Increase in K-12 enrollment — Oregon’s changing demographics are evident in the latest student enrollment numbers released by the state Department of Education. Whites were 79 percent of the K-12 population a decade ago and account for 65 percent in 2012-13. Deputy Superintendent Rob Saxton said Thursday that the state’s future depends on closing the achievement gap, and educators must adapt to the demographic changes to ensure instruction is relevant to all students. Overall, there were 563,714 students enrolled in Oregon’s public schools last fall. The increase of 2,768 students from 2011-12 reverses a four-year streak of falling enrollment. Portland remains the largest district with 46,581 students, followed by Salem-Keizer, Beaverton and Hillsboro.
Rose Garden hit-and-run — Portland police have arrested a Tigard man accused in a hit-and-run crash that seriously injured a pedestrian leaving a Portland Trail Blazers game. Sgt. Pete Simpson said 28-year-old Ronald Jacko turned himself in Thursday and was booked into the Multnomah County Jail. The victim, 32-year-old Ryan Hendryx, was crossing a street after Portland’s Dec. 13 victory over San Antonio when he was hit hard enough to go up onto the hood and shatter the windshield. Officers with the traffic division followed up on the initial report and eventually found the car; it already had a new windshield. Jacko has been charged with felony hit-and-run and tampering with physical evidence.
Stray shot hits school bus — Marion County authorities say what was likely a stray shot hit a school bus, but nobody was injured. The sheriff’s department said two children were aboard Wednesday afternoon when the shot cracked the glass about 10 inches above the driver’s head. The shot didn’t go through. Deputies said they couldn’t be sure, but they suspect it came from a .22-caliber weapon or a pellet gun. They doubt it was aimed at the bus, which was traveling through an open, flat area.
Possible tsunami debris hauled off — A 27-foot boat that washed up near Gleneden Beach and may be tsunami debris has been taken to a landfill. State parks officials say the boat resembles debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan, but they haven’t pinpointed the vessel’s origin. It washed ashore Tuesday. A contractor hauled it away Wednesday. The parks department says scientists found specimens such as a non-native Japanese acorn barnacle. It’s expected to be weeks before other organisms are positively identified.
Woman sentenced for embezzling — Federal prosecutors say a woman who was on the management team of a Lebanon company has been sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling $848,000 from it. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that 42-year-old Rhonda Milligan was also ordered to pay back the money she took from Entek Manufacturing from 2005 through 2011. Prosecutors and court documents said Milligan made more than $540,000 in payments through an online system to pay her personal credit card expenses and diverted another $293,000 by forging the name of Entek’s president on checks.
Naked break-in — Officers say a woman who broke into a Corvallis hair salon caused substantial damage before they found her naked and hiding in a closet. The Gazette-Times reported an officer who responded to a burglar alarm saw wet footprints leading to a broken window in the front door, and he heard someone inside The Rage shop yelling and breaking things. After a search, Lt. Ben Harvey said, officers found the woman. He said she was “unclothed, and it was apparent she was high on an amphetamine."
— From wire reports
