The Oregon legislature passed a funding bill during a special session to prevent layoffs at the Department of Transportation. Lawmakers on both sides say it’s a short-term fix.
The state’s first-in-the-nation approach to decriminalization has left deaths and overdoses surging. Criminalization needn’t be equated with incarceration. The spectrum of penalties can include fines, community service and treatment.
When the power went out on Saturday, Portland General Electric said the outages would be fixed within 24 to 48 hours. But as of Tuesday afternoon, 31,052 customers were still without power, forcing many to find warm shelter elsewhere.
Many jurisdictions have shifted toward supporting the rights of local residents and businesses that must contend with encampments and other problems, rather than the rights of homeless people.
Only 75,490 votes were cast nationally for a candidate other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. And yet, 1,500 voters have already registered with Oregon's newest party: the No Labels Party.
Tourist-dependent Clatsop County, population 41,000, has the highest rate of homelessness in Oregon. A project to convert a hotel into housing units for healthcare workers and the unhoused is a step in the right direction, leaders say.
Wait times to speak to customer service representatives have risen to an average of more than 52 minutes, and as many as 1,500 people are experiencing delays due to the identity verification process.
The Peterbilt 520 EV emerged onto the streets of outer Northeast Portland recently, becoming the city’s second-largest EV, behind the Fire Bureau’s electric fire engine. The truck cost $675,000, nearly double a diesel-powered one.
The Black Economic Prosperity Dashboard includes data on population, health, education, economic well-being and business ownership that can be used to better address racial wealth gaps in the state.
Since fall 2020, West Coast inflation has risen nearly 18 percent, while Portland Public Schools’ funding has risen just 12 percent. About 70 school districts and teachers unions across the state will negotiate contracts this fall.
Ellen Rosenblum has joined a coalition of 23 other attorneys general that is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold the education department’s rule for protecting students from schools’ predatory behaviors.
The state’s public pension system had its worst investment performance in more than a decade, losing 1.55 percent of its value in 2022. To recoup its funds, the agency may have to make changes that could strain government employers.
Three former public officials in Morrow County, who own a small telecommunications company, which provides fiber-optic service to Amazon data centers, failed to acknowledge that they stood to profit when they gave tax breaks and arranged land sales.
An anonymously donated grant allowed 100 miles of Bend, Ore.’s mountain bike trails to be assessed for adaptive users in May.
The Greater Idaho movement, which wants to secede from the Beaver State and become a part of its neighbor to the east, had sputtered along for years, gaining little traction. But then, the coronavirus hit in the spring of 2020.
Three years after the first-in-the-nation law was passed, a record number of opioid overdoses, bad press and a growing homelessness crisis could slow the movement to treat addiction as a public health matter.
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