Bathed and gussied up, eight shelter cats competed last weekend in a cat club show at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center, and all of them took home at least one ribbon.

LEBANON — Two Lebanon Police Department employees were honored with the community’s top service awards Tuesday evening.

LEBANON — Lebanon’s 2009 Distinguished Service Award recipients have volunteered thousands of hours for community betterment projects, ranging from coaching youth sports teams and playing music at local retirement centers and hospitals, to assisting with the Special Olympics program and boosting local business development projects.

Persons interested in learning more about agritourism are invited to attend a meeting from 2 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center.

The West Albany Hi-Steppers dance team will host the annual All-City Show at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 14, at the high school, 1130 Queen Ave. S.W.

Organizers of the Pink Ribbon Tea, scheduled for Saturday, March 13, are looking for volunteers. Individuals, groups and parent/teen partners are invited to lend a hand at the Albany Senior Center for this annual benefit to raise money for free mammograms for uninsured and underinsured women in the community.

LEBANON — Build Lebanon Trails will host a walk of Marks Slough Trails phases 1 and 2 starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 13, at the phase 1 trailhead on Tennessee Road.

Jessica Brown was excited Tuesday about mingling with fellow students and professionals, even if she was a little concerned about the classes she was missing. The Willamette High School sophomore from Eugene is a straight-A student, and she has known she wants to be a lawyer since she was 5.

The 33rd annual Family Fun Day at Linn-Benton Community College will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 13, in the Activities Center gym on the Albany campus, 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W., Albany. 

Local voters will face choices in primary races for governor and U.S. senator in May, but not for local seats in the state Legislature.

KLAMATH FALLS (AP) - Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he expects to sign a drought declaration for the Klamath Basin next week, but it will not be enough to keep farmers from hard times.

MEDFORD (AP) - A 54-year-old man has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for growing marijuana valued at about $6 million on his rural property in southern Oregon.

BEND (AP) - Hundreds of central Oregon residents have made the trip out to Dry Canyon east of Bend to see a Rocky Mountain goat that's taken up residence there and is often visible off Highway 20 East.

ASHLAND (AP) - All first-grade students in Ashland School District will begin learning Spanish next school year and continue with lessons each year through 12th grade.

STEVENSON, Wash. (AP) - About 40 ground searchers plus Coast Guard and Washington National Guard aircraft have completed another day of looking for a 24-year-old Portland woman missing on a hike near Bonneville Dam in Washington's Skamania County. The search will resume Wednesday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Sacramento jury has found an Oregon company liable for $24.3 million in damages after an employee accidentally ran over his daughter with his big rig.

EUGENE (AP) - Police arrested a 31-year-old man accused of trying to start a fire at a Eugene church.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans and their lawmakers are dramatically out of sync on health care, with large majorities of people looking for bipartisan cooperation that's nowhere in sight.

PORTLAND (AP) - A Texas man has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of interference with a flight crew on a plane traveling from Kansas City to Portland.

LOS ANGELES - Fans of "The Cove," the environmentally themed film that won the feature documentary Oscar Sunday night, will be happy to know there's more where that came from. A new television series about the controversial dolphin trade in Japan, tentatively titled "Dolphin Warriors," has been green-lighted by Animal Planet.