Murmurs Members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are leaning on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over a $125,500 penalty levied against companies on the hook for cleaning up contaminated sed   More

News U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is in Olympia today, doing all he can to help the flailing Columbia River Crossing—but even one of the project's biggest supporters says it might not be enough."We are using everything in our bag of tricks to bring everything to bear," says Washington State Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver), who has been the project's champion in Olympia. "If we could get the ...   More

News A second ethics complaint has been filed against Patricia McCaig, Gov. John Kitzhaber's top adviser on the Columbia River Crossing.WW reported last month that McCaig worked to help push the $3.4 billion megaproject through the Oregon Legislature, and although she spent 219 hours on legislative issues in the last quarter of 2012, she has not registered as a lobbyist with the state. Oregon law says that ...   More

News Patricia McCaig, Gov. John Kitzhaber's top adivser on the Columbia River Crossing is facing an ethics complaint for her work to push the project through the Oregon Legislature.However, just who filed the complaint and what it says will remain confidential until the Oregon Government Ethics Commission completes a preliminary review, the agency's director says.McCaig was the subject of WW's Feb. 27 cover ...   More

News A forensic accountant and critic of the Columbia River Crossing says that Gov. John Kitzhaber’s top adviser on the project, Patricia McCaig, may not be paying required Washington state taxes. Tiffany Couch says several CRC contractors aren't registered to do business in the state of Washington or  the city of Vancouver, where the CRC’s offices are located. The state and city require businesses ...   More

Cover Story On Feb. 11, Gov. John Kitzhaber strode into a legislative hearing and made his strongest pitch yet for the massive highway project called the Columbia River Crossing.   More

News The Columbia River Crossing has occupied much of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s attention since his election last fall.    More

News Veteran political consultant Patricia McCaig served as Gov.-elect John Kitzhaber's campaign manager in the months leading up to last Tuesday's election victory for the Democratic candidate. Today's filings with the state show McCaig got a $42,000 "win bonus" for guiding the campaign to victory. Paying campaign staffers for victory is not unheard of around the country—New York City Mayor ...   More

News The campaigns of both gubernatorial candidates continue to trade accusations of bad faith amid efforts to get both Republican nominee Chris Dudley and Democratic nominee John Kitzhaber in the same room at the same time. Yesterday, the Dudley campaign released a letter [PDF] from its debate coordinator, Fred Granum, to Kitzhaber's campaign manager, Patricia McCaig, detailing its efforts to communicate ...   More