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SALEM — Hundreds of public employees asked the Oregon Legislature maintain funding for schools, prisons and workers who provide in-home care to seniors, using the Presidents Day holiday to rally Monday at the state Capitol.

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The slight frame of Canadian fiddler April Verch stood Monday in front of 20 high school students brandishing violins, violas, mandolins, guitars, cellos and a lone bass. Beneath her dark bangs and thick glasses, Verch’s eyes shone as she listened to the Pendleton High School orchestra play a song she composed.

SEATTLE — The expert skiers wasted no time after an avalanche hit and swept their friends down a steep slope in Washington state. They immediately turned on their emergency beacons and began searching for signs of life.

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April Verch was recovering Sunday, she said, from a night of overindulgence.

MILTON-FREEWATER — The Umatilla County Soil and Water Conservation District is honoring Earl Brown and Sons as cooperator of the year for 2011. 

BAKER CITY — A Nevada company thinks high gold prices can help it make money by working over the leavings of a Baker County mining operation from the first half of the 20th century.

WALLA WALLA - The couple wanted in connection with Friday's high-speed chase and ensuing eight-hour police search near Milton-Freewater were caught today after another high-speed chase that ended at a crash at the intersection of Howard Street and Bryant Avenue.

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STEVENS PASS - Avalanches less than an hour apart claimed four lives at two separate resorts Sunday - one burying three skiers at Stevens Pass ski resort and another sweeping a snowboarder off a cliff at The Summit at Snoqualmie.

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Authorities say two people are reported dead and as many as eight more are missing after an avalanche near a Washington state ski resort.

MILTON-FREEWATER - A Walla Walla couple who escaped authorities in Idaho earlier this month after a high-speed chase again escaped officers in another high-speed chase early Friday morning, officials said.

RICHLAND — Shortly after Ron Paul finished speaking in Richland on Friday, a grizzled looking man in a T-shirt supporting the presidential hopeful ran through the Red Lion Hanford House ballroom shouting excitedly and pumping his fist in the air.

PENDLETON — The Umatilla County Wolf Depredation Advisory Committee is holding its first meeting at 6 p.m., Tuesday, at Roosters Restaurant, 1515 Southgate, Pendleton.

WESTON — The Weston Police Department has rescheduled its report to the community.

Delbert Littrell expected the invasion of Iwo Jima would be a stroll in the park after what his Marine Corps artillery unit had endured in the island-hopping campaign aimed at Japan during World War II.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year.

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As a boy, Dustin Stratton hefted his family’s bulky VHS camera to his shoulder and filmed his sister Monica in short fantasies of dragons and princesses.

A 16-year-old Imbler High School student is being charged as an adult in a rape case.

CHICAGO — Young people want their music, TV and movies now — even if it means they get these things illegally.

Hermiston graduate Kyle Papineau is home this weekend, on break from a year-long tour in Afghanistan. A Navy field medical technician, Papineau, 22, is stationed with the Marines Regimental Combat Team 5 in Helmand Province. Papineau said his unit is relatively secure; they have yet to suffer casualties or serious injuries. But life in the open desert, with few modern amenities, he said, takes a toll.