Justin Higginbottom

1 week ago | ijpr.org | Justin Higginbottom

Safehold Special Risk has pulled out of Oregon, saying it was losing too much money following a 2014 ruling that made it easier to sue ski resorts for negligence. The Oregon Supreme Court decision weakened the power of liability waivers, increasing the legal risk for ski resorts and their insurers. Safehold has called Oregon an “extreme outlier” in how it handles negligence claims against ski resorts.

1 week ago | ijpr.org | Justin Higginbottom

Email threads from the “Southern Oregon Analyst Group,” released by the anti-surveillance group Information for Public Use, show informal intelligence sharing between the Medford Police Department and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. The unofficial crime analyst group, which included officers from departments around Southern Oregon as well as the FBI and ICE, was used to share surveillance tips and services between 2021 and 2024.

1 week ago | ijpr.org | Justin Higginbottom

Cindy Benson first became interested in livestock guardian dogs as a way to protect the 120 miniature donkeys on her property in Gold Hill, Oregon. Mountain lions were terrorizing the herd, so she got a big, fluffy Maremma, an Italian sheepdog used for centuries to ward off wolves. “They go out there and they work all night long,” Benson said.

2 weeks ago | ijpr.org | Justin Higginbottom

Jackson County commissioners passed a $640.5 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with $264.6 million going to reserves — a financial position that puts the county ahead of most others in Oregon. The county is the only one in Southern Oregon not facing a shortfall. At least 21 of the state’s 36 counties are expecting deficits this fiscal year, according to a recent report by Oregon Public Broadcasting. County Administrator Danny Jordan said it has been a long road to financial health.

2 weeks ago | ijpr.org | Justin Higginbottom

Seattle-based Mast Reforestation had a novel idea to help save the planet: sell voluntary carbon credits and use that money to replant forests destroyed by wildfire. To pull off its reforestation projects, the company bought key parts of the supply chain, including Cal Forest Nurseries in Etna, California — the largest independent nursery in the Pacific Northwest. It also purchased Silvaseed in Washington, the largest privately held seed bank in the West.