Latest reporting from the Local Government desk.
Latest reporting from the Local Government desk.
Latest reporting from the Local Government desk.
Local Government
Gov. Tina Kotek proclaimed Friday, Sept. 25, as Dolly Parton Day in Oregon during a Salem ceremony attended by 672 people, honoring the late singer's legacy and the Imagination Library's milestone of more than 4 million books distributed to children across all 36 Oregon counties.
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Gov. Tina Kotek proclaimed Friday, Sept. 25, as Dolly Parton Day in Oregon during a Salem ceremony attended by 672 people, honoring the late singer's legacy and the Imagination Library's milestone of more than 4 million books distributed to children across all 36 Oregon counties.
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Gov. Tina Kotek proclaimed Friday, Sept. 25, as Dolly Parton Day in Oregon during a Salem ceremony attended by 672 people, honoring the late singer's legacy and the Imagination Library's milestone of more than 4 million books distributed to children across all 36 Oregon counties.
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Local Government
Salem police camping removal notices have directed homeless residents to closed shelters, disconnected phone lines and a vacant lot for years; Interim Chief Brandon Ditto acknowledged the problem and said an updated notice with a 211 line and QR code was presented to service providers on Aug. 6.
Local Government
Elderberry Wisdom Farm near Salem lost a $350,000 federal grant for youth urban forestry work and nearly lost a $749,000 USDA tree-planting grant after the Trump administration froze funds in February 2025, threatening tree cover in the city's low-income neighborhoods.
Local Government
Oregon AG Dan Rayfield filed a federal lawsuit Monday, Aug. 3, to block a Trump administration policy that would share TANF recipients' Social Security numbers, addresses, and immigration status with the Department of Homeland Security before the rule takes effect Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Local Government
Marion County Circuit Judge Manuel Perez signed a certificate of innocence for Frank Gable on Thursday, July 30, formally declaring him innocent of the 1989 murder of Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke after Gable spent more than 29 years wrongly imprisoned.
Local Government
Oregon's Division of Financial Regulation on July 30 reduced proposed 2027 health insurance rate increases for individual and small group markets, projecting $30 million in consumer savings, though Salem-area residents still face double-digit premium hikes driven by lost federal tax credits, insurer exits, and rising medical costs.
Local Government
Rep. Andrea Salinas raised a January 2026 Salem incident in which federal agents injured a U.S. citizen woman at a Tuesday, July 28 congressional hearing in Houston, demanding body cameras and independent investigations for immigration agents.
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Local Government
Salem's City Council voted 8-0 to restrict future NDAs with data center developers and create a policy task force with a December 31 deadline, but took no action to stop Verrus's proposed more-than-$5 billion Oakline at Mill Creek campus.
Local Government
Gov. Tina Kotek condemned the July 17 armed assault near Woodburn in which three men impersonated ICE agents, calling it a direct result of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics and demanding a swift investigation by OSP and the FBI.
Local Government
Oregon's Initiative Petition 28, which would have banned hunting, fishing and livestock farming by eliminating animal-cruelty exemptions, fell about 13,000 valid signatures short and will not appear on the November 3, 2026, ballot.
Local Government
Marion County's Public Health Division has earned national reaccreditation for the third time, joining only 420 accredited local health departments nationwide; the achievement headlines the Board of Commissioners' Wednesday, July 29 session alongside a $1.14 million ARPA sewer contract amendment and a temporary speed zone on Gates Hill Road SE.
Local Government
The Oregon Department of Human Services is urging Salem-area SNAP recipients to check whether their existing volunteer work at food pantries, parks, and nonprofits already counts toward new federal work requirements that have caused more than 25,000 Oregonians to lose benefits statewide.
Local Government
Earthquake experts meeting in Portland on Friday, July 17, said Oregon is dangerously underprepared for a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake, but Salem's retrofitted State Capitol is one of just five state-owned buildings expected to remain standing and usable afterward.
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