Alex Baumhardt

Alex Baumhardt

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Alex Baumhardt covers education and the environment for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Before coming to Oregon, she was a national radio producer and reporter covering education for American Public Media's documentaries and investigations unit, APM Reports. She earned a master's degree in digital and visual media as a U.S. Fulbright scholar in Spain, and has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.

Few competitive legislative races will decide if Oregon voters more frustrated with Trump or Salem
Oregon

Few competitive legislative races will decide if Oregon voters more frustrated with Trump or Salem

9:00am ET
Alex Baumhardt
A handful of competitive Oregon House and Senate races will determine whether voters are more frustrated with Republican President Donald Trump and his administration or with the Democratic majority in Salem, according to political analysts. Those races are unlikely, however...
State governors, including Oregon’s, call for more time to implement new Medicaid rules
Oregon

State governors, including Oregon’s, call for more time to implement new Medicaid rules

Oct 01, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
With just three months left to prepare before complex new Medicaid reporting and eligibility rules take effect, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is again leading a group of governors seeking an extended timeline. In a letter Thursday, Kotek and the governors...
Nvidia program on pause year into deal with Oregon to get AI education in schools, colleges
Oregon

Nvidia program on pause year into deal with Oregon to get AI education in schools, colleges

Oct 01, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Computer chip company Nvidia’s promise last year to train “AI ambassadors” on Oregon’s college campuses and get foundational AI concepts taught in schools has so far gone largely unmet by the company, according to a Capital Chronicle inquiry. In April...
Oregon Republicans revisit cap and invest proposal seven years after they walked out over it
Oregon

Oregon Republicans revisit cap-and-invest proposal 7 years after they walked out over it

Sep 30, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Oregon have been meeting in recent weeks to discuss the potential to collaborate on a climate policy that just seven years ago drove them apart, and drove some Senate Republicans across state lines. A new...
Data centers proposed on federal land in eastern Oregon, western states
Oregon

Data centers proposed on federal land in eastern Oregon, western states

Sep 28, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
A new data center campus could soon be coming to federal land near Hermiston in eastern Oregon. It would be the first in Oregon sited on federal public land, and one of at least 12 proposed for more than 17,500...
Data centers take center stage, spur mudslinging, in competitive Gorge-based Oregon House race
Oregon

Data centers take center stage, spur mudslinging, in competitive Gorge-based Oregon House race

Sep 25, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
A Republican Wasco County Commissioner who helped usher in two decades of Google data center development in The Dalles is running campaign ads painting his Democratic opponent for an Oregon House seat as an underhanded supporter of corporate tax breaks...
Oregon students grasp of key subjects slowly grows, but below pre-pandemic levels assessments show
Oregon

Oregon students’ grasp of key subjects slowly grows, but still below pre-pandemic levels

Sep 24, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Oregon students continued to make small gains in key subjects over the last year but still haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. They’re also not keeping pace with many of their peers nationwide when it comes to reading and writing. The...
Pacific Power to charge new Oregon data centers for all costs associated with growing energy need
Oregon

Pacific Power to charge new Oregon data centers for all costs associated with growing energy need

Sep 23, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Oregon’s second largest investor-owned electric utility could soon directly assign the costs of new energy projects and infrastructure needed for data centers to data center operators. Pacific Power last week agreed to the deal following months of negotiations with staff...
Nine months in, Kotek’s Data Center Advisory Committee shares many questions, few answers
Oregon

9 months in, Kotek’s Data Center Advisory Committee shares many questions, few answers

Sep 16, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Following seven fact-finding meetings over nine months, Gov. Tina Kotek’s Data Center Advisory Committee is asking the public to weigh in on a report detailing its findings. The 20-page “preliminary learnings and questions” report that the seven-member, governor-appointed group posted...
Gov. Kotek pauses data centers on state land. Capitol demonstrators want her to go further.
Oregon

Gov. Kotek pauses data centers on state land. Capitol demonstrators want her to go further.

Sep 08, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
SALEM — Roughly 100 people showed up outside the Oregon State Capitol on Tuesday to call for a three-year pause on new data center development in the state. Among them was Gov. Tina Kotek, who expressed support for the demonstrators...
U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff down more than a third nationwide, 40% in Oregon since Trump 2.0
Oregon

U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff down more than a third nationwide, 40% in Oregon since Trump 2.0

Sep 03, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
The number of people staffing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dropped by 3,600 during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to federal data obtained by the nonprofit conservation group Center for Biological Diversity. Oregon, California, Alaska and Washington...
Oil lobby tanking climate Superfund bills in Oregon, 11 states despite public support, study finds
Oregon

Oil lobby tanking climate Superfund bills in Oregon, 11 states despite public support, study finds

Sep 03, 2026
Alex Baumhardt
Oregon lawmakers next week will confront another record bill for the costs of fighting massive wildfires across the state, which have been exacerbated by unseasonable heat and ongoing drought. These are byproducts of a warming planet, decades of scientific study...