Oregon State Capitol (Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter) Efforts by local lawmakers to help laid-off agricultural workers, get student-athletes paid and regulate a plant from Southeast Asia are still alive in the 2020 Legislature. But their other bills that would help homeschooled kids get into technical programs, make schools bargain[Read More…]
Latest News
Mental health, behavior and elementary reading top spending priorities for Salem-Keizer
Salem’s school system would add 240 full-time employees, lengthen the middle school day and spend more than $3 million to create more after school programs and eliminate fees to improve local education under a plan being advanced by Salem-Keizer School District administrators. District administrators will present their spending plan at[Read More…]
Salem says drinking water is safe after fuel spill Sunday
A portion of Highway 22 has to be excavated and rebuilt following a fuel truck spill Sunday. (Courtesy/Oregon Department of Transportation) Salem’s water is safe to drink following a fuel tanker spill Sunday morning on Highway 22, the city said in a news release Monday. A Space Age fuel truck[Read More…]
Legislature week 3: Here’s what’s moving. Here’s what’s been spiked
Oregon State Capitol, rotunda (Salem Reporter/file) As the 2020 Legislature enters its third week, a second hurdle for bills to keep moving ahead came and went. Thursday, Feb. 13, was the last day for a bill to be scheduled for a vote in the legislative chamber it originated from. With[Read More…]
Uncategorized Wildfire bills moving forward, but will budgetary constraints extinguish their momentum?
Two bills being considered by Oregon lawmakers this session are expected to be the one-two punch the state needs to considerably reduce the impact of wildfire on its landscape and citizens. In recent years, the onslaught of smoke from major wildfires has choked many parts of the state through the[Read More…]
Uncategorized New south Salem clinic aims to be neighborhood doctor’s office
Physician assistant Christine Rue, left, doctors Paula Spencer and Rashanda Brown, and physician assistant Alyssa Schmidt, front, are the staff of the new South Salem Primary Care clinic (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) When two of Salem’s largest medical providers merged last fall, a handful of local doctors decided on a change[Read More…]
One nonprofit is trying to get parents more civically engaged through babysitting
Rachel Sowray, left, and Paige Hook, right. (Courtesy/Paige Hook) Paige Hook wanted to get involved in campaign managing two years ago but faced one major obstacle. She had three children under the age of six and couldn’t bring them door-to-door for three hours at a time. Then a friend told[Read More…]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Protesters rally in Salem – and take aim at Salem Reporter’s coverage
Les Zaitz, editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. A big rally at the Capitol is news in Salem, but how we cover them can generate a lot of heat. Let me pull back the curtain a bit to share our decisions on covering first Timber Unity’s protest and then the[Read More…]
Uncategorized DIGEST: A fast run through Salem news of recent days
Salem photographer Diane Beals has been making portraits of homeless residents around the city. (Courtesy/Diane Beals) Salem Cinema shines a light on homelessness with documentary screening and discussion Salem Cinema owner Loretta Miles wants Salem residents to look directly at the problem of homelessness and the people impacted by it.[Read More…]
Uncategorized Old wounds of Oregon’s timber wars take first step toward healing
Sen. Jeff Golden and Sen. Herman Baertschiger, chair and vice chair of the Senate Committee on Wildfire Response, have differing views of a new state timber deal. (Sam Stites/Oregon Capital Bureau) SALEM – The deal announced last week was intended to end the war in the woods that has beset[Read More…]
