1. PUBLIC LANDS:
More timber, more taxes or bust for Ore. counties
Josephine County is among more than a dozen counties in western Oregon grappling with the reduction -- and possible end -- of federal timber aid. Shrinking payments under the Secure Rural Schools, or SRS, program have cast a fiscal pall across the region, forcing counties and the state to scramble to provide even the most basic services -- like jail beds -- to residents. One solution, county commissioners say, is to boost logging on federal lands. Go to story #1