Here is the latest news from Oregon from The Associated Press at 11:40 am PDT

AP – Oregon Northwest

VANCOUVER, Washington (AP) – Nearly 50 years after the skyjacker DB Cooper disappeared from the rear of a Boeing 727 with $ 200,000 in cash, a crime historian is conducting an excavation on the banks of the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, on the lookout after evidence. KOIN reports that Eric Ulis, a self-proclaimed expert on the infamous DB Cooper case, began a two-day dig on Friday. Ulis and four volunteers look for evidence about 10 to 15 meters from the spot where a boy found $ 6,000 of Cooper’s ransom in 1980. The Cooper case is not only infamous in the Pacific Northwest, but also in the country.

VANCOUVER, Washington (AP) – Court records show that a suspected getaway driver is now charged with second degree murder and other charges in the fatal shooting of Clark County Sheriff’s Detective Jeremy Brown. The Colombian reports that Abran Raya Leon’s brother Guillermo Raya Leon is accused of shooting Brown on July 23 while Brown was monitoring an unmarked vehicle in a Vancouver residential complex. On July 27, the first arrest warrant for Abran Raya Leon was issued for first-degree criminal assistance. He has been in federal custody since his arrest on the night of the shooting. He is currently located in the Columbia County Jail, Oregon. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer to comment on.

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) – As Oregon coronavirus cases continue to rise, health officials are describing the dire situation they are experiencing in hospitals – especially among unvaccinated people. Officials say they see younger and sicker people being hospitalized because of COVID-19 than they have been to previous surges. Currently, 496 people are being hospitalized in Oregon for COVID-19. Based on data from the health authority, the number of people hospitalized was 622 during the surge in November, when vaccine doses were not yet available. While Oregon COVID-19 cases continue to rise, some counties – most where fewer than half of the area’s adult population are vaccinated – are seeing the highest hospital stays during the pandemic.

SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz has fired the two police officers who authorities said were breaking the law while attending events in Washington DC during the January 6 riot. Diaz said Friday he had fired married officers Caitlin and Alexander Everett. He said they were present when the US Capitol was attacked. Diaz called her actions an attack on the police profession and every officer across the country. A telephone message to Seattle Police Guild President Mike Solan asking for comment on behalf of the officers was not returned immediately.