Thomas Joseph (right) a protester against the Jordon Cove Pipeline talks on speaker phone with Gov. Kate Brown. The governor’s chief of staff, Nick Blosser, listens in. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter) SALEM – State police ended a protest and occupation of Gov. Kate Brown’s office Thursday night by arresting 21 people[Read More…]

(Wikimedia Commons photo) The Oregon Court of Appeals has blocked the statewide ban on flavored marijuana vape products.  The order last week comes a month after the court approved a similar stay on the ban for flavored nicotine vaping products enacted after Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order asking[Read More…]

Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon attorney general In late October, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office won the first conviction under Oregon’s new hate crime law. The case involved a 50-year-old man who hurled slurs at two gay men before picking a fight with them.  The conviction marks a shift in Oregon’s[Read More…]

Steve Allen is director of the state agency charged with caring for Oregonians with mental health and substance abuse. (Sam Stites/Oregon Capital Bureau) Finding a director to run a key new division of the Oregon Health Authority vexed Pat Allen for months. The agency director worked with hundreds of internal[Read More…]

Oregon State Hospital in Salem (Malheur Enterprise/file) After several months of noncompliance, wait times for patients being admitted to the Oregon State Hospital are back in compliance with a 2002 rule requiring the facility to take just seven days to admit patients who have been ordered there. That’s according to[Read More…]

Leland Baxter-Neal, staff attorney with the ACLU of Oregon, and Nadia Dahab, an attorney working with Innovation Law Lab, make their case for a new court rule aimed restricting immigration arrests at courthouses around Oregon. (Jake Thomas/Salem Reporter) SALEM  – Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be restricted from making[Read More…]

As Oregon moves to catch up with new security requirements, officials suggest passports will be the best way to clear airport security next year. (Pamplin Media Group/file) If you’ve flown from Portland International Airport within the past couple of weeks you’ve probably received a warning from Transportation Security Administration agents[Read More…]

JUNTURA – Trapped by a booming economy and remote stations, the state Transportation Department is paying more than $800,000 to build two modular homes for its employees in Juntura. The 1,500-square-foot houses are part of a larger $1.7 million plan to upgrade living facilities at state compounds in Juntura and[Read More…]

The Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response met last week for its final meeting. (Sam Stites/ Oregon Capitol Bureau) The Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response has concluded that the state needs to update its firefighting priorities and techniques to deal with future conflagrations. At its final meeting last week, the council[Read More…]