News Stories Jul. 2, 2018

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon workers are getting a bump in the minimum wage but will also pay a new statewide transit tax. The Statesman Journal reports that workers in the Portland area on Sunday saw the minimum wage jump to $12 per hour, or a 75-cent increase. More rural parts of the state got a 50 cent increase to $10.50. The Legislature in 2016 approved a set of increases in the minimum wage until 2022, when the wage will be tied to inflation. Oregon workers will now also pay a transit tax. The tax is basically $1 per $1,000 — and employers will withhold the tax from workers’ wages. That tax took effect Sunday. It pays for public transportation projects and improvements statewide.

Oregon State Little League Junior Softball tournament is being hosted by Clackamas Little League. Warm Springs Nation has advanced to the State semifinals Monday at 6:30pm. Warm Springs got wins over District 3 Columbia Little League 12-1 and District 6 Klamath Falls 12-1.

(indianz.com) More than 18 months into the Trump administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs finally has a new leader and it’s a historic choice. Tara Sweeney is the first Alaska Native to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, a political position at the Department of the Interior. She’s also the first woman in the post I n two decades. “Tara Sweeney is ready, she is beyond ready,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “Indian Country is united in support of her,” Murkowski added. The Alaska Federation of Natives, the largest organization of its kind in the state, as well as the National Congress of American Indians, the largest Indian organization in the U.S., have endorsed Sweeney.