June 2022 - Page 9

By PETER WONG/Oregon Capital Bureau Lawmakers have released $100 million to fund the legal defense of criminal defendants and more than $150 million to boost reimbursement to providers of behavioral health services for low-income Oregonians. There were some dissenters on Friday’s votes by the Emergency Board, the 20 lawmakers who decide budget issues between sessions of the full Legislature. Lawmakers

By NIGE JAQUISS/Willamette Week The Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay has announced it would close its inpatient unit for adult psychiatric patients. That’s a blow for a state that is already desperately short of places for people experiencing mental health crises. As WW reported this week, the long-standing space crunch at the Oregon State Hospital, the state’s public psychiatric hospital, has resulted

 The three candidates for Oregon governor are Democrat Tina Kotek (left), Betsy Johnson, running unaffiliated (center) and Republican Christine Drazan (right). By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle As counties tallied primary ballots, one fact became evident: the next Oregon governor will be a woman with legislative experience. Everything else about the race is still up in the air. Most years,

 Gov. Kate Brown has appointed the majority of those on the Oregon Supreme Court and Oregon Court of Appeals. (Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle) By LES ZAITZ/Oregon Capital Chronicle Kate Brown was on the job as Oregon’s governor for just a week in 2015 when she posted an opening for a state judge. Three months later, she named a prosecutor to

 Oregon had the highest drug addiction rate in the country in 2020. (Getty Images) By LYNNE TERRY/Oregon Capital Chronicle SALEM — The state’s implementation of a new drug prevention and treatment network to help tens of thousands of people with addiction problems appears to be back on track after months of delays caused in part by mismanagement and misjudgment by