Hotel homicide — Authorities said a woman found dead in a northeast Portland hotel was a victim of homicide. The Portland Police Bureau identified the victim as 24-year-old Ashley Renee Benson of Vancouver, Washington. Her body was discovered late Friday morning at the DoubleTree hotel near the Lloyd Center shopping mall. An autopsy performed Saturday confirmed it was a homicide. Police have not provided any information about a suspect and declined to say if a weapon was used.

Festival queen surgery — The reigning queen of Medford’s Pear Blossom Festival had emergency heart surgery. Shawntell Michalke suffers from a rare disease that leaves the walls of her blood vessels dangerously thin. She was walking across campus at Southern Oregon University in Ashland last month when she collapsed, unable to speak or breath. A scan of her chest showed her aorta had split, so surgeons put it back together in a six-hour surgery.

Astoria death — Astoria Police said they’re treating the death of a 63-year-old man on Christmas Day as suspicious, and the local major crimes team has been assembled to investigate it. Chief Brad Johnston said the man was reported dead about noon. He said there was another person in the home who was cooperative but couldn’t provide details of the death.