The Oregon Legislature passed four public records laws - pushed by the governor and attorney general - in a recently wrapped session. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the laws are probably the "most significant reforms" to the state's public records laws in decades.
Local democratic control over education has been under assault for three decades.
The 90 Oregon lawmakers who will be gaveled into the 2017 legislative session face a difficult task after a bruising campaign season that ended in the thumping defeat of a $3 billion-a-year tax measure. Beset by rancor over Measure 97, they must frantically figure out who will lead Oregon on the two issues that observers say will matter most next year - addressing a budget shortfall that could hit $2 billion, possibly by raising new revenue, while crafting a transportation-funding package that's eluded Salem since 2015.
A slew of new state polls are strengthening one of the biggest hopes for Donald Trump supporters - that his singular appeal as a candidate will reshuffle the electoral map for 2016. The national contest between Trump and Hillary Clinton is a toss-up, but Trump is surprisingly competitive in a host of states that Democrats have long taken for granted.
As Oregon and California software giant Oracle battle in court and the realm of public relations over who is to blame for the $305 million Cover Oregon website debacle, a Congressional ally of the company is urging that state officials be criminally prosecuted over political "interference" in the project. A new 200-page Congressional committee report backing the request by U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT, delivers a fascinating, if one-sided account that reveals new details of the level of political manipulation employed by former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his campaign advisers to manage the ostensibly independent bureaucracy charged with running the project.