
Emily Cureton Cook
Emily Cureton Cook is OPB’s Central Oregon bureau chief. Her reporting seeks to hold powerful people to account, promote honesty and transparency in public affairs, and amplify voices of rural Oregon. She formerly contributed award-winning programming to Georgia Public Broadcasting and Jefferson Public Radio, and reporting to community newspapers like the Del Norte Triplicate in Crescent City, California, and the Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, Texas.
Emily graduated from the University of Texas in Austin. Send her feedback and story ideas at ecureton@opb.org.
Latest Stories

Draft report by Oregon police agency blasts Deschutes County sheriff for lying
Oregon's agency that certifies police officers found Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp’s "dishonesty under oath discredits the law enforcement profession."

DA finds Deschutes Sheriff van der Kamp misrepresented his education under oath
Deschutes Sheriff Kent van der Kamp said the findings against him are "inaccurate."

Deschutes County snubs Warm Springs Tribes in Thornburgh resort appeal
Tribal officials lambast Deschutes County over "pattern of dismissing Warm Springs treaty-reserved rights."

Deschutes County sheriff gave false testimony in criminal cases, DA finds
Prosecutors are reexamining criminal cases going back more than a decade.

Thornburgh resort site in Central Oregon hits another water rights roadblock
In a March 31 opinion, Deschutes County Judge Raymond Crutchley shot down a petition brought by the developer against state regulators over access to groundwater in the Deschutes River Basin.

Mt. Bachelor goes off the market as owner focuses on resort upgrades
Last year the Utah-based POWDR announced a plan to sell the Central Oregon ski resort near Bend.

A ‘good’ water year in Central Oregon comes with murky political forecast
As federal cuts stall irrigation projects, some wonder if the Trump administration will overhaul water politics in drought-prone Oregon.

Deschutes County sheriff under review by Oregon police certification board
Oregon public safety regulators are reviewing whether Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp violated “moral fitness standards,” according to the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.

New data confirms contaminated wells in Crook County, but doesn’t point to source
Well owners are on their own to fund solutions while regulators probe accusations against a mining company.

'OPB Politics Now': The second Trump administration and the Pacific Northwest
A conversation about tariffs, immigration and what people in Central Oregon had to say about the return of President Donald Trump.