In brief: State burn limits in place Monday

OLYMPIA – A burn ban takes effect Monday on state-owned forestlands.

The Washington state Department of Natural Resources says the burn ban will apply to all forestlands under the agency’s fire protection from July 1 through Sept. 30.

The ban does not apply to federally owned lands.

Recreational fires in approved fire pits within designated campgrounds and the agency’s prescribed fires for ecosystem health are still allowed. The use of gas and propane self-contained stoves and barbecues also will continue to be allowed.

Gay marriage vote effort to begin

PORTLAND – Organizers of the effort to make same-sex marriage legal in Oregon say they have a final ballot title and will start collecting signatures next month to put the measure on the November 2014 ballot.

More than 116,000 valid signatures must be collected for the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection Initiative to make the ballot.

In 2004, voters by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent voted to amend the Oregon constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Boy dies, 3 hurt in planes’ collision

BOISE – Two small planes collided in central Idaho on Friday morning at the site of a backcountry fly-in, killing a 2-year-old boy and injuring three other people.

A single-engine Piper Tri-Pacer and a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron collided in flight at 9:50 a.m. at Johnson Creek Airport, a backcountry airstrip near Yellow Pine, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.

The Valley County sheriff’s office said witnesses reported the two planes were landing at the same time when one came down on top of the other and both crashed.

The 2-year-old boy was fatally injured and his father was taken by air ambulance to a Boise hospital, where he was listed in serious condition, the sheriff’s office said. The family is from Utah, but their names were not released.

Two men in the lower plane, both from the Roseburg, Ore., region, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to the sheriff’s office.

Vancouver woman drowns in ocean

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – Authorities in Lincoln City said a 54-year-old woman died after apparently getting caught by a rip current, a strong outward flow of water.

Capt. Jim Kusz of the North Lincoln Fire and Rescue District said she was from Vancouver, Wash., but her name was withheld until relatives are notified,

Her 23-year-old daughter escaped. The Oregon State Police said the current grabbed them about 15 minutes into a swim Friday morning.