Investigations

The Alfalfa Fire District has now filed its long-overdue 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) with the Oregon Secretary of State, just days after reporting by the Prineville Review and KTVZ brought renewed attention to years of missing financial filings that had placed the district at risk of dissolution.

Newly-released state ethics documents show that a longtime former manager — and now board secretary and treasurer — of the Three Sisters Irrigation District engaged in a series of undisclosed conflicts of interest and prohibited uses of office

A Crook County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been placed on the District Attorney’s Tier 1 Brady List, the most severe designation under Brady disclosure standards, effectively barring him from being called as a witness in criminal cases prosecuted by the county.

On December 12th, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) voted unanimously to open formal investigations into current and former members of the Ochoco West Water and Sanitary Authority (OWWSA) board, finding a substantial objective basis to believe numerous violations of Oregon’s public meetings laws may have occurred.

The Prineville Review has prevailed for the second time in recent months in a public records appeal petition to the Crook County District Attorney, securing an order requiring the Ochoco West Water & Sanitary Authority (OWWSA) to release a few months of recordings of its board meetings.

Attendance at Oregon public schools improved only slightly during the 2024–25 school year, and continued to lag behind the national average.

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted Friday following a preliminary review to open a formal investigation into allegations that Three Sisters Irrigation District board vice president Carl Nulton used his position to receive irrigation water he was not entitled to during restricted water deliveries last summer.

As proponents push to expand the Alfalfa Fire District’s boundaries farther east into Crook County to include the rural Juniper Acres area, records obtained by the Prineville Review show the district is once again facing possible dissolution over multiple years of missing financial reports — marking a repeating issue under Chief Chad LaVallee’s leadership requiring the State and County intervention over audit compliance.

As the rainy season begins, two statewide elected officials made conflicting statements last week about the shortage of roofs over Oregonians’ heads.

David Penilton, a co-owner of America’s Hub World Tours, a small tour operator that offers tour guides and buses in Oregon, has been awarded a two-year contract worth up to $200,000 from Travel Oregon to help with promotional groups the agency brings to the state, OJP has learned.