Government

The Oregon Supreme Court’s recent right-to-counsel decision has resulted in the dismissal of nearly 1,500 criminal cases statewide, but no such dismissals have been reported in Crook County.

A local contractor with longstanding government ties and a history of ethics concerns involving federal contracts, used taxpayer funds to attend conferences at luxury resorts and to pay for meals for its governing board members.

Oregon lawmakers are currently wrestling in Salem with federal cuts for health care and food assistance programs.

A Crook County Circuit Court judge has entered a default judgment and injunction against the Ochoco West Water and Sanitary Authority (OWWSA), ordering the district to release public records after it failed to respond to a lawsuit filed last fall by the Prineville Review.

Secretary of State Tobias Read released a memo today outlining what Democrats must do to place a controversial gas tax repeal on the May 19 ballot.

The Crook County Board of Commissioners voted last week to temporarily shift responsibility for administering public records requests away from the county’s legal department and into county administration, adopting an interim structure while a comprehensive rewrite of the county’s public records policy is underway.

The Ochoco West Water and Sanitary Authority (OWWSA) continues to face allegations of violating Oregon’s public meetings laws, even as a formal investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) remains underway into the district’s governance and transparency practices.

A newly ordered federal reorganization of wildfire response agencies — including the creation of a U.S. Wildland Fire Service — has been shared with Crook County officials,

A 90-year-old legal opinion could jeopardize Gov. Tina Kotek’s desire to repeal House Bill 3991, the controversial Oregon Department of Transportation funding package she backed and lawmakers passed in a September special session. 

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.