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Oregon News
POLITICS
Oregon lawmakers repeal controversial wildfire hazard map
Oregon Live | By Sami Edge
The Oregon House voted Tuesday to repeal a controversial wildfire hazard map and home-hardening requirements that accompanied it. Rural Oregonians and their representatives in the Legislature had asserted for months that the map was flawed – claiming to know the risks on a property-by-property basis without anyone having eyeballed each property – and was unfairly driving up insurance costs.
After the bill passed the Senate, House lawmakers derailed it from a floor vote by sending the measure to the House Rules Committee. House Democrats said they wanted to consider the bill in a larger framework of fire mitigation policies, but Republicans cried foul, alleging that the map was being held hostage in return for their vote to support new wildfire funding. The bill’s carrier in the Senate, Democrat Jeff Golden of Ashland, said he was opposed to its holdup and regretted that it had become part of partisan negotiations.
Drazan castigated Democrats for using the bill to try to leverage Republican votes and alleged the majority party had moved the bill around the Capitol in a way that denied Republicans credit for the work they had done on it. Instead of introducing a House proposal that mirrored Senate Bill 83, the proposal to repeal the maps was championed in the Senate by Golden, a Democrat, Drazan said. And though Republicans had spent several weeks trying to pull the bill out of committee to a full vote on the floor, the final and successful attempt to move the bill was made Monday by central Oregon Democrat Emerson Levy.
Levy – who supported Republican efforts to pull Senate Bill 83 to the floor and was the lone Democrat who voted against stalling the bill in House Rules – said in her floor speech on Tuesday that she would have let a Republican carry the bill, if they had asked her.
Republicans argue it is “riddled with inaccuracies” given that no one surveyed individual properties. Homeowners expressed fear that insurance companies have used the map to raise their premiums or deny coverage. Under state law, insurance companies are prohibited from using the map for that purpose, and the state’s Division of Financial Regulation argues they never have. But rural property owners have insisted they felt punitive effects from what they say is a flawed map.
Oregon lawmakers tuck $1 billion into late-session 'Christmas tree' spending bill
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Julia Shumway
Oregon lawmakers on Tuesday approved $1 billion in an end-of-session budget bill, adding some last-minute cash for employee raises, natural disasters, parks and more.
House Bill 5006, known around the Capitol as the “Christmas tree bill” because it’s weighed down with spending like a fir with ornaments, is a chance for lawmakers, agencies and lobbyists to snag some extra money for projects that didn’t get much attention earlier in the session. The budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee approved it without objection or discussion on Tuesday, and it now heads to the full House.
Oregon governor signs bill providing unemployment pay for striking workers
Associated Press
Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed into law a bill that provides unemployment benefits to striking workers, following neighboring Washington state in adopting measures spurred by recent walkouts by Boeing factory workers, hospital nurses and teachers in the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon’s measure makes it the first state to provide pay for picketing public employees — who aren’t allowed to strike in most states, let alone receive benefits for it. It makes striking workers eligible to collect unemployment benefits after two weeks, with benefits capped at 10 weeks.
Only three other states — New York, New Jersey and most recently Washington state — give striking workers unemployment benefits. Washington’s bill, which passed in April, pays striking private sector workers for up to six weeks, starting after at least two weeks on the line.
Prevailing Wage Expansion Advances With Key Questions Unanswered
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
A bill that would expand the scope of Oregon’s prevailing wage law is moving toward a floor vote with key questions unanswered.
That matters because the expansion could impact just about every public works project in Oregon, from roads and sewers to schools—both renovations and new construction.
House Bill 2688 “applies the prevailing rate of wage to certain off-site bespoke work fabricated, preconstructed, assembled or constructed in accordance with specifications for a particular public works,” according to the official bill summary.
Oregon’s prevailing wage law dates to 1959 and is meant to ensure that contractors pay a fair wage on projects that are either contracted by public agencies or use more than $750,000 in public money. Historically, prevailing wage laws apply to labor performed at the job site—a road, sewer line or school building, for example.
The bill is a top priority for the state’s trade unions, whose members fear losing work on public projects if components of the project are outsourced. Numerous union representatives urged passage of the bill in public testimony earlier this session.
Oregon bill requiring big tech companies to pay local newsrooms fails
Statesman Journal | By Dianne Lugo
Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, spoke in opposition, as did Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone.
Bonham said he was concerned the bill violated state and federal constitutional protections of free speech and due process rights. He said he also was concerned the bill could limit what Oregonians could share. Platforms would be required to enter into agreements, but Oregonians like himself would not be able to control with whom they entered those agreements.
Oregon Senate rejects bill making big tech pay for local journalism as session end nears
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, warned his colleagues that the bill could unintentionally incentivize platforms to establish agreements with politically-biased media. He was also unsure if the bill would survive under legal scrutiny.
Under the new version of the legislation, online platforms could face lawsuits for damages from newsrooms if the companies accessed their content without a written agreement. The proposal would establish an arbitration process to decide what proportion of ad revenue a platform should dole out to newsrooms. The reworked bill also classifies the access and use of such content through aggregation, publishing and distribution without a formal agreement with an outlet as an unfair trade practice.
The one Republican who had expressed support for the legislation, Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, also voted against the bill.
Oregon bill to require big tech to pay local newsrooms dies in final days of session
Oregon Live | By Carlos Fuentes
But lawmakers opposed said passing a bill knowing it would be challenged in court would be irresponsible. Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham of The Dalles acknowledged that the latest version of the bill addressed some potential legal pitfalls but said he remained concerned about a legal battle or retaliation from tech companies.
“All of these are challenges that should lead us to a conclusion of voting no,” Bonham said on the Senate floor. “Free press is so important, I couldn’t agree more. At the same time, the Constitution is more important.”
Transportation funding saga continues: How we got here and where it could go next
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
For months, lawmakers on both sides have submitted proposals, going back and forth about how to fund the state's crippling road infrastructure and ODOT's $354 million shortfall.
However, it comes with a hefty price tag for Oregonians. The gas tax would rise to $0.55 by 2028, most DMV fees would increase, and the bill introduced a per-mile road usage charge for electric vehicle users.
Oregon state lawmakers approve budget bill to help stem public defense crisis
OPB | By Lauren Dake
The number of Oregonians who have been charged with a crime but do not have access to an attorney is growing. Lawmakers want to stem the crisis, but the $707 million budget approved by state lawmakers this week does not include money for any new state trial attorneys.
The latest budget is a signal from state lawmakers that they want to ensure the current dollars are being spent wisely.
The latest budget by state lawmakers is a 14.8% budget increase from the previous biennium, and will fund a total of 180 positions. The budget bill, House Bill 5031, carves out more than $2 million to pay attorneys in the counties facing the largest crisis — Coos, Douglas, Jackson, Marion, Multnomah and Washington — to take on more cases. There is also money for training and recruiting at certain law schools and to allow for some law students to start taking on misdemeanor cases.
Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, said he was hopeful that with the budget and new leadership at the public defense commission, “we are going to have a turnaround on the unrepresented crisis in this state.”
Lawmakers, Secretary of State back delaying 2024 Oregon campaign finance law from taking effect
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt, Julia Shumway
Oregon’s historic 2024 campaign finance law meant to end million-dollar contributions and provide more transparency about political donors could be delayed for several election cycles if a previously under-the-radar bill passes before the legislative session ends.
House Bill 3392 started as a proposal of technical fixes to House Bill 4024 — the historic campaign finance law passed by the Legislature last year and that is supposed to take effect in 2027.
House Bill 3392 will get its first hearing Wednesday at 8 a.m., less than 24 hours after any actual bill language was posted to the Oregon Legislature’s website for the public to review. It comes in the form of an amendment posted late Tuesday afternoon by House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, that would delay implementation of the 2024 campaign finance law until 2031.
Most states limit how much money any person or group can give to a candidate, leaving Oregon as an outlier. Wealthy people and well-funded organizations have spent millions on recent races — Oregon’s richest man, Nike cofounder Phil Knight, has personally given more than $11.6 million to candidates and campaigns in the past five years, with $1.5 million directly to Drazan’s unsuccessful 2022 campaign for governor.
Drazan’s amendment, posted to the legislative website shortly before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, wouldn’t change limits but would delay them until 2031 — after the 2030 gubernatorial election. As of Tuesday evening, it was the only proposed amendment.
Drazan is not alone in wanting to delay the bill. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read wrote to her and other House and Senate leaders from both parties on June 19 to recommend they either delay the law from taking effect or ensure that the Legislature right now provides needed investment in IT, outreach and enforcement staff to implement it by 2026. Read wrote that “successful implementation will require perfect conditions.”
Shortly after this article published, Samuel Herscovitz, a spokesperson for the House Republicans, said in an email that Drazan’s amendment was a response to Read’s note and concerns about timing that was sent to her and other legislative leaders. Drazan’s amendment “is responsive to that concern and will help achieve success for the program,” Herscovitz wrote.
Good government advocates blast lawmakers for moving to delay campaign finance limits for years
Oregon Live | By Carlos Fuentes
In the final days of Oregon’s five month legislative session, lawmakers have proposed delaying the imposition of campaign finance limits by four years to provide more time for the state to set up the complicated system.
If legislators decide to delay the law’s key provisions by four years, limits on political contributions wouldn’t go into effect until at least 2031. Oregon is one of just five states without such limits.
Good government advocates, who have for months pressured lawmakers to make technical fixes to last year’s bill, slammed the proposed delay as an attempt to “dodge” contribution limits and continue allowing massive amounts of money to flow to political candidates.
Several Republican lawmakers on the committee expressed support for delaying the law’s provisions and thanked Read for being forthcoming about the potential glitches. Democrats, who hold majorities in both chambers and will ultimately decide whether the bill moves forward, did not indicate support or opposition.
Good government advocates criticized lawmakers and Read for proposing a delay instead of collaborating with them and other stakeholders to improve the law and implement it on time.
Oregon lawmakers could push back campaign finance regulations by 4 years OPB | By Dirk VanderHart
Landmark campaign finance rules approved by Oregon lawmakers in 2024 might be pushed back by four years, amid widespread concerns the state won’t be ready to enact them by their planned 2027 start date.
The proposed delay, set to get a hearing Wednesday morning, would mean Oregon can expect another two gubernatorial elections with no limits on how much donors can funnel to candidates. The 2022 gubernatorial election included more than $70 million in contributions, the most expensive in state history. The change was put forward in an amendment filed by House Minority Christine Drazan, R-Canby, on Tuesday. That doesn’t guarantee success in a Capitol controlled by Democrats, but delaying campaign finance rules has support from some influential entities, including elections officials and the state’s largest labor union, SEIU Local 503.
Oregon House passes bill that would require health insurers cover menopause treatment
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Under House Bill 3064, health plans offered by the Oregon Educators Benefit Board and the Public Employees’ Benefit Board would have to cover menopause treatment, including hormone therapy, antidepressants, medications to prevent osteoporosis and other treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Chief sponsor Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, said the bill is inspired by her own struggle to understand her body’s changes after she was denied menopause care from her doctor and medication coverage from her insurance. She said she hopes the bill will help other Oregon women receive better health care.
Kotek backed bill to lessen regulations on restraining children dies in Salem
Oregon Live | By Sami Edge
A bill backed by Gov. Tina Kotek, which aimed to lessen restrictions around restraining or secluding children in treatment centers and other forms of residential care, is dead, its sponsors say.
House Bill 3835, which drummed up a storm in Salem, would have narrowed the criteria for when restraining a child qualifies as potential child abuse and allowed the Oregon Department of Human Services to send foster youth out of state for treatment in some circumstances.
Advocates argued the bill was critically important to help relieve care shortages for children most in need of acute behavioral health help because it would roll back what providers say are onerous rules that have made it hard to serve those children and retain workers. They insisted that abusive treatment of children in care settings would still be recognized and investigated under the streamlined standards the bill proposed.
Embattled sewer CEO accused board chair of creating ‘hostile work environment’ before departure
Oregon Live | By Jamie Goldberg
An outside investigator is looking into allegations that Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington created a hostile work environment that led the embattled head of the county’s sewer agency to tender her resignation last month.
Former Clean Water Services CEO Diane Taniguchi-Dennis made the allegations in a May 8 email sent to the sewer board, saying she could no longer tolerate being “disrespected, humiliated” and “belittled” by Harrington, who previously faced similar allegations from county employees.
Taniguchi-Dennis’ resignation followed an Oregonian/OregonLive investigation that uncovered that executives from the sewer agency, including Taniguchi-Dennis, stayed in luxury resorts during annual business trips to Hawaii that cost tens of thousands of dollars and that the agency paid $440,000 on local and travel meals over five years – four times more than its two metro area counterparts spent on food during that time combined.
Taniguchi-Dennis appeared for weeks to be fighting to save her job. She even drafted a statement May 5 agreeing to reimburse the agency for a portion of her meal costs, according to newly released records.
Editorial: Portland City Council’s most reckless decision yet
The Oregonian Editorial Board
The expanded 12-member Portland City Council has already made its share of mistakes as the city’s elected officials navigate the transition to our new form of government. They’ve blundered their way through meeting protocols, grappled over when to take public testimony and passed an ill-advised budget amendment that had to be undone the next day.
But the City Council’s 7-5 vote to reject grant recommendations by the Portland Children’s Levy to organizations supporting the city’s most underserved youth stands out for its sheer recklessness.
With funding uncertainty at all levels of government amid an intense need for children’s services, the harm of this decision merits every effort to reverse it. The seven councilors who voted to redo the list should recognize the robust process that led to the recommendations and reverse their stance.
Multnomah County and a Large Shelter Provider Are in the Midst of a Messy Divorce
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
Spend a morning with Brad Ketch at Rockwood Community Development Corp. and it’s difficult to imagine him bilking Multnomah County by charging unapproved expenses and double-counting costs at the family shelter he runs in the Rockwood section of Gresham, one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Oregon.
But that’s what the county accuses Ketch of doing. The county also alleges he billed for rooms that were closed for repairs, charged too much for maintenance, and hired a contracting firm owned by one of his employees. Earlier this month, the county’s Homeless Services Department halted payments for 50 rooms in Rockwood Tower, a repurposed Best Western that Rockwood CDC bought with a $7 million grant from the Oregon Community Foundation in 2021.
Ketch, 63, denies all the allegations. He says the county changed the terms of its deal with Rockwood and then came after him for reasons he doesn’t understand. And contrary to the county’s narrative, Ketch says it was Rockwood CDC that severed ties because the county owed it $1.1 million in overdue payments for housing families in need of emergency shelter.
Minnesota assassination prompts many lawmakers to wonder: Is service worth the danger?
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Brown, Robbie Sequeira
Oregon state Sen. Jeff Golden, a Democrat, said the Minnesota attacks were a wakeup call. He pledged to direct his public comments in the future “towards the substance of the proposal and not the character of the person proposing.”
“I do think it can be a thin line,” Golden said. “I probably have crossed it one time or another, and I’m gonna do everything I possibly can not to do it again.”
But politicians have incentive to keep their base motivated and engaged through inflammatory attacks on people they characterize as the enemy, which dehumanizes them and fuels political violence, said Donald Nieman, a history professor at Binghamton University in New York.
Oregon Legislature threatens to end Multnomah County’s Preschool For All program
OPB | By Tiffany Camhi
Multnomah County commissioners decried a last-minute amendment proposal to Senate Bill 106 that would end the county’s universal preschool program, saying the move undercuts voters.
An amendment to Senate Bill 106, proposed late Monday night, would bar the state’s largest county from enacting any income tax that funds no-cost preschool and early learning programs. The bill calls for Multnomah County to phase out the program over the next two years. Willamette Week first reported on the proposed changes to the bill.
Tuesday’s information session on the bill came less than 24 hours after the last-minute amendment was proposed. No public comments were allowed at the meeting. But county commissioners did provide testimony on the outcomes of the fledgling universal preschool program and the potential dangers of ending it.
End of MultCo's 'Preschool for All'? Last-minute amendment to Oregon bill latest in tug-of-war
KOIN 6 | By Lisa Balick
State lawmakers in Salem are looking at shutting down the funding for the “Preschool for All” program in Multnomah County through a last-minute amendment to Senate Bill 106.
County voters in 2020 approved paying for it through a tax on high-income earners. The program is planning to serve almost 4,000 3- and 4-year-old children next fall.
Gov. Tina Kotek has called for a pause to the Preschool for All tax in Multnomah County, saying it discourages top earners from residing in Oregon’s most populated urban metro area.
Meanwhile, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson has pushed back. She and other county commissioners rushed down to Salem for a hastily called information session scheduled by lawmakers to advocate for Preschool for All.
“So it is perplexing to me that this is being brought forward in the last days of session. There has been no public process, no public hearings and limited ways for us to hear from the thousands of voters who approve this measure,” Vega Pederson said.
Gov. Kotek used outdated data to argue Preschool for All taxpayers were fleeing the Portland area
Oregon Live | By Austin de Dios
Gov. Tina Kotek used outdated figures to contend earlier this month that Multnomah County’s voter-approved Preschool for All tax was placing an undue burden on high-income earners that was pushing them out of the Portland area.
But those figures were months out of date. The number of tax filers paying for the county’s tuition free preschool program actually grew by 5,429 between 2021 and 2023, county data as of May shows. Vega Pederson noted the updated numbers in a June 18 response to the governor where she defended the program.
Elisabeth Shepard, a spokesperson for the governor, acknowledged that Kotek used old data and said the governor was in the process of reviewing Vega Pederson’s response.
However, Kotek’s worries may not be entirely unwarranted, despite the outdated figures. County Economist Jeff Renfro told The Oregonian/OregonLive that it is possible that very high-income earners — mostly those making $1 million a year or more — are leaving the county.
Lawmakers’ Ambush of Preschool for All Gives Kotek a Nuclear Option
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Multnomah County taxpayer in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of relief from the Preschool for All tax.
With apologies to Jane Austen, it really is old news that Portland-area high earners despise the marginal income tax that funds the county’s universal preschool initiative. They hate it enough that they talk of leaving the county—and the state.
Enough of these big payers (or “whales” in the parlance of casinos and tax collectors) have made good on that threat to alarm Gov. Tina Kotek and state lawmakers, both of whom now regard Preschool for All as a significant threat to Oregon’s tax base.
The most likely outcome, according to people familiar with the conversations in Salem, is that the bill will die this session but its existence will allow Kotek in the coming months to make a threat of her own to County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson: Change this tax or I’ll kill it.
Oregon lawmakers consider bill to end tax-funded 'Preschool For All' by 2027
KATU | By Wright Gazaway
Oregon lawmakers are considering a new proposal that would shut down Multnomah County's "Preschool For All" program. The free preschool initiative is funded by a tax on people who make more than $125,000.
Lawmakers on the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee held an informational meeting on new legislation on Tuesday. It essentially prohibits imposing an income tax on residents to pay for preschool.
County defends tuition-free universal preschool after state lawmakers threatened to end it
Oregon Live | By Austin de Dios
Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson on Tuesday staunchly defended the local initiative that offers tuition-free preschool after legislators put the program under existential threat.
An 11th hour proposal by some Democratic lawmakers would have ended much of the heavily scrutinized Preschool for All program’s funding starting next year and shut down the program entirely by 2027.
Lawmakers dropped that effort Tuesday only hours after they put it forth. But they held a public meeting to air their concerns and ask tough questions of Vega Pederson and fellow county board members.
Senate Finance Chair Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, acknowledged the proposal to abolish the program was publicized as on the agenda for a committee vote. But he said he and other committee members didn’t seriously plan to enact it this week. Instead, making the now-dead proposal public was meant to generate a more robust conversation about the preschool program’s merits and faults and to alert Multnomah County officials that the Legislature will likely be looking for future adjustments, he said.
Oregon joins coalition of states who filed lawsuit challenging billions in Trump administration funding cuts
OPB | By Michael Casey
Attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging billions of dollars in funding cuts made by the Trump administration that would fund everything from crime prevention to food security to scientific research.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Marion County sheriff reports 25 requests for ICE assistance in Oregon
Statesman Journal | By Isabel Funk
Marion and Polk county sheriff's offices have seen significant increases in 2025 in the number of requests from federal agencies asking for assistance or information related to immigration enforcement.
Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have grown since President Donald Trump took office.
The crackdown has sparked nationwide protests, including in Salem, where more than 100 protesters gathered June 20 to denounce actions by ICE.
ICE detains Iranian man on his way to gym in Oregon
Oregon Live | By Maxine Bernstein
An Iranian citizen living in Yamhill County was driving to the gym Tuesday morning when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stopped and arrested him, according to his lawyer and court records.
He was held briefly in Portland before he was transferred to the regional detention center in Tacoma, said his lawyer, Michael Purcell.
Former Taft High School employee raped student, receives 18-month sentence
KOIN | By Matt Rawlings
A former employee at Taft High School in Lincoln City was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday after raping a student in 2024, the Lincoln County District Attorney’s office announced.
ECONOMY
Central Oregon door factory will shut down, lay off more than 180
Oregon Live | By Mike Rogoway
Owens Corning plans to close a door components factory in Prineville, laying off all 184 employees beginning on Aug. 25. It’s the latest in a series of shutdowns and layoffs at Oregon factories, which have produced a sharp decline in manufacturing employment.
Formerly owned by Contact Industries, the Prineville site has cycled through a succession of owners in recent years. Ohio-based Owens Corning acquired the plant as part of its $3.9 billion purchase of Masonite International last year.
Portland Tribune will cease print publication after major newsroom layoffs
Oregon Live | By Mike Rogoway
The Portland Tribune and two sister papers in Milwaukie and Oregon City plan to cease their print editions, according to the papers’ parent company, Carpenter Media. A third paper, the Gresham Outlook, will shift from two print editions a week to one.
All four will continue publishing online. The print cutbacks follow layoffs last week that eliminated more than a dozen jobs in Carpenter’s local newsrooms, including six journalists at the Portland Tribune. The layoffs left the Tribune with just two reporters and no editor.
HOUSING
The governor wanted $700 million for affordable rentals. Oregon lawmakers slashed that
Oregon Live | By Jonathan Bach
Oregon lawmakers are poised to spend hundreds of millions less than what Gov. Tina Kotek asked on affordable housing production.
The likely result: thousands fewer rentals built and set aside for low-income Oregonians.
Kotek asked lawmakers to approve $700 million in bond funding for the Local Innovation and Fast Track rental program, Oregon’s signature fund to pay for new affordable rentals. It’s been around for about a decade, and the state housing finance agency said that amount would pay for about 7,000 new units.
The first is free-market deregulation. Kotek has advocated suspending fees that pay for parks and other infrastructure in Portland in the hopes of getting developers off the sidelines amid a homebuilding slump. And she championed zoning reforms that allow more townhomes and other “middle-housing” across Oregon’s single-family neighborhoods.
HEALTH CARE
Oregon Health Authority confirms first measles case of 2025
OPB
The Oregon Health Authority has confirmed the state’s first measles case of 2025.
The person, an adult who is not vaccinated, developed measles symptoms including a sore throat, weakness and a fever on June 16.
Volunteers fill gaps in rural Oregon emergency medical care
OPB | By Jen Baires
Without a state-mandated tax base, some rural first responders work unpaid.
The level of medical care a volunteer EMS provider can offer varies greatly. Oftentimes they’re certified as EMTs and are only trained to provide basic care. Unlike paramedics, they can’t start an IV line, administer medication or intubate a patient. The years of schooling required to be a paramedic are demanding, and the associated costs are steep — around $20,000.
“Rural areas need extra people,” Jones said. “I figured I have some extra time available, might as well volunteer.” Responding to emergencies in isolated areas takes dedication, with or without a paycheck, he added. “It’s a love for the job, a love for the rural community,” he said.
NATURAL RESOURCES
GOP scraps plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands from bill
Associated Press | By Matthew Daly
A plan to sell more than 3,200 square miles of federal lands has been ruled out of Republicans' big tax and spending cut bill after the Senate parliamentarian determined the proposal by Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee would violate the chamber's rules.
Trump drops ‘roadless rule,’ opening Oregon forests for logging
Statesman Journal | By Zach Urness
The Trump administration rescinded a longstanding rule meant to safeguard intact forests across the West on June 23 in a move that could open 2 million acres of Oregon forests to logging and roadbuilding.
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