Rachel Alexander
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for over a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
Now underway, mission school excavation yielding more questions
David Winkler, a graduate student in archaeology, excavates a pit at Willamette Heritage Center on April 8, 2022 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Archaeology typically doesn’t involve whips, rolling boulders, pits full of snakes or priceless historical relics. In contrast to the…
Office rental space scarce in Salem, but that could shift as some state workers stay remote
Salem’s office buildings remain largely leased despite the shift toward remote work over the past two years, but the full impact of the pandemic on local offices remains to be seen as state agencies sort out their long-term needs. The…
With $2 million from feds, domestic violence housing project ready to break ground
The Hope Plaza site at 450 Church Street Northeast in Salem in July 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Jayne Downing used to have a collage of sticky notes on her office door at the Center for Hope and Safety. The items…
Nursery, labor contractor fined $6,300 in Marion County farmworker’s heat death
An irrigation system in a Marion County agricultural field (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Oregon’s workplace safety agency fined a St. Paul nursery and Woodburn-based labor contractor a total of $6,300, saying both companies failed to keep employees safe from the triple-digit…
Plane climbed sharply, nosedived to ground in fatal Salem crash
The small plane that crashed at Salem Municipal Airport on Jan. 29 veered sharply and climbed suddenly before diving to the ground as the pilot was attempting to land, according to a preliminary accident report. The report from the National…
Salem’s first electric school bus is on the road
Bus driver Chris Mitzel demonstrates the controls on the Salem-Keizer School District’s first electric school bus at the district bus lot on Feb. 21, 2022 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Bus #427 has a control panel nearly identical to its neighbors in…
Mystery passport in state hospital archive tells of laborer who slipped across border, found love
A bright red booklet caught Todd Shaffer’s eye as he was working through a stack of patient files. Shaffer, an archivist with the Oregon State Archives, said it’s not unusual to find surprises in the decades-old records of people committed…
High housing costs, low rental inventory are making Salem less affordable
Homes on Tierra Drives Northeast on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Homes in Salem have become increasingly pricey, and renters are having a hard time finding available units with local vacancy rates below both Portland and national averages.…
As Oregon moves to local control on school masks, Salem parents and educators rally against mandates
As an elementary school principal in south Salem, Beth Freeborn said she saw masks get in the way of children learning. Students who came back to Battle Creek Elementary School this fall were stressed and struggled to regulate their emotions…
As Salem schools seek emergency subs, some experienced teachers struggle to get into classroom
Anne Haskell knew she wanted to substitute teach after she retired in June 2021. She’s been teaching in the Salem-Keizer School District since she graduated college in 1982, most recently spending a decade at Cummings Elementary in Keizer. Subbing would…