By Salem Reporter
Why you are important to local news coverage in Salem
In recent days, we’ve served you a strong diet of local news about Salem. We shared word of improving graduation rates at local high schools, and let student leaders explain their own assessment of the results. We kept you up to date…
McKay stages a multicultural version of Oz, play finishes Saturday
McKay High School’s production of “The Wiz” continues Saturday, Jan. 26. (Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) McKay High School’s Royal Scots Theater is starting the new year off strong staging the musical “The Wiz” in a way student actors hope…
Split in Salem health care industry leads to major insurance changes
(Jessica Floum/The Lund Report) The major Medicaid insurer in the Willamette Valley will not apply for a piece of the state’s largest procurement in history — the next contract to cover Oregon’s more than 1 million low-income Medicaid patients. Willamette…
Legislature looks to bolster education funding – with strings attached
Sen. Lew Frederick talks with Portland students during a tour of the state by the Joint Committee on School Success. (Pamplin file) A small group of legislators spent a year compiling their wish list of improvements to Oregon’s failing education…
Repaving to slow I-5 traffic from Salem to Woodburn in summer months
The Oregon Department of Transportation will use new pilot programs to increase worker safety during its summer repaving project on Interstate 5. (Oregon Department of Transportation Flickr) The Oregon Department of Transportation has received more money to repave a 12.5-mile…
Business group analysis finds Oregon state employees contribute less to health care than in neighboring states
(Photo by Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) SALEM — Oregon’s public employees typically pay less for health insurance than their peers in neighboring states, a new study finds. The study by the actuarial firm Milliman was commissioned by The Oregon…
Winters sheds leadership role to focus on justice reform in Senate
State Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, in her Capitol office on Jan. 3. (Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez) When state Sen. Jackie Winters hears the word “felon,” she often thinks of her late husband, Marc “Ted” Winters. Her husband, who died in 2008,…
Opening day at Oregon Legislature is about ceremony, getting acquainted
State Rep. Cheri Helt is introduced by House page Ismael Diaz by Brian McKinley, the House sergeant-at-arms during the opening hours on Tuesday, Jan. 22, of the Oregon Legislature. (Portland Tribune/Paris Achen) As state Rep. Cheri Helt, a freshman Republican…
AGENDA: Cherriots open comment on revised fees, schedule
A Cherriots bus at the Downtown Transit Center. (Courtesy of Cherriots) Salem Area Mass Transit District Board of Directors will give the first reading of its proposed ordinance, which includes a new fee schedule. • The first reading will precede…
Recent stories on Oregon’s system for dealing with the criminally insane contained errors, flawed data
The Oregon State Hospital in Salem, which treats those who are found “guilty except for insanity.” (The Enterprise/File) NOTE: Salem Reporter republished articles jointly produced by the Malheur Enterprise and ProPublica. The news organizations have published this correction to those…