Lauren Dake
Reporter & Producer | OPBLauren Dake is a political reporter and producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting. Before OPB, Lauren spent nearly a decade working as a print reporter. She’s covered politics and rural issues in Oregon and Washington. She’s spent time in a maximum-security prison in Bogota, Colombia (for a story!) and sat in a sweat lodge on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
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A measure to allow the easy conversion of hotels and motels into emergency shelters and long-term affordable housing for people who lost their homes in the wildfires or who are otherwise unhoused sailed through the Senate on Monday. -
A car’s catalytic converter — which helps curb harmful emissions — contains precious metals more valuable than gold. Thieves have long known that.
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Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, announced on Tuesday morning the latest positive case of COVID-19 would mean the House would delay voting on bills until April 26th. It’s the third time the House has been forced to cancel sessions due to the virus. The other two cases happened last month.
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Oregon lawmakers in the House approved a measure Monday to increase the amount of time people who are unhoused receive before being forced to move.
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In a legislative session marked by gridlock and political bickering, Oregon House lawmakers managed to unanimously pass a bill Thursday that would help those whose property was destroyed in last year’s historic wildfires.
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Despite the ongoing political gridlock slowing progress in the Oregon statehouse, Democratic lawmakers managed to pass two of their priority housing bills in recent days — one to extend the state’s eviction moratorium and the other to expedite the siting of emergency shelters.
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The bill would pave the way for converting motels or hotels into emergency shelters or long-term affordable housing even if current zoning laws would prohibit doing so. The building must, however, be within the city’s urban growth boundary.
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A deal struck on Thursday offered a sign of hope lawmakers could break the impasse that has caused weeks of slow-down tactics in the House chamber and held up legislation aimed at helping Oregonians.
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Never before has the housing crisis in the state been so profound, making it one of the most pressing and urgent issues lawmakers will face this legislative session.
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Several members of Congress are requesting the Office of Inspector General investigate youth congregate care and residential facilities, including those operated by a company Oregon previously sent dozens of foster youth to for treatment.
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Gov. Kate Brown orders the Oregon State Health Authority to continue to release detailed data.
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Gov. Kate Brown is using her executive authority to close three Oregon prisons, a move her office said would save the state more than $44 million dollars.
