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Valor Investigations

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Before You Vote
Institutional AccountabilityLatest

Before You Vote

The Facts About the Swapped Newspaper, the Quiet Lawsuit, and Matt Scarfo's Third Term

Ballots reach Union County mailboxes this week. The county filed a lawsuit to strike voter-approved term limits, won uncontested, and now Commissioner Matt Scarfo is running for a third term. Here is what the court records, the ethics filings, and Scarfo's own campaign interview actually say when compared to the documentary record. A motion to set aside the judgment is pending in Union County Circuit Court. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has voted 7-0 to open an investigation into Scarfo for using his official position for personal financial gain and for failing to declare an actual conflict of interest before voting.

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Institutional Accountability
Published 65 Miles Away

Published 65 Miles Away

Union County Voters Approved Term Limits by 68%. Three Commissioners Quietly Killed Them.

In 2016, Union County voters passed term limits for county commissioners with overwhelming support. In 2025, all three sitting commissioners petitioned a court to strike them down -- and published the legally required notice in a Pendleton newspaper, 65 miles from La Grande. Nobody in Union County contested. A motion to set aside the judgment as void has been filed.

The Records War
Bakke v. Oregon DHS

Bakke v. Oregon DHS

Public Records Suit Set for April Hearing on Motion to Dismiss

A neutral case summary of the public records lawsuit against Oregon DHS as it heads to an April 16 hearing on the State's Motion to Dismiss. Filings, dates, and both sides' positions, drawn from the Marion County Circuit Court docket.

The Bingaman Case7/7
The Blood

The Blood

How a Routine Surgery Destroyed Russell Bingaman's Brain

On January 3, 2019, Russell Bingaman walked into Grande Ronde Hospital with a hemoglobin of 15.5. Six days later he left with 8.4, a brain starved of oxygen, and a future already decided. Every institution that touched him afterward used his decline to justify what they did. None of them asked how he got there.

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