Grants Pass horse races may stay — The odds are improving for another season of horse racing in Grants Pass. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports that a private organization — the Southern Oregon Horse Racing Association — wants to take control of the event from the Josephine County Fair Board, and the county appears ready to oblige. The annual meet at Grants Pass Downs has been around for 50 years, but its recent tradition is one of losing money. The race meet’s daily handle, which is the amount wagered, has dropped from a high of $130,000 in 1987 to less than $50,000 today. Citing budget problems, county commissioners have said they will not use taxpayer money to subsidize another season.

Child porn on iPod gets man 18 months — An Oregon man who left an iPod containing child porn on a gas station counter has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. The News-Review of Roseburg reports that Jason Daniel Goodman apologized to the community as he left the courtroom in handcuffs this week. The 34-year-old from Oakland added that his addictions to alcohol and pornography had cost him “everything.” Goodman left his iPod at a Shell station in Sutherlin in October 2010. After five months, a Shell employee took the unclaimed iPod home, where his wife found it contained about 200 sexual images of young girls. The couple turned the iPod over to police, and Goodman was arrested. Goodman’s mother later found pictures of prepubescent girls on her son’s cellphone.

Public land may be sold — The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released a draft environmental assessment in which the agency says it would prefer to sell 3.5 acres of public land adjacent to Camper’s Cove Resort on Hyatt Lake. The Mail Tribune newspaper reports that the federal property east of Ashland has been slightly encroached upon by the 2-acre resort. If sold, the land would become private property but its use would be restricted and the building of structures prohibited. Other options in the draft assessment include restoring the area to a more natural state or taking no action.

Lawmaker with bat scares off burglar — State Sen. Chris Edwards played baseball when he attended South Eugene High School and was ready to put those skills to use when a burglar entered his garage this week. The lawmaker wielded an aluminum baseball bat as he chased the suspect away early Thursday. Edwards called the intruder a “dirt bag” in a Facebook post shortly after the incident. He added: “It’s probably for the best that I only had my Easton baseball bat when I caught you in the act.” The 39-year-old Democrat told The Register-Guard newspaper he owns guns but “wasn’t looking for a firefight” in the middle of the night.

— From wire reports