News Oregon's notoriously lax campaign finance laws mean that although candidates and elected officials cannot accept gifts worth more than $50, they are allowed spend campaign funds on virtually anything. But an expenditure this week by normally frugal Gov. John Kitzhaber was unusual even by Oregon pols' free-spending standards.On July 15, Kitzhaber reported using nearly $7,400 in leftover campaign funds ...   More

Politics Oregon is the Wild West when it comes to campaign contributions, and there’s a bill shooting through the Legislature that would make a bad situation worse.    More

News Back in September, the Oregon Public Utility Commission ruled that Portland General Electric owed customers $33.1 million for overcharges on the Trojan nuclear plant. The decision came after years of legal wrangling between PGE, the state's largest utility, and the Utility Reform Project. The watchdog URP argued that PGE was improperly earning a profit on Trojan long after the utility shuttered ...   More