Chris Hagan

Oregon Links: The city without a hall, Medford trying for pools bond, and a whole lot of hail

community.statesmanjournal.com — Oregon Links: The city without a hall, Medford trying for pools bond, and a whole lot of hail Interesting stories from Oregon:

Oregon Links: Lane animal control controversy, Bend housing rebound, gas prices and the housing bubble

community.statesmanjournal.com — Oregon Links: Lane animal control controversy, Bend housing rebound, gas prices and the housing bubble Stories from around Oregon:

Final Thoughts On The Best Of The Mid-Valley Awards

cherrycityblog.com — There has been some conversations happening over the past few days about the post I wrote on the Statesman Journal's Best of Mid-Valley Awards and how the voting system could be gamed. These conversations have been happening on this blog, on twitter, and even on reddit.

Is this kid the future of news photography?

apple.copydesk.org — By any chance, are you looking for a great, cheap source of photography for your election-year stories? Why not try the latest photographer to hit the campaign trail? Sure! Here's Ron Paul at a Republican leadership conference last summer. Here's Mitt Romney at a rally in Mesa, Ariz., in February.

City of Salem ready to start making difficult budget decisions

statesmanjournal.com — Salem has some difficult decisions to make about the 2012-13 budget and public meetings to discuss a proposed plan start tonight.The city has announced a need cut close to 50 city staff positions in the coming fiscal year, many in the form of layoffs, and City Manager Linda Norris said the city will make similar sized cuts for the next two years."Unless something changes dramatically with revenue, which I don't anticipate, we will be making cuts of about the same magnitude we had to make this year again next year," Norris said.Norris said there could be as many as 40 jobs lost from the 2013-14 budget and another 30 in 2014-15."This the first of three years of difficult decisions about service levels and programs,' Norris said.Norris and Budget Officer Debra Neville shared the city's budget plan with Statesman Journal on Wednesday morning.Other changes under the plan include less money for park maintenance, longer waits for help enforcing city codes such as excessive weeds and signs placed in the public right of way.The cities total expenditures will increase by $14 million in 2012-13.

Random Map of the Week: Oregon median incomes by Census tract

community.statesmanjournal.com — I put this together for another reporter's story last week but it never got used, so I figured I'd just dump it here. Below is a map of median income for Oregon Census tracts. The numbers are from the 2005-2010 American Community Survey results.