Cap and trade architect Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, explains how he’s attempted to craft his bill to overcome Republican opposition (Sam Stites/Oregon Capitol Bureau) SALEM — A contentious proposal to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions dominated political chatter in the weeks before the 2020 legislative session began. So much[Read More…]

State Sen. Lynn Findley SALEM – State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Vale) says a new proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t clearly safeguard the rural areas of the state and isn’t much different from legislation that failed during the last legislative session. Perusing the new plan over the weekend, he[Read More…]

(Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons) As a social studies teacher at Amity Middle School, it falls on Jeff Geissler to teach students the importance of voting, paying taxes and how their government works. Now in his fourth year teaching social studies, Geissler recalls taking a training offered by the Classroom Law Project on[Read More…]

Dogs like this one rescued from an Eastern Oregon residence have been used for lab testing in Oregon and then euthanized. A new law taking effect in January requires labs to offer animals for adoption. (PMG file photo) Here’s some good news at the tail end of a contentious political[Read More…]

Two commercial trucks burn on Interstate 5 near Woodburn in October 2019. A string of truck crashes on the freeway in recent months blocked commuters and commerce. (Oregon State Police photo) Gagandeep Singh was traveling south on Interstate 5 near Woodburn when smoke started boiling up from under his Volvo[Read More…]

Oregon State Hospital (Salem Reporter/file) Reforms to Oregon’s system for dealing with those unfit to stand trial aren’t working as planned, with judges challenged to find local treatment options for those they used to send to the Oregon State Hospital. As a result, the state hospital has not seen a[Read More…]

A state worker answers calls to Oregon’s child abuse hotline, operating from a new call center in Portland. (Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez) PORTLAND — The caller told Hannah Lene about a child disciplined at school for spraying water who begged school employees not to send a note home because he feared[Read More…]

(Photo by Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) Oregon state government has yet to see deep impacts from a three-week federal government shutdown, but some Oregonians are feeling the pinch. Today, the shutdown tied the longest in U.S. history at 21 days. With President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats unwilling to[Read More…]