Drunken driving conviction overruled — The Oregon Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of a man whose blood alcohol content tested just above the legal limit. The court said last week it was possible John Charles Hedgpeth was still legally sober when he was stopped on his motorcycle nearly four years ago by a state trooper. The judges said an hour and 45 minutes passed from when he was detained to when he was tested, and it was possible his blood alcohol level had risen during that time. It also was possible his blood alcohol level was higher when he was detained, but there wasn’t enough evidence to prove which theory was true, they said. A breath test administered at a police station in 2014 registered a blood alcohol level of 0.09 percent, just over the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Hedgpeth was convicted of driving under the influence of intoxicants. Hand-held devices that measure alcohol content by the side of the road are an option in some states, but Oregon’s Legislature hasn’t approved those devices for police use. Hedgpeth’s attorney, Paul Burgett, said the nearest breath-test device in some rural parts of the state could be a considerable drive away.

Rats continue to plague Astoria — Oregon’s largest cities — Portland, Eugene and Salem — have been seeing an uptick in urban rats this year. Rats have also been spotted on the streets of Astoria, but that is nothing new for the city in northwestern Oregon. Seventy years ago, Clatsop County was one of 22 places in the U.S. selected for a demonstration on how to deal with outsized rat populations. Thousands of tiny rodent footprints dot the ground in the tunnels below downtown, and city workers bait 38 manholes every month to keep the rat population down in the sewer system. Despite the effort, rats remain Astoria’s No. 1 pest. Meredith Riley, a county environmental health inspector, says: “Anywhere you’ve got water and harborage then there’s going to be rodents.”

Man accused of shipping pot faces federal charge — A 37-year-old man accused of stashing $1 million worth of marijuana in fake boulders and attempting to ship it from Springfield to Oklahoma City now faces facing a federal charge. A federal complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Eugene accuses Curran Manzer of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 pounds of marijuana. A probable cause document says Springfield Police began investigating Manzer after the United Parcel Service discovered Manzer attempting to ship packages out of state that smelled of marijuana. Documents say UPS inspected packages addressed to Manzer and discovered about $50,000 in cash and in November, documents say an officer saw Manzer drop off packages at UPS and that when searching the packages, police found large fake boulders with vacuum-sealed plastic bags of pot. Shipping pot across state lines is prohibited under both federal and state law.

Man accepts plea deal for child sex attempt — A Hermiston man has accepted a plea deal in which he will spent four years in prison for trying to have sex with a girl younger than 14. Dustin Dyer, 24, took the deal just days before his scheduled trial. He had been arrested Dec. 31 on charges of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. Court records show Dyer pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted rape, stating on his plea petition that he took a substantial step toward having sex with a child. The state dismissed the rest of the case against him.