Government

A group of 16 Alfalfa Fire District electors delivered a sweeping six-page rebuke of the district's leadership this week during a public meeting that also saw two new directors appointed to the embattled board and raised new questions about the embattled former Fire Chief Chad LaVallee's returning role in district operations.

On recent days in Prineville, smoke from the nearby Rowe Creek Complex wildfire feels “thick enough to cut with a knife,” said Beverly Friesen, an 81-year-old grandmother.

As destructive wildfires continue to burn across Oregon and the West, Oregon U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden are joining a bipartisan group of senators urging federal regulators to stop the expansion of prediction markets that allow people to wager on the course and impacts of wildfires.

The Alfalfa Fire District Board publicly questioned its own actions during a recent meeting after board members appeared unable to recall a vote taken just weeks earlier to delay appointments to two vacant board seats

Concerns are mounting among some residents displaced by Central Oregon's ongoing wildfires after learning they and their animals may need to relocate from the Crook County Fairgrounds as preparations begin for next week's Crook County Fair.

A Crook County hearings officer will decide Wednesday whether evidence involving Knife River’s aggregate operation northwest of Prineville is sufficient to begin formal proceedings that could modify or revoke the company’s conditional-use permits.

Crook County commissioners unanimously declared a local state of emergency Wednesday afternoon as multiple wildfires continued to grow across the region, with fire officials reporting Thursday morning that protecting homes and communities around Prineville remains their top priority following a day of extreme fire behavior.

A Prineville Review investigation has identified what appears to be undocumented meetings by a Crook County Fair Board funding committee that discussed Fair Board busines

Last month, Oregon agreed to pay $49 million to COVID-afflicted state prison inmates. It’s the state’s biggest payout ever—and underscores an underlying liability that is far larger.

The Alfalfa Fire District Board of Directors adopted the district's 2026-27 budget on June 30th, following a Budget Committee meeting one week earlier in which a committee member raised concerns that the proposal may not comply with Oregon's Local Budget Law