Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project
Posted inNews

Lawmakers Review Benefits and Risks of Financial Tool for Cash-Strapped Workers

Getting an advance against your own paycheck is convenient but can also be expensive
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

There’s plenty of evidence that many Oregonians live paycheck to paycheck — 45% of households do, according to a 2024 survey. And more than 145,000 Oregon workers, according to industry sources, have taken advantage of a relatively new — and currently, in Oregon, unregulated — tool called “earned wage access,” or in the parlance of […]

Posted inNews

Lawmakers Consider Using Oregon Kicker as Funding Source for Wildfires

They are also contemplating increasing the Bottle Bill deposit or tapping lottery funds
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

For the past six months, a group of 35 lawmakers and industry representatives called the Wildfire Funding Workgroup met to seek new sources of revenue for the Oregon Department of Forestry. After a record wildfire season in 2024, the Department of Forestry, which leads the state’s firefighting efforts, ran out of money. As Willamette Week […]

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In Oregon, Trump’s Base Would Suffer Most From Medicaid Cuts

A reduction in federal funds would hammer Oregonians, particularly in rural Oregon
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

On Jan. 28, officials in Oregon and across the country reacted with alarm after being shut out of the reimbursement system for Medicaid, the federal and state health care program for low-income Americans. (The federal government contributes about 70%; states pay the other 30%.) NEW: My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down […]

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New Data Shows Oregon Has the Nation’s Second-Tightest Housing Market

And it’s even tighter outside Portland
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

This month, the state began acting on the results of a long-awaited Oregon Housing Needs Analysis, hoping the trove of data will help policymakers solve Oregon’s housing shortage. Lawmakers dug right in, inviting economists from the consulting firm ECOnorthwest to brief both the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness and the Senate Housing and Development […]

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Kotek’s Gift to Trade Unions Contradicts ODOT’s Analysis

The Oregon Department of Transportation found that it will be costly and disproportionately hit rural Oregon
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

Gov. Tina Kotek issued an executive order last month that will make highway projects more expensive, reduce bidding competition and benefit a relatively small number of workers — who happen to be strong supporters of hers — at the expense of many Oregonians. Who says so? Kotek’s own agency, the Oregon Department of Transportation. On […]

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Wyden Decided Against Protecting the Owyhee, and Now Oregonians May Not Get Another Chance Soon

A Republican president and Congress reduce the likelihood of success
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

Dr. Julie Weikel, a retired large animal veterinarian, has been fighting to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands in Southeastern Oregon for a long time. How long? “My daughter’s name is Owyhee, and she’s 43 years old,” she says. Weikel, 78, now lives about 30 miles south of Burns in Harney County but treated animals from all […]

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Empire For Sale

Dr. Robert Pamplin concedes he raided his employees’ pension fund. Properties all over Oregon will now be sold so he can pay back tens of millions of dollars.
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

Efforts are underway, the Oregon Journalism Project has learned, to unwind one of the great timber fortunes in the state — at the order of the federal government. On Dec. 26, Dr. Robert Pamplin Jr., 83, settled a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve allegations he treated his company’s pension fund […]

Posted inNews

The Damned Deschutes

People who depend on an iconic Oregon river say a public utility is harming it.
by Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

MAUPIN, Oregon — Alysia Littleleaf and her husband, Elke, make their living as fishing guides on the lower Deschutes River, near the Warm Springs Reservation. A major tributary of the Columbia River, the Deschutes irrigates farmland, generates electricity and is the lifeblood of Central Oregon’s biggest industry, tourism. The river and its high desert landscape […]

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