News Stories Aug. 3, 2018

Portland State University students will have the option of majoring in Indigenous Nations and Native American Studies starting this fall. It’s already offered as a minor. It will be the first major of its kind in the state.

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A bill that would make it easier to kill sea lions that gobble endangered salmon in the Columbia River has cleared a key committee in the U.S. Senate. The measure allows the federal government to issue permits to Washington, Idaho and Oregon, and several Pacific Northwest tribes, allowing up to 100 sea lions to be killed a year. Supporters including the governors of those three states, fishing groups and tribes. They say the bill is needed to protect declining runs of salmon and steelhead. Critics say it’s won’t solve the problem of declining salmon. The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, and James Risch, an Idaho Republican. It awaits a vote by the full Senate. It’s similar to legislation the House passed last month. That was sponsored by Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Washington Republican, and Kurt Schrader, an Oregon Democrat.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Two of the first states to broadly legalize marijuana took different approaches to regulation that left Oregon with a vast oversupply and Colorado with a well-balanced market. But in both states prices for bud have plummeted. A new Oregon report by law enforcement found nearly 70 percent of the legal recreational marijuana grown goes unsold, while an unrelated state-commissioned Colorado study found most growers there are planting less than half of their legal allotment — and still meeting demand. The study noted Oregon still has a serious problem with out-of-state trafficking and black market grows — and the top federal law enforcement officer in Oregon demanded more cooperation from state and local officials Thursday in a strident statement. The reports offer case studies for California and other pot-friendly states as they ramp up their legal pot industries.