A variety of news around Oregon and the Northwest
NEWS VARIETY
Woman swept to sea during proposal on Oregon coast
NESKOWIN, Ore. — A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea.
Scott Napper had taken 22-year-old Leafil Alforque to Proposal Rock near Neskowin Beach to pop the question at a place that got its name from couples ready to marry.
Napper and Alforque had been dating since they met on the Internet in 2005.
But Alforque had arrived in Oregon on a visa from the Philippines just three days before the fateful trip to the coast.
Napper said the tide had receded around Proposal Rock on Saturday when the couple began to walk to it. He planned to propose and give her the ring he carried in his pocket.
About 10 feet from the rock, a wave about 3 feet high suddenly came toward them.
“I turned into it to keep from getting pulled under it,” Napper said.
By the time he turned to find Alforque, only 4-foot-11 and 93 pounds, she had been caught by the receding waters.
“She was about 30 feet away, getting swept away,” Napper said.
The 45-year-old Silverton man tore off his jacket to get rid of any extra weight, and when he looked up again she was gone.
“That’s the last I saw of her,” he said in an interview Wednesday, breaking into tears.
Emergency personnel called by a someone on the beach arrived within minutes. His own phone no longer worked after being exposed to the water.
Along with rescuers, he searched for any sign of Alforque.
“I yelled for her,” he said. “I was praying to God.”
At one point, he saw someone wearing red — the color of her jacket — on the shore signaling for him. But he quickly realized it was a rescuer.
Thick fog and dangerous water conditions hampered the rescue efforts before the search was suspended on Monday.
Her 25-year-old sister, Nova Alforque, said the family hopes the body can be recovered.
“My mother is always crying, day and night,” Nova Alforque said by telephone from the Philippines. “She wants my sister back. Even if she is dead, she wants her body to bury.”
The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office is routinely checking the beach and looking for possible witnesses, said Sheriff Todd Anderson.
Police don’t suspect foul play, he said.
———
Remains of 83-year-old man found in S. Oregon
WIMER, Ore. — With the leaves fallen, the body of an 83-year-old man missing for three months in Southern Oregon has been found.
Searchers in the air and on ground had turned up no trace of Hugh Ellis until this week, when two residents came across his pickup truck and remains, visible after autumn thinned the foliage.
Deputies say it appeared the truck had veered off the road, crossed a field, soared over a creek, hit the bank and disappeared in the greenery.
He was apparently headed to his home on Aug. 25 near the town Wimer northeast of Grants Pass.
_____
Oregon gun sales brisk on Black Friday
PORTLAND — Oregonians are arming themselves for the holidays.
The Oregon State Police announced that Black Friday was a bonanza for gun sales. Officials know this because they processed the most background checks ever since the OSP Firearms Instant Check System was instituted in 1996.
The agency said Thursday it processed 2,198 background checks on the day after Thanksgiving. The previous record number of single day transactions occurred on Black Friday three years ago, when there were 1,731 transactions.
Robust gun sales have been reported throughout the U.S. since the election of Barack Obama, prompted by fears that his administration will prohibit certain weapons.
_____
Hillsboro officer under investigation
HILLSBORO — The Hillsboro Police Department says one of its officers is under investigation for pulling a gun on a couple while he was off duty.
Police say Officer Scott Hanley has not been suspended. No charge has been filed.
Kevin Deavers of Scappoose told KGW in Portland that he and his wife were eating ice cream outside a Dairy Queen last week when Hanley pulled in front of him and shined his lights into the couple’s car.
Deavers says Hanley pulled a gun and threatened to shoot the couple after being asked to dim his lights.
_____
Siletz man sought in Polk County assault
DALLAS, Ore. — An arrest warrant has been issued for a man suspected in a kidnapping and sexual assault that occurred in southwest Polk County last month.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says 41-year-old Michael Joe Bowers of Siletz is a registered sex offender and has been under the supervision of the Lincoln County Parole and Probation Department.
Authorities say he should be considered armed and dangerous.
The sheriff’s office asks those with information about Bowers to call 9-1-1 or Detective Mark Garton at (503) 623-9251.
_____
Oregon woman gets probation for igniting tow truck
PORTLAND — A 20-year-old woman has received two years probation for setting a tow truck on fire as it was rolling away from an apartment complex with a car.
A Multnomah County judge also ordered Elizabeth Allen to complete alcohol treatment, 80 hours of community service and a mental health evaluation.
Allen was arrested Sept. 16, and has spent 30 days in jail. She pleaded no contest to arson Thursday.
Authorities say Allen threw a flaming fast-food bag at the truck because it was towing away a car that was parked without a permit.
Allen says she does not remember the incident.
_____
Portland teacher wins national award
SALEM — A first grade teacher in Portland has won a $25,000 national award.
Bonnie Robb learned about the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in a surprise announcement Thursday at Clark K-8
Binnsmead Elementary School.
The announcement was made by state schools Superintendent Susan Castillo, who said “highly effective teachers are the bedrock” of the education system.
About 80 percent of Robb’s students have exceeded state standards each year in reading, writing and math.
Robb also co-authored a book, “Make it Visual in the Classroom,” and has been published in educational magazines.
The Milken awards were established in 1985 to reward and retain top teachers.
_____
Online Washington schools may have to repay state
TACOMA, Wash. — State auditors say three school districts may have to repay Washington more than $5 million for improperly documenting enrollment in Internet programs.
The Tacoma News Tribune reports the Legislature requested the audit of three districts with the largest online programs in the 2006-07 school year: Steilacoom, Federal Way and Quillayute Valley.
School officials say it’s largely a paperwork problem new to online study. They’ll meet next week with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The virtual academies are popular for home-schooling. They are free to Washington students and funded with state and levy dollars.
There were 49 online programs last year with more than 6,500 students.
______
Authorities: Portland vendors bought stolen goods
PORTLAND — Authorities have arrested seven food vendors in downtown Portland after six weeks of video surveillance and police undercover work showed the workers were buying stolen merchandise from drug addicts.
Police Cmdr. Mike Reese says designer jeans, perfume and video games were among the stolen items.
Reese says police trained surveillance cameras on the vendors after they arrested heroin addict Christopher Younce on drug possession and shoplifting charges.
To obtain evidence for arrest warrants, authorities say, undercover officers took merchandise to food carts and a pizza place, and workers bought the goods, even after they were told the items were stolen.
______
Oregon university announces budget cuts
LA GRANDE, Ore. — Citing projections that the state government faces $142 million shortfall in revenue, Eastern Oregon University says it plans to cut $433,000 in spending between now and the end of the academic year.
President Dixie Lund says the school plans to scale back on supply and equipment costs, and travel. Lund says she has suspended a dean search, and two professors will serve as associates in the interim.
The good news, Lund says, is the school does not plan to cut jobs or programs.
She said, however, that the 2008-09 budget could change again if there are adjustments in the state’s revenue forecasts.
_____
2-year-old Renton girl beaten into a coma
KENT, Wash. — King County prosecutors are preparing to file child abuse charges against a man accused of beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter into a coma.
The 30-year-old man, Idris Turner, was arrested Sunday at Sea-Tac Airport where police say he was trying to catch a plane.
He and the mother, Trina Washington-Eastland, took the toddler to Valley Medical Center in Renton on Saturday. The girl is now in a coma at a Seattle hospital.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Seattle Times report that Turner has a history of domestic violence and the mother has had repeated contact with Child Protective Services to guard the toddler.
One witness told Renton police that Turner said he was going to “beat her father out of her.”
(with information from The Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
_____
Old, abandoned boats sometimes vex Ore. ports
BANDON — Old boats sometimes come to sad ends — abandoned at moorage and dilapidated, and the numbers may be increasing as the recession takes it toll.
When boat owners can’t be located or won’t take responsibility, port officials on the Oregon coast often run up against a problem that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Even though the state lends a hand, port officials say, the expense of towing and disposing of aged vessels may become a big problem as poor fishing, salmon-saving restrictions and a recession put boat owners out of business.
Port of Bandon General Manager Gina Dearth recalls the 60-foot fishing boat that crossed the bar in 2004, so close to capsizing that you could see the propellers sticking out of the water — “with her screws spinning,” as Dearth puts it.
A couple had bought the Marie Ann Gail for $20,000, Dearth said, planning to make the 51-ton vessel into a houseboat. Plans fell through, the boat spent three winters battering the port’s aging docks, the port foreclosed, sales at auction didn’t work out.
The vessel doesn’t start. Even if it did, few skippers would willing to take it back across the bar.
And there’s nowhere to take it to a scrap yard.
To tow the Marie Ann Gail would cost $15,000, and then somebody would have to dismantle it.
“There she sits,” Dearth sighed, looking over rusted netting, splitting boards and disintegrating chains.
If nothing else works, Dearth may turn to the Oregon Marine Board, which administers $75,000 annually in funds made available by the Legislature in 2006.
The state offers a 75 percent to 25 percent match to local ports, and some cooperation on acquiring the necessary permits that it can take to deal with an abandoned ship.
In the past, some ports have hauled the boats on the beach and burned them, said Randy Henry, operations policy analyst with the marine board.
They’ve accepted the fines that come with the improper disposal because that can be cheaper than disposing of them properly, he said.
Holding the owners accountable is often impossible, Henry and others say.
Don Mann, general manager of the Port of Newport, says the vessels are paying their moorage these days.
“But with the transition of this economy,” he said, “I can’t predict yet what next year will be like.”
———
