Good morning!
Hailey Cook wasted no time settling into her new beat covering health care for Salem Reporter.
Earlier this month, I shared in an Editor’s Note about this new effort by your local news team.
“We decided to create a new ‘beat’ around Salem Health,” I wrote. “Reporter Hailey Cook is tasked with dramatically ramping up coverage of this institution. She’ll tell you about the people in the organization. She’ll independently look over finances. And she will chronicle how well the community’s health needs are being met.”
Hailey delivered two exclusive reports in recent days.
In one, she explored a unique library at Salem Health, spending time with librarian Paul Howard. This is probably one of Salem’s best-kept secrets.
Then, she broke the news on the potential merger between Salem Health and the independent hospital based in Stayton, Santiam Hospital & Clinics. There is much more to learn and share about a potential collaboration that will involve the care of thousands in the mid-valley.
The big news in recent days was the weather – heavy rain, high winds and local flooding. At such times, the Salem Reporter team knows how important up-to-minute information is for you and others in Salem. The reporters stay in constant touch with government officials and agencies, monitor websites for everything from weather forecasts to creek levels and keep an eye on local social media channels.
All of this local news meant one development went largely unnoticed this week.
Federal workers in Salem learned they get two extra holidays on Christmas week. President Donald Trump on Thursday by executive order declared the day before Christmas and the day after Christmas to be federal holidays.
That means most federal employees in Salem and elsewhere will be off duty for five days. Plan your federal government needs accordingly.
Here’s what else we reported in recent days.
In local government news:
•Mayor Julie Hoy missed the deadline last week to either cut a deal with state ethics enforcers or declare her intent to challenge them. That means the Oregon Government Ethics Commission can forge ahead to make final an order finding her in violation over that messy effort to make a change in Salem city managers.
•Acting on the city’s emergency declaration regarding immigration, city officials are planning a session to explain individual immigration rights.
•The city of Salem has gone to court to recover what it says is thousands of dollars in unpaid rent from Rudy’s Steakhouse, the now-shuttered downtown restaurant.
•The normally routine appointment of Salem citizens to volunteer posts on city commissions and boards was more contentious than usual.
In community reporting:
•Local organizations that serve homeless people in Salem are left uncertain about future funding. Actions in Washington, D.C., are having a direct impact locally.
•There will be no Point-In-Time count of the homeless in Salem this year.
•Some Salem teachers got a bit of a Christmas bonus recently, learning they won grants to help cover their classroom needs. As Managing Editor Rachel Alexander reported that 50 local teachers received “a total of $50,000 in grants this month through the Maps Community Foundation, the charitable arm of Maps Credit Union. About half of the grants are to teachers in the Salem-Keizer School District.”
•Local officials joined in the annual Grand Menorah Lighting in downtown Salem on Sunday, Dec. 14. Photographer Laura Tesler produced this photo gallery of the event.
HAVE A COMMENT? SUGGESTION?
Have thoughts about our reporting? A story we should do? A person we should profile? Or do you have questions about how we do our work? You’re welcome to send me an email – I read every one of them. Email: [email protected].
–Les Zaitz, Editor and owner
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