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Mayoral emails, collision reports, body-cam footage and firefighter thank-you’s: Public records tell a wide range of tales
A few of the other stories we stumbled across while testing the Pacific Northwest’s records’ systems. Ask for the records log of pretty much any city and you’ll find reporters looking for stories: mayoral parking tickets in Spokane, community court success rates in Vancouver, illegal tree cuttings in Tacoma, and rumors of secret tunnels in Boise.
Broken Records: Citizens face growing obstacles to public records — and legislators are making them worse
We asked for government records from 15 Northwest cities, and Spokane was the slowest to provide them. Emily Moyer, a 37-year-old photographer, was hoping public records could help save her fiance. With his criminal history and an arrest for drug and firearm possession charges, she said, he was facing life...
After Supreme Court ruling, some Oregon Democrats join Republicans in calling for changes to state camping laws
The issue could demand attention when lawmakers meet next year. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that cities are free to outlaw homeless encampments, Republicans in Oregon wasted no time calling for changes to a state law they say hamstrings local governments from cleaning camps. Now some Democrats...
Experts say a teen needs psychiatric residential care. Idaho still won’t pay for it.
Idaho funded less than one-third of requests for youths to receive the highest level psychiatric care since 2019, data reveals. In a dark and sterile hospital room, the light from a cellphone highlighted the exhaustion on Brandon Wheeler’s face as he checked for an email offering help for his son. It wasn’t there.
The Federal Government Just Acknowledged the Harm Its Dams Have Caused Tribes. Here’s What It Left Out.
The Biden administration said officials historically gave “little, if any, consideration” to impacts on tribal fishing. But some sought deliberately to upend the harvest, according to documents obtained by ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter...
Pierce deputy drove 83 mph in wrong lane during deadly 2020 crash
Records show the county settled for $3.5M after deeming the collision highly preventable, demonstrating the vague legal standards for officer driving. An urgent call crackled through Pierce County Sheriff Deputy Eric Lopez’s patrol radio. Shots fired. A drive-by. Lopez booted up his lights and siren, maneuvering his white Ford...
Providence’s medically fragile children’s center will offer respite care to first child amid leadership shakeup, staff concerns
Nurses say they’re still struggling to prevent the spread of infection among young residents. Two Providence executives who oversaw Oregon’s only skilled nursing facility for medically fragile children — where decisions to restrict the space and increase care for aging adults recently proved controversial — have resigned.
Four-year-old Oregon report identifies missing Native American women as a ‘emergency’ — but progress has been limited
Main recommendations remain unfinished, governor has not read the report, and critics say Indigenous voices have been left out. Carolyn DeFord was hoping for change. She was hoping for answers. She’s been hoping for 24 years. It was Feb. 18, 2019, and DeFord was making the long trip from...
What Idaho’s Republican Primary Tells Us About America’s Culture Wars
The heavily Republican state booted 15 incumbents across the party’s ideological spectrum. While the election led to net gains for hard-line members of the right, it also underscores how divided Idaho’s party remains. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to...
Meet InvestigateWest’s new development director
InvestigateWest is thrilled to announce a new addition to our growing team: Lynnie McIlvain will take a leading role in fundraising as development director for the nonprofit news organization, starting this week. Most recently, McIlvain served as grants manager for Degrees of Change, a Tacoma-based nonprofit, and brings with her...
How did Moms for Liberty end up on WA’s approved list of groups training teachers?
There are few rules guiding required professional development credits for public school teachers in the state. Under a new law, that’s about to change. By law, Washington teachers must complete 100 hours of professional development every five years to keep their licenses. But there are nearly no state rules...
Oregon patients needed fentanyl but got tap water — and it went unchecked for nearly two years
Poor data and coordination between regulatory agencies contribute to hospital drug thefts, experts say. The news out of Medford, Oregon, in December 2023 was explosive: A nurse in the intensive care unit of a local hospital had reportedly stolen patients’ intravenous fentanyl and replaced it with unsterile tap water for months. Dozens of patients developed infections. At least three died.
Washington AG’s office joins forces with local police to intensify search for missing Indigenous teen
Teen’s disappearance — highlighted in recent InvestigateWest report — among the first cases taken by new state investigative unit. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office is working with local police to investigate the disappearance of Indigenous teen Kit Nelson-Mora, who went missing from north-central Washington over two years ago at age 16.
Oregon woman endures fear and despair in illegal imprisonment in Coffee Creek prison
Terri Lee Brown was released from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility after the Oregon Supreme Court found Gov. Tina Kotek’s order that sent her back to prison was unlawful. Terri Lee Brown’s life spun upside down in February, when the state of Oregon illegally sent her to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.
Secret recording shows how a right-wing Idaho lobbyist tried to keep a legislator in lockstep
Freedom Caucus Network power broker Maria Nate blasted controversial state Rep. Heather Scott for support of “moderate” House speaker. It was the middle of March in the Idaho Legislature and Maria Nate, one of the most powerful lobbyists in right-wing Idaho politics, sounded like she’d been stabbed in the back.
Idaho State Police warned InvestigateWest that publishing story about secret recording might violate Idaho law
More than a week before InvestigateWest published a story about a secret recording of a conversation between Idaho Rep. Heather Scott and lobbyist Maria Nate, we reached out to both women to request interviews. A copy of the recording had been provided to InvestigateWest by a third party who shared...
State Agency Met with Oil-by-Rail Firm in Private Ahead of Permit Application
A 2023 DeSmog investigation uncovered a “backroom deal” between Portland city officials and Zenith Energy. New documents show the state environmental regulator also met with the company. This story was published in partnership with DeSmog. Oregon state environmental regulators are deciding whether to issue an air permit for...
As ‘empowered’ cities ban them from public spaces, homeless people in WA scatter in search of refuge
Attorneys say bans could become more common following U.S. Supreme Court decision in June. John Parke, known as “Cowboy,” is always ready to pack up and move. He stacks his black and blue tent, foam sleeping pad, and flannel-lined sleeping bag on top of a wagon that he hauls away every day at 7 a.m. before police arrive and order him and the other unhoused people of “camp town” to leave.
Oregon Secretary of State probing staff complaints about racism, mismanagement at early learning department
Auditors are exploring issues revealed in InvestigateWest reporting as possible risks to the department “getting off to a strong and lasting start”. State auditors are looking into staff allegations of racism and dysfunction within the Department of Early Learning and Care as part of an ongoing audit of the department’s strengths and weaknesses, according to staffers contacted as part of the audit.
Staff at Providence Center for Medically Fragile Children sound alarm over shrinking space, families turned away
Oregon families of medically fragile children grapple with uncertain future of longtime Providence center. June Stracener’s bedroom would be like any other teenager’s — Taylor Swift playing, a cloud lamp overhead and colorful art on her wall — if not for the medical devices around her hospital bed that keep her alive and healthy.
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