
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

In search of source for Crook County well pollution, Oregon presses mining company to investigate itself
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said she wants agencies to work with 'greater urgency' to get answers for residents.

Flat Fire destroys 4 homes, threatens thousands more with no containment in Central Oregon
Four homes have been lost to the Flat Fire as it continues to threaten nearly 4,000 homes in Deschutes and Jefferson counties.

Embattled Deschutes Sheriff Kent van der Kamp says he will retire Aug. 31
The planned move comes as a state board is poised to take his badge over decades-long allegations of misconduct and dishonesty.

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.