U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s congressional committee assignments have ranged from appropriations and budgets to environmental concerns and foreign relations, with a dozen subcommittees thrown in for good measure.
Ranchers are urging Oregon lawmakers to invest $800,000 in the state’s wolf compensation fund to help mitigate adverse livestock impacts from the predators. Environmental advocates claim the p…
HILLSBORO — Intel won’t build a $700 million “mega lab” it had planned in Hillsboro, pursuing cheaper options instead as it implements billions of dollars in cost cuts amid declining revenue.
Officials from Oregon’s 241 cities have renewed their call for direct state aid, based on population, as the best way for Oregon to reduce the number of unhoused people and provide more shelte…
From the dairy farm to the nursery, Oregon producers are adapting to the state's new agricultural overtime law by investing in automation, cutting workers' hours, making plans to share employe…
Freshman GOP lawmaker Brian Stout got a chilly reception in Salem this month after a judge upheld a protective order against him just a week after being sworn in. Reporter Anna Del Savio repor…
Oregon’s livestock industry is seeking $10 million from the legislature to construct and expand slaughter facilities, claiming the demand far surpasses the $2 million awarded so far. The incre…
Oregon Senate Republicans will require all legislation be read in full before a final vote, a move that will allow the minority party to stand on the brakes of Democrats' agenda in the new leg…
St. Charles Health System plans to build a $90 million cancer treatment center in Redmond to improve access for patients living in rural communities.
Along with thousands of pieces of new bills and resolutions, the beginning of a new legislative session marks the return of two oddball trinkets coveted by members of the House.
Up to 1,000 rabbits per year could be slaughtered on-farm without an Oregon meat processing license under a bill that would expand an existing poultry exemption. House Bill 2689 would allow th…
State Rep. Julie Fahey starts her fourth term in the Oregon House — and her first full two-year cycle as leader of its Democratic majority — at a time of transition.
Recreational vehicles could be used to guard against theft on Oregon farmland under legislation that would broaden a land use rule currently limited to forestland. Under House Bill 2203, RVs c…
It’s becoming a familiar pattern: Oregon’s economy continues to add jobs, but the statewide unemployment rate continues to inch up.
Secretary of State Shemia Fagan gave an exuberant response when asked Friday if she would seek re-election in 2024.
Oregon State University's Horticulture Department has started taking pre-orders on its newly designed "pollinator paradise" license plate, which aims to celebrate the more than 600 bee species…
Oregon landowners who willfully “turn a blind eye” to illegal marijuana growing on their farms would lose property tax breaks under a bill meant to discourage unregulated plantings.
On the heels of the closure of the century-old Medford Mail Tribune, EO Media Group announced Friday the company’s plans to open a new publication in the city.
A crime bill named for a Madras boy severely beaten in 2017 by his mother's boyfriend is back before the Oregon Legislature.
A bipartisan bill in the Oregon Legislature would enact a statewide ban on flavored tobacco and nicotine products — a step that the Washington County Board of Commissioners hoped for when it e…
SALEM — While the enactment of the voter-approved firearm law awaits litigation, neither state nor federal law enforcement agencies are tracking how often Oregonians buy guns before failing a …
With bangs of gavels at either end of the Capitol Tuesday, the clock began ticking on the 160-day session of the Oregon Legislature.
Smith Rock State Park is slated to get a new, wider pedestrian bridge this summer.
A bipartisan bill submitted late Wednesday would reverse a landmark ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court that found liability waivers signed by visitors using the Mt. Bachelor ski resort were un…
Oregon state Rep. Brian Stout was removed from all legislative committee assignments this week, just days after a judge declined to dismiss a protective order filed by a woman who accused Stou…
Gov. Tina Kotek has announced several appointees to her staff, among them a deputy chief of staff who will oversee agencies, a communications director, and a former state representative who wi…
Oregon's fifth largest newspaper shut down operations after more than 100 year on Friday.
The Medford Mail Tribune, the state's fifth largest newspaper, shut down all operation on Friday.
It turns out 2022 was a financial face plant of a year for many of the world's richest of the rich — including Nike co-founder Phil Knight.
ONTARIO — On a sunny September evening in 2021, Nathaniel Sean Stringer joined family and colleagues for a recovery celebration at a park in Ontario. To enthusiastic applause, he received an a…
SALEM — The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has fined two Astoria seafood processors a total of $42,200 for repeatedly violating the limits in their permits to discharge wastewater …
It's a new year, with a new governor, new leadership teams in the Legislature and several new House and Senate members.
SALEM — The Senate and House met Monday morning, Jan. 9, at the Oregon Capitol in Salem to organize for the 2023 session of the Legislature. Later in the day, Gov.-elect Tina Kotek was sworn-i…
With the pageantry and pleasantries of Monday now over, Oregon's new governor and legislative leaders face six months of partisan politics to hammer out a new state budget and up or down votes…
Customers lined up inside the small, wood-paneled Terrebonne Post Office on Jan. 4 as three postal workers rushed to help customers in an understaffed workspace.
SALEM — Tina Kotek wasted no time in laying out her priorities once she was sworn in Monday, Jan. 9, as Oregon’s 39th governor.
Tina Kotek (center) was sworn in as Oregon governor at the state capitol building in Salem, OR on Mon., Jan. 9, 2022.
The Senate and House met Monday morning at the Oregon Capitol in Salem to organize for the 2023 session of the Legislature. Later in the day, Gov.-elect Tina Kotek will be sworn-in during a jo…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, left, with her wife, Aimee Kotek Wilson, waves to people gathered in the Senate chambers during her swearing-in ceremony at the state Capitol in Salem on Monday, Jan. 9, 2023.
The Oregon Senate at ease early Monday, allowing the 30 members to get to know each other better informally before launching into the new session.
SALEM — Tenant advocates are planning to ask the Oregon Legislature to limit rent increases when the 2023 session begins on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
In 1986 Larry George, with the encouragement of his Newberg High School ag instructors, started an FFA project that not only helped put him through Oregon State University, it also spawned the…
It's a new era of leadership at the three Pacific Northwest wheat commissions.
SALEM — Tina Kotek will spend her first year as governor traveling to places that gave her the least support in November.
PENDLETON — Many Umatilla County residents can expect a higher price tag on their first electricity bill of 2023.
Rob Wagner first walked into the Oregon Capitol in 1997 as an intern for a first-term Democratic state senator from Portland. In January, as his first political boss, Gov. Kate Brown, leaves o…
SALEM — The Oregon Department of Energy is accepting applications for the second round of funding through the agency’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program.
A Republican state legislator plans to reintroduce amendments to Oregon's farmworker overtime law that would, in part, provide greater flexibility for employers during peak seasons when there …
PORTLAND — Just over a dozen Oregon cities, towns and unincorporated areas had their status changed from urban to rural, the result of a new definition the U.S. Census Bureau for the 2020 census.
SALEM — Hundreds of felony convictions became invalid Friday, Dec. 30, after the Oregon Supreme Court struck down all non-unanimous jury verdicts reached before the practice was banned two years ago.
A nonprofit group is working with Polk County in western Oregon to test broadband internet in rural homes, measuring whether the service meets minimum speeds required by the Federal Communicat…
SALEM — Oregon’s per-student spending was 4.6% below the national average in the 2019-20 school year, newly released figures from the National Center for Education Statistics show.
About 24 hours after wind and rain sent a large, likely 100-year-old elm tree crashing down between the Portland Art Museum and St. James Lutheran Church, residents and passers-by were still o…
PENDLETON — A total of 20 new laws out of the 2022 Oregon legislative session go into effect Jan. 1.
