Sen. Peter Courtney

Oregon Health & Science University secured $200 million from the state it said it needed to move ahead with the Phil Knight Challenge for cancer research, but House Speaker Tina Kotek got chewed up in a failed attempt to resolve a dispute over whether the tertiary hospital would agree to accept all Medicaid patients, even those from FamilyCare, with which OHSU is locked in legal battle.

A cigarette tax increase will create a dedicated funding source for mental health services, totaling about $30 million a year. The Senate president said it should take care of Oregon’s needs for children and adolescents while still falling short for adults with mental illness.

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, favors limiting the ban to 17, over the objections of the Knight Cancer Institute that 17-year-olds are most at-risk of developing melanoma from tanning beds

The $46 million increase that Senate President Peter Courtney called for at the start of the session could become reality with the co-chairs' budget released Monday