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Avista will have smaller rate increases, can’t use customer money for lawsuit under settlement
Avista won’t be able to charge customers to pay for its political and lobbying activities and will have to decrease its proposed 2024 rate increase under a settlement agreement approved Thursday by the Oregon Public Utility Commission. The commission’s order follows a tentative August settlement between Avista and climate groups including the Sierra Club, Climate […]
Oregon Gov. Kotek begins closed-door meetings meant to come up with a plan to save Portland
PORTLAND – In a closed-door meeting with more than 40 business leaders, community advocates and local, state and federal elected officials on Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek laid out a challenge: Within the next three months, the group will come up with a plan to save downtown Portland. Portland’s problems, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic began, […]
Oregon Gov. Kotek will let expanded self-serve gas become law, veto Salem transit, sex work studies
Gov. Tina Kotek won’t veto a hotly debated bill to let more Oregonians pump their own gas, but she does plan to nix funding for studies on a Salem streetcar and decriminalizing prostitution. Kotek on Friday released a list of bills she is considering vetoing and spending items she plans to run her red pen […]
Oregon ethics commission will pause investigation into bourbon-hoarding as criminal probe continues
State ethics watchdogs plan to pause their investigation into six former high-ranking Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission employees implicated in a bourbon-hoarding scandal while a criminal investigation proceeds. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission started looking into ethical breaches by the six men in March and ordered a full investigation during its June 2 meeting. The […]
Oregon’s Wallowa County votes for ‘Greater Idaho’ talks, Crook County schedules vote
A central Oregon county scheduled an election to test support for becoming part of Idaho on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after final results from a May election in an eastern Oregon county showed a victory for supporters of the “Greater Idaho” movement. The razor-thin vote in Wallowa County means that 12 Oregon counties […]
House passes bill to allow Oregonians to pump their own gas
Oregon drivers who for decades have been banned from touching gas pumps could soon have the right to fuel their own cars, under a bill the state House overwhelmingly approved Monday. Only Oregon and New Jersey ban self-service gas, though Oregon in recent years allowed people to pump their own gas in some rural counties […]
Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission director resigns amid bourbon hoarding scandal
The executive director of Oregon’s liquor control agency will step down Wednesday as the state attorney general begins a criminal investigation into corruption. Steve Marks, who has led the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control Commission since 2013, is one of six high-level employees who admitted in an internal investigation to setting aside rare, expensive bourbon […]
Oregon in a good position to compete for federal semiconductor money, legislators hear
Oregon is better positioned than many states to receive billions of dollars from the federal government to expand the semiconductor industry, but it still has work to do, according to legislative testimony this week. The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Semiconductors, a 14-member group of Democratic and Republican senators and representatives that discussed the situation Wednesday, […]
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown calls for new tax credit, other semiconductor incentives
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wants the Legislature to act quickly next year to pass a new tax credit and other incentives to expand Oregon’s semiconductor industry. During a state House committee meeting Wednesday, Brown laid out the broad strokes of a plan she worked on with business leaders and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, to […]
After Election Day defeats, ‘Greater Idaho’ backers done trying to reach Oregon coast
After voters in Douglas and Josephine counties rejected the idea of joining Idaho last week, a group trying to change Oregon’s eastern boundary is giving up on extending the Gem State to the Pacific Ocean. Votes for the “Greater Idaho” movement in nine counties, including Klamath County last week, can’t actually change Oregon’s borders. That […]
Questions about Oregon-Idaho boundary, taxes, tobacco and guns on Oregon ballots
Voters in three more Oregon counties will indicate next week whether they want to become Idaho residents without leaving their homes. Questions about the “Greater Idaho” movement are on ballots in Douglas, Josephine and Klamath counties, following approval in eight rural counties, mostly in the southeast part of the state, to push toward redrawing the […]