Today Wednesday Thursday
High: 60 High: 60 High: 55
Low: 49 Low: 46 Low: 43
Precip: 80% Precip: 20% Precip: 50%
IN BRIEF
Catholic archbishop
seized in Mosul
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents kid
napped a Catholic archbishop and tar
geted security forces in a series of
brazen assaults Monday that killed
more than 20 people. A suicide
bomber attacked U.S. Marines in Ra
madi, where insurgents also beheaded
two Shiite Muslims and left their bod
ies on a sidewalk.
The top U.S. general in Iraq predict
ed violence during the Jan. 30 national
election, but pledged to do “everything
in our power” to ensure the safety of
voters. As part of a crackdown on in
surgents, U.S. troops arrested more
than 100 suspects over the past three
days, U.S. officials said.
In Mosul, Archbishop Basile
Georges Casmoussa of the Syrian
Catholic Church was seized by gun
men, and the Vatican condemned the
abduction as a “terrorist act.” The 66
year-old churchman was grabbed
while walking in front of his church, a
priest said on condition of anonymity.
A U.S. spokesman said Marines suf
fered an undisclosed number of casu
alties in a suicide car bombing in Ra
madi. Later, U.S. command reported
two Marines were killed in action in
the province that includes Ramadi, but
would not say whether they died in the
car bombing.
The Associated Press
State legislature
mulls over child
protection system
BY BRAD CAIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — Spurred on by recent
cases involving the death and in
jury of children in state care, a leg
islative panel began hearings Mon
day into a child protection system
that one lawmaker said suffers
from “an alarming problem.”
“We are going to get to the bot
tom of what these problems are,”
said Rep. Billy Dalto, R-Salem, who
is chairman of the House Health
and Human Services Committee.
Meanwhile, the state’s top child
protection official said the pro
gram is struggling to keep up with
a rising number of child abuse
and neglect cases fueled in large
part by Oregon’s methampheta
mine epidemic.
“The methamphetamine problem
alone is driving our system in a way
that none of us could have anticipat
ed 10 years ago,” said Ramona Foley,
assistant director of the Oregon De
partment of Human Services.
The comments came as Dalto’s
committee began looking for ways
to avoid a repeat of two high-pro
file cases that have put a spotlight
on the department’s child
protection efforts.
Last month, officials found a 5
year-old girl, Jordan Knapp, in a
foster home near Sandy, weighing
a mere 28 pounds. The girl’s fos
ter parents face charges of
child abuse.
A week later, a 15-month-old
boy, Ashton Parris, died of head
injuries after the state returned
him to his birth mother as part of
a state-supervised plan to reunite
the family. The death is under
investigation.
Those cases brought a call from
Gov. Ted Kulongoski to review the
state’s child protection system.
A state team that looked into the
case of the malnourished girl issued
a report last week criticizing what it
said were poor communications
and record-keeping and a lack of
coordination among caseworkers.
Some of that same criticism was
aired at Monday’s committee
hearing.
House Speaker Karen Minnis,
who attended the meeting, said
the Multnomah County Sheriff’s
Office has told her that the state
department at times has been re
luctant to share information with
local police agencies.
“There is a lot of frustration that
law enforcement can’t get infor
mation” on pending child abuse
complaints, the Wood Village
Republican said.
The department also drew criti
cism from one lawmaker who said
state caseworkers sometimes re
move the child from the home and
break up a family without
proper justification.
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