2021 - Page 14

By LYNNE TERRY/Oregon Capital Chronicle Oregon State Hospital’s annex in Junction City has added a new 24-bed unit and plans to open a second 24-bed unit early next year to take pressure off of the Salem campus, which has long been under judicial orders to admit more patients. The annex, which opened six years ago as a secure facility for

By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle Since she launched her independent run for governor a month ago, Betsy Johnson has accomplished two things no other candidate has yet — raising $2 million and securing large contributions from a broad swath of the state’s business community. The $2.2 million reported in Johnson’s campaign finance account is more than double the $1 million

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle Oregon will receive more than $422 million from the federal government for rebuilding from the 2020 wildfires that were among the worst in state history. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is distributing $2 billion in disaster recovery and resiliency funds among nine states and Puerto Rico. Oregon

By AIMEE GREEN/The Oregonian/OregonLive  The director of the Oregon Department of Education said Wednesday that K-12 schools should soon all but eliminate the need to quarantine students who’ve been exposed to COVID-19. Director Colt Gill said he hopes the state will be able to implement a “test-to-stay” program by the end of November. That means unvaccinated students, who have been required to stay

 The dome of the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Oregon Capital Chronicle) By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle Higher wages are driving up Oregon’s projected tax revenue, but most middle-class workers won’t feel the benefits of larger paychecks over the next year because of inflation, state economists said Wednesday. A quarterly economic forecast from the state Department of Administrative

 New Clean Trucks Rules are expected to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe pollution during the next decade. (Salem Reporter photo) By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle A powerful state regulatory commission Wednesday put Oregon in the forefront of climate change efforts by mandating changes to trucking that are expected to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe