Category State

Gov. Kate Brown has tapped former legislator Bev Clarno to be Oregon’s 37th secretary of state. The announcement came Friday, just over a month after former Secretary of State Dennis Richardson died. Clarno will finish Richardson’s term, which will conclude in January 2021. In filling…

(Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) SALEM — Oregon’s legislators are halfway around their political track in Salem and major reforms in taxation, environment and education remain in the works. They now have about 90 days to finish their work and go home. Democrats, who dominate…

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum Oklahoma on Tuesday settled a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma over the OxyContin manufacturer’s role in the over-prescribing of opioids leading to a national spike in overdoses. The lawsuit mirrors one Oregon has against Purdue, alleging the company targeted the elderly with…

SALEM – On Tuesday, public defenders from around the state pitched their plan to revamp Oregon’s public defense system by arguing the status quo is unconstitutional and leaves the state susceptible to a lawsuit. It was the first hearing on House Bill 3145, which would…

SALEM — Oregon employers and workers could get more help from the state’s labor bureau if Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle gets her druthers. Hoyle is on a quest to secure $1.7 million in the next two-year budget to make the agency more responsive to Oregonians,…

Rep. Karin Power, D-Milwaukie, and Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, third and fourth from the left, join in a rally supporting their bill to price carbon emissions. (Aubrey Wieber/Salem Reporter) SALEM – Climate advocates are coming up roses after legislative revisions to a proposed carbon pricing…

The Department of Human Services’ Salem headquarters. (Mark Miller/Pamplin Media Group) SALEM – A phishing scheme that successfully compromised 2 million emails from the Oregon Department of Human Services accounts targeted more than 400 accounts at two major state agencies. Nine employees in four units…

(Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) The message from Oregon’s Office of Public Defense Services is stark: Revamp the public defense system or watch services dwindle. Either way, the state agency refuses to let Oregon continue to be the only state in the nation that relies…

The Department of Human Services headquarters in Salem (Mark Miller/Pamplin Media Group) The Oregon Department of Human Services Thursday disclosed that millions of agency emails had been breached in January, potentially exposing the personal medical information of hundreds of thousands. The agency said it discovered…