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Closed to the public, the Oregon State Capitol also will be temporarily off-limits to lawmakers and their staffs, interfering with the start of the 2021 Legislature.
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In the season of peace, in the city of peace, this week the Oregon Capitol was awash in both amity and animosity.
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“There are existential questions with which humankind has wrestled for time immemorial. What exists beyond the edges of the universe? What, ultimately, is the meaning of life? Will the Oregon Legislature convene for a third special session to keep working on 2020’s disasters?
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown on Friday painted a dark future for Oregon if the COVID-19 pandemic spirals out of control in the several months it will take to get a vaccine to most in the state.
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Oregon on Thursday transitions from a COVID-19 freeze to a frosty list of new restrictions that will likely last into the start of 2021.
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Gov. Kate Brown began the seven-month duel with the Legislature over the next state budget on Tuesday, unveiling a $25.6 billion plan to shift priorities to reflect problems since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state last March.
As Gov. Kate Brown announced her latest COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, one of the state’s top doctors offered this advice: Learn how to cook your grandmother’s stuffing recipe through using Zoom instead of looking over her shoulder.
Although the divisive 2020 election may be over and there are just a few weeks left in a year of unprecedented challenges, don’t think it is going to necessarily be smooth sailing for Oregon in 2021.
Oregon voters have passed a new state motto last week: “Keep Oregon politics weird.”
The envelope opener in the Clackamas County Elections Office broke on Tuesday, delaying processing of ballots.
When the pandemic hit and states started enforcing social distancing and other restrictions, Steve Trout’s phone began ringing off the hook.
Election Day no longer exists, at least not as we knew it.
How many Oregonians are so frustrated with the state’s unemployment system that they have given up seeking benefits?
Jim Weaver and Bob Smith will go down in Oregon history as having served our state in Congress. Neither leaves much of a national legacy, despite the plaudits expressed in their recent obituaries.
Will Oregon legislators start their 2021 session and then disappear for several months?
“2020 has been, I think, a little bit rough on Oregon’s image,” State Economist Mark McMullen said this week.
Oregon legislators will gather by video conference next week to hear the latest word on the state’s worsening budget situation and get updates on wildfires, school reopenings, unemployment compensation and COVID-19.
Over breakfast recently, a longtime Oregon Democrat and political observer mused that Gov. Kate Brown’s muddled response to the pandemic — including the state’s Employment Department fiasco — could finally undo the politician he calls “Teflon Kate.”
Local officials across Oregon got a verbal spanking from the governor last week.
In the dead of the night, in the 11th hour, Oregon State University-Cascades's proposed Student Success Center was a failure in the Legislature — again.
If this week’s legislative session were a murder-mystery game, it might be called “The Case of the Oregon Capitol: Who Killed Statesmanship?”
The second special session of the Oregon Legislature on Monday careened between boredom and anger, spiritual quotes and name calling as it dragged on from early morning into the night.
Oregon lawmakers were poised Monday to achieve their special-session aims by cutting spending and rebalancing the state budget, and passing other bills affecting unemployment claims and further limiting police use of chokeholds.
This has been a week of bad news, worse news and occasional good news in Oregon government. But instead of recounting all those downs, ups and sideways, let’s check in on a continuing issue: unemployment.
Oregon lawmakers approved $94 million more to expand coronavirus testing and contact tracing, but deadlocked on $105 million more for the state to buy personal protective equipment for distribution to counties and tribes.
Gov. Kate Brown’s public stock may rise from her negotiations with Vice President Mike Pence and others in the Trump administration to have Oregon State Police guard the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, replacing federal officers. Politics, at any level, is the art of relationships. …
An informal coalition of local governments, civic and business groups across Oregon say they are being short-changed by state political leaders in charge of allocating about $1.6 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds.
Amid the simmering chaos in Oregon’s largest city, let’s look back 50 years to how a governor took an audacious approach to avoiding violence.
A strange happening unfolded Wednesday, July 15 in the virtual world of the Oregon Capitol. The Senate Conduct Committee heard testimony about personnel issues involving Sen. Sara Gelser and a former chief of staff, even though the complainant didn’t want a big investigation or for the matte…
Face masks must be worn outdoors when social distancing is not possible and private gatherings must be limited to no more than 10 people, Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday.
State Rep. Andrea Salinas was livid.
Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday announced her appointees to the newly formed Public Safety Training and Standards Task Force.
A steep drop in lottery funds due to the COVID-19 crisis has killed the sale of $273 million in state bonds to pay for major projects, state officials said Tuesday.
If irony were a precious metal, Oregon’s state government would be rich.
The Oregon Legislature convened a special session on Wednesday amid a worldwide pandemic that has killed more than 475,000 people — nearly a quarter of them in the United States.
Students with disabilities aren't receiving adequate support from Oregon schools due to limited funding, rising caseloads, difficulty hiring and retaining special education teachers and other factors, a state-led audit found.
Insufficient livestock slaughter options in Oregon have spurred a proposal to reinstate a state meat inspection program, but some experts say another approach would be more effective.
About 70,000 Oregonians newly eligible for unemployment benefits — the self-employed, independent contractors, gig and temporary workers — await state processing of their claims.
Whether lawmakers went too far last year in changing the public-pension system to reduce its future obligations is now in the hands of the Oregon Supreme Court.
Bills to tighten the accountability of police after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis would lead a list of about two dozen action items proposed for a special session of the Oregon Legislature targeted for Wednesday, June 24.
Oregon legislators will begin to review Gov. Kate Brown's proposed spending cuts, hear what the public has to say about them, and come up with their own plans.
Gov. Kate Brown's stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic will stay in place until either she or the Oregon Legislature ends the state of emergency she invoked.
Oregon reported a new record for COVID-19 infections on Thursday, June 11, as health officials cautioned the phased "reopening" of the state depended on residents not returning to pre-pandemic patterns.
This fall, Oregon's K-12 students may finally get to return to their classrooms for the first time in half a year, based on new state safety guidelines. But school won't look the same as it did before COVID-19.
Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services had bad news and good news for customers stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Oregonians have been driving less during the coronavirus pandemic — though steep drops have eased off in recent weeks — and the state, counties and cities will see less in fuel taxes to maintain roads and bridges.
Even when the Oregon Employment Department works through the 5,800 remaining claims from a total of 38,000 backlogged claims for regular unemployment benefits, it still faces thousands more claims from workers newly eligible for payments.
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