diff --git a/controllers/githubHooks.js b/controllers/githubHooks.js
index 0b63a916..97e77eaf 100644
--- a/controllers/githubHooks.js
+++ b/controllers/githubHooks.js
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ import Promise from "bluebird";
 import debug from "../lib/debug.js";
 import Pull from "../models/pull.js";
 import Signature from "../models/signature.js";
-import Issue from "../models/issue.js";
 import Comment from "../models/comment.js";
 import Review from "../models/review.js";
 import Status from "../models/status.js";
@@ -196,51 +195,16 @@ function handleIssueEvent(body) {
 
   var doneHandling = handleLabelEvents(body);
 
-  // If we get issue events for pull requests, we have to go refresh from
-  // the api cause the body here is just a subset of pull request fields
-  // See https://docs.github.com/en/rest/reference/issues#list-issues-assigned-to-the-authenticated-user
-  //
-  // > GitHub's REST API v3 considers every pull request an issue, but
-  // not every issue is a pull request. For this reason, "Issues"
-  // endpoints may return both issues and pull requests in the response.
-  // You can identify pull requests by the pull_request key.
-  if (body.issue.pull_request) {
-    return doneHandling.then(function () {
-      // Not returning here cause we don't want to delay replying to the
-      // hook with a 200 since we know what needs to be done.
-      refreshPullOrIssue(body);
-    });
-  }
-
-  switch (body.action) {
-    case "opened":
-      // Always do this for opened issues because a full refresh
-      // is the easiest way to get *who* assigned the initial labels.
-      return doneHandling.then(function () {
-        // Not returning here cause we don't want to delay replying to the
-        // hook with a 200 since we know what needs to be done.
-        refreshPullOrIssue(body);
-      });
-
-    case "reopened":
-    case "closed":
-    case "edited":
-    case "assigned":
-    case "unassigned":
-    // Default case is update the issue
-  }
-
-  return doneHandling
-    .then(function () {
-      // Copy the full name of the repo into the issue object so we can
-      // normalize the structure.
-      body.issue.repo = body.repository.full_name;
-      return Issue.getFromGH(body.issue);
-    })
-    .then(dbManager.updateIssue)
-    .then(function () {
-      return reprocessLabels(body.repository.full_name, body.issue.number);
-    });
+  // Always refresh from the API rather than upserting the webhook body
+  // directly. The body is just a subset of the fields (and for pull requests,
+  // not even an issue), and it carries no events, which we need to attribute
+  // labels and to date the current assignment (date_assigned).
+  // refreshPullOrIssue dispatches pull-vs-issue from the body itself.
+  return doneHandling.then(function () {
+    // Not returning here cause we don't want to delay replying to the
+    // hook with a 200 since we know what needs to be done.
+    refreshPullOrIssue(body);
+  });
 }
 
 /**
@@ -274,18 +238,6 @@ function handleLabelEvents(body) {
   return Promise.resolve();
 }
 
-/**
- * After a label has been added or removed we have to re-process all the labels
- * in case one of them matches one of our configured label updaters.
- */
-function reprocessLabels(repo, issueNumber) {
-  if (!config.labels || !config.labels.length) {
-    return;
-  }
-  debug("Reprocessing labels for Issue #%s in repo %s", issueNumber, repo);
-  return dbManager.getIssue(repo, issueNumber).then(dbManager.updateIssue);
-}
-
 function refreshPullOrIssue(responseBody) {
   var repo = responseBody.repository.full_name;
 
diff --git a/lib/git-manager.js b/lib/git-manager.js
index 9c31b82c..073489f3 100644
--- a/lib/git-manager.js
+++ b/lib/git-manager.js
@@ -305,6 +305,9 @@ export default {
       // multiple repos. The ghIssue object doesn't contain the repo name.
       var labels = getLabelsFromEvents(events, ghIssue);
 
+      // The issue object has no assignment timestamp; derive it from events.
+      ghIssue.date_assigned = getAssignedDateFromEvents(events, ghIssue);
+
       return Issue.getFromGH(ghIssue, labels);
     });
   },
@@ -402,6 +405,32 @@ function getLabelsFromEvents(events, ghIssue) {
   });
 }
 
+/**
+ * Find when the issue's current assignee was assigned, from its events.
+ *
+ * The issue object carries the assignee but no assignment time, so we read it
+ * from the most recent `assigned` event for that assignee. Returns the event's
+ * raw `created_at` timestamp (normalized by `getFromGH`, like `closed_at`), or
+ * null when the issue is unassigned or no matching event exists.
+ */
+function getAssignedDateFromEvents(events, ghIssue) {
+  var assignee = ghIssue.assignee && ghIssue.assignee.login;
+  if (!assignee) {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  var assignments = _.filter(events, function (event) {
+    return (
+      event.event === "assigned" &&
+      event.assignee &&
+      event.assignee.login === assignee
+    );
+  });
+
+  var latest = _.last(_.sortBy(assignments, "created_at"));
+  return latest ? latest.created_at : null;
+}
+
 /**
  * Return the default api params merged with the overrides
  */
diff --git a/migrations/0019-issues--add-author-state-reason-date-assigned.sql b/migrations/0019-issues--add-author-state-reason-date-assigned.sql
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e86f1030
--- /dev/null
+++ b/migrations/0019-issues--add-author-state-reason-date-assigned.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+ALTER TABLE `issues`
+ADD COLUMN `author` varchar(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'ghost' AFTER `assignee`,
+ADD COLUMN `state_reason` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL AFTER `status`,
+ADD COLUMN `date_assigned` int DEFAULT NULL AFTER `date_created`;
diff --git a/migrations/schema.sql b/migrations/schema.sql
index 0972e13b..b4aa0753 100644
--- a/migrations/schema.sql
+++ b/migrations/schema.sql
@@ -76,9 +76,12 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `issues` (
   `milestone_title` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci DEFAULT NULL,
   `milestone_due_on` int DEFAULT NULL,
   `assignee` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci DEFAULT NULL,
+  `author` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT 'ghost',
   `status` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci DEFAULT NULL,
+  `state_reason` varchar(30) COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci DEFAULT NULL,
   `date_closed` int DEFAULT NULL,
   `date_created` int DEFAULT NULL,
+  `date_assigned` int DEFAULT NULL,
   PRIMARY KEY (`repo`,`number`)
 ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_general_ci;
 /*!40101 SET character_set_client = @saved_cs_client */;
diff --git a/models/db_issue.js b/models/db_issue.js
index 2453c77a..b2e4a3f4 100644
--- a/models/db_issue.js
+++ b/models/db_issue.js
@@ -10,8 +10,11 @@ class DBIssue {
       repo: issue.repo,
       number: issue.number,
       title: issue.title,
+      author: issue.author,
       assignee: issue.assignee,
       status: issue.status,
+      state_reason: issue.state_reason,
+      date_assigned: utils.toUnixTime(issue.date_assigned),
       date_created: utils.toUnixTime(issue.date_created),
       date_closed: utils.toUnixTime(issue.date_closed),
       difficulty: issue.difficulty,
diff --git a/models/issue.js b/models/issue.js
index 22b25df9..9e4b109d 100644
--- a/models/issue.js
+++ b/models/issue.js
@@ -72,7 +72,10 @@ class Issue {
       repo: data.repo,
       number: data.number,
       title: data.title,
+      author: getLogin(data.user),
       status: data.state,
+      state_reason: data.state_reason,
+      date_assigned: utils.fromDateString(data.date_assigned),
       date_created: new Date(data.created_at),
       date_closed: utils.fromDateString(data.closed_at),
       milestone: data.milestone
@@ -96,7 +99,10 @@ class Issue {
       repo: data.repo,
       number: data.number,
       title: data.title,
+      author: data.author,
       status: data.status,
+      state_reason: data.state_reason,
+      date_assigned: utils.fromUnixTime(data.date_assigned),
       date_created: utils.fromUnixTime(data.date_created),
       date_closed: utils.fromUnixTime(data.date_closed),
       milestone: data.milestone_title