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
Federal government sends $4M to restore Central Oregon’s Crooked River
The projects are aimed at helping salmon and steelhead recover in an agricultural region.
Bend school leaders buckle down on teacher contract disputes
Officials are optimistic they can reach a deal before the end of the year.
Baby beaver makes unlikely journey to High Desert Museum in Bend
The beaver’s mysterious appearance set off a chain reaction of human interventions.
Charges dismissed against Bend Police officer accused of on-duty assault
The Deschutes County District Attorney dropped criminal charges against a Bend police officer Wednesday, after prosecutors decided a police whistleblower was unfit to testify.
Warm Springs Tribes challenge Deschutes County resort development over treaty rights
A local-land use skirmish raises big questions about tribal sovereignty and groundwater.
Central Oregon cities poke holes in state plans to tighten groundwater rules
The Oregon Water Resources Department wants to overhaul its rules, making it more difficult for people to drill wells. But leaders in Bend and Redmond say these restrictions are directly at odds with mandates that require cities to build more affordable housing.
Harney County’s groundwater crisis draws Oregon policymakers, and private investors
The Oregon Water Resources Commission will consider a number of policy reforms at a two-day meeting this week in Harney County, a setting that’s become emblematic of state mismanagement of groundwater.
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Rural Oregon’s struggles for drinking water frame Senate talks of national crisis
Warm Springs Tribal Chairperson traveled across the country to testify about water crisis.
Reports of groundwater pollution in Oregon surface in a US Senate hearing
At a recent hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, senators pointed to Eastern Oregon, where more than 4,000 wells are at risk from decades of nitrate pollution, and to Central Oregon, where dozens of people blame a gravel mine for sudden plumbing disasters and health concerns.
The curious case of Bend’s missing osprey nest
The nest was a mainstay of Bend's Old Mill District, until it vanished this year. Juvenile ospreys may have gotten rambunctious.