2025 - Page 96

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle SALEM — Adding a 4 percent tax to the sale of new car tires in Oregon could generate up to $20 million a year for public transit, reducing tire pollution and building wildlife crossings, according to lawmakers proposing the new tax. But ahead of its first public hearing, hundreds of Oregonians have submitted testimony in

By CONRAD SWANSON/The Seattle Times Chaos over the Trump administration’s firing of federal government workers has even permeated a little-known agency at the center of the Pacific Northwest’s largest source of electricity. This is already a challenging time for the Bonneville Power Administration, which markets power from Columbia Basin hydropower dams to utilities – including the Central Lincoln Peoples Utility District

By DAMIAN MANN/Rogue Valley Times Tribes from southern Oregon and northern California plan to appeal a federal judge’s second ruling in favor of a Medford casino. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled the tribes — the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, the Karuk Tribe, and Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation — failed to establish how they would be

By LAUREN DAKE/Oregon Public Broadcasting SALEM — Gov. Tina Kotek wants to see thousands more duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters and townhomes built throughout the state. The governor is urging lawmakers to approve a measure that greatly expands where what’s known as “middle housing” can be built. The latest measure, House Bill 2138, builds on a bill from 2019 that

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle SALEM — Lawmakers got a three-hour crash course last week on fixes that are needed to Oregon’s education funding formula to improve student learning and direct money toward the highest needs kids. Among the most consequential findings was that Oregon’s formula for how much money leaders send to schools to support students with disabilities leaves

By PHILOMATH NEWS MILLERSBURG — Six months after announcing Millersburg as the site of a new cross-laminated timber manufacturing facility, Timberlab and its partners along with a list of dignitaries that included Gov. Tina Kotek gathered last week for a groundbreaking ceremony. Timberlab, a subsidiary of Swinerton Inc., has teamed up with Swinerton Builders, Lindgren Development, LEVER Architecture and other

By ZACH URNESS/Salem Statesman Journal The agency that issues warnings for floods, ice storms and wildfire danger in Oregon is short-staffed by at least 30 percent to 40 percent following a series of reductions, hiring freezes and buyouts as part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to shrink federal government. The National Weather Service is down to roughly 60-70 employees, from a