue Valley woman faces a felony aggravated animal abuse charge. Witnesses say Shasta Dawn Parnell threw, squeezed and stomped on a Pomeranian puppy yesterday afternoon.

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Just before noon yesterday, Grants Pass police arrested a man during a traffic stop near the 700 block of Southeast M Street.

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At 9:22 yesterday morning, Josephine County Sheriff's deputies were involved in a chase near the Illinois Valley Golf Club in Cave Junction.

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