Alex Baumhardt - Oregon Capital Chronicle
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post. She previously worked in Iceland and Qatar and was a Fulbright scholar in Spain where she earned a master's degree in digital media. She's been a kayaking guide in Alaska, farmed on four continents and worked the night shift at several bakeries to support her reporting along the way.
Oregon’s high school graduation rate inches up to record high
The class of 2025 was the first since the pandemic to attend all four years of high school in person and a record 83% of students graduated on time.
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Gov. Tina Kotek picks Nevada state forester as first woman to lead Oregon Forestry Department
Kacey KC would be the first permanent, female leader of the Oregon Department of Forestry in its 115-year history.
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Overhaul of Oregon school funding formula, goals of public education has lawmakers at odds
Lawmakers will have a month to debate a bill that would get rid of the state’s 27-year-old education funding model and change standards for schools’ receiving funding.
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Oregon governor forms new committee to advise on massive data center growth
The seven members of Gov. Tina Kotek’s new Data Center Advisory Committee will recommend regulations meant to protect energy and water amid rapid data center growth.
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Oregon bill would require home insurers to consider wildfire prevention efforts
The proposal comes in light of rising property insurance premiums and policy cancellations or non-renewals across the country and much of the West.
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Pacific Power must show progress towards Oregon emission reduction targets, judge finds
A Marion County Circuit Court judge rejected Pacific Power’s argument that the state had not clearly defined “continual progress” towards targets.
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Groups at odds over proposed nitrate pollution rules for farmers in northeast Oregon
Some farm groups say proposed nitrate management rules go too far, while other farm and conservation groups say they don’t go far enough.
Federal agents shoot two people in Portland, police say
Federal agents shot and injured a man and a woman near an east Portland medical clinic Thursday afternoon.
Oregon attorney general sues drug companies over ‘skyrocketing’ insulin prices
Attorney General Dan Rayfield accused some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to artificially inflate insulin prices.
Oregon Gov. Kotek calls for repeal of transportation funding package she championed
Kotek is asking the state Legislature to redirect existing transportation funds to core programs after a Republican-led effort to repeal new taxes and fees easily got enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.