Jonathan Michael Bach

Sexual harassment and "blatant discrimination" are just two workplace problems City of Salem employees say they've encountered.

(By Jonathan Bach and Whitney Woodworth) Barely three days after 12-year-old Caden Berry of Keizer died, the head of Oregon's child welfare agency ordered a full review of the agency's interactions with his family. Caden's mother, Amy Marie Robertson, has been charged with murdering her son. Clyde Saiki, director of the state Department of Human Services, wanted to know if "system issues" may have prevented the state from saving the boy's life.

Nearly two years after Salem city councilors approved short-term rental regulations, more than 88% of Salem Airbnb rentals are operated without city licenses meant to ensure rooms are safe for guests.

An Oregon Health Authority drinking water expert recommended against city of Salem staff immediately issuing a do-not-drink notice after toxins were discovered in the water, emails between city and state officials show. The emails contradict statements by the manager of OHA's drinking water program insisting the agency never made such a recommendation. The Statesman Journal obtained the correspondences after filing public records requests with the city of Salem and OHA.

More than 250 Latinos would have had full-time jobs with the city of Salem last year if its hiring accurately mirrored the city's population. Instead, only 78 of the city's 1,160 employees were Latino, an analysis by the Statesman Journal found.

Salem officials are planning to spend more than $75 million on construction to beef up defenses against toxic algae as they attempt to avoid a rerun of last year's drinking water crisis. Salem's water, pulled from the North Santiam River, became so contaminated by algae blooms upriver in Detroit Lake last May that city officials were forced to warn parents of young children and medically vulnerable adults not to drink from the tap.

SALEM, Ore. — Americans will pay more for pre-cut Christmas trees this year as shortages deepen from the country's top two producers, Oregon and North Carolina.

For a birthday bash last summer, a group of friends in Oregon rented a bus that wheeled them around Portland while they smoked weed, drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and cranked the Snoop Dogg. They hit a few bars that night, but the vibe on the "Potlandia Experience" bus was way better than anything outside. "It turned into a mobile dance party," said Sweet Summers, who was celebrating her 36th birthday.

States with legal pot have collected more than $1.6 billion since the newest sin taxes went into effect in 2014, with the money paying for everything from public schools to mental health services to programs that deter convicts from re-offending.

Oregon Senate Bill 608 still gives landlords room to raise rent Had a rent control bill under consideration by Oregon legislators been in effect 10 years ago, Salem-area rents could have grown 35 percent higher than they are today. Average rents for a 2-bed, 1-bath apartment in the Salem area rose from $594 in 2009 to $914 in 2018, according to the latest available data. But if the increases allowed in Senate Bill 608 were applied, those same apartments could have risen to $1,238 by 2018. The

Homeless on-and-off for about three years, Cassandra DeBeck and her partner, Matthew Boyd, this summer moved back into the same Keizer apartment complex where they had lived before, thanks to Salem's Homeless Rental Assistance Program.