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 Gov. John Kitzhaber and many lawmakers approached the 2011 legislative session seeking significant changes in the way Oregon schools operate. So far, many of the bills Kitzhaber and allies such as Senate Education Committee Chairman Mark Hass (D-Beaverton) hoped to pass remain mired in committee. Among the reforms: Kitzhaber wants all state education boards for K-12, community colleges and higher ed ...   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

News When Gov. John Kitzhaber unveiled his budget last month, it included about $5.6 billion for K-12 education in Oregon. That's a lot of money but is also about $1 billion less than lawmakers and school districts thought they were going to get as recently as last June. Tax receipts simply have not kept pace with rising personnel costs, however, so the expected total of about $6.6 billion for K-12 education ...   More

Cover Story Someday soon, Gov. John Kitzhaber will sit across a conference table from Richard Sanders, the little-known man    More

News Look for some unhappy Portland Democrats after today's announcement that PGE Park will be renamed Jeld-Wen Field when the Timbers begin play in Major League Soccer.Not because there's any great sentiment for PGE, the state's largest utility and a subsidiary of Enron when it hung its name on the old Civic Stadium a decade ago.But rather because of the political activities of Jeld-Wen's founder, the ...   More

News As the probe continues into whether the Oregon Department of Energy unlawfully steered business to a company co-owned by Gov. John Kitzhaber's longtime companion, two well-connected defense lawyers have gone on the offensive against the chief investigator in the case.WW has obtained a 30-page letter (PDF) in which Dave Frohnmayer and Bill Gary outline a series of accusations against Sean Riddell (in ...   More

News Gov. John Kitzhaber brought a message of change to an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd at Portland's City Club today. "Putting people back to work – as important at that is – will not, by itself, reduce our prison population or the escalating cost of health care; it will not ensure that all our children are ready to learn when the reach kindergarten; or increase the number of Oregonians ...   More

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

News  Cylvia Hayes, the longtime companion of Gov. John Kitzhaber, has accepted a job with the Eugene-based West Coast Regional Clean Economy Collaborative, according to Sustainable Business Oregon."We really see the benefit in building bridges between urban and rural communities around clean energy," Hayes' new boss, Craig Smith told Sustainable Business Oregon. "We don't want anyone to think that ...   More