Category Archives: Oregon Capital Chronicle

State wildfire agencies prepared to respond to fire season but will need more staff in future

The state’s top wildfire responders say they are prepared for the approaching wildfire season, but they are concerned about adding staff and resources in the future amid expectations that wildfires will increase. At a news conference Wednesday, the leaders of the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Oregon State Fire Marshal and the Oregon Department of […]
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Oregon woman endures fear and despair in illegal imprisonment in Coffee Creek prison

Terri Lee Brown’s life spun upside down in February, when the state of Oregon illegally sent her to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. The 48-year-old Grants Pass woman never saw it coming. She had finished parole in 2023 after her early release from prison in December 2020 as part of a wave of commutations granted during […]
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Education officials should not weaken financial education requirement | Opinion

Oregon has finally caught up to the many other states that require high school students to pass a personal finance course as a graduation requirement with a landmark bill that passed the Legislature and was signed by Gov. Tina Kotek in 2023. Senate Bill 3 requires students to take lessons in personal finance and career […]
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Even as interest in women’s college sports rises, report finds big gap in participation

A congressional watchdog in a new report called on the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to improve its enforcement of Title IX compliance in college athletics. The U.S. Government Accountability Office in the report appeared critical of the OCR’s oversight in expanding opportunities for women in college athletics, saying the office “conducts few […]
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New Oregon fish and wildlife director, an agency insider, is first woman at the helm

About 50 years after the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hired its first female field biologist, it will be led by one. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has appointed Debbie Colbert, a biologist, oceanographer and the current deputy director of the agency, to its top leadership position following the April retirement of former […]
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Some 12,000 Oregonians might be getting thousands of dollars in refunds due to TurboTax error

Tax day is not over for thousands of Oregonians. Intuit, a Silicon Valley company that makes the popular Turbotax software, has contacted more than 12,000 taxpayers who used it to file their state and federal returns, telling them they may have paid more than they should have because of an error in the software. The […]
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State board allocates nearly $14 million for addiction prevention

State officials charged with allocating $600 million from opioid settlement lawsuits decided in its latest round of funding to focus on prevention. At its May meeting, the Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Board approved a proposal by the Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission to spend $13.7 million on increasing the number of professionals working […]
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Law enforcement seizing a lot more fentanyl pills, especially in West, study says

There’s been a dramatic spike in the number of fentanyl pills seized by law enforcement across the United States, especially in the West, according to a new study that looks at the past six years. The study, released by experts at New York University and the University of Florida in the International Journal of Drug […]
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Oregon DOJ says no criminal charges warranted in bourbon scandal

A state ethics investigation of the six former employees will proceed with the criminal probe completed. The Oregon Department of Justice concluded that no criminal charges are warranted for the six former Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission employees who set aside bottles of in-demand bourbon for their personal use. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum on […]
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Leaders of Oregon’s largest school districts ask state to address ‘education funding crisis’

Superintendents from Portland, Salem-Keizer, Bend-La Pine and Medford are concerned about current and future budget reductions. Superintendents in four Oregon school districts, including the two largest in Portland and Salem, are calling on state leaders to boost funding for public education, calling the state of school funding a “crisis.” In a video posted to district […]
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