Legislative efforts to tighten gun control in Oregon cleared an important hurdle Thursday when a Senate committee approved a package of bills crafted in the wake of the Newtown school killings and an Oregon mall shooting spree that occurred three days earlier.
State officials say Oregon's unemployment rate continues to inch down and was at 8.2 percent last month.
Oregon voters have rejected a sales tax nine times in the past eight decades. Some in the Oregon Legislature hope the 10th try will be the charm.
Oregon hospitals are supposed to report medical mistakes to a state agency called the Oregon Patient Safety Commission.
"If someone on the freeway passes me on the right, I feel a sense of personal failure," Oregon State Senator Ginny Burdick said with a laugh. "Even I, as hard as I work at it, can get careless at times" and drive too slow in the left lane, she said.