Author Archives: Jerry Curry

Oregon’s economy is strong, but how long will it last?

State economists see warning signs for 2020. Times are good in Oregon. The unemployment rate has dipped below 4 percent, economic growth has been strong, wages have risen faster than the national average and young workers are moving in to fill the new jobs being created. Once again, residents are expected to receive a bonus […]
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Oregon faces black-market marijuana problem

Illegal market grows in Deschutes County. Law enforcement authorities intercepted $48 million worth of black-market marijuana headed from Oregon to 37 states over a three-year period, and officers blame the illegal exports on a statewide glut of regulated marijuana and low prices. Some of the black-market marijuana comes from illegal growers, some diverted from legal […]
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A quiet rise in unvaccinated children could put the U.S. at risk of outbreaks

For the third consecutive year, unvaccinated communities have grown, the CDC reported Thursday. One school in Oregon has toddler vaccination rates lower than those in Venezuela. Vaccine exemption rates among infants and school-aged children have been quietly rising, creating volatile pockets of unimmunized individuals, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. […]
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Bend school librarian wins state honor

Cascade Middle School librarian named best secondary librarian in Oregon. Amy Wilde, a librarian at Cascade Middle School, was named the Secondary Library Teacher of the Year by the Oregon Association of School Libraries, according to a Bend-La Pine Schools press release. “My biggest goal this year is really connecting with the non-readers and getting […]
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Oregon has new rules for harvesting roadkill to eat

It will be legal to salvage roadkilled deer and elk to eat starting Jan. 1, with new rules adopted by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday. The new rules are in response to the passage of Senate Bill 372 by the Oregon Legislature in 2017. Among other changes, the new rules allow deer […]
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Guest column: State should mandate specific subjects

I am writing in response to The Bulletin editorial (Oct. 2 “Don’t micromanage high school curriculum”) concerning proposed state legislation to insure reference to the Holocaust in the teaching of history in Oregon. At first, I was sympathetic to The Bulletin’s argument that teachers ought to be able to have some ownership of their classroom […]
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Interview With Kate Brown – OPB’s Think Out Loud

State Library Ed. Note: We are including the following political content since all 3 candidates will be interviewed. This week, we have held one-on-one interviews with each of the three major party candidates for governor to hear how each of them would approach the major issues facing Oregon right now. We heard from Republican Knute […]
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Washington cannabis regulations differ from Oregon

In Washington, the second state to start recreational sales of cannabis, regulators combat cannabis diversion from the legal recreational and medical programs to the black market by limiting the number of producers and processors and the size of their growing sites, a state officials said. Washington limits its number of licensed cannabis producers and processors […]
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Federal money flows into Deschutes Basin piping projects

USDA-backed project gets going near Tumalo, others planned. With the summer irrigation season winding down and the winter snowfall still on the horizon, several irrigation districts in the Deschutes Basin are planning or breaking ground on ambitious piping projects, armed with a sizable cache of federal money. Source: Federal money flows into Deschutes Basin piping […]
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Who’s Driving Oregon’s Wage Growth?

Wages in Oregon have been on the rise over the past three years. From fourth quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2017, the quarterly average wage (smoothed and adjusted for inflation) rose by around 6.7 percent (+$800 per quarter). This is seemingly good news, right? This means that during that three-year period the average worker had […]
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