News Tax activist and conservative initiative sponsor Bill Sizemore swore all along he would never, ever admit to the criminal tax evasion that he was charged with by the state of Oregon back in 2009. He'd paid his taxes, Sizemore said. He'd just never filed his returns. And just last week, Sizemore told WW he was going to fight the charges to the end.Well, this was Sizemore after all, who is nothing if ...   More

News The continuing saga of the Oregon Department of Justice's aborted investigation into whether state Department of Energy staffers wrongfully steered a contract to a company run by Gov. John Kitzhaber's companion, Cylvia Hayes, has taken another turn.Sean Riddell, the former top DOJ criminal lawyer who led the investigation, was demoted in June. The official reasons given by Attorney General John Kroger ...   More

News Lawyers for Mark Long, the former interim director of the Oregon Department of Energy, have asked Gov. John Kitzhaber to direct Attorney General John Kroger to appoint a special prosecutor who would investigate the deletion of emails by former Department of Justice criminal chief Sean Riddell."We write to urge you to direct Attorney General John Kroger, pursuant to ORS 180.070, to conduct immediately ...   More

News Oregonians can now see two very different accounts of what happened in the Oregon Department of Energy investigation, in which four employees were accused of steering state business to Cylvia Hayes, Gov. John Kitzhaber’s companion. The first report was prepared at the request of former Gov. Ted Kulongoski and written by retired Malheur County Judge Francisco Yraguen. Yraguen’s heavily-detailed ...   More

News WW has learned that four Oregon Department of Energy employees will be reinstated today, marking the latest twist in story that began with an Oregon Department of Justice investigation into ODOE contracting practices that last August.The investigation has received intense scrutiny because the employees were accused of steering state business to Cylvia Hayes, the long-time companion of Gov. John Kitzhaber.The ...   More

News A former lawyer in the Oregon Department of Justice's trial division filed a federal civil rights lawsuit (PDF) against the department in U.S. District Court in Portland on May 2.Billie Eidson, who joined DOJ in July 2009, alleges that she suffered retaliation and discrimination on the basis of her gender and an unspecified disability.In January, after Eidson complained about her working conditions, ...   More

News Lawyer Ross Day yesterday filed a complaint [PDF] with the Oregon State Bar against Attorney General John Kroger. Although Kroger's aggressive style has prompted grumbling in legal circles, Day's complaint against Kroger is only the second lodged since Kroger took office in January 2009. (The first was hand-written and later dismissed.)Day is upset because a Department of Justice investigator contacted ...   More

News Under Attorney General John Kroger, there are few dull moments at Oregon's Department of Justice. Recently, a lawyer for the embattled former Oregon Department of Energy director Mark Long sued Kroger for withholding public records—a somewhat ironic claim given that Kroger has made greater transparency of government records a pillar of his administration. Given all the back-and-forth between Long's ...   More

News The battle between former Oregon Department of Energy interim Director Mark Long and Attorney General John Kroger's Oregon Department of Justice continues to escalate.Bill Gary, Long's attorney, filed a lawsuit last week in Marion County Court accusing Kroger of withholding records related to the racketeering theory that Justice Department criminal investigators pursued in last year's probe into the ...   More

News The long saga of the Oregon Department of Justice's investigation into contracting practices at the Oregon Department of Energy has gotten even longer.First, a recap: DOJ began an investigation last August into whether ODOE employees had improperly steered a $60,000 subcontract to a Bend renewable energy consulting firm run by Cylvia Hayes, the longtime companion of Gov. John Kitzhaber. At the time ...   More