Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Capital ChronicleAlex Baumhardt is a JPR content partner from the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Before that Alex was a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.
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Oregon’s wildfire season started early this year and is expected to last into October, according to state fire experts. -
Annual undergraduate tuition for Oregon residents at the state’s seven public universities is expected to increase nearly $600 on average from the year before. -
Most Oregon counties are set to receive nearly $100 million from the federal Secure Rural Schools Act after Congress let funding for the 25-year-old program lapse for almost two years. -
President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for Oregon following winter storms that brought record rainfall and caused flooding, landslides and mudslides in eight counties. -
The bill, meant to create clarity about what public officials can call and text about outside of public meetings, would be Gov. Kotek’s only veto following 2026 session. -
Federal officials announced in August they would terminate a 25-year-old rule protecting from development on nearly 60 million acres of forests, including 2 million in Oregon -
Several years ago, offshore wind energy was seen as key to meeting Oregon’s climate goals but coastal communities and federal disinvestment have stymied plans. -
Oregon’s congressional Democrats are asking federal officials to give the public more time to learn about and comment on new plans that would open up millions of acres of federal forests in Oregon to logging activity not seen since the 1960s. -
The Oregon Child Care Infrastructure Fund since 2024 has supported $50 million in construction costs on more than 180 child care facility projects. -
A bill meant to create clarity about what public officials can call and text about outside of public meetings is creating more confusion, press advocates said. -
Two Republican state representatives missed roughly half of the 183 floor votes House members took at the Capitol in Salem. -
At a news conference Friday, Sen. Ron Wyden and Secretary of State Tobias Read said they would defend mail-in voting and the state’s election integrity.
