News There are a couple of key takeaways from a quick skim of the budget that the co-chairs of the Legislature's Joint Ways and Means Committee released today. 1. There's slightly more money for K-12 education, the biggest single line item in the budget, than there was in Gov. John Kitzhaber's budget, released last November. Kitzhaber proposed $6.15 billion, plus $253 million in pension savings. The ...   More

News Former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Michael "Mick" Gillette has injected some momentum into Gov. John Kitzhaber's quest to reduce public employee pension benefits by hundreds of millions of dollars during this legislative session.The back story: the big driver of Kitzhaber's proposed cuts is a plan to reduce cost-of-living increases on pension benefit that exceed $24,000 annually. Public employees ...   More

News After more than a decade and $160 million spent on planners, consultants and lobbyists, the proposed $3.5 billion Columbia River Crossing’s moment has finally arrived.  When lawmakers c   More

Cover Story Anybody who thinks there are no second acts in American life should consider Rudolph Franklin Crew. Crew is a leading figure in the national education reform movement. Over the past 30 years, he   More

News Gov. John Kitzhaber delivered his state-of-the-state speech in the Capitol this morning. Kitzhaber told lawamkers, who are in organizational meetings prior to convening the regular session in February, that he needs their help in cutting public employee pension benefits and prison spending.Kitahaber also included a high level of specificity on a couple of the biggest challenges facing Oregon: job creation ...   More

News  A coalition of anti-Nike protesters who rallied last night in downtown Portland are in Salem today—pledging to delay and disrupt a vote on Gov. John Kitzhaber's deal with with the sneaker giant to keep its tax status. "I suppose it's possible that we could extend this [session] into the weekend," rally organizer Nicholas Ivan Caleb declared outside the Portland Niketown store. He suggested ...   More

News When the Legislature meets in special session tomorrow, it will probably pass a bill that benefits Nike, Oregon's marquee home-grown company. But the draft version of that legislation will make it difficult for Intel, the California-based tech giant that is Oregon's largest private employer, to get the same assurance.Nike and Intel both already benefit from Oregon's current approach to corporate income ...   More

News Multiple sources familiar with the deal Gov. John Kitzhaber and Nike announced earlier this week have indicated there may be a significant, undisclosed subplot to the deal—that Nike is considering a major investment in Portland.  Two sites mentioned as possible locations for expansion are South Waterfront, where big tracts of land exist adjacent to glitzy condos and downtown; and, the ...   More

Murmurs Ex-Gov. Neil Goldschmidt says he’s been ripped off to the tune of $601,599—the amount he and his wife, Diana, claim in a lawsuit they invested with Arkansas-based Voyager Financial Group. Th   More

News Gov. John Kitzhaber announced this morning he will convene a special session of the Legislature on Friday, Dec. 14 (not Dec. 17 as he first announced) in order to cut a deal with Nike. Kitzhaber said today that Nike is planning a major expansion and sought assurances Oregon would not materially change its tax structure in a way that would disadvantage Nike in the future. "They are looking for ...   More