Nearman refused to resign in the face of overwhelming evidence he would be ejected from the Legislature. The four-term Republican lawmaker becomes the first person ever expelled from the Oregon House.Read More
Criticizing a session they say is moving too quickly, Republicans refused to attend a floor session of the Oregon House on Tuesday evening. Lawmakers showed up to the House chamber at 6 p.m. with Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, the only Republican in attendance.Read More
Federal officers will begin leaving the city on Thursday under a deal reached between Oregon officials and the Trump administration. State police will help protect Portland's federal courthouse.Read More
A Baker County judge has invalidated Brown’s restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, along with every other executive order Brown has issued under a state of emergency she ordered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Read More
For the second year in a row, Democrats’ signature bill for instituting a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was stymied by a Republican walkout. Now, the focus falls on Gov. Kate Brown.Read More
Cap and trade is on its way to the Senate floor in Oregon again — and Republicans are heading for the exits. They staged a similar protest last year — twice.Read More
The Oregon ranchers whose imprisonment helped spur an armed occupation in 2016 don’t have permission to graze on federal land after all. On Friday, a U.S. District Court rejected the Trump administration’s decision to restore grazing rights to Dwight and Steven Hammond, the father and son pair at the center of years of controversy in eastern Oregon.Read More
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden announced Monday morning that he won’t run for reelection in 2020, possibly putting a close to more than two decades in the U.S. Capitol Building.Read More
The reasons for the sudden end of Dan Maher's "Inland Folk" are murky, and have led to speculation and questions among fans and associates.Read More
Oregon Senate Democrats announced Friday that they were abandoning a plan to fine Republicans $500 a day for the walkout, amid concerns over a protracted lawsuit and questions about how such unprecedented fines would work.Read More
The head of the Oregon Republican Party on Monday took a first step toward forcing a recall election of Gov. Kate Brown, whose term expires at the end of 2022.Read More
Oregon state Sen. Brian Boquist, who made threatening comments about state police and another lawmaker, must give 12 hours’ written notice before entering the Capitol in the near future, a Senate committee decided Monday.Read More
Oregon lawmakers concluded their work for the year Sunday, marking the close of the most remarkable and contentious legislative sessions in modern memory. In a day filled with flaring tempers and frequent confusion, lawmakers in the House and Senate passed a completed state budget and a raft of policy bills just after 5:20 p.m., well before the midnight deadline set forth Read More
Senate Republicans will return to work Saturday following a nine-day walkout, setting the stage for a weekend where lawmakers sprint toward adjournment. That comes after Democratic leaders offered assurances a sweeping climate change bill, House Bill 2020, will not pass this session.Read More
The so-called “Stay Strong Stay Gone” rally marked the latest backlash over bills seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon. Loggers, truckers, farmers and their supporters had all come, they said, to urge 11 Senate Republicans who’ve been absent from the statehouse since last week to remain in hiding.Read More
Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, says Oregon’s sweeping plan for addressing climate change this legislative session does not have the votes to pass. But it’s not clear whether that will be enough to bring Senate Republicans back to work. Read More
For the second time this legislative session, Oregon Senate Republicans prepared Thursday to stage a walkout, denying Democrats the ability to pass legislation. It’s the latest step in a standoff over sweeping climate change legislation.Read More
Democratic leaders in the Oregon Senate have agreed to give up high-profile bills on gun control and vaccines in exchange for the end of a Republican walkout. Read More
In Oregon, GOP senators, solidly in the minority, left the Capitol this week before lawmakers could approve House Bill 3427, which would inject schools with billions in new funding to lower class sizes and boost graduation rates. The move denied Democrats a 20-member quorum, halting business in the Senate.Read More
For the first time, a proposal that Oregon honor the national popular vote in presidential contests got a vote on the Senate floor on Tuesday, passing easily.Read More
Oregon’s rugged coast is poised to grow even more inhospitable to oil and gas interests in coming days under a bill that passed the state Senate on Tuesday.Read More
When toxins from algae made Salem’s drinking water potentially hazardous earlier this year, the city was unprepared to deal with both the public relations fallout from the breach and the more concrete matter of helping citizens access clean water.Read More
The city of Portland will not change how it enforces its anti-camping law, following a sweeping opinion by a federal appeals court on Tuesday that similar rules might violate the constitutional rights of homeless citizens.Read More
Three decades after Oregon blazed a trail by enacting statewide sanctuary laws, voters will have a say in repealing them this fall.Read More
Nearly 100 public water systems around Oregon—including the state’s largest—will be required to begin testing for harmful contaminants from algae blooms under new rules unveiled by the Oregon Health Authority.Read More
The Oregon Supreme Court announced June 27 it would not certify ballot language for Initiative Petition 43, a proposed ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons in Oregon. Instead, the court referred draft ballot language back to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for revision, finding substantial flaws in her office’s last attempt.Read More
After extending the advisory over potentially harmful cyanotoxins for two weeks on June 11, Salem, Oregon, officials now say it’s unlikely the warning will be lifted June 25.Read More
Tents line trolley tracks outside the ICE facility in Southwest Portland, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. CREDIT: DIRK VANDERHART Following two days of raucous heckling and disruption from Portland demonstrators, a […]Read More
Three parties appealed proposed ballot language for Initiative Petition 44 to the Oregon Supreme Court. That means backers of the measure won’t be able to begin circulating petitions to land it on November's ballot for weeks, a potentially decisive blow.Read More
Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson is being treated for a “small, cancerous brain tumor,” he announced Wednesday. Richardson, Oregon’s Secretary of State since 2017, revealed in his regular newsletter that he was diagnosed with cancer in May and that he’s feeling “blessed and optimistic.”Read More
Gov. Kate Brown is declaring an emergency and mobilizing Oregon National Guard soldiers in response to an ongoing water quality situation in and around Salem.Read More
In what is likely a record, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office in recent weeks fielded nearly 1,600 pages of comments criticizing a ballot title for Initiative Petition 43.Read More
If Gov. Kate Brown follows through on a plan to call Oregon’s Legislature into a special session in the coming months, she might wind up giving a tax break to a sliver of the businesses she’s pledged to target.Read More
