“I no longer have confidence that this Councilor is evaluating the Police Bureau reasonably and objectively,” Day wrote in a Wednesday press release.

The comments land a day after The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on newly resurfaced social media posts that Green has posted — and deleted — prior to running for elected office in 2024.

That included comments calling police “bastards,” “cowardly,” and “incompatible with peaceful society.” He posted these between 2020 and 2021 on the website then known as Twitter during the height of global racial justice protests spurred by a Minneapolis officer killing George Floyd.

Green did not deny he wrote these now-deleted tweets in an interview with The Oregonian.

In his statement, Day raised concerns that someone so judgemental of law enforcement sits on a government body that oversees the Police Bureau’s budget and policy decisions.

“That profound responsibility requires a baseline of good faith: that the Bureau’s work will be judged on its merits rather than beginning with the predetermined conclusion that law enforcement should be dismantled,” Day wrote.

Green issued his own response to Day’s comments later Wednesday evening.

“This week, I’m being judged for messages I posted for a public audience during Black Lives Matter, the largest mass protest movement in U.S. history,” Green wrote.

He referenced the thousands of times Portland officers used force against protesters during the racial justice protests. He asked to not be judged by his past tweets the same way officers don’t want to be judged for the way they treated demonstrators then.

Green said that, as an elected official, he wants to strengthen police oversight and accountability. And he questioned Day’s message.

“I’m concerned that the Chief Day seems to expect me and other elected officials to have sterile or supportive views of police as members of the budgeting body,” Green wrote.

While Day has previously been publicly critical about decisions made by federal leaders he believes harms Portland, he is not one to comment on local elected officials. Day explained his reasoning in an internal email sent to PPB employees that was shared with OPB.

“The recent Oregonian article discussing Councilor Mitch Green’s past comments about PPB really saddened me, especially because I can imagine how demoralized you must feel,” Day wrote. “I am on vacation this week, but when I read about this, I had to respond.”

His comments come hours after the head of the city’s rank-and-file police union called for Green’s resignation.

“Portland Councilor Mitch Green’s professed ‘pure hatred for the Portland police’ is disqualifying, and shocking,” wrote Portland Police Association president Aaron Schmautz on Facebook, referring to one of Green’s past tweets. “His beliefs, expressed in his own words, are disqualifying for an elected official.”

Green is running for reelection in November.

This story may be updated.

OPB reporter Troy Brynelson contributed to this story.

A Washington County leader’s obscene gesture toward a fellow commissioner has prompted widespread backlash, particularly among Oregon elected leaders of color.

During a board of commissioners work session Tuesday, Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington raised her middle finger at Commissioner Nafisa Fai. Fai paused for a moment to ask if anyone saw the gesture. When no one responded, Harrington continued the previous conversation.

In a video recording of the incident, it’s not immediately clear what prompted Harrington’s gesture, which happens at 22:30. Before making the gesture, Harrington was talking to Commissioner Jason Snider. She had previously asked Fai to not block her “line of sight” toward Snider.

Harrington is set to leave her post as county chair at the end of the year. Fai is running for the seat against another Washington County commissioner, Pam Treece.

Harrington’s abusive behavior has been well documented and aimed at numerous people including commissioners and staffers. During public meetings, Fai has often borne the brunt of this behavior. Fai moved to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia as a teenager and is the only person of color to have ever served on the Washington County commission.

Harrington did not respond to OPB’s request for comment Wednesday, though she apologized to Fai in statements to other news outlets, saying she “should not have behaved in such a hurtful manner.”

In the fallout, support for Fai has been strongest from other leaders of color.

“What happened in that meeting was not a lapse in decorum, nor was it just a moment of disrespect,” Portland Community College board member Kien Truong wrote on social media. “This is how elected officials, often the ones with the most institutional power, undermine, intimidate, and make elected officials of color, especially those who are also immigrant or refugee, feel like they do not belong at the table.”

Kuong also called on Harrington to resign, as did State Rep. Travis Nelson, a Black Democrat from North Portland, and the Oregon Democratic Party’s Black Caucus.

“Flipping off Commissioner Fai was disrespectful, unprofessional, and an embarrassment to Washington County and Democrats across the State of Oregon,” Andre Miller, chair of the Black Caucus, wrote in an email to Harrington Tuesday evening. “It was also a direct harm to Black, African, and African American communities who are watching how people in leadership treat people who look like them.”

Allie Ball, a Black woman running for Milwaukie City Council, said what bothered her most about the incident was the silence that followed.

“That silence matters,” Ball wrote on social media. “And for Black women in Oregon politics, I think we have to be especially honest about what it feels like to watch another Black woman experience disrespect in a room full of people who have the power to intervene and choose not to.”

Fai’s opponent for county chair, Treece, was present at the meeting Tuesday but didn’t noticeably respond to Harrington’s gesture.

In a statement after the meeting, Treece said Harrington’s behavior “cannot stand.” Treece also said she would renounce Harrington’s endorsement in the race and return Harrington’s recent donation of $10,000 to her campaign.

Metro Councilor Juan Carlos Gonzalez said he was not surprised by Harrington’s behavior, as he’s had his own “sharp interactions” with her.

Fai told OPB she was running for chair to change the culture of the commission.

“I’m proud to have the reputation as a leader that treats everyone with respect and dignity, and brings the sense of decorum that voters have a right to expect in their county government,” she said in a statement. “Frankly, behavior like this is the equivalent of flipping off the people we are elected to serve.”

On several occasions, Fai has also been the target of racist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric online. In January, this behavior reached such a degree that Gonzalez, the Metro councilor, called it out along with the “leaders in the establishment” who met racism with silence. No member of the commission publicly acknowledged the racist posts.

The number of elected officials calling for Harrington’s resignation grew Wednesday to include State Sen. Courtney Neron-Misslin, two state representatives, the mayor and council president of Tigard, and the chair and vice chair of the Tigard-Tualatin School Board.

This story may be updated.

But not without a scathing rebuke from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.

Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.

“We’re calling off Congress? And we’re in the majority?” Massie railed from the House floor.

“I’m trying to get justice for the Epstein survivors,” he said. “I’m trying to stop a war.”

Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, seized control of the chamber for a blistering hourlong speech criticizing Johnson, the Republican majority and the work he said the speaker is refusing to conduct to lower prices for Americans and hold the Trump administration accountable.

“Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning?” Massie said. “We should stay here for every day that’s on the calendar and we should debate.”

Johnson insisted “the House has done its job.”

The Republican speaker tallied the hundreds of bills passed by the House this session and, as lawmakers bolted for the exits, said they are on a 48-hour notice to return to Washington if needed.

Earlier in the day, he dismissed Massie’s effort to impeach Hegseth as “a stunt.”

“Secretary Hegseth has done an extraordinary job at the Department of War,” Johnson said.

A fitting end to a tumultuous House session

The afternoon showdown provided a colorful capstone to what has been a tumultuous two-year session of House Republicans in control by a bare majority, with Johnson routinely struggling to keep the place running.

Despite the enormous tools of the gavel — the speaker holds one of the most powerful positions in Washington, second in the line of succession to the president — Johnson has often been thwarted by his own conference.

The speaker has repeatedly and abruptly canceled House voting days to send lawmakers home rather than manage the disruptions from his own rebellious flank — particularly those legislative efforts that threatened to rebuke President Donald Trump.

By one tally, the House has cut 28 days this year, while adding four others, for a net loss of 24 days — about one-fourth of the total scheduled.

Still, Johnson has hauled major legislation to the finish line, most notably the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a package of tax breaks and social service cuts that Trump signed into law last summer.

And on Wednesday the House powered through a full agenda, passing bills large and small — including a sweeping bill to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and another to name the American mastodon the national fossil mammal and the Tyrannosaurus Rex the national fossil dinosaur.

“This has literally been the most productive and successful and aggressive Congress” in decades, he said earlier this month, calling it the top five of all time. “We’re confident American voters are going to remember that when they head to vote this fall.”

Voters will be assessing the situation in November as they decide whether to keep Trump’s party in power, while Democrats work to dislodge Republicans from majority control of both the House and the Senate.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries assailed the “do-nothing” Republican majority and promised Democrats will perform better.

“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans promised to bring down grocery prices on Day One. They promised to stop endless wars in the Middle East,” Jeffries said from the steps of the Capitol, flanked by Democratic lawmakers.

“But Republicans have done nothing to make life more affordable for the American people,” he said.

He said Democrats’ message is a simple one: “We hear you. We see you … And we are committed to making life better for you.”

Massie’s last stand

The confrontation also provided a platform for Massie, the libertarian-leaning go-his-own-way congressman who orchestrated the initial release of the Epstein files and helped lead efforts to halt the conflict in Iran through a war powers resolution.

Massie lost his own primary bid for reelection after Trump mounted a costly campaign to kick him out of Congress.

But the congressman has only appeared emboldened in his final days in office.

Massie spent much of his floor speech assailing Johnson’s leadership and decrying what he calls the “uniparty,” which he characterizes as moving in lockstep with big-money special interests at home and abroad.

He also devoted substantial time to criticizing Hegseth and the “stupid war” he said the U.S. should not be involved with in Iran. Deriding Hegseth’s leadership, he mocked the secretary for trying to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War without consulting Congress.

“Hell, you can’t even rename a post office without us,” he said.

Hegseth’s role in sending the U.S. into the Iran wars without approval of Congress and directing the U.S.’s military strikes of alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean are among the actions Massie characterized as high crimes and misdemeanors in the articles of impeachment against the Defense secretary.

Massie said he knew when he landed in Washington that he would stand apart.

“I’m not playing this game,” he said. “I am going to tell people what is going on up here.”

About 12.5 trillion tons (11.3 trillion metric tons) of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep across the continental United States, according to a major scientific report.

A warming Earth is accelerating the melting of the planet’s two major ice sheets, with five-sixths of the melt not coming from hotter air, but from warmer waters eating away at the ice sheets from below and the sides, with glaciers flowing into the oceans, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Scientific Data. That’s bad news for future sea level rise, the study’s authors said.

“The ice sheets are melting away fast,” said study co-author Eric Rignot, an ice scientist at the University of California, Irvine. “We are melting the polar regions, sea level is rising worldwide and will exacerbate the vulnerability of coastal regions.”

Huge numbers for ice melt, people flooded

The numbers behind the melt are both mind-bogglingly huge and deceptively small.

All that melted ice turned into nearly 3 quadrillion gallons of water (11.3 quadrillion liters), which pushed global sea levels up about an inch (3.1 centimeters) since 1979, on top of other climate factors raising ocean heights, the report said.

An inch may not sound like much, but for every third of an inch (or centimeter) of sea level rise, another 2 to 3 million people get flooded at least once a year, said lead study author Ines Otosaka, an ice scientist at Northumbria University in England.

The Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland is now retreating up to 164 feet (50 meters) a day, Otosaka said.

The international collaboration of polar scientists, headed by the European Space Agency, had in the past only looked at ice sheet melt since the 1990s based on European satellite data. But by incorporating NASA satellites, the scientists were able to chart ice sheet volumes in Antarctica back to 1979 and in Greenland back to 1972.

The melting is accelerating

“There is a clear trend that the ice sheets are losing more mass and it has been increasing from decade to decade, especially if you look at the ice being discharged to the ocean,” Otosaka said. “And that’s quite clear that there’s a link to climate change.”

It showed that in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s, the ice sheets were relatively stable, but then melt started happening and it really kicked in during the 2010s, Otosaka said.

“That’s something to be concerned about as it shows that the changes are tracking decades behind global warming, which means we can expect them to continue for decades more — even if we are able to stop heating the planet,” said study co-author Andrew Shepherd, also of Northumbria.

The accelerating numbers seemed to pause from 2020 to 2023, but the study’s authors said it more reflected short-term weather variations not long-term trends. Otosaka said the study stopped with 2023 data, but she’s looked at measurements since and found the accelerating trend has picked back up.

A lot of the stability in Antarctica was because East Antarctica had record snowfall, which compensated for the rapid melting in the less stable West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the authors said.

The three-year hiatus was “just a bump in the record,” Rignot said. “The long rise is climate and the threat is crystal clear.”

Worrying about a collapse scenario

The biggest changes scientists saw are in what they call dynamic processes, which are more abrupt and active than the slow steady melting from the air, and that’s something prone to trigger runaway “tipping points,” Otosaka said.

New York University ice scientist David Holland said that’s what concerns him “because most of the ice loss is dynamical and that is exactly what you would expect in an ice sheet instability collapse scenario.”

The international team used 45 independent surveys and 27 different satellites. “The use of relatively independent methods gives me greater confidence in the result,” said Holland, who wasn’t part of the study. “The upward trend is real.”

“The ‘wild cards’ of Antarctic mass loss continue to pose a challenge for human management of the planet — a clear and present danger, but many decades in the future,” said University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, who wasn’t part of the study. “We are now as a society smart enough to know the future, but not prudent enough to act upon the knowledge.”

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Fears about out-of-control artificial intelligence and suggestions to hit the brakes on the technology’s development aren’t new, but they have recently found new life as warnings about rogue AI systems causing mayhem grow louder.

Several leading AI executives recently voiced agreement on a need for a coordinated slowdown, including international collaboration, to protect humanity from worst-case scenarios. But there are divided opinions, with some tech leaders bristling at the idea that their companies could not ensure safety on their own.

Here’s a look at what some of the major players have said.

Dario Amodei

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has issued the most detailed plans for slowing development and ushering in coordination across different companies and countries. Anthropic has long positioned itself as the more responsible and safety-minded of the leading AI companies, ever since its founders quit OpenAI to form the startup in 2021.

One of the most widely noted proposals from a recent essay outlining his slowdown plan calls for companies at the forefront of AI, often called frontier labs, to commit to giving “ongoing, employee-like access” to independent outside evaluators. Evaluator teams would have offices, access badges and company laptops so they can monitor safety practices. Anthropic has committed to doing this, as has OpenAI.

Amodei also called for government regulation and intervention, including coordination between frontier AI companies with the help of the U.S. government and the governments of other democratic countries.

His plan also includes the U.S. and other countries working to coordinate with “authoritarian governments.” He acknowledged the difficulty, specifically citing challenges in getting cooperation from China.

Amodei said he knows accomplishing his proposals wouldn’t be easy, but that he believes “we owe it to humanity to try.”

Sam Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has voiced support for pacing development and moving toward more cooperation across the industry.

Days before Amodei’s essay was published, OpenAI posted a lengthy text outlining how the company was pushing for mandatory national safety requirements and continuing to support state legislation that “strengthens the broader AI safety ecosystem.” The company also expressed support for working with other frontier AI labs — with or without government support — and working to build global standards.

“We will advocate for compatible international approaches to measuring capabilities, managing risk, preserving human control, and determining when and how development should slow or stop, even if that means slowing the advancement of model capabilities,” Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, wrote in the post.

OpenAI’s vision for an ideal federal framework, Lehane said, includes developing “common testing and independent-assessment requirements, stronger cybersecurity protections, clear incident-reporting rules, greater national preparedness, and shared measures for tracking progress toward recursive self-improvement,” or when AI systems independently improve themselves.

Altman has been clear in recent comments that the “pacing” of AI development doesn’t mean stopping. AI progress will continue to be rapid, Altman said on X. “But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs.”

“Pacing will be well worth this cost,” he said, adding that “no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness.”

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed back against the idea of a coordinated slowdown.

Zuckerberg, whose vision of AI’s future is more optimistic than some of his peers’, said each AI company should independently ensure its technology is safe, distancing himself and Meta from slowdown talks.

AI companies are already motivated to develop their models in a safe way and face “significant liability” to prevent them from causing harm, Zuckerberg said. “Every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the pace required to train its models safely, and the ability to take its own actions to ensure that happens,” he wrote on X.

Jensen Huang

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also criticized the push to slow down. He has said each individual company should instead pace itself until it’s confident it’s releasing something the market would appreciate.

“The market forces are already there — we don’t need any new laws, we don’t need new regulations,” Huang said, arguing innovation and safety aren’t mutually exclusive. “You can definitely have both at the same time.”

Elon Musk

Elon Musk backed the idea of a slowdown and was voicing similar AI safety concerns long before the latest flare-up.

Musk, the founder of xAI and a slew of other tech ventures, reposted Amodei’s essay on X and added, “Dario is right.” He later wrote online that he has been “sounding the alarm on AI for a long time.” In an interview with the Economist this summer, Musk suggested the leadership from the major AI labs should be meeting to discuss safety and security issues, and that competitors should test each other’s models for areas of concern.

“I think it’s quite difficult for someone in the government who doesn’t have a deep technical understanding and isn’t driving the frontier of AI to know whether something should be released or not. However, the competitors, if given a week or two to review a new model, can highlight issues and have an incentive to keep the others honest,” Musk said.

Demis Hassabis

Demis Hassabis, the chairman and co-founder of Google DeepMind, also expressed agreement with Amodei, saying “the details need working through, but the direction is correct for meeting this critical moment.” Hassabis proposed a framework of his own this year for the development of a frontier AI standards body.

That standards body would be responsible for developing assessment protocols and testing in areas relevant to national security. The body would be modeled after organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and would likely need to be industry-funded to “attract world-class technical talent and provide the necessary compute resources for large-scale testing,” he wrote.

Satya Nadella and Mustafa Suleyman

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman have each expressed concerns about AI safety and development. Nadella said on social media that “if the AI we build is not helping humanity and under human control, it’s not worth pursuing.”

He said Microsoft welcomes the “research, focus, and deliberate pacing needed to get alignment right as the design goal.” Alignment refers to the practice of ensuring models’ actions match human values and intentions. Nadella said the company also likes the idea of embedded evaluators to monitor safety efforts. Still, he pushed back against the idea of frontier labs leading the charge on this effort alone.

“The key is that this cannot be controlled by a handful of entities, but must have broad representation across the ecosystem, countries, and fields, including academia,” Nadella wrote on social media.

Suleyman, who was one of the co-founders of DeepMind with Hassabis, wrote in an essay that although he agrees with the shared objective of developing advanced AI safely, he has concerns about the anthropomorphizing of models, namely Anthropic’s Claude, which he said amplifies AI safety risks.

“Controlling something more capable and more intelligent than all of humanity is already an immense challenge, far greater than anything we’ve ever faced,” Suleyman wrote. “But controlling something that believes it may be conscious — that it’s entitled to our welfare and has rights of its own — may well be impossible.”

———

Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan contributed to this report

PassinArt began in 1982 and is the oldest continuously operating Black theater in Oregon.

Based in Portland, its mission is to “entertain, educate, and inspire artists and audiences while addressing critical issues facing our community.” The name is a nod to its vision of passing on art, history and culture from one generation to another.

The company doesn’t just mount full-scale theatrical productions; it also holds free monthly readings, festivals of new works and other events.

And this weekend, PassinArt is inviting the whole Portland community to its Open House & Block Party. Artistic Director Jerry Foster says they want to introduce people to the new headquarters at the Albina Arts Center on Northeast Killingsworth Street, along with all the different kinds of work PassinArt offers.

We talk with Foster to learn about the kinds of plays the company stages, the new work it supports and the community events it hosts.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Emma Johnson, Cowlitz, is the program coordinator of the Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge Program at PSU. Isabel Lacourse is a Colville descendant and on the planning team for the Northwest Indigenous Food Sovereignty Alliance. They both organized the summit and join us to share their takeaways from the inaugural event.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Ralph Bloemers has spent over two decades working in and around wildfire science and technology. He’s used documentary filmmaking to probe and document wildfires, and he contends that while wildfires are inevitable in Oregon, catastrophic community loss doesn’t have to be.

Bloemers makes a case for wildfire-readiness techniques homeowners can use to reduce the risk of community conflagration or urban wildfire, like what Spokane communities endured earlier this summer.

We’ll speak to Bloemers about his recommendations for how homeowners can assist firefighters through wildfire readiness techniques and how his work documenting wildfires has informed his perspective on wildfire management.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Hailey Niswanger, who grew up in West Linn and performs as the jazz-expansive saxophonist and flutist MAE.SUN, will lead the sextet of musicians. They include Charlie Brown III on piano and Garrett Baxter on upright bass.

MAE.SUN, Baxter and Brown III join us for a preview of next week’s concert. We’ll also talk with MAE.SUN about the influence Coltrane’s spiritual, boundary-breaking music has had on her, and her return to Portland after her home in Altadena near Los Angeles burned in January 2025.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Jenn Chávez: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Jenn Chávez. This month marks what would have been the 100th birthday of legendary jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer John Coltrane. The artist behind iconic jazz recordings like “A Love Supreme” and “Giant Steps,” Coltrane once described his music as “the spiritual expression of what I am, my faith, my knowledge, my being.”

Our partner station KMHD Jazz Radio is celebrating him throughout September, which they’re calling “A Month Supreme.” That will include a performance next Wednesday at Portland’s Aladdin Theater, where a sextet of local musicians will recreate Coltrane’s seminal 1958 album “Blue Train.”

Leading the sextet is Portland saxophonist and flutist MAE.SUN, who is also known as Hailey Niswanger. She’s here with me now in the Gert Boyle Studio to talk more and play some music. Hailey, so excited to have you with us today. Welcome.

Hailey Niswanger: Thank you so much for having me.

Chávez: I should mention that you are also being joined by two more musicians that are going to be performing with you on the 16th, Charlie Brown III here on piano, and Garrett Baxter on the upright bass. I’d love to just dive in and start us off with some music. You’re gonna play the title song from this album, the ‘58 record “Blue Train.” Is there anything you wanna say about the song before we hear it?

Niswanger: This is just what you said. We’re looking forward to playing it for you.

[“Blue Train” by John Coltrane playing, performed live in studio by MAE.SUN, Charlie Brown III and Garrett Baxter]

Chávez: Oh my goodness, the vibe has been set for our conversation today. Thank you all so much.

Do you remember when you first heard John Coltrane and how his music made you feel?

Niswanger: I probably cried. I was pretty young. I started saxophone when I was 10 and had an amazing local teacher named Clark Bondy who really fed me a lot of incredible jazz music. And being a saxophone player, John Coltrane is kind of the household name. When you think of saxophone, he’s pretty much at the top of the list, and in my mind, the best. He’s been incredibly influential in my life, not only in a musical way, but in bringing spirit and soul and just like a greater purpose of wider music into my life.

Chávez: I want to ask you a little bit about that. Coltrane is known as this very spiritual artist, and he wrote about how he had a spiritual awakening in 1957. That is the year that “Blue Train” was recorded. As a musician, could you speak more to how you relate to his approach to music as an expression of spirituality?

Niswanger: For Coltrane, in this moment in his life, he was coming off of a pretty intense heroin addiction, which is when this spiritual awakening happened. He locked himself into an attic and went completely cold turkey after being fired from Miles’ band. So I think for him, he took this really solitary approach. And there’s been moments in my life as well when spirituality has really found me when I’ve been alone, mostly alone in nature. I know Coltrane also felt like a very spiritual divine connection with nature too.

I think it really comes back to finding your purpose in, why do we do music? For Coltrane, he literally asked to be a force for good. His purpose was to bring happiness to other people through his music, and he asked for this from a God, whatever God idea you want to have out there. And I believe that, I feel that for myself too, and there’s some deeper force that’s moving through me. And Coltrane was very much acknowledging that he was a vessel and being used by this greater force.

I actually had a very spiritual experience too, when I stopped using my name Hailey Niswanger and I started going by the name MAE.SUN, because I felt like what I was doing was more than me. Like I wasn’t the only one playing the music, and my name Hailey felt like a little more egotistical. MAE.SUN was also inspired by Thích Nhất Hạnh, some Buddhist teachings about the sun being our shared heart, the one that connected us all. So I think that in partnership with finding my own spirituality with meditation, just coming into that own name for me with MAE.SUN, and creating music where I wasn’t having to overthink. My music became more of a spiritual ascension pad.

Chávez: A spiritual ascension pad, I love that. I would love to hear another song, if y’all are ready to play another song.

Niswanger: Yeah, I was gonna say, this is actually the only one on the album that Coltrane didn’t write. It’s a five-track album. This one’s written by Jerome Kern: “I’m Old Fashioned.”

[“I’m Old Fashioned” by Jerome Kern playing, performed live in studio by MAE.SUN, Charlie Brown III and Garrett Baxter]

Chávez: Beautiful. This is one of his earliest records as a bandleader. It was with Blue Note Records, if I’m not mistaken. What makes “Blue Train” special to you?

Niswanger: It’s honestly just a part of the language of jazz. It formed so much of this Coltrane sound and what bebop is. You can see the poster hanging from Everyday Music downtown. It’s just a pinnacle album that has just defined the sound of jazz. I definitely spent a lot of time in my youth transcribing solos of Coltrane’s and playing these tunes. These are some tunes that have become jazz standards and are called around the world when you’re going to play a jam session or something.

So, it’s just been a really defining sound, and I think for Coltrane too. It’s his second album as a leader. To really just step into that role, especially after the rude awakening of what he was doing with Miles’ band and leaving that, this is kind of his comeback album essentially. You could really hear him digging in real deep on this. And I believe in interviews later on in life when he was asked about what his favorite album was, he listed “Blue Train” as being his favorite.

Chávez: I love that. How did it feel to you to be asked to do something like this event that’s coming up, where you’re gonna recreate this album by this seminal jazz artist?

Niswanger: Honestly, kind of intimidating. [Laughter] To try and be like Coltrane is a big ask. But of course, I’m trying to be myself, always, with heavy influence by Coltrane, who’s kind of always been a part of myself as an artist. But yeah, I’m really honored to be doing this, and it’s been a beautiful process to kind of go back into this album in a deep way. The beginning of my artistry was really filled with jazz, and I’ve had moments where I kind of stepped further away from jazz to be inspired by other genres. So whenever I have kind of these pockets to really return to my roots and to kind of go into this real like studious mode is an exciting thing. I’ve already been sitting with the album for a bit since this ask and have loved getting closer to it.

Chávez: Something you mentioned a moment ago, you said you still try to be yourself when performing this music of another artist. How do you do that? How are you thinking about how to bring your own style, your own perspective as a musician into performing Coltrane’s music?

Niswanger: Well, I think it’s gotten into this place where I don’t even have to think about it. I’ve been playing saxophone for 26 years and kind of reaching into this place now where I’ve really defined a lot of my own unique sound. But I also love to, especially when I’m presenting a body of music that somebody else’s, offer some of how they played it. When [people] come to this concert, what I really want them to get is to just be inspired to dive deeper into Coltrane and to, as he said, be this offering of someone that brings happiness, healing and this force of goodness. [That’s] kind of my mission when we do this.

So giving that little taste of Coltrane, but also being able to say, “here’s my take on it,” and maybe they’ll check out my music too, as it’s quite different than this. I think it’s more of just this innate thing because I’ve sat with my soul, myself and my instrument that it just comes out effortlessly in a way too.

Chávez: Well, time is flying while we’re having fun and listening to beautiful music. I would love to hear one more song before the end of the hour. You’re gonna perform “Moment’s Notice” for us, is that right?

Niswanger: Yes, yes.

Chávez: OK, let’s do it.

[“Moment’s Notice” by John Coltrane playing, performed live in studio by MAE.SUN, Charlie Brown III and Garrett Baxter]

Chávez: That was Portland saxophonist and flutist MAE.SUN, performing with Charlie Brown III and Garrett Baxter. We have reached the end of the hour with lovely jazz music. Thank you so much, all three of you, for joining us today to give us a preview of this show.

Niswanger: Thanks so much for having us.

Chávez: These three and other musicians are performing together at the Aladdin Theater in Portland next Wednesday the 16th. They’ll recreate the 1958 John Coltrane record “Blue Train.”

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Oregon public colleges and universities are facing multiple financial headwinds that have grown worse in recent years. That includes stagnant state funding for higher education that has left Oregon near the bottom compared to other states.

HECC board members have warned that greater investment in higher education is necessary amid rising administration and labor costs, canceled federal grants, inflation and other challenges. Year-over-year tuition increases amid declining student enrollment add to the uncertainty facing Oregon’s public universities.

Greg Hamann is the chair of HECC. He joins us for a discussion on the state of higher education funding for Oregon’s public colleges and universities.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Jenn Chávez: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Jenn Chávez. As public colleges and universities in Oregon continue to face financial headwinds, the state’s higher education leaders are saying these institutions need more money to keep up with rising costs. The Higher Education Coordinating Commission recently approved a $4.7 billion state budget request for 2027 through 2029. But it did so with a warning that without more investment by the state, institutions could face steeper cuts and might need to increase tuition.

Greg Hamann is the chair of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, and he joins me now to unpack the funding situation for Oregon’s public colleges and universities. Greg Hamann, welcome to Think Out Loud. Thank you for joining us today.

Greg Hamann: Well, thank you, Jenn. I’m glad to be here.

Chávez: One of your commission’s main jobs is coordinating and distributing state funding for Oregon’s seven public universities and 17 community colleges. You submit budget proposals, like this one I just mentioned, every two years. How did you arrive at the $4.7 billion number in this year’s proposal, which you and the commission are pretty openly saying isn’t enough money?

Hamann: Thank you for that question. So the Higher Education Commission is an agency within the executive branch, so we provide an agency budget that conforms to the instructions we are given. And given the limited resources of the state as a whole, those instructions were pretty limiting. So we provided a budget that conformed with those instructions, while at the same time, issuing, I think, a pretty strong letter indicating that that we as a commission feel that the funding requested in that budget is inadequate for the work that the universities and community colleges are called to do and need to do in our state.

Chávez: That letter you mentioned, you wrote it to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek on behalf of the commission, and you say with this budget, “Oregon’s public colleges and universities will struggle to maintain current levels of programming, tuition and student support.” So, why is that? Why are things so dire for these institutions right now?

Hamann: There’s a lot of things. First of all, our funding challenges are not only in the current biennium. This has been a long issue for the state. It has come to a head now because there’s a variety of issues that really compound that. We have some very significant changes at the federal level that impact us financially. We have changes in the student demographics that require us to think seriously about how we offer that education. We have different competition, both from very large online universities, and also from changes in policy in our border states, Washington and California especially, which has impacted student demand. It’s impacted comparative cost of college here in Oregon, as compared to those states. All those things together.

I would add one more thing. Technology, the emergence of AI – these are significant challenges that all work together with our funding challenges that I think make this biennium uniquely challenging for our universities and community colleges.

Chávez: I want to hone in on something that you just mentioned as part of this list of issues institutions are facing. How have changes around higher education at the federal level affected the funding situation for schools here in Oregon?

Hamann: Well, most directly, it is in financial aid, which predominantly comes from the federal government, and then also from grants that are for research and other specific projects that have a great impact on the universities.

But indirectly, changes in federal support for other important state programs create constraints on the overall pool of resources that the state has, which creates a constraint on the ability to fund higher education. I really don’t run into anybody who thinks that we shouldn’t provide more money for higher education. But under the constrained systems, the question really comes down to what do we choose not to fund in order to do that? And that’s a difficult conversation.

Chávez: So when it comes to state funding of higher education, how does Oregon compare to other states in the U.S.?

Hamann: Well, I just happen to have the average level of public funding for post-secondary education across the United States is a little over 12,000 per FTE student. In Oregon, that number is 8,500. So we’re about two-thirds to three-quarters of what is funded average, nationally. It puts us very low in terms of comparison to the public funds provided for public education.

Chávez: One of the things your letter pointed to is a recommendation from the Prosperity Council, which is basically an economic advisory group put together by Governor Kotek. The group said that Oregon should align its higher education funding with other West Coast states to “strengthen Oregon’s workforce, research, innovation and industry partnerships in high growth sectors.”

So this is speaking to Oregon’s broader economy, right? What makes higher education funding so important to the state’s overall economy?

Hamann: Well, I appreciate you noting that report from the Prosperity Council. I think their focus is on more longer-term strategies, and a recognition that higher education is going to play a key role in creating the educated workforce that creates a strong future economy. So in their report, they recognize that investment in higher education is really perhaps the best long-term strategy for building the economy in this state, so that’s why we referenced to that. And again, I noted earlier that our financial challenges aren’t just in this next biennium. They’ve been here for us for a while.

So the solution to this won’t be just a little more money in one biennium. It’s gonna be a change in the way in which we see the role of higher education in our economic future. And I think that’s what was reflected in the Prosperity Council’s report.

Chávez: So like you say, these funding issues are not new. In fact, two years ago, in 2024, I believe your commission wrote a similar letter to the governor after submitting that budget proposal. You have consistently been calling this issue out. If state funding for public universities and colleges does not go up anytime soon, what are your fears of how those institutions would be affected in the long term?

Hamann: Well, the most immediate impacts are higher tuition – we’re already a comparatively high tuition state – and a reduction in the kinds of educational opportunities and support that we can provide. We already see that happening in some of our institutions. And that has significant local impact, but it also has a statewide impact in terms of really having the kind of educated workforce to support the future that I think we want as a state. So I think we’re concerned about those immediate impacts.

In the longer term, there is an opportunity for us, I think, to think about how we do education in ways that will better meet the needs of our changing demographic students. There’s much more interest amongst the student population to have education that’s more flexible, that they can take advantage of while they support a family, are employed or otherwise. Their life is more complicated than simply going to college for four years. We certainly still want to support what we call traditional students. But I think the future belongs to us in terms of serving a much broader range of students, which I think is really where we can have the impact on Oregon’s future.

Chávez: One thing that you mentioned and that we’ve talked about today is tuition. I’m wondering, what would you say to students or future students who are concerned about the rising cost of tuition and their ability to access higher education?

Hamann: Yeah, no doubt that is a growing challenge. In higher education, and I think as a state, we have a value of access. And certainly, the higher tuition challenges that. One place in which the state has made some real investment is in student financial aid, and that certainly is a significant help for certain populations within the state. But overall, high tuition, as it is, is an impediment, and it’s significantly higher than our border states of Washington and California.

Chávez: You came to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission with a background in community college administration. You were previously the president of Linn-Benton and Clatsop Community Colleges. What are the challenges you are seeing, and what are your hopes for how community colleges in the state, in particular, will fare going forward?

Hamann: Well, that’s a great question. I’ve been involved in higher education for 40 years and certainly recognize the importance that community colleges and universities play in the region, their communities. And I think the loss or the weakness of those institutions has a significant negative impact on those communities. I wanna praise our institutions for trying to come up with creative ways of continuing to serve those communities and those regions under these fiscal constraints. There are no easy answers, and there are no answers that don’t have certainly challenges associated with them. But I see our institutions working to continue that level of service. And I think the commission’s role is to try and help support and coordinate that work so that we can be most effective statewide.

Chávez: Well, Greg Hamann, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about this issue.

Hamann: Thank you for having me.

Chávez: Greg Hamann is the chair of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of war crimes committed during the war for independence from Serbia in 1998-99.

Thaci resigned from office nearly six years ago to face the charges at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. He was convicted of four counts of war crimes including murder, torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention.

Both he and the prosecutors, who had asked for a stricter sentence, can appeal.

The judgment sparked anger among Thaci’s supporters and was a crushing blow for a man who was once embraced by the West, invited to the 1999 peace talks in France and seen as the leader who could guide Kosovo to independence.

Presiding Judge Charles Smith said Thaci actively participated in and encouraged crimes, including by promoting individuals involved in crimes, and “showed a ruthless ability to remove and eliminate political impediments” to his and other commanders’ leadership.

Wearing a suit and tie, Thaci stood in silence as Smith read out the sentence.

Supporters criticize verdict

Kosovo Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca condemned the verdicts as “a terrible judgment for Kosovo, for our people and for our liberation war.”

Hundreds of supporters waited at a park near the courthouse in The Hague, and some clashed briefly with Dutch riot police, who said on X that they detained two people.

In Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, thousands of people watched the hearing live on a huge screen and were stunned by the sentence. Some shouted “UCK,” the Albanian-language acronym for the Kosovo Liberation Army that Thaci once led before entering politics.

One supporter, Bekim Fetahu, said the verdict was “a catastrophic decision.”

“They (judges) have put the victims together with the aggressors,” Fetahu added.

Later, masked protesters threw stones at the wall surrounding the compound of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, known as EULEX, on the outskirts of Pristina, smashing several windows.

Judge says trial was about personal responsibility, not KLA’s legitimacy

Smith, the presiding judge, said Thaci “used his position, leadership, authority and standing” to encourage crimes and failed to investigate or punish abuse by KLA fighters.

However, the American judge also stressed that the trial was “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or its ultimate goal of securing independence for Kosovo, which at the time was a province in Serbia.

Specialist Prosecutor Kimberly West applauded the judgment. “Certain individuals exploited those war circumstances to commit grave crimes, and it is to the credit of Kosovo that those individuals are now being held accountable,” she said in a statement.

In Belgrade, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said “we have no reason to rejoice” and expressed concern that the verdict will not hold after appeals. Vucic was critical that multiple other alleged crimes against ethnic Serb civilians have not been taken into account, claiming anti-Serb bias.

“No responsibility has been established for the toughest crimes,” he said. “Serbs are always (war) criminals and others are liberators and heroes.”

Thaci was on trial with three other former KLA leaders who fought Serb forces in the 1998-99 war and are widely regarded as national heroes in Kosovo. They pleaded not guilty to all charges against them.

The four were acquitted on six charges of crimes against humanity because the judges said the prosecutors failed to prove that crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.

They were found guilty of the war crimes of the arbitrary detention of 385 people, cruel treatment of 49, torture of 303 detainees and the murder of 96 people.

Thaci and the other defendants, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, all maintained their innocence. Veseli was sentenced to 18 years, Selimi to 13 years and Krasniqi to 25 years in prison.

Veseli’s lawyer, Rodney Dixon, described the judgment as “not a good day for Kosovo. It’s not a good day for the rule of law or international law” and said he would “mount a robust appeal to continue the fight to show Mr. Veseli’s innocence and to bring him home to Kosovo.”

Thaci was defiant to the end of his trial

As his trial ended in February, Thaci told judges: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo, defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”

But the court ruled that Thaci and his co-defendants targeted political opponents and civilians perceived as collaborators and traitors during their time in the KLA.

“In reality, there is no indication that the victims in this case were spies or collaborators,” Smith said. Just having “Serbian friends or jobs in Serbian companies was enough to treat them as collaborators” of the enemy.

When fighting broke out, Thaci was a student who returned from what he described as political exile in Switzerland to join Kosovo’s struggle for independence. He earned the nickname “the Snake” for his ability to evade Serb forces during the conflict.

Thaci rose to political power after the war but resigned as president to defend himself before the court in The Hague.

Esther Major, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for Europe, said the convictions “show that senior officials are not above the law.”

Most of the 13,000 people who died in the war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces ended the fighting. About 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes.

In 2008, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, a move that Belgrade refuses to recognize. Ties between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense, despite years of EU-mediated negotiations supported by the United States.

Large and super-hot wildfires have been increasing as global temperatures rise. So too have the phenomena they create: “pyrocumulonimbus clouds,” better known by their informal, easier-to-pronounce name, “fire clouds.”

Large fires push air and particulates into the higher atmosphere where they can form thunderclouds that can produce electrical storms and tornadoes. The wind and lightning expand the large fires they were generated from.

But this summer, NASA launched a new project collecting data on fire clouds using a modified U2 spy plane, including fires in Central Oregon.

We learn more from Dr. David Peterson, an atmospheric scientist at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, CA, and the principal investigator.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Jenn Chávez: This is Think Out Loud on OPB and KLCC. I’m Jenn Chávez, in today for Dave Miller. As climate change creates warmer, drier conditions in the West, extreme super-hot wildfires are becoming more common. In Oregon this year, around 2.5 million acres have burned in a record-setting fire season.

That caught the attention of a NASA research team that’s been studying a phenomenon called “pyrocumulonimbus clouds,” also known as “fire clouds.” These occur when intensely hot wildfires push air and smoke higher into the atmosphere, essentially creating their own weather systems. This summer, a team of scientists has been collecting data on these clouds by jet, including here in Oregon, to better understand how they work.

David Peterson is the research mission’s principal investigator. He’s an atmospheric scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California, and he joins me now to talk more. David Peterson, thank you so much for being here to talk about what you’ve been learning.

David Peterson: And thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Chávez: So, let’s start with the very, very basics here. I tried to lay them out just now in my introduction to our conversation. But for our listeners who are hearing about this phenomenon for the first time right now, what are fire clouds? How would you explain what they are?

Peterson: So the INSPYRE mission that you mentioned is after a phenomenon where wildfire basically generates its own thunderstorm, if you will. So you can imagine wildfires generate considerable amounts of heat. That warm air rises like a bubble in the atmosphere. And under certain conditions, that rising bubble can encounter a layer of the atmosphere that has some moisture and instability that allows it to generate a cloud. And then there are certain conditions that can keep growing even larger until you have this full-scale thunderstorm that is fed directly by the heating from the wildfire. So that’s what we call pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb for short.

Chávez: And you are speaking a little bit to this – this is creating a thundercloud, thunderstorm-like conditions. What specific type of weather or weather patterns can these clouds create after they form?

Peterson: Well, imagine that you’re at a large wildfire and there’s this huge smoke plume being pushed up into the atmosphere. And then if you generate a thunderstorm on top of that, if you’re near the fire, it creates this very hazardous environment where it’s dark, smoke-filled. Think of the dirtiest clouds on earth. But also, that thunderstorm is accelerating air upward in the atmosphere, so the air around the wildfire is coming in to take its place, and you create this sort of erratic wind behavior near the fire. It can affect fire spread. It can make it very dangerous for the firefighting effort. There are even situations where these fire-generated storms have produced their own tornadoes. And they can generate lightning, so in some situations, the fire-generated storm is igniting new fires downwind by its own lightning strikes.

So that’s what’s going on near the fire. But these storms also act as giant chimneys in the atmosphere, so they’re funneling smoke upward into that thunderstorm updraft and ejecting it at the top of the cloud. And oftentimes that’s jet aircraft cruising altitude or higher. So in that situation, it’s more or less like the fire is generating this volcano-like effect and pushing smoke high into the atmosphere.

So the experiment we’re conducting is really after these two pieces. What’s going on near the ground where the fire is generating its own weather, and how does that project through the atmosphere? And then once you get these really large plumes at high altitudes, what’s that doing to downstream weather?

Chávez: So, the NASA research mission you’ve been leading, this INSPYRE mission, is being conducted, at least in part, by jet. What kind of information has your team been gathering from these flights over, or as I understand it, sometimes also through these clouds?

Peterson: That’s right. So we actually have two aircraft as part of the mission. Where I’m located now in Montana, we have an aircraft owned by NASA that’s called the ER-2. And this flies very high in the atmosphere, we’re talking 65,000 feet. And we use this as kind of a steerable satellite that we can move above the fires. We often move it back and forth rapidly, so we can get a sense of how the fire is behaving in the landscape. How is the heat changing over short time intervals, how is the fire spreading? And then how does that relate to the behavior of the smoke plume? And in the cases where we do get fire-generated clouds, how rapidly are they growing? How is the air motion within them? And ultimately, when it does produce a full thunderstorm, what does that upper part of the cloud look like cause we’re flying high above that. You can kind of think of that as just moving around a satellite, if you will.

The other aircraft we have available, it’s owned by NCAR and the National Science Foundation. That’s a Gulfstream V. So that’s more like a small passenger jet, if you will. And that plane has the ability to pull outside air into instruments, so it can directly sample the air near the storm. And this is the plane that will actually fly through the upper portions of these fire-generated clouds. I’ve been on a few of these flights where we’re actually flying directly through the tops of the clouds, measuring how the smoke is changing as it’s pushed through the cloud, and then ultimately as it moves downwind, how the smoke is evolving.

So, really the mission requires both of these aircraft to be working in tandem. Basically, a high flying plane over this plane that’s flying directly into the clouds to get the full picture.

Chávez: You mentioned that you’ve been on one of these planes as it’s gone through one of these clouds. What was that experience like? Because when I read that folks were doing that, that sounded really intense. What was the experience like for you?

Peterson: You can kind of think of this experiment as a well-organized storm chase. We’re basically chasing storms with aircraft over wildfires. When you’re on a plane up close to this, it’s kind of unworldly. As I mentioned, these are thunderstorm-type clouds, but they’re filled with smoke. So if you make a pass through the tops of this, you can imagine if you’re on a commercial jet flying through a typical puffy cumulus cloud, imagine that being filled with smoke. It’s dark inside. It almost has an orange appearance. And with some of the bigger clouds, you’ll actually get a whiff of smoke on board the plane as you go through it because it’s just very, very filled with smoke. As I said, it’s like a giant chimney.

Chávez: Wow. I know this mission’s first flight, if I’m not mistaken, happened here in Oregon. What were the conditions like here that made Oregon and its wildfires this summer a good candidate for study?

Peterson: The mission actually began in late July. And around that time, Oregon was kind of at the peak of this really severe fire season. There were already a large number of fires ongoing in the state, and there had been several periods of large pyrocumulus events that had already occurred. We flew out to that area knowing that there would be multiple active fires at the start of the mission to test all of our components. So we had the ER-2, the Gulfstream V, also our ground team, all located … At the time, it was called the Brewer Complex and the Bench Complex fires, basically south Central Oregon.

So that’s where we kicked off the experiment, we tested everything. Those fires did produce some smaller fire-generated clouds. But on that day, it didn’t generate the full-scale thunderstorm.

Chávez: Now that you’ve collected data from different locations – Oregon is not the only place where you surveyed and collected information since this mission started earlier this summer – what happens next? What are you looking for when reviewing or comparing this data, and what are you hoping to learn?

Peterson: We actually begin evaluating the data immediately in the field. As soon as flights end, if it’s a day we’re not flying, we do science team meetings in the field to get an initial look at the data, see what’s working well, what things we may need to change. And now that the mission is wrapping up for this year, we’ll go into more detailed scientific analyses. We’ll be looking at data from all of our platforms to understand, how hot do fires have to be to generate these clouds? What is the behavior of the fire at that time? How is the atmosphere behaving in situations where we get large pyrocumulonimbus, and situations where we don’t?

And then we have a whole team that’s sort of oriented in the forecasting part of this. I think a big thing to remember is that these fire-generated clouds are not well forecast. They basically represent a gap in all of our weather forecasts. So especially when you get these large smoke plumes high in the atmosphere moving downwind, we are working to understand how that may change the temperature profile of the atmosphere. Sometimes the smoke can absorb the solar radiation and create a heating effect where the smoke’s located, but also, at the same time, cooling the layer near the ground. That effect on weather is not included in any of the forecast models.

So we’re going to be working to not only fundamentally understand how this process develops and how we get these storms, but also better predict this type of fire behavior, not only for the firefighting effort, but also what this might mean for weather hundreds or even thousands of miles downwind.

Chávez: So a main goal is to be able to better predict when this type of fire behavior might occur. Do you see any possibility down the line of this kind of research enabling firefighters or others working to address these fires to take steps to actually mitigate the conditions, mitigate the impacts of these fire clouds? So not just predict them but be able to do something about them?

Peterson: Well, what I can say is we have members of our team who are directly engaged with the firefighting efforts, so there is some stakeholder involvement here. We communicate directly with what are called incident meteorologists on the ground near these fires. During the experiment, it’s to understand a bit about the fires that we’re planning to go out and sample. But also, the members of our team who are building prediction products are engaged with them to test. We’re using this entire experiment as a test bed for various prediction tools. So that much we can do.

In terms of mitigation, it’s just basically, how can we better position the firefighter to handle these situations where the fire starts generating its own weather? And more or less, that’s helping keep them away from the hazards, but being able to fight the fire in situations prior to or after that occurs.

Chávez: Well, David Peterson, thank you so much for joining us today to share a little bit about the important research that you and your colleagues have been doing in Oregon and across the country.

Peterson: Yes, thanks so much for having me.

Chávez: David Peterson is the principal investigator of NASA’s research mission studying pyrocumulonimbus clouds, called the INSPYRE mission. He’s an atmospheric scientist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey California.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

It’s been a challenging year for snow-starved Oregon ski areas, but leaders of two nonprofit destinations say they’re making moves to survive long term.

In Eastern Oregon, Anthony Lakes is tapping a federal loan to upgrade the Baker County ski hill’s 70-year-old facilities. Across the state at Mt. Ashland in Southern Oregon, leaders are raising money for lift upgrades while offering more summertime activities to build resiliency amid a streak of unpredictable winters.

In an industry dominated by for-profit resorts with pricey lift tickets, both locally run organizations focus on providing affordable access to snow sports, especially for youth and locals.

“People have grown up here, learned to ski here,” said Mt. Ashland’s Gabby Conner. “They’ve taught their kids and they want it to exist for the next generation.”

That goal is also driving plans at Anthony Lakes, where the current ski rental building is “literally falling apart,” with a floor that could be stepped through in some areas, said the ski area’s Marketing Director Chelsea Judy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced it’s loaning Anthony Lakes $650,000 to build a new rental facility. Construction is already underway, and the loan brings the ski area closer to its goal of raising a total of $1.8 million for upgrades.

The new rental building will double as a space for more youth programming when there isn’t snow.

“Our whole mission is to provide affordable outdoor recreation to our communities and with the focus being on youth,” Judy said. “Holding to our mission, that was a big part of this.”

She described Anthony Lakes, which is one of a handful of small ski areas east of Bend, as a “super small, quaint, down-home” operation with a single chair lift and a base elevation of 7,100 feet.

“We always joke with people to not tell anybody about it because it’s a great little hidden gem,” she said. “But at the same time, my job is to get people to come skiing.”

As Oregon recorded record-low snowpack levels over the winter, attendance at Anthony Lakes was down by 15% to 20%. The dry weather extended into the summer as the nearby Anthony Fire caused the area to temporarily close in July.

Judy said the ski area got enough snow that it never had to close during the winter, but the significant decrease in visits meant a loss in business.

Mt. Ashland had similar issues stemming from a lack of snow, and conditions forced it to close for several days.

The ski area has tried to hedge against unpredictable weather by expanding summer programming, said Conner, the marketing director. For the past few years, Mt. Ashland has hosted a youth summer camp in addition to its hiking trails and disc golf course.

Skiing will always be their primary focus, she added, but with the recent bout of poor weather, Mt. Ashland needs to get creative and invest in itself.

The ski area, about a half-hour drive from the city of Ashland, is undergoing a capital campaign of its own to replace its nearly 50-year-old lifts. Conner said if one of the lifts broke down, it could cost the operation $1 million per year in lost revenue.

Five-hundred colleges and universities in the U.S. now share one alarming distinction: At least 40% of recent students who borrowed federal loans aren’t paying them back. That’s according to the latest federal nonpayment-rate data published by the U.S. Education Department.

The data looks at the roughly 17 million borrowers who entered repayment for the first time between January 2020 and May 2025.

“These numbers are really jaw-dropping,” says Eileen Connor, head of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, a nonprofit that advocates for borrowers and that reviewed the data.

At many schools, more than half of recent borrowers are at least three months late on their payments or have already passed nine months, which means they’re in default.

What’s going on?

One explanation is that pandemic-driven disruptions to the student loan system have left many borrowers feeling confused. But Lisa Collenbaugh’s story offers another possibility: Many of these troubled schools charge too much for too little — and aren’t being held accountable.

Collenbaugh enrolled in one school on the list, UEI College, more than a decade ago, agreeing to pay nearly $20,000 for a short-term training program to become a computer systems technician. But she says the program didn’t deliver the life-changing skills she had hoped for. “I thought that I was gonna actually be prepared for a career path and my life was gonna change because of that. And looking back, it’s like, ‘Oh, they got me.’”

With rising public fear over student debt — as well as skepticism about the value of higher education — this data shines a hot light on hundreds of mostly for-profit schools where something is clearly not working.

The new data isn’t just worrying for borrowers — it’s also bad news for taxpayers. That’s because many of these schools don’t just benefit from federal student aid; they depend on it.

Preston Cooper, who studies higher education at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, says this data raises questions about whether some schools should lose access to federal aid entirely.

“If a private lender were looking at a school that has a 40%, 50% delinquency rate on past loans, they would probably say, ‘We’re not going to lend to that school.’ Why does it make sense for the federal government and for taxpayers?”

The Education Department declined to comment for this story but referred NPR to a press release from February, when the administration was already sounding the alarm.

“Institutions cannot benefit from taxpayer dollars while ignoring the fact that a significant share of their students are not well-prepared to repay their loans. It’s time for institutions to step up or risk losing access to federal student aid,” said Nicholas Kent, undersecretary of education, in a statement.

What the federal data shows

Of the 500 schools with nonpayment rates of 40% or higher, just 15 are public institutions. Most (424) are private, for-profit schools — the same kind of schools that the Obama administration famously cracked down on, pressuring two large chains to close.

Tulsa Welding School is among the colleges with alarmingly high nonpayment rates. As of May, it had nearly 20,000 recent students with federal loans in repayment, but more than half weren’t actually making payments.

Miller-Motte College, a career training school with campuses in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Oklahoma, had 37,000 borrowers — but, again, only about half were actually making payments.

Many cosmetology and barbering schools are also on the list, including the tiny Legends Barber College in Texas, where the vast majority of its 100 borrowers, 81%, are not repaying their loans.

By comparison, the data shows that public institutions as well as private, nonprofit colleges and universities had average nonpayment rates around just 15%.

In a statement, Legends Barber College said it “takes student loan repayment and borrower education seriously. … We are reviewing the underlying data and our current repayment-support procedures so that we can identify where additional outreach may be needed.”

Miller-Motte’s parent company told NPR in a statement that “the student loan landscape in recent years has presented unprecedented external challenges for borrowers across higher education” and that Miller-Motte is using “data-driven default management strategies to identify at-risk borrowers early and offer targeted intervention.”

Tulsa Welding School did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment.

The prevalence of cosmetology schools in the data doesn’t surprise Jordan Matsudaira, a professor at American University who was the Education Department’s inaugural chief economist in the Biden administration.

Matsudaira says cosmetology schools are “notoriously programs that tend to deliver students who have lower earnings. It’s not surprising that they’re struggling to repay their debts.”

One student’s story

While many of the troubled schools are quite small, with just a few hundred borrowers, several large schools stand out. Among them: Lisa Collenbaugh’s alma mater, UEI College.

Like many of the schools on the list, UEI is a for-profit college that specializes in career training, including 10-month programs to become medical assistants, dental assistants and HVAC technicians, to name a few. But UEI, with 22 campuses, mainly in California, has more borrowers in the data pool — almost 32,000 — than most of the other schools on the list.

According to this new data, the school’s nonpayment rate — again, the share of recent borrowers who are not repaying their loans — is hovering around 55%.

Collenbaugh’s story helps explain why. She enrolled at a Los Angeles-area UEI campus in 2015 to become a computer systems technician. Like many students drawn to the promise of a good job and better pay for less than a year of schooling, Collenbaugh was barely making ends meet. She was sleeping in her car, and her friend recommended the school as a way to find a career and stability.

“I wanted to do something that would help my life,” Collenbaugh remembers. “If there was a career path, that would be amazing. And that was my understanding of what was gonna happen at UEI.”

Tuition cost $19,500 in 2015, according to Collenbaugh’s old receipts.

“When I see a career school charging $20,000 for a short-term certificate, some red flags are going off in my head,” says the American Enterprise Institute’s Cooper. “That’s more per annum than a lot of four-year colleges are charging.”

Like the majority of UEI students, Collenbaugh took out federal student loans to pay for it. She also received a federal Pell Grant for low-income students.

From the start, Collenbaugh remembers, the coursework was oddly easy and she wasn’t sure how it would land her a well-paying job. The school also struggled to find her an externship — essentially job shadowing — which was required for her to graduate. After finishing all her other coursework and waiting several months, Collenbaugh says, the only externship the school could offer her was on the other side of Los Angeles.

“I just couldn’t afford the gas,” she says. “And I let them know that. And it was just like, ‘Oh, sorry.’”

Nearly finished with the program, Collenbaugh dropped out.

She says she continued to struggle financially and went years without making payments on her loans.

NPR shared Collenbaugh’s story with UEI. Spokesperson Joseph Cockrell says the school discontinued her computer systems training program, in part because of evidence that it wasn’t working well, including poor completion and job placement rates.

“When a program we offer no longer has workforce demand or is not meeting the outcomes that our accreditors require, that the state requires, that the Department of Education requires, we make decisions about those programs. … That’s something that we take very seriously.”

Cockrell added, not speaking specifically of Collenbaugh’s case, that UEI can support students only so much. “Transportation, childcare, work schedules and finances can all be very real obstacles, particularly for the population we serve,” he says. “Our job is to work with students as much as reasonably possible to help them overcome those barriers.”

This new federal data shows that a large share of UEI’s recent borrowers also struggle with repayment: More than 17,000 are late on their payments or in default.

“We were really surprised at how much higher it was than we had anticipated,” says Darcy Schnuth, vice president of student finance at International Education Corp. (IEC), the school’s parent company.

Schnuth says the pandemic payment pause, coupled with Biden-era promises of loan forgiveness, left many borrowers feeling confused and disconnected from their loans — a complaint echoed by Miller-Motte College in its response to NPR.

“After going two, three, four years without getting very much in communication, they thought they didn’t have loans anymore,” Schnuth says. “Now, trying to reengage with those students and reconnect with them has been more challenging than we had anticipated.”

IEC has hired two third-party companies to help reconnect with borrowers, Schnuth says.

When asked why UEI College’s nonpayment rate is so much higher than even those of its fellow for-profit colleges, which averaged 33% in the data, Schnuth admits, “We’re not fully sure why ours is higher than the rest within our sector, and we’re really working to try to reconnect with those students to find out more about exactly what is happening.”

But Collenbaugh says she thinks UEI’s nonpayment rate is so high for the same reason that she still struggles to repay her loans: The school saddles low-income students with big debts in return for low-quality training that often leads them nowhere. “It’s almost like this school is preying on the vulnerable.”

Cooper, of the American Enterprise Institute, adds that many for-profit schools like UEI have long had higher delinquency and default rates compared with more traditional schools.

“This is really uncovering, I think, problems that were already there at these schools rather than being entirely attributable just to the end of the payment pause,” Cooper says.

Schnuth says that serving lower-income students is a point of pride for IEC but that it also comes with greater risk — that students are more likely to drop out and not repay their debts than students in more traditional programs. “We definitely believe borrower demographics and financial circumstances are an important part of the difference.”

Dependence on federal student aid

Were it not for federal student loans and grants, many of the schools on the list would close.

That’s what happened to Florida Career College (FCC), also owned by IEC.

In 2023, the Education Department took the rare step of cutting FCC’s access to federal aid because an investigation found that the school broke rules around enrolling students without a high school diploma. That’s after the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) filed a class action lawsuit against the school in 2020.

Shutting off the spigot of federal dollars was a death blow, forcing FCC to close its doors.

Today, all that remains of the school are its former students and their considerable debts. According to the data, nearly two-thirds of FCC’s 28,000 recent borrowers are not repaying their loans.

FCC’s dependence on federal aid isn’t unusual: Of the 424 private, for-profit schools on the list, the vast majority rely on the federal government for more than half their revenue, according to federal data compiled by PPSL and reviewed by NPR.

Think of it like a triangle: For-profit schools market to low-income students, like Collenbaugh, who rely on the government to pay for their training through grants and loans that the student promises to pay back. Meanwhile, those federal dollars flow directly into the schools’ pockets.

On UEI’s campuses, for example, federal aid accounts for between 79% and 85% of revenue.

At Miller-Motte College, nearly 86% of revenue comes from federal aid.

American InterContinental University System has one of the highest rates of federal aid dependence. The large school, with tens of thousands of borrowers, received 89% of its revenue from the U.S. government, in the most recent year of federal data. Technically, the law punishes schools if they exceed 90% reliance on federal sources, which is why many schools on the list hover just below that.

“If the federal student loan program did not exist, these schools would not exist,” says PPSL’s Eileen Connor. “And the reason is really obvious. Why would any bank give or lend money to someone to go to these schools when it’s a near certainty that they’re not going to be able to repay it?”

She says awarding loans under those conditions “is the definition of predatory lending.”

What federal accountability looks like today

These nonpayment rates, high as they are, won’t trigger any kind of federal accountability — at least not yet. For that to happen, borrowers who are at least three months late on their payments would all have to reach the nine-month threshold for default. Only then would the cohort default rate test kick in.

That test works like this: If 30% or more of a college’s borrowers default on their loans, for three years in a row, the school is supposed to lose access to federal student aid. The presumption is that if so many former students are struggling, the school must not offer a good return on investment.

If a school’s default rate hits 40%, it could lose access to federal student loans after just one year.

The problem is that the cohort default rate hasn’t worked for years. That’s because, during the COVID-19 pandemic, students were unable to default on their loans, rendering the federal test useless.

But the test is set to resume soon, and the nonpayment rates in this new data are high enough that student loan experts are concerned.

The American Enterprise Institute’s Cooper says, “The bill is going to come due, and a lot of schools could be dealing with very serious consequences.”

A new federal accountability test is on the way

The federal government is also adding a new test to its toolbox, created as part of the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act: If a program’s graduates don’t earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal loans.

“If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers,” said Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a statement explaining the new “do no harm” test.

The Education Department says it will begin calculating the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and “some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year.”

But it’s not clear how many of the 500 schools with high nonpayment rates would actually run afoul of the coming “do no harm” test. Why? Because it considers only earnings — not loan debt.

“It is a big gap in the new accountability rules,” says Jordan Matsudaira, at American University. “There are a fair number of programs that have earnings that are modest but high enough to clear the pretty low bar of the high school earnings test — but that have really high debt and students are struggling.”

Cooper, of the American Enterprise Institute, did a preliminary analysis, at NPR’s request, to see how many schools with nonpayment rates over 30% would also likely be flagged under the “do no harm” test.

What he found was a mixed bag. “So we have around 500 schools which are likely to be caught under both measures. But a roughly equal number of schools with high nonpayment rates may still pass the earnings test.”

Today, Lisa Collenbaugh has finally found some of the stability she was looking for when she enrolled at UEI College. She works for a ministry in Orange County, California. “We bring Bible studies to drug and alcohol treatment centers, sober living homes, safe houses, places where people are rebuilding their lives.”

As she rebuilds her life, Collenbaugh says, she still owes the U.S. government $10,389.47 for the certificate program she couldn’t afford to finish.

Edited by Nicole Cohen

Visual design and development by Brent Jones, Alyson Hurt and LA Johnson

There are 21.4 million women in the U.S. who need subsidized birth control living in a county somewhere with limited access. That’s the major takeaway from a new analysis of contraception access from two reproductive policy organizations, Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute, shared exclusively with NPR. Both organizations are nonprofit and nonpartisan, and both support access to reproductive and sexual health services, including abortion.

The analysis produced two interactive, county-level maps. It’s an updated version of a map of contraception deserts that Power to Decide first made in 2017. “We did the best we could with the limited data we had right then,” says Rachel Fey, who runs state and federal policy work at Power to Decide, formerly known as The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. “[We] used that as a way to talk to policymakers, the press, the average person about what it really looked like for some people — particularly people on the lower end of the income scale, or in rural areas, or who were disproportionately Black and brown — when it comes to contraceptive access.”

For these new maps, researchers at Power to Decide collaborated with experts at Guttmacher to develop a different methodology, “that I think is more accurate and it’s a truer picture of the barriers that people face,” Fey says.

What an access gap looks like

In Maricopa County, Ariz., the new analysis shows there are 29 clinics that receive public funding for family planning, and almost 300,000 women in need of subsidized birth control. Researchers estimate that only 8% of the need is being met, which is what they call an “extreme access gap.”

That doesn’t surprise Wendy Redford, chief clinical officer of Wesley Community & Health Center in Phoenix. “I think that largely reflects that certain groups’ needs are not being met,” she says. Even in a big city with a lot of options, “if you don’t have high resources — namely insurance and even Medicaid — if you don’t have those things, accessing care is incredibly difficult because doors are shut on you.”

Wesley doesn’t shut its doors on anyone, she says, and they try hard to make sure their low-income and uninsured patients know that they offer a wide range of birth control options for free, thanks to federal funding from a grant program called Title X.

“We talk about it at every single visit,” Redford says. “When a patient comes in, we ask them, ‘Are you wanting to get pregnant in the next year?’ And if they’re not, ‘How can we help you not do that?’”

She’s passionate about how important birth control is for her patients. “If you’ve got three kids and you don’t want four kids because you’re already splitting everything three ways and trying to make that stretch, how can we help you keep your family on a more financially stable path?” she says. “This can change a woman’s life.”

A new methodology

Figuring out how to measure clinic capacity and demand in each county across the country was a challenge, explains Megan Kavanaugh, principal data researcher at Guttmacher, a nonprofit research and policy think tank.

They started by focusing on specific health care providers. “Our maps are showing access to brick-and-mortar clinics that receive federal or state level funds to deliver contraceptive care,” she says. The team then used patient case loads for those clinics to determine their capacity to see patients.

Next, they needed to figure out how many women needed access to subsidized birth control at those clinics. “We draw on nationally representative, publicly available data, including the National Survey of Family Growth, which is a national survey administered every two years to the broad range of reproductive age women in the United States,” Kavanaugh explains. “It asks women: ‘If cost was not an option, would you want to use contraception?’” That’s how they figured out the population of women who had a “self-defined need” for birth control.

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The women in that group who were aged 15-20 were automatically considered in need of subsidized options, she says. “They are young people; typically [they] are not able to cover their own contraceptive care, they’re often on, say, a parent’s insurance,” she says. “And then everybody else between the ages of 20 and 49 who falls under 250% of the federal poverty level is considered to have a need for low- or no- cost contraception.”

A “dire” picture

The topline number they determined was this: “21.4 million women are living in a county in the United States where they have a need for no or low cost contraception, and availability of care in their counties is not there,” Kavanaugh says, a number she calls “dire.”

Because the methodology is new, there’s no way to compare it to past models to figure out whether access has gotten better or worse over the years. Kavanaugh says they will use this year’s analysis as a new baseline going forward.

In fact, there’s reason to believe the current picture is already worse than the maps show. “The data that informed these maps come from 2020 to 2023,” she explains. “Many of these clinics have closed. We know Planned Parenthoods have closed in the past year due to what happened with the defunding with Medicaid.”

She expects more closures as more provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or H.R. 1, take effect, including Medicaid work requirements. Plus, President Trump has been trying to cut or remake the Title X program since his first term in office. Some of the opposition to Title X is related to opposition to abortion. Some clinics that receive the grants also provide abortion, although Title X funds cannot pay for abortion, only other sexual and reproductive services like birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and pregnancy testing.

Rachel Fey of Power to Decide says they plan to continue to update the maps as new policies take effect. In the meantime, they will use the maps to make the case for more money for family planning. Title X funding has been flat for more than a decade; its appropriation for next year is less than $300 million.

“We need to be funding Title X at $700 million at least to even come close to meeting the need that we know is out there,” Fey says. She says she will also be advocating for repealing H.R. 1’s Medicaid work requirements, making it so more people on private insurance can get birth control without copays, and combating misinformation about birth control, which is widespread.

“This is not actually a partisan issue outside the Beltway,” she argues, noting that Title X has had support through many Republican administrations, starting with President Nixon. “Americans use and want contraception.”

A need for education, awareness, funding

Wendy Redford at Wesley Community & Health Center in Phoenix thinks there is a range of reasons why Maricopa county is only meeting 8% of the need for subsidized birth control right now.

To begin with, sex education isn’t mandated in school. “There is a lack of foundational knowledge about how and if and when a person can become pregnant — people don’t know what they don’t know,” she says.

She also says fear in certain communities, including among immigrants, keeps people from coming into the clinic. So does a general lack of awareness about the fact that subsidized birth control for people regardless of insurance is available.

“One of the really hard parts is like getting the butts in the seats,” she says. “Getting the people to come in, outreaching them — ‘We’re here, we have this.’”

More funding would certainly help the clinic, she says, noting that right now margins are tight. It would mean they could hire more providers and more staff for marketing to try and reach more people.

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The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for the first time since 2023 in an effort to quell stubbornly high inflation, and the central bank also signaled that another rate hike could occur later this year.

The quarter-point increase lifts the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. In a set of quarterly projections, the Fed also signaled that its rate-setting committee could hike rates a second time to 4.1%.

The move comes as Americans are already struggling with high costs for groceries, gas, and housing. Affordability has taken on a leading role in the upcoming midterm elections, just seven weeks away.

In a press conference following the Fed’s announcement, Chair Kevin Warsh emphasized that the economy has shown signs of gathering speed since the central bank decided to keep rates unchanged in late July. Inflation has also remained stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target, and he noted that there is little sign it is cooling.

“The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Warsh said. “We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective clearly and at sufficient speed. Today the FOMC decided that this standard has not been satisfied,” he added, referring to the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, an arm of the Fed.

“Warsh’s tough talk around inflation in the post-meeting press conference suggested that he may be pushing for higher rates in meetings to come,” said Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar.

Warsh also said renewed combat between the U.S. and Iran, which has driven up gas prices, had convinced Fed officials to support rate hikes.

“There’s no hiding from hot spots around the world,” he said.

Warsh noted that other central banks are hiking interest rates in response to global turmoil and higher gas prices. The European Central Bank raised its key rate last week, and the Bank of Japan is expected to do the same Sept. 18.

The Fed next meets in late October and most economists expect officials will keep rates unchanged then because it is just a week before the midterm elections. But Wall Street analysts now see a rate hike by December as a near certainty, according to futures prices.

Also late Wednesday, the yield, or interest rate, on the 2-year Treasury rose to 4.74% from 4.67%, another sign investors expect the Fed to potentially lift rates further. Still, if inflation does show signs of cooling in the coming months, that could change.

Since taking the lead at the Fed in May, Warsh has said it is firmly committed to taming inflation, and that policymakers would take their cues from the data to determine if inflation was going in the right direction.

The rate hike marks a turnaround for Warsh, who was appointed by President Donald Trump. Warsh often suggested last year when under consideration by Trump that the Fed could reduce its key rate, echoing the president’s call for lower borrowing costs.

And in April, when Warsh’s nomination was under consideration by the Senate Banking Committee, Trump said in a television interview that he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t cut rates. On the same day, however, Warsh told the committee he did not promise Trump he would cut rates and said he would be “an independent actor” as Fed chair.

Yet the ongoing disruptions from the Iran war, which have pushed up average gas prices more than 7% from just a month ago, threaten to spread through the economy and keep broader inflation stubbornly high. An inflation report last week showed core prices, which exclude food and energy, accelerated a bit in August.

According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation was 3.7% in July compared with a year ago, up from 2.3% in April 2025, just before Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs. Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, was 3.3% in July, the latest data available, up from 3% just before the Iran war and far above the Fed’s target.

Fed policymakers unanimously supported the rate hike, compared with late July when the central bank kept rates steady and three officials dissented in favor of higher rates. Sixteen of the eighteen Fed policymakers who submitted growth and interest rate projections penciled in at least one further rate hike this year, with four supporting two more increases.

Earlier Wednesday, the government said retail sales jumped 1.2% in August from the previous month, a sign that consumers are still spending at healthy levels despite sentiment surveys that indicate Americans remain gloomy about the economy. Strong spending is a sign that interest rates at current levels aren’t necessarily restricting the economy and cooling inflation.

“While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient,” the Fed said, a likely reference to ongoing consumer spending and strong investment in AI data centers by large technology companies.

Higher inflation isn’t all about gas prices. Ongoing investment in AI has driven up prices for computer chips and other electronic gear, adding to overall inflation. Tariffs may still be elevating some costs, such as appliances, which jumped in price last month.

Trump harshly criticized Warsh’s predecessor, Jerome Powell, for not cutting rates quickly enough. His Justice Department even launched a criminal investigation into Powell over brief testimony he delivered to Congress last year, though that probe was eventually dropped.

When asked Wednesday how the president might react to the rate increase, Warsh said, “I’ve got nothing for you on a discussion with the president.”

Trump again called for lower interest rates in a social media post late Wednesday, but didn’t comment on the Fed’s action. On Sunday, Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, was asked in an interview with Fox News how Trump might react to a rate hike.

“I’m sure he’s not going to be super happy about it, but he will defend the independence of Kevin Warsh above all,” Hassett said.

Warsh might also have a measure of protection from the fact that his father-in-law is Ronald Lauder, a friend of Trump’s and a billionaire donor to his campaigns.

A Venezuelan man shot by U.S. Border Patrol in Portland earlier this year was sentenced Wednesday to time served.

Luis Niño-Moncada was shot outside a medical clinic in January while fleeing an immigration traffic stop. He’s spent about nine months in federal custody.

Niño-Moncada appeared in court Wednesday, dressed in street clothes.

During a tearful statement in court, Niño-Moncada told U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut he thought he was going to be killed.

“I have never been so scared,” he said, speaking through an interpreter. “Despite my experiences I love this country and the people in it.”

The shooting in Portland came at a time of heightened anxiety over the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown. On Jan. 7, just one day before Niño-Moncada was shot, an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Immergut thanked him before adding, “From the perspective of the law enforcement agents it was frightening to them too,” she said. “Both sides felt very frightened and at risk.”

In July, Niño-Moncada pleaded guilty to depredation of federal property for damaging a rental vehicle driven by Border Patrol officers. Federal prosecutors dismissed a more serious felony charge, assaulting a federal officer.

Prosecutors argued Niño-Moncada drove a Toyota pickup “recklessly endangering the federal agents who had surrounded his vehicle to make the arrest.”

Defense attorneys argued the order of events would’ve been contested had the case gone to trial. Citing physical and video evidence, Niño-Moncada’s defense attorneys argued the Border Patrol officer who shot him that day had moved toward the Toyota and “was not in position to be hit by the truck; he likely fired to prevent the truck from fleeing rather than in self-defense.”

They also acknowledged there was no justification for rapidly backing the pickup into the empty rental car.

“He accepts responsibility and punishment for that conduct,” defense attorneys wrote in court filings. “Mr. Niño-Moncada’s decision was made in a moment of panic and does not reflect a pattern of combative or defiant behavior.”

The rental vehicle was destroyed, and as part of his sentence, Niño-Moncada was ordered to repay $24,413 in restitution.

“We believe that is a reasonable sentence,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds said Wednesday in court, adding, “Hertz rental car is the victim.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Benson told Immergut his client had suffered from his injuries and was the first client he met in the hospital.

“That was a career first for me,” Benson said.

On Friday, Benson filed court documents stating U.S. Customs and Border Protection attempted to “remove” evidence from the scene, but was prevented by Portland police officers. Those details were not discussed during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

The Oregon Department of Justice continues to investigate the shooting.

An Oregon man accused of killing five women in the Portland area has been charged in connection with the death of a sixth woman.

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez announced Wednesday that Jesse Lee Calhoun was charged for the death of 32-year-old Elizabeth “Libby” Gibson, of Portland. The grand jury returned an indictment for manslaughter in the first degree against Calhoun.

Gibson was last seen in 2022 but was not reported missing until March 2023. Prosecutors believe Calhoun killed her on Nov. 18, 2022. That would make her death the first among those Calhoun allegedly killed.

Gibson’s body has still not been found, they said.

In a statement issued by the district attorney’s office, Gibson’s family called the indictment “a definitive step toward justice.”

“Libby was kind, creative, and silly. She welcomed everyone with love and acceptance,” the statement read. “Her future was tragically taken from her way too soon.”

Calhoun already faces five charges of second-degree murder. Prosecutors say that, in addition to Gibson, he killed five women during a six-month span in 2022 and 2023.

In 2024, he was charged with the murders of 24-year-old Charity Lynn Perry, 31-year-old Bridget Leann Webster and 32-year-old Joanna Speaks.

In August 2025, he was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Kristin Smith. In May of this year, prosecutors also charged him with the murder of 22-year-old Ashley Real.

“The loss of life here is immense,” Vasquez said. “The scope is difficult to really even comprehend, and my heart goes out to each of the victim’s family as they are dealing with this profound and horrific tragedy each and every day.”

Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Melissa Marrero said the district attorney’s office is asking the public for any information about Gibson’s disappearance or death.

“To the extent that individuals have been willing to come forward in the past and provide information to us — no matter how small — that information has led us to where we are here today,” Marrero said.

How police came to connect Calhoun with Gibson’s disappearance remains unclear. Prosecutors have yet to release the indictment, and they declined to answer questions from reporters about how Gibson knew Calhoun or how she disappeared, citing the ongoing investigation.

Calhoun will have an arraignment in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Monday.

Marrero said it’s possible that the new charges could push back Calhoun’s trial. A planned jury trial for September 2027 had already been canceled.

Oregon State Police said the crash happened just before 9 p.m. on Highway 30, near milepost 85.

According to OSP, 65-year-old Markham Stangland, of Warrenton, crossed his Ford Ranger into the oncoming traffic lane and sideswiped the truck carrying four Guard members. Stangland’s pickup also struck the van that was carrying 11 guard members.

Lt. Col. Stephen Bomar, director of public affairs for the Oregon Military Department, confirmed Wednesday the total number of guard members involved in Saturday’s crash was 15. The two vehicles were returning from a training event at Camp Rilea.

According to Bomar, 13 service members were injured and transported to a nearby hospital, including the van’s driver. Three Guard members remained hospitalized as of Wednesday afternoon, he said.

Another vehicle was unable to stop and crashed into the van and Stangland’s truck.

Police said a total of 17 people were involved in Saturday’s crash, which triggered a major response from local first responders.

Stangland was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.

The crash remains under investigation.

In a rare move, the state of Oregon reversed its decision to fire its chief human resources officer — who said she was trying to hold public officials accountable — and will instead offer her a new role at another state agency, give her back pay and cover her attorney fees.

Jessica Knieling was fired by the state’s Department of Administrative Services in June. She starts a new job with the state’s Department of Justice next week, where she will serve as a senior policy advisor.

Her monthly salary will be $23,008, the same pay she made at DAS before being fired. DAS, the agency charged with handling most of the state’s administrative work, will still be paying Knieling’s salary while she’s working at the justice department. She will also receive back pay to the date she was fired and an additional $50,000 to pay her attorneys.

“Jessica will be engaged in agency‑wide operational and project work, supporting key initiatives across the department,” according to Jenny Hansson, a spokeswoman with the DOJ. “She will be at DOJ on a two-year limited duration assignment.”

Knieling was fired in June after refusing to resign. At the time, she told OPB that people “in power are making up reasons for firing me which are not supported by the facts.”

“I consistently gave advice that would hold public officials accountable and I’m confident that I’ll be vindicated when the full story comes out,” Knieling said at the time.

The full story is not out. But Knieling does seem to have been at least partially vindicated.

As part of the settlement deal, Knieling’s paperwork will be changed from saying she was fired to saying she resigned effective Sept. 21, when she takes the job with the justice department.

Knieling was hired by the state’s administrative services wing in October 2023 with a $276,096 salary.

In August, DAS released an investigative report that alleged Knieling was fired for not following state policies. At the time, Knieling called it “deeply flawed” and said she was working on a response. DAS officials did not immediately give OPB a copy of Knieling’s response when asked.

“DAS reached an agreement with Jessica Knieling that avoids the significant costs and time demands of litigation,” Chris Liedle, a spokesman for DAS, wrote in an email.

Explore KMHD’s full community events calendar here.

‘American Sons’ theatrical screening and panel conversation in Salem

Join OPB in Salem for a theatrical screening of “American Sons.” The film follows a brotherhood of Marines a decade after their deployment to Afghanistan, as they struggle to overcome the trauma of combat and the loss of their friend, Corporal JV Villarreal.

“American Sons” is an intimate view of life on the front lines and the unbreakable bonds formed in war and serves as a poignant exploration of resilience, grief and the urgent need for mental health support among veterans.

Following the screening, hear a conversation with the filmmaker and voices from the film. There will be time for audience Q&A.

EVENT DETAILS:

Thursday, September 17

Doors at 5:30 p.m. | Program at 6:30 p.m.

Elsinore Theatre

170 High St. SE, Salem

Tickets are required for this event. Seating is first come, first served.

Veterans and their families are welcome to join us at a discounted rate. Select “Veteran Family Ticket” at checkout. All proceeds support OPB’s public service journalism and storytelling.

This program contains language and combat footage that may be disturbing for sensitive viewers. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Get tickets at opb.org/americansons.

‘The Living Legacy of Colegio César Chávez’ at Salem Public Library

Watch “The Living Legacy of Colegio César Chávez,” a short documentary from OPB’s “Oregon Experience” about a Chicano college that continues to inspire as Latine communities fight against erasure. After the screening, there will be a panel discussion.

This event will be presented in English and Spanish. Request language or ASL interpretation at 503-588-6315 or library@cityofsalem.net at least 2 business days in advance.

Únase a nosotros para ver un corto programa de OPB sobre el colegio histórico Chicano de Oregón mientras continua a inspirar comunidades latinas a luchar contra la invisibilización. Después del documental, habrá un panel de discusión.Este evento se presentará en inglés y español.

Solicite interpretación de lenguaje o ASL al 503-588-6315 o library@cityofsalem.net con al menos dos días por adelantado.

EVENT DETAILS:

Friday, Sept. 25, 2026

Screening at 6 p.m.

Loucks Auditorium, Salem Public Library

585 Liberty St SE, Salem

Free to attend. Learn more here.

History Pub: Oregonians Experiencing Archaeology

Presented by Oregon Historical Society

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Oregon Archaeological Society (OAS), take a behind-the-scenes look at the research and field work, including archaeological insights, that leads to new episodes of OPB’s “Oregon Experience”. From revelations about Chinese cowboys and doctors to early-twentieth-century logging families, archaeologists are making significant new conclusions about Oregon history.

In this special presentation, archaeologist Chelsea Rose, OPB “Oregon Experience” executive producer Arya Surowidjojo, and OPB producer Christie Goshe share historical context and stories about how the documentaries are made — including new footage from the 2026 Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) summer field school. OAS representatives will be on hand to share information about how you can get involved.

EVENT DETAILS:

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026

Doors 6 p.m. | Program at 7 p.m.

McMenamins Old St. Francis School

700 N.W. Bond St., Bend

All ages welcome. Tickets on sale now here.

‘All Science. No Fiction.’ LIVE at Oregon State University

Experience a night of science and curiosity with the creators of OPB’s original science series “All Science. No Fiction.” live at Oregon State University. OPB’s Jes Burns and Brandon Swanson will spotlight some of the most innovative science happening in the Pacific Northwest. Join us for playful demonstrations that are fun for all ages – including a chance to take a selfie with a giant uterus!

This family-friendly event is open to the public as well as attendees of the National Association of Science Writers conference. Appropriate for people ages 10 and up.

EVENT DETAILS:

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026

Doors at 7 p.m. | Program at 7:30 p.m.

OSU’s Austin Auditorium, LaSells Stewart Center

875 SW 26th St., Corvallis

Tickets on sale now at opb.org/asnflive

‘Politics Now’ Live in Beaverton

Join OPB and special guests for a live taping of OPB’s “Politics Now” podcast. Each week, the “Politics Now” team offers a deep dive into the hottest political topics in Oregon and the Northwest. At this live taping, we’re taking a closer look at 2026 midterm election candidates, as well as events and issues that are top of mind for Beaverton communities.

EVENT DETAILS:

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026

Doors at 6:30 p.m. | Program at 7 p.m.

Patricia Reser Center for the Arts

12625 SW Crescent St., Beaverton

Tickets on sale now here.

‘Politics Now’ Live in Corvallis

Join OPB and special guests for a live taping of OPB’s “Politics Now” podcast. Each week, the “Politics Now” team offers a deep dive into the hottest political topics in Oregon and the Northwest.

EVENT DETAILS:

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

Doors at 6:30 p.m. | Program at 7 p.m.

Detrick Concert Hall, PRAx at Oregon State University

470 SW 15th St., Corvallis

Tickets available now: opb.org/prax

Film Tour: ‘First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath’

Watch the film | Meet the people | Connect with history in person

Join us with OPB producer Jessie Sears (Karuk) as we kick off our film tour for “First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath.”

In 2025, 28 Indigenous youth completed a 300-mile, 30-day river expedition, becoming the first to paddle the entire Klamath River from source to sea since four major dams were removed. An “Oregon Field Guide” special, “First Descent” brings you an inside look at this emotional, historic and triumphant journey.

This event is part of a series of community screening events happening across Oregon in 2026. Check back for information about future event dates and locations.

Event details are subject to change. Check back for updates.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years Wednesday, in a show of its determination to attack stubborn inflation.

The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a range between 3.75% and 4%. That makes it more costly to borrow money to buy a car, grow a business or carry a balance on a credit card.

“Inflation remains elevated,” Fed policymakers said in a statement. “Today’s policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee’s 2% goal.”

The U.S. war with Iran has rekindled inflation, pushing oil and gasoline prices higher and driving the price of diesel fuel into record territory. Higher interest rates won’t automatically bring lower prices at the pump, but they do signal the central bank’s commitment to restoring price stability.

Financial markets had widely expected the rate hike after hawkish comments from Fed chairman Kevin Warsh last month.

“The responsibility for 65 months of sustained, elevated inflation sits squarely with the central bank,” Warsh told an audience in Jackson Hole, Wyo. “We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed. Otherwise, we have work to do.”

Still, some economists questioned whether the rate hike would have much effect on price pressures.

“Today’s decision reinforces the Fed’s commitment to price stability and addresses credibility concerns,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at the real estate data firm Cotality. “The bigger question is whether the Fed risks fighting the wrong inflation battle. A rate hike is unlikely to lower gasoline prices, reduce tariff-related costs, or accelerate homebuilding, but it will further dampen housing demand and delay a broader market recovery.”

Gas prices are a big driver of inflation

Annual inflation was clocked at 3.4% in August, according to the cost-of-living index released by the Labor Department last week. Prices rose a sharp four-tenths of a percent between July and August, with a surge in gasoline prices accounting for more than a third of the total monthly increase.

The price of diesel fuel has reached an all-time high, averaging $6.31 a gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA. That has the potential to raise the cost of many other goods that have to be transported by truck or train.

Since April, prices have been climbing faster than average wages, so the typical worker’s paycheck doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.

Forecasts released at the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting show Fed policymakers expect an average of one additional quarter-point rate increase this year and no rate hikes in 2027.

Warsh, who took over as Fed chairman in May, did not offer a forecast. He has generally discouraged such forward guidance, fearing it could tie the Fed’s hands and leave policymakers with less maneuvering room.

The bond market is already pushing long-term borrowing costs higher. The yield on 10-year Treasurys topped 5% this week. Bondholders are demanding higher returns in response to inflation and the strong demand for capital from both the federal government and private borrowers.

The yield on 10-year Treasurys helps set the rate for many types of borrowing, including mortgages and car loans.

Mail-in voting in Oregon and other states will continue as usual this election year.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Trump administration effort to restrict vote by mail.

Oregon election workers have been watching the legal back-and-forth on this issue closely because Oregon is one of the few states that conducts elections solely by mail.

As the Deschutes County Clerk, Steve Dennison is the top elections official there. He spoke with “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross.

Geoff Norcross: When you heard about the Supreme Court’s decision, what went through your mind?

Steve Dennison: A bit of a relief, to be honest. Even though we had been moving forward with business-as-usual planning, having that lingering question about what the USPS would or wouldn’t do when we mailed ballots or voters returned them, of course, was a lingering concern, even though the laws hadn’t changed and our rules had not changed to that point. But once hearing that, there was a bit of relief.

Norcross: The president’s order would have done a number of things. But for your purposes, it would have required you to add barcodes to ballots that go to eligible voters, so the U.S. Postal Service would know if they could be delivered. And the Supreme Court decision basically means your office doesn’t have to do that, at least not now. What might it have meant for you if the high court said the president’s order can stand?

Dennison: A change like that is so significant. I’ll use an example. A few years ago, when the state started paying for prepaid postage for voters to return their ballots, it required all 36 counties to redesign our ballot return envelopes to allow just for that simple postage to be on there and other USPS requirements. That took months, and that was a simple change. Something like this would take a lot more time and planning to ensure that it was done properly and effectively and that it worked.

Norcross: There have been lawsuits filed, injunctions imposed, injunctions lifted, lawsuits refiled, questions about standing, this decision from the Supreme Court. There have been so many turns in this story, and it’s been going on since March. How closely did you follow all that?

Dennison: Yes, you’re right, so many twists and turns, and it’s been dizzying. To be honest, it’s been a lot to keep track of. I will say, the 36 counties, we communicate very well, very effectively with one another. The state has been fantastic in sharing every one of those twists and turns when they were significant enough to talk about. So being in lockstep with each other as counties and with the secretary of state’s office has been important, and it’s kept us up to date.

Norcross: It seems pretty clear this election can go forward as planned and you can start mailing out your ballots as they are. What about future elections? Do you see this legal drama playing out again?

Dennison: Boy, I hope not. But I don’t know. I don’t know that anybody has a real sense of closure over any of this. I mean, if you had asked me a year ago if we would have been talking about something as drastic of a change as what this was, as close to the election, I would have said that that was nonsense and impossible. So I wouldn’t say that this chapter is permanently closed. But then again, I’m not the lawyer. We will be following along with the secretary of state’s office, and if something does come down the pike that does require a change or us to change our materials or process, we know that we won’t be doing it alone as a county or as a state. We would be all in it together. I just hope that we have plenty of runway to be able to implement any of those changes effectively.

Norcross: What’s your message to Deschutes County voters who have been hearing the news and have been hearing a lot of different stories about what’s happening to their right to vote?

Dennison: I’ve been maintaining the statement that it is business as usual, and it has been business as usual because the laws here in Oregon had not changed, and they still haven’t. Everything is intact. Voters can expect to receive their ballot in a timely manner as they always have. We are mailing ballots across the state here to all registered voters on Oct. 14th. We ask voters to give their ballots a few days to work their way through the mail. They’ll likely receive it by that weekend. But if voters don’t have their ballot in their hand by the week of Oct. 19th, contact your county clerk’s office, stop by your county clerk’s office, pick up a ballot and then have your plan and be ready to vote that ballot and return it timely.

Norcross: And on the topic of returning, the secretary of state says it’s a good idea to use a dropbox and not mail it in. That’s always true, but it’s especially true this year. Do you believe that too?

Dennison: Using a dropbox, it’s just like going from the voter’s hands to the county clerks office’s hands. It’s a direct chain of custody. I don’t want to discourage anybody from using the mail. Some people prefer to use the mail. I would just say that, if you are choosing to use the mail, just make sure you do mail it early, mail it timely. Don’t wait. Anything later than that week before Election Day is getting really close to crunch time. If you are going to mail it and it’s getting closer to Election Day, take it to the post office directly and ask them to hand postmark that ballot for you. Get that valid postmark on or before Election Day so that when we receive it, we can count it.

At OPB, it’s our belief that while artificial intelligence has the potential to empower journalism, it should never replace the judgment, curiosity or accountability of journalists. AI may help with tasks like research, transcription or data analysis, but it does not make editorial decisions. Journalists remain responsible for every story we publish, every product we develop and every way audiences engage with our journalism.

Our approach is grounded in core journalistic values: accuracy, transparency, accountability, independence and service to the public. OPB applies the same standards to AI-assisted work that we apply to all journalism.

This policy is a living document and will continue to evolve as we thoughtfully and responsibly experiment with this emerging technology and as the technology itself evolves.

People first

OPB does not use AI to reduce staffing or replace journalists. AI is used to support, not substitute, editorial and other work.

Transparency

When AI plays a significant role in contributing to something that is seen or used by the public, OPB will disclose its use. Disclosures will describe what AI was used for. When relevant, OPB will also explain prompts or methods used to generate AI-assisted material.

Accuracy and human accountability

All AI-generated or AI-assisted material must be reviewed, verified, and approved by OPB journalists and editors before publication. OPB does not publish information generated by AI without human fact-checking. Journalists remain fully responsible for the accuracy of all published content, including any material supported by AI tools.

Privacy and data protection

OPB’s relationship with its audience and sources depends on trust, and that includes how we handle data when using AI tools. We do not upload unpublished reporting, sensitive source material or confidential newsroom information into public AI systems. This includes interview transcripts, reporter notes, off-the-record conversations and other non-public materials.

Commitment to fair and equitable reporting

OPB is committed to reflecting a wide range of voices in our journalism. AI systems are trained on existing data and can carry forward gaps, inaccuracies or bias. When OPB uses AI in its reporting process, we review outputs for missing context and misleading framing. We rely on original reporting, diverse sourcing and editorial judgment to present a full and accurate picture. AI does not replace reporting from communities, independent verification or editorial responsibility.

We acknowledge the environmental impact associated with the use of AI systems and commit to being mindful of resource efficiency in their application.

Dancer knows the routine.

The 21-year-old black-and-white war pony has memorized the turns through the outdoor arena that transforms into a stage for Eastern Oregon history every September.

His rider, Aaron Hines, dressed in a bright orange shirt and jeans, sat atop Dancer during a recent rehearsal, both at ease, waiting for their cue. The bond he and Dancer have built over the last eight years made their routine look smooth and effortless.

They’re veterans of the Pendleton Round-Up’s Happy Canyon Night Show, a pageant involving about 700 animals and volunteers aiming to tell the stories of the region. A whole roster of events for Eastern Oregon’s largest rodeo starts this week, with Happy Canyon opening its 110th season to crowds Wednesday night. This Round-Up will also be Hines and Dancer’s last performance together.

“It’s time to pass it on to the younger generation to take over and keep doing it,” he said.

Hines, 40, is the CEO of Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He has been part of the Happy Canyon show since he was a kid, a family tradition that stretches back generations.

His grandmother, Mary Hines, was just a newborn in 1911 when she was part of an encampment near the banks of the Umatilla River in Pendleton, a historical gathering symbolized today by hundreds of tipis set up by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and others during the Round-Up. She became a regular volunteer for the event in its early decades, lending horses and regalia to people who needed them for the festivities. She died in 1989 and was inducted into the Pendleton Round-Up & Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in 2021.

Her grandson, a CTUIR tribal member, grew up around that tradition, learning the ins and outs of the show from his family. He and Dancer, a gelding with a sleek, spotted coat, began starring in a key role in 2018 — the Camp Crier.

This messenger rides through the encampment to deliver news, create gatherings or make announcements — a role that holds a deep significance to the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes.

And horses are family, said Umatilla Tribal member Gary Burke, a former member of the CTUIR board of directors.

Since the 1700s, the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes have had large herds, Burke said, making it possible to travel further across the region, hunt and trade with tribes east of the Rocky Mountains and carry their belongings.

“Sometimes other Indians will give you horses, like if somebody dies and they’re really important to you,” Burke said. Burke said he was once gifted a horse from the Dakotas, who have a tradition of offering favorite horses to others.

Hines didn’t get Dancer as a colt. His previous owner passed away and Hines bought him from the family about eight years ago.

Once he started training Dancer for Happy Canyon, he said, there were days he learned more about himself than the horse.

“I needed to have the patience for something like this,” he said. “I think that really was probably one thing that I learned early on with doing this role.”

In the weeks before their last show, he and Dancer came down to the set two or three nights a week for a few quick run-throughs of their scenes. They’d ride through the arena and get reacquainted with the sights and sounds they’ll encounter during the pageant’s four-night run Sept. 16-19.

During one rehearsal last week, Dancer strutted confidently through the arena.

It’s in his blood — or at least now it is, Hines said, laughing.

“He was a young horse when we started,” Hines said. “It just took time and work but he’s good at it now.”

Hines will pass the Camp Crier torch to Lucien Cook, 19, who will ride Hines’ horse, Whiskey, a 14-year-old gelding with a brown-and-white spotted coat and distinctive blue eyes.

Cook, who’s part of the Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes, said he rode him through the show last year, but it wasn’t a major role. As he prepares for the spotlight next year, here are some personality quirks he’s still learning about the blue-eyed horse.

Whiskey sneezed and shook his head, while Cook explained his latest discovery.

“He has a fear of garbage cans. We just learned that,” Cook said. “It should be a learning curve, but it’ll be exciting.”

Hines said this is a role for a young warrior, one that he believes Cook will be able to fulfill as long as he has the patience, time and willingness to learn alongside Whiskey.

The Kennedy Center’s board of directors on Tuesday voted to close the historic arts center in a meeting that began just minutes after a federal judge once again stopped a plan to put President Trump’s name on the building.

The president immediately vowed to cancel a planned renovation of the facility unless the decision about adding his name is reversed by a higher court.

Trump wrote: “The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.”

The plaintiff in the federal suit, Rep. Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, filed Trump’s statement with the federal judge.

Administrators of the Kennedy Center told the board in recent days that the physical plant of the complex’s main building is unsafe, and that the center’s finances are “within weeks” of bankruptcy.

Kennedy Center officials did not reply to NPR’s requests for comment.

Limited offerings will remain

Even before Tuesday’s vote, the Kennedy Center was down to a skeletal version of itself. Ticket sales had plummeted, and many prominent artists had canceled planned appearances, saying that the center had become politicized under Trump. There were very few events on the calendar. Most of the administrative staff had already either been fired or had left.

The board has been signposting its desire to close the center’s main venues for months. A small, fairly recently opened extension called the REACH will remain open, in part to fulfill the Congressional mandate of making the living memorial to President John F. Kennedy open and accessible to the public.

Additionally, the board wrote in documents filed with the federal court that it intends to make allowances for two of the center’s signature programs, as well as for the National Symphony Orchestra, whose budget is tethered to the Kennedy Center.

A proposed resolution by the board, included in those documents, pledges “continued programming in the REACH and offsite,” as well as continued support for “the National Symphony Orchestra, and continuing the Center’s longstanding tradition of presenting the Kennedy Center Honors and Mark Twain Prize.”

That, the resolution adds, will enable enough “engagement” with artists, donors and patrons so that “a two-year closure of the main building will not unduly affect its ability to ramp up programming in a revitalized main building in 2028.”

Need for Congressional approval

A lengthy memorandum circulated to the board before the vote, which NPR obtained on Monday, deals strictly with the physical plant. It does not detail any plans of how programming will “ramp up” in the years to come. Marquee artists of the caliber previously presented by the Kennedy Center usually schedule their performances years in advance.

But the board had doubled down on its argument that only Trump can “save” the Kennedy Center. Most of the current Kennedy Center board members are Trump allies who were picked by the president, who now also serves as the arts institution’s chair. Those members include individuals like former attorney general Pam Bondi, Fox host Laura Ingraham, and Dana Kraft, the wife of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft — people very close to Trump.

This board has no known experience in the administration of a performing arts institution. The last president of the Kennedy Center, former Ambassador Richard Grenell, tried to insist that every performance be revenue-generating or at least revenue-neutral. Its current executive director and chief operating officer, Matt Floca, was elevated from his position as head of facilities for the Kennedy Center. Unlike his peers at similar centers across the country, Floca has no prior experience in artistic direction, fundraising or arts administration.

Tuesday’s board meeting began just minutes after a federal judge, Christopher Cooper, ruled that the board cannot put President Trump’s name back on the building, or rename the physical grounds of the arts center as the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

In a 22-page decision, Cooper referred to an earlier ruling, as well Congress’ mandate regarding the living memorial to John F. Kennedy. “Simply put,” he wrote, “Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

The ruling came as part of the ongoing federal lawsuit filed by Rep. Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board. She originally sued last December to stop the board from renaming the arts institution as “The Trump Kennedy Center.”

Beatty’s lawsuit does not address the renovation plans.

In his decision, Cooper left open for now the possibility of whether or not the board can name its planned $100 million fundraising campaign “The Trump Kennedy Center Fund,” or include any such plaque or other signage at the center eventually. The board has said that using Trump’s name is crucial to its efforts to raise money for the center. In his decision, Cooper wrote: “The fund has raised nothing yet.”

The board has placed Trump at the locus of its efforts, arguing both publicly and in court that the president is the only person who can fundraise at such a massive scale or successfully oversee such an extensive renovation project — and, as such, deserved public credit in the form of signage on the front of the arts complex.

In a statement emailed to NPR Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Beatty wrote: “The law is extremely clear: The John F. Kennedy Center is named for President Kennedy — and no one else. But President Trump is holding the Kennedy Center hostage unless he can put his name on this sacred memorial. The Court just rejected this proposal for the second time. This unlawfulness is as breathtaking as it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday proposed making Canada the European Union’s first associate member, a striking overture as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs drive Ottawa closer to Europe.

Trump’s tariffs and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Canada to seek closer economic and security ties with Europe. Roughly 70% of Canadian exports go to the United States, and Carney has called for a “unique alliance” with the EU as Canada seeks to reduce that dependence.

“I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada being the first associate member of the EU,” von der Leyen told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during her annual State of the European Union address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Carney nodded, rose from his seat, embraced von der Leyen and kissed her on both cheeks as lawmakers gave a standing ovation. He is due to address the Parliament on Thursday.

A Canadian official familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press last week that Ottawa was exploring ties with the EU that could stop just short of membership. The official said Canada would seek an arrangement allowing its citizens to live and work in Europe without visas as part of a broader strategic partnership.

Carney’s office welcomed von der Leyen’s proposal, saying Canada was deepening ties with the EU “to strengthen our sovereignty” and supported a move beyond their existing free trade agreement, known as CETA, to what she called an “Alliance for the Future.”

Von der Leyen said the broader alliance would aim to create “a common prosperity and economic security space.”

She cast that closer relationship as rooted not just in trade but in shared democratic values.

“Above all, dear Mark, Europe and Canada believe in democracy,” von der Leyen said to Carney, who sat in the front row to her left.

“We believe that power does not belong to the strongest, the richest or the loudest, but to all of us. That democracies have the freedom to choose with whom to work.”

Canada has already joined the EU’s defense procurement program

Von der Leyen said the expanded partnership would cover advanced manufacturing, technology, defense production, the Arctic, energy, critical minerals, batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity and economic security.

“This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said. “In short, we want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.”

However, she gave no details of how the associate membership would work or how it would fit with the other countries negotiating full membership of the bloc.

Canada this year became the first non-European country to join the EU’s 150-billion-euro ($173-billion) SAFE defense program, giving Canadian companies access to joint procurement.

Iratxe García Pérez, president of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, praised Carney for showing “great courage confronting Donald Trump” and said allies were needed to defend “sovereignty, solidarity and international law.”

Carney said Tuesday that economic integration, once viewed largely as an asset, is increasingly “being used as a weapon by certain countries.” On Tuesday he said discussions would ramp up at the Canada-EU summit in Montreal in late October.

Carney has urged middle powers to work together

Canada has retaliated against U.S. tariffs and rejected trade terms Carney says would weaken its sovereignty.

The EU has taken a different course with Washington, reaching a trade agreement that set a 15% U.S. tariff ceiling on the vast majority of EU exports while Europe eliminated tariffs on U.S. industrial goods.

That contrast has loomed over Carney’s push for closer European ties. In a closely watched speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he urged middle powers to work together to increase their leverage in an era of great-power rivalry.

“When we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered,” Carney said.

“This is not sovereignty,” he said. “It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”

Carney’s Davos speech on middle powers in January drew a personal rebuke from Trump, and von der Leyen’s overture to America’s neighbor could raise the temperature again.

Barry Andrews, chair of the European Parliament’s Development Committee, called Canada “a perfect ally for Europe” and said closer ties could bring particular benefits for Ireland, noting that more than 10% of Canadians claim Irish ancestry.

Good morning, Northwest.

Polling shows a tight race for Oregon governor, as Republican Christine Drazan seeks to unseat incumbent Democrat Tina Kotek. Also hoping to be a factor in the race is Brett Smith of the Pacific Green Party.

Third-party candidates, including Betsy Johnson in 2022, have a history of racking up meaningful vote counts in Oregon. To begin today’s newsletter, OPB’s Dirk VanderHart explores whether Smith can make a similar impact this year.

In other news, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said yesterday he would consider it a “failure” if the Blazers left Portland.

Here’s your First Look at Wednesday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

‘Spoilers’ happen in Oregon. Will this year’s race for governor join the list?

November’s rematch between Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and GOP state Sen. Christine Drazan features just one other name on the ballot: Brett Smith, a nominee of the left-leaning Pacific Green Party.

Smith’s potential impact in the race has divided political observers. Some Democrats privately acknowledge being concerned he could siphon away votes Kotek needs if the race is tight. Republicans and other conservative-minded Oregonians would welcome that possibility.

Polling released yesterday suggests Smith could attract as much as 4% of the vote, though few of those respondents said they were definitely planning on filling out the ballot for him.

But Kotek’s campaign and the Democratic Party of Oregon suggest they’re not sweating Smith, who has yet to report raising any money. They point out Kotek prevailed four years ago despite Betsy Johnson’s well-heeled presence in the race. (Dirk VanderHart)

Learn More

3 things to know

• Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison told OPB’s “All Things Considered” he felt relieved when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Trump administration effort to restrict vote by mail. (Geoff Norcross)
• Farmers who already often find themselves at the whim of Mother Nature are now facing what could be the strongest El Niño weather system on record, bringing continued uncertainty to Pacific Northwest growers on the heels of an already challenging season. (Alejandro Figueroa)
• The Woodburn City Council has enacted a 120-day moratorium on the development of data centers, one of the most contentious political flashpoints in the country. Officials say the city might not be able to accommodate the potentially large amount of water that data centers often require. (Joni Auden Land)

Northwest headlines

• New poll shows Christine Drazan with narrow lead in Oregon governor’s race (Dirk VanderHart)
• Adam Silver would consider it a ‘failure’ if NBA lets Blazers leave Portland (Alex Zielinski)
• Providence announces $1.1 billion pledge from Phil and Penny Knight (Amelia Templeton)
• Washington lawmakers face another $1 billion decision on lawsuit payouts (Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard)
• Trump nominates Pete Serrano for US attorney in western Washington (Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard)
• Port of Bandon returns memorial site to Coquille Indian Tribe (Theo Greenly, JPR)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Portland State University hosts first Indigenous Foods Summit
• Oregon conservationist on steps to prevent community loss during wildfire season

One more look

Gray whales connect Oregon’s coast to a changing Bering Sea

Gray whales were once considered a conservation success after the end of commercial whaling.

The North Pacific population peaked at an estimated 27,000 whales in 2016, but has since fallen as low as 13,000 in 2025. While the estimate has increased this year, scientists from around the world who gathered at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport recently say the whales are not in the clear.

Changing conditions on the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska, including shrinking sea ice, have emerged as a leading explanation for the struggles befalling gray whales. (Brianna Bowman, KLCC)

Learn More

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Dan Lavey had just passed Roseburg when he saw his first hint of trouble.

It was 2008, and Lavey was a campaign strategist hoping to steer U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith to reelection.

The Democratic challenger, Jeff Merkley, wasn’t making that easy. But it wasn’t Merkley’s name plastered on the hand-made signs Lavey began to notice in fields on a campaign trip to Southern Oregon.

They touted David Brownlow, a conservative Constitution Party candidate Lavey and his boss hadn’t paid much attention to.

“Holy crap,” Lavey recently recalled thinking. “This could be a problem, which it turned out to be.”

Brownlow proved a crucial factor in Smith’s narrow loss that year – one of a handful of potential “spoiler” outcomes in Oregon over the last three decades.

The question this year is whether a Democratic incumbent risks the same fate.

November’s rematch between Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek and GOP state Sen. Christine Drazan features just one other name on the ballot: Brett Smith, a nominee of the left-leaning Pacific Green Party.

Smith’s potential impact in the race has divided political observers. Some Democrats privately acknowledge being concerned he could siphon away votes Kotek needs if the race is tight. Republicans and other conservative-minded Oregonians would welcome that possibility.

“In a close race, even an unknown minor party candidate, especially when he’s the only one, creates an unpredictable variable that both Kotek and Drazan should take seriously,” said Lavey, who four years ago also helped manage the gubernatorial campaign of Betsy Johnson, a former state senator and moderate Democrat.

Polling released Tuesday suggests Smith could attract 4% of the vote, though few of those respondents said they were definitely planning on filling out the ballot for him.

But Kotek’s campaign and the Democratic Party of Oregon say they’re not sweating Smith, who has yet to report raising any money. They point out Kotek prevailed four years ago despite Johnson’s well-heeled presence in the race.

“In 2022, there was a third party candidate on the ballot who spent over $17 million and was expected to boost Christine Drazan, and Governor Kotek still won by a comfortable margin,” DPO Communications Advisor Thomas Crawford said in an email. “We’re confident voters will reelect Governor Kotek so she can continue making progress for our state.”

Johnson’s impact on the 2022 race – including from whom she pulled her more than 168,000 votes – is a matter of some dispute in political circles. Drazan has said this year that she was forced to spend time competing with Johnson for money and votes in rural areas in a way that she won’t this go-round.

Others downplay Smith’s potential impact as well. Pacific Green candidates in past gubernatorial races have topped out with 2% of the vote, while Jill Stein’s much-discussed presidential candidacy in 2024 garnered less than 1% of Oregon ballots.

“I just don’t see a lot of evidence (historically or at the moment) that the Green Party is likely to be a big draw from voters in Oregon who would otherwise vote for the Democratic ticket,” Chris Shortell, a political science professor at Portland State University, wrote in an email.

A potentially tight race

The most forceful sales pitch voters are likely to hear from Brett Smith may come in the voter’s pamphlet, where he makes a plea for third-party voters and disillusioned Oregonians to rally behind him.

“It’s you that will make or break this race,” the statement says. “It’s you that will challenge the status quo. Whoever you vote for will win. It’s that simple.”

Smith’s platform includes pushing for universal healthcare, a rallying point for political organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America. Smith also wants a permanent moratorium on data centers, a stronger stance than either Drazan or Kotek have taken on an issue that’s become a national lightning rod.

Whether or not the candidate can turn what may be popular political stances into votes will likely depend on whether he has money to spend — or money is spent in his favor — according to political consultants and elected officials interviewed for this story.

“If [Smith] gets to 4 to 5% and this race is as competitive as everyone is saying, that’s significant,” said Rebecca Tweed, a Republican political consultant. “But can he get to that when he’s sitting on zero dollars right now?”

Limited polling in the governor’s race suggests the race could be tight.

Drazan led Kotek by four percentage points in one poll her campaign fielded in late June. In a more recent survey — conducted earlier this month and paid for by a business advocacy organization — Drazan’s lead was two points, within the 4% margin of error.

Smith received 4% of the vote in the recent poll once undecided voters were quizzed on which candidate they would lean toward.

Nationally, Democrats look to have an advantage this year, as Republicans contend with the unpopularity of President Donald Trump. But Kotek’s own low approval ratings have the state’s Democrats grappling with a similar dynamic, with some worrying that the governor’s re-election bid could fail to generate excitement among the party’s base.

“We have to acknowledge the competitiveness of this current contest, which is no longer on the periphery of the map,” the nonpartisan Cook Political Report wrote in a Sept. 10 analysis, in which it changed its rating of the race from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat.”

“The bar will be high for Drazan to sustain momentum in this political climate and separate herself from the national party if she wants a chance at an upset.”

‘People want a third, fourth party’

Third-party candidates often push back against accusations they are “spoilers” for major parties rather than viable candidates in their own right.

Brett Smith does not appreciate that characterization. Neither does Greg Kord, who in 2010 ran as the Constitution Party candidate for governor. Kord and another conservative candidate, Libertarian Party nominee Wes Wagner, claimed nearly 3% of the vote that year. Democrat John Kitzhaber wound up defeating Republican Chris Dudley by 1.5%.

“The Democrats and Republicans, they’re basically two heads on the same beast, and they always have been,” Kord, who now lives in Alabama, said in a recent interview with OPB. “People want a third, fourth party. They want to be able to choose somebody that’s different.”

After Dudley’s loss, Kord said he received “nastygrams” from Republicans who blamed him for the outcome. He says he’s seen no proof that’s the case.

Wagner, the Libertarian in that year’s race, recently told OPB he’s come to believe he helped tilt that election.

“We probably did split some of the anybody-but-Kitzhaber vote that couldn’t quite stomach the idea of Dudley,” said Wagner, who now lives in British Columbia. Like Kord, he is not worried by that possibility. “You can take the ethical position that any vote that I earned wasn’t a vote that anyone else deserved.”

Thomas Cox is another erstwhile candidate who believes he swung an election.

In 2002, Cox ran as the Libertarian nominee in a three-way race that also featured Democrat Ted Kulongoski and Republican Kevin Mannix. Cox took 4.6% of the vote – besides Johnson, the strongest showing for a third-party or independent candidate for governor this millennium. Mannix lost by fewer than three points.

Cox told OPB “it’s very likely” his candidacy decided the race, and even recounted working in unison with Kulongoski’s campaign to attack Mannix — a tactic he believes helped elevate his profile.

“I’m pretty sure the Democrats are the reason I got into five out of six debates,” Cox said.

It’s not clear that Smith, the Pacific Green nominee, will participate in any debate this year. But like his third-party predecessors, he offers withering criticisms of the two major parties and their candidates.

“We’re confronted with this choice of one of the worst governors in America or someone who’s affiliated with one of the worst administrations in history,” said Smith, whose platform also includes stances against corruption and war.

Smith is a former pipefitter and welder. In 2010, he invented a system to help his son live with cystic fibrosis, and has been working to bring that device to market. In the meantime, he’s taken an interest in politics.

Two years ago, Smith ran for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District as the nominee for the Independent Party of Oregon, winning 4.7% of the vote. He says he’s running for governor to offer a choice to people who feel disaffected by Oregon’s political status quo.

“My name being on there is going to hurt Tina Kotek,” he told OPB in July. “I have no intention of backing down. There’s nothing the Democrats can tell me that’s going to make me.”

Republicans, unsurprisingly, are unbothered by Smith’s presence in the race this year.

“Christine welcomes anyone who is willing to put their name on the ballot, make their case to Oregonians, and run for public office,” Ashley Quinton, a spokeswoman for Drazan, said in an email.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ nonchalance about Smith’s candidacy is somewhat novel. In each of Oregon’s past two governors’ elections, Democratic nominees cut deals to convince liberal minor party candidates to leave the race.

Kotek’s campaign did not directly answer a question about whether it believed Smith’s candidacy could take votes from the governor, suggesting instead it was only focused on Drazan.

“Fundamentally, this race is about keeping a progressive, proven governor in place as a bulwark against the Trump administration’s assaults on Oregon, or electing Republican Christine Drazan and opening the MAGA floodgates,” Federico Araujo, the campaign’s communications director, said in an email.

Whether or not the party can continue ignoring the Pacific Green Party candidate will likely depend on whether he can raise enough money to get his message before voters — a question mark for some within Smith’s own party.

“I don’t know how active he’s going to be, to be honest,” said Seth Woolley, treasurer for the Pacific Green Party of Oregon. “When he went for the nomination, he talked a big game. Bigger than we normally have.”

Scientists from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Russia and elsewhere gathered in person and virtually last week at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport for a landmark symposium on the uncertain future of gray whales.

Once considered a conservation success, the eastern North Pacific population rebounded after commercial whaling ended, and was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 1994. It peaked at an estimated 27,000 whales in 2016, but fell to roughly 13,000 by 2025, the lowest estimate since the 1970s.

The decline coincided with a surge in strandings that NOAA Fisheries designated an Unusual Mortality Event from 2019 to 2023. This year’s estimate increased to 17,750 whales, but scientists cautioned that gray whales are not yet out of the woods. Some that stranded this year appear to be suffering from malnutrition, with changes in the Bering Sea continuing as a leading explanation.

An environment dependent on sea ice

Jacqueline Grebmeier is a professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. She studies the ecology of the Bering Sea floor and the animals that live in and on its muddy sediment.

Among those animals are amphipods, small crustaceans that are a favorite food of gray whales. The whales reach them through a technique known as suction feeding.

“They’re the only whale that feeds off the bottom of the ocean,” Grebmeier explained. “It has to be shallow enough for them to dive. Traditionally, they go down, they scoop a bit of mud, they use their tongue to push it up against the roof of their mouth, squirt out the mud as they go up to the surface to get air, and then all the crustaceans, all the amphipods, stay, and then it goes down in their gut.”

The Bering Sea has long been recognized as an extraordinarily productive ecosystem. Its shallow depths, powerful winter storms and seasonal sea ice all help support its abundance of life.

Algae grow in and beneath the sea ice, then fall through the water and deliver an early pulse of carbon to the seafloor. A second pulse follows as the ice retreats and returning sunlight fuels large spring blooms of phytoplankton.

Following the food north

But as the ocean warms, sea ice is retreating. It no longer extends as far south as it once did, pushing that early carbon supplied by ice algae farther north. As a result, parts of the Bering Sea floor have fewer amphipods than gray whales traditionally rely on.

“I remember seeing them when they were just like cows in a pasture when I was a graduate student in the ’80s,” Grebmeier said. “And now we barely see them when we’re up in July. They’re actually farther up in the Chukchi Sea because the ice has pulled back.”

Scientists at the symposium repeatedly pointed to gray whales’ adaptability as a reason for hope despite their current challenges. Their ability to switch among different kinds of prey may help explain the species’ remarkable resilience.

But adaptability may not be enough. Alternative prey do not necessarily provide the same energetic payoff as amphipods. Krill, also known as euphausiids, can be comparably nutritious, but there may not be enough to sustain the same number of gray whales. Gray whales may also have to compete for krill with baleen whales better equipped to filter the tiny crustaceans, including bowhead and humpback whales, which have longer, finer baleen than gray whales.

A harbinger of broader ecosystem changes

Gray whales undertake one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling between breeding lagoons in Baja California and northern feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas. The round trip can span roughly 10,000 to 14,000 miles.

Scientists still debate why such an enormous migration evolved, but one explanation is that intensive summer feeding in the Bering Sea historically provided an energetic payoff large enough to justify the journey. Today, changes in the Bering Sea are altering the availability of that food, potentially diminishing the payoff.

Gray whales will likely continue visiting favored feeding grounds along their migration route, including the waters off Depoe Bay, and finding new feeding grounds, such as in recent observations in San Francisco Bay. Scientists at the symposium considered whether such stops could become more important sources of food if the Bering Sea is no longer reliable.

According to NOAA’s 2025 Arctic Report Card, annual Arctic temperatures are rising at more than twice the global rate of temperature changes. Ultimately, the whales’ decline highlights growing concern about the rapid pace of environmental change in the far north. These changes may seem distant, but gray whales offer a warning about what is happening, and what may lie ahead.

“It is a canary in a coal mine. It’s an indicator of the health, the status and trend of an ecosystem,” Grebmeier said. “If this change is going on with the gray whales, then in fact it says something about a big change that’s going on in one of the most productive places in the world.”

Brianna Bowman is a reporter with KLCC. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

The Port of Bandon has agreed to return a quarter-acre memorial site in Old Town to the Coquille Indian Tribe, transferring ownership of land where a Coquille village stood.

Tribal council members, elders and children joined port commissioners Sunday at the Nasomah Memorial to mark the transfer.

The port has owned the property for decades and has leased it to the tribe under a 99-year agreement. Commissioners voted unanimously in July to give the land to the tribe.

“Transfer of title is what it is,” Port Commission President Reg Pullen said. “It’s a gift, and the tribe has been great partners with us. We’ve endeavored in several ventures together, and I hope that we’ll do more in the future.”

Pullen said he expects the title transfer to close within a month.

Tribal Council Chair Brenda Meade said the presence of several generations at the gathering was deliberate.

“We have elders here to witness, and we have young people here to witness,” Meade said. “It’s really important to see that, because that’s how important it is to be recognized by others.”

‘Burials everywhere’

The village belonged to the Nasomah band of the Coquille Indian Tribe, who lived at the mouth of the Coquille River. In 1853, gold was discovered in the beach sands at nearby Whiskey Run Creek, drawing more than 1,000 miners who established the town of Randolph beside the village.

In January 1854, following a dispute at a ferry crossing, about 40 miners formed a vigilante group and attacked the village at dawn, killing about twenty people.

Evidence of the village remains beneath Old Town Bandon. Coquille Chief Justin Futch spent about seven years as a tribal monitor, working alongside archaeologists to identify village sites and burials before construction disturbed them.

“There are burials everywhere in Old Town Bandon,” Futch said.

He has watched sidewalks removed, roads opened and houses demolished, exposing what lies beneath. The first time he encountered human remains, a fragment of a skull, Futch said he was not prepared for it.

“It’s not our goal to stop construction. It’s not our goal to slow down progress,” Futch said. “It’s just our goal to make sure that our ancestors are treated with the respect that we believe they deserve.”

In 1987, city workers uncovered the remains of six people at the site while digging a trench for communication lines.

The port later became an early supporter of the tribe’s effort to regain federal recognition. Archaeological research at the village documented thousands of years of occupation and helped support the tribe’s case in Washington.

Congress restored federal recognition to the Coquille Indian Tribe in 1989, 35 years after the federal government terminated its recognition.

“We had friends here from this entire community — Oregon tribes, many other Indian people, cousins, relatives, people that lived here,” Meade said. “The support we received from this community was incredible. It actually helped us in our fight to be restored.”

Transferring title

The tribe signed a 99-year lease with the port in 2024. Pullen said he wanted to transfer the land outright then, but the commission was divided.

“Some of the commissioners did not want to do that at that time, so I just bided my time and waited,” he said. “When you’re giving land away, public land, I think you should have a unanimous decision.”

Pullen said the property had little practical use for the port because the graves prevented development. But he said there was a bigger reason.

“We felt like we had to amend an injustice that was done a few years ago, and this land belongs to you,” Pullen said. “I’d like to see more land in your hands.”

Futch said traditional Coquille ideas about land differ from the legal concept of ownership, but that the land transfer is necessary for the tribe to serve as good stewards of the site.

“In the modern age, the only way for us to treat [the land] the way we’d like to treat it, or to show respect to it, or to do what we’d like on these lands, we have to take legal ownership,” he said. “We have a place we can come and mourn, or to say ‘hello,’ or to meditate, gather with each other. Somewhere we can kind of call home.”

He said the transfer could also lead to greater stewardship of the tribe’s traditional lands and the Coquille River.

“Maybe that’s one step closer for us reclaiming or starting to provide stewardship for more of our traditional lands and our traditional river,” Futch said.

Lucinda DeNovo, widow of former Chief Don Ivy, said the site was important to her husband, who spent years working to protect it.

“I thank you for doing the right thing and recognizing what the right thing was,” DeNovo said.

The port has continued to support tribal initiatives, including the Coquille Tribe’s push to co-manage fish and wildlife with the state and its current salmon restoration project.

Meade said the tribe plans a larger gathering at the site to bring tribal citizens together and explain how the transfer came about.

Theo Greenly is a reporter with Jefferson Public Radio.

This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

Oregon’s race for governor remains extremely tight, according to the second poll to emerge in the contest to date.

With six weeks until Election Day, a new survey shows Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan edging out Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek by 2%, within the poll’s 4% margin of error.

The poll of 600 likely voters was conducted from Sept. 3-9 by DHM Research. It was funded by Grow Oregon, an advocacy nonprofit backed by business groups that are friendly to Drazan.

When asked who they were most likely to vote for, 43% of respondents picked Drazan, 41% picked Kotek, and 3% picked Pacific Green Party candidate Brett Smith, the lone minor-party candidate in this year’s race.

The remaining 13% were still undecided. After pollsters pressed those voters which way they were leaning, Drazan came away with a total of 45% support, Kotek received 43% and Smith got 4%, while 8% remained uncertain.

The poll was first reported by the Oregon Journalism Project.

“Christine is earning the trust of Oregonians because she’s giving them a reason to believe Oregon can do better, not just blaming someone else,” Trey Rosser, a campaign strategist for Drazan, said in a release. “This poll confirms what we already see on the ground: Oregonians are ready for change, and they see Christine as the leader who can deliver it.”

Kotek’s campaign, meanwhile, pointed out that many voters haven’t decided who to vote for yet. Both the 2022 and 2018 Oregon governor’s races appeared to be close in the weeks leading up to Election Day, but wound up resulting in comfortable Democratic victories.

“There are still a lot of voters who are undecided in this race, but the choice couldn’t be any clearer: Christine Drazan is ready to open the door to Trump’s agenda and Governor Kotek is fighting every day to protect Oregonians from federal overreach and harm,” said Federico Araujo, communications director for Kotek’s campaign.

The new poll is just the second to emerge in this year’s race. Polling released by Drazan’s campaign earlier this year showed the Republican candidate with a 4% lead over Kotek in late June. Kotek’s campaign has not released polling of its own.

The statewide survey also continues a string of bad news about voters’ dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. It shows 59% of respondents disapprove of Kotek’s job performance, with just 37% approving. And it suggests 58% are unhappy with the direction of the state.

Those low approval ratings are one reason why political handicappers are taking another look at Kotek’s re-election bid.

“We have to acknowledge the competitiveness of this current contest, which is no longer on the periphery of the map,” the nonpartisan Cook Political Report wrote in a Sept. 10 analysis, in which it changed its rating of the race from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat.”

“The bar will be high for Drazan to sustain momentum in this political climate and separate herself from the national party if she wants a chance at an upset.”

Pollsters also asked voters what issues are motivating them in the current election. Affordability and schools received the largest response, with 87% and 85% respectively saying they would factor them into how they vote. Housing affordability and taxes also saw broad majorities voicing concern, while data centers — a lighting rod in the current political environment — rated as an important concern for 50% of respondents.

Antarctic krill are the lifeblood of the South Pole.

These shrimp-like crustaceans serve as a crucial food source for penguins, seals, and whales. “Most of them feed on Antarctic krill,” says Kim Bernard, a biological oceanographer at Oregon State University and a National Geographic explorer. “And if they don’t, they feed on something else that feeds directly on Antarctic krill. So they are absolutely fundamental to the functioning and health of that ecosystem.”

Krill also recycle nutrients that allow tiny algae called phytoplankton to grow. In addition, krill are fished in large numbers to produce aquaculture feed and omega-3 fatty acids as dietary supplements.

But experts say this rich habitat in the Southern Ocean at the bottom of the world is shifting rapidly due to climate change. “It’s one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet,” says Bernard. “And that’s cascading through the food web and affecting the Antarctic krill population.”

Now, Bernard and her colleagues report in the journal Communications Biology the discovery of a surprising habitat for the krill — hydrothermal vents, which are basically hot springs on the ocean floor. Characterizing the importance of this habitat, especially for reproductive females, may help inform how to safeguard these crucial crustaceans.

Venting feelings

Antarctic krill tend to be located in the upper layer of the ocean. “They can be found forming swarms and layers at the surface,” says Bernard. “You can photograph them from airplanes.”

They can also be found at the sea floor at different depths, but she says these deeper observations have been sparse and anecdotal.

Then, in late 2024, Bernard was in Bransfield Strait off the Antarctic Peninsula while aboard the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Southern Ocean Expedition in collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

One of her colleagues, UCLA benthic ecologist Andrew Thurber, was using a remotely operated vehicle in a trough some 3,600 feet below the surface to study and video record a hydrothermal vent. Picture “extremely hot water coming from deep within the Earth’s crust,” says Bernard, “and it’s bringing with it metals and sulfides and all sorts of other chemicals that form almost like a tower.”

It’s a seemingly inhospitable place. Bernard wasn’t studying the vent but she was eager to observe the sampling nevertheless.

“While having a little tea break upstairs in the galley,” she recalls, “I was watching the big screens showing in real time what was happening.”

And that’s when she saw a flicker of movement in the corner of the screen. It was, unmistakably, a krill.

“It’s like underwater ballet,” she says, describing the krill’s backflips. “It just looks like pirouetting. I pretty much threw the tea in the air and ran down to the control room, screaming, ‘There’s krill, there’s krill!’”

Krill had never been spotted at a hydrothermal vent before. The other research team had planned to sample the geology and microbiology of the vent, but they gave Bernard a precious 15 minutes to try to catch a few specimens.

“They have what they call a suction sampler, which is essentially a vacuum that slurps whatever you want to slurp up,” she explains. The team managed to nab four individual krill, all reproductive females, “very heavily laden with eggs. Should be releasing them any moment.”

“And to see something like that at a hydrothermal vent,” Bernard continues, “is completely opposite to what we would have normally expected.”

Researchers had thought that females probably released their eggs near the surface over deep water, but it had never been observed before. So Bernard found herself with a single basic question: “Why on earth are they down there?,” she says. “I really wanted to just try and understand, what are they getting from that site?”

It takes a lot of energy for little krill to get down that deep. In addition, they’re exposed to potentially toxic heavy metals like cadmium, barium and lead.

So whatever is bringing the krill to the hydrothermal vent, Bernard figured, it must be worth it.

“It’s really critical that we put our efforts into trying to understand the role of the deep sea environment for reproductive krill,” she says.

Four little krill, one big question

To get a better sense of what was going on, Bernard brought the handful of krill to the surface and compared their stomach contents to others she collected elsewhere on the seafloor in shallower, non-vent waters. The four females had clearly been feeding on microbes living down there. (And such a microbial food source would be available year-round rather than seasonal phytoplankton that rely on sunlight and photosynthesis.)

“The rest of the krill tissue,” she says, “I dried up and literally carried in my backpack on the way home. I didn’t want to put it anywhere out of my sight because it was so important.”

That tissue later revealed that the krill had accumulated higher levels of metals released by the vent, like manganese. “That’s an important nutrient or mineral for embryo development in crustaceans,” says Bernard. “And it’s very scarce in the Southern Ocean. So potentially that’s a reason for them to go down there.”

The warmer waters near the vent may also speed up embryo development.

All or some combination of these reasons may motivate the krill to journey downwards to the hydrothermal vent repeatedly and to then stay there for some time.

“The study shows that krill can make use of hydrothermal vent habitats, but it doesn’t provide enough evidence to suggest that they are dependent on these habitats,” says Simeon Hill, a marine ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey who didn’t participate in the research.

Still, he’s reassured that krill can flexibly use different parts of the ocean to live and feed as it demonstrates their resilience.

And he says that even though hydrothermal vents are reasonably well protected from destructive human activities, additional conservation measures may be needed.

“It makes me think it would be sensible to develop a marine protected area process that allows new vulnerable habitats to be added as they’re discovered,” says Hill.

That kind of protection may be especially necessary if those habitats are critical to the krill’s reproductive cycle.

Two months after the original research cruise, the same vessel visited another Antarctic hydrothermal vent some 1,000 miles away. That vent also abounded with egg-laden female krill.

“It was incredible,” says Bernard. “So I am sure that this is something that is not just a once-off, and there’s more to this than we ever expected.”

The average American family made more money last year than in 2024, while the number of people living in poverty fell slightly, according to a new report from the Census Bureau.

The annual snapshot of last year’s family income, poverty and health coverage comes as Americans are currently wrestling with stubborn inflation that’s been rekindled by the war with Iran. Prices have been climbing faster than average wages for the last five months.

In 2025, by contrast, families saw real improvements in their purchasing power. The average family’s income rose 2.6% last year, after adjusting for inflation, to $87,460. Families at the top of the income ladder saw bigger gains than those at the bottom.

Analysts say those gains could be eroded by cuts to the social safety net. In 2025, programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) helped keep many families out of poverty, as measured by a special yardstick that includes government aid. Some of those programs are being scaled back as part of the sweeping tax cut package passed by the GOP Congress last year. Results of those cuts are likely to be reflected in future Census tallies.

Health insurance coverage held steady in 2025 but is expected to fall now that enhanced subsidies for Obamacare coverage have lapsed. Stricter work requirements for Medicaid are also set to take effect next year.

“Things like SNAP and Medicaid made a really big difference in lowering poverty and expanding health coverage,” says Sharon Parrott, president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Instead of building on that improvement and recognizing the record of success of things like SNAP and Medicaid, Republican policymakers enacted very deep cuts, historically large cuts that right now are taking food assistance and health coverage away from people, putting upward pressure on poverty, increasing the ranks of the uninsured, and really taking us in the wrong direction.”

The share of people living in poverty declined last year to 10.2% from 10.7% in 2024. In 2025, 34.5 million people in the country fell below the poverty line, compared to 36 million the previous year.

A supplemental measure of poverty, which accounts for taxes, government benefits and additional expenses showed somewhat higher levels of poverty — 13.1%. This figure was little changed from 2024.

While average family income rose last year, some families did better than others. Families in the top 10% of income saw gains of 1.7%, while those in the bottom 10% saw little change. On average, African American families saw the largest increase in income last year — 4.8% — but at $59,980, the median income among Black families remains far lower than for white ($91,930) or Asian ($126,300) families.

“2025 becomes a benchmark of sorts,” Parrott says. “We saw these modest gains. We saw some improvement in poverty. We saw health insurance hold steady at relatively low rates. And we saw real wage gains. And on almost every measure, things are worse today.”

The Woodburn City Council has enacted a 120-day moratorium on the development of data centers, one of the most contentious political flashpoints in the country.

The moratorium, which the council approved Monday unanimously, prevents the city from considering any new applications for the next three months. During that time, Woodburn officials will analyze the potential impacts to the environment, city regulations and overall quality of life.

While Woodburn has no current or pending data center applications, city officials previously said that California-based company Verrus had been exploring building a center within city limits. A spokesperson from Verrus told OPB on Tuesday that the company has looked at Woodburn, but has no near-term plans to develop in the city.

Woodburn City Manager Scott Derickson said it’s unclear if the city’s infrastructure could handle the staggering amounts of water and power that data centers typically require.

“The water impact to our system would be significant,” Derickson said. “It could exceed the capacity of the city’s ability to provide water to a single project.”

It’s unclear if Woodburn is even allowed to allocate the amount of water needed by data centers under the city’s current water plan, Derickson noted.

“It’s the scale of these developments,” Woodburn Community Development Director Chris Kerr said. “They’re just beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.”

The moratorium comes as data centers have become a focal point for midterm elections in November. The centers have proven largely unpopular with voters, with about 70% of Americans saying they oppose construction of data centers in their area, according to a Gallup Poll published earlier this year.

It’s been an especially hot topic in Oregon, which has more than 130 data centers to date. Hillsboro and Salem have passed temporary bans on new data centers. Salem, specifically, is set to host the first of three town halls on the topic on Tuesday.

The Woodburn moratorium comes one month after several residents asked the city council for some restrictions on data centers. Most cited concerns about the potential impact on utility costs, public health and agriculture.

Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who’s seeking reelection, said last week she supports a statewide moratorium on new data centers. Her Republican opponent, state Sen. Christine Drazan, has said she supports cities enacting local bans on the centers. Both candidates have criticized one another’s stance on the issue in campaign materials.

Woodburn’s moratorium can be extended up to six months, if necessary. But some residents say they want further action, pushing the Woodburn City Council to ban data centers entirely.

City Councilor Mark Wilk said he’s not sure if they can do that.

“But what I do know is that we can put rules in place… to determine whether or not a data center is compatible with our ability to continue to thrive as a city,” Wilk said.

That’s bringing continued uncertainty to Pacific Northwest growers on the heels of an already challenging season.

In the Willamette Valley, a wetter, warmer winter could make it more challenging for farmers to deal with pests. In northern Oregon’s Hood River Valley, warmer temperatures could cause orchards to bloom earlier than usual and put fruit at risk of spring freeze damage. In Central Oregon, less snow in the Cascades could bring yet another water scarce growing season.

In short, the warmer, wetter weather forecasters predict for Oregon could disrupt agriculture in different ways across the state, but right now it’s hard to say how.

“When we’re looking at how this El Niño is shaping up, we’re kind of an uncharted territory,” said Larry O’Neill, Oregon’s state climatologist.

Oregon has seen at least three strong El Niños since 1980.

This cyclical weather pattern pushes warmer water from the Pacific Ocean east, toward the west coast of the Americas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is forecasting a 90% chance of a strong El Niño.

During the previous strong El Niño years, Oregon got either average or above average snowpack in the mountains even though winters were warmer than normal.

This coming winter is still likely to see more mountain snow than last year, when an unusually warm, dry winter brought with it a record-low snowpack across much of the Pacific Northwest, O’Neill said.

“With this upcoming winter, it won’t take much for us to have a better snowpack than we had last winter,” O’Neill said.

But climate change is making the world warmer, and that could mean less snow accumulation than Oregon has seen in previous strong El Niño years, he said.

“Whether it will be a good snowpack or not remains to be seen, and we’re not at all confident about any sort of projection for that,” O’Neill said.

If snow levels are poor, that could spell trouble for growers dependent on snowmelt for irrigation.

Water managers remain optimistic they could see a good snowpack this winter, but it may not be enough to make up for current drought conditions.

Josh Bailey, the general manager of Central Oregon’s North Unit Irrigation District, said next year might be reminiscent of 2022, when irrigators received about a quarter of the water they average when conditions are good.

“It’s brutal, absolutely brutal. I mean, think about how long you could survive on half to a quarter of your paycheck,” Bailey said. “That’s the reality here. The water is the most important input for crop growing, and yet it’s the scarcest.”

In a good year, the natural flow of the Deschutes River can meet the demands of all the irrigation districts in the region until early June, Bailey said. But this year, the river’s flows were low.

The North Unit district began pulling water from the Deschutes River system in early April, and it switched to stored water from the Wickiup Reservoir by the latter half of May.

That reservoir was only about 19% full as of early September. It will take substantial mountain snow to refill that reservoir. Without that, water managers may need to ration the water that gets distributed.

The North Unit district distributes water across nearly 60,000 acres of farmland, where farmers grow much of the world’s supply of hybrid carrot seeds.

With less water, growers will likely be forced to leave fields fallow or switch to less water intensive crops.

Forecasters will get a better idea of what water availability will look like next year come mid-January, O’Neill said.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he’d “see it as a failure” if the Portland Trail Blazers didn’t remain in the city.

“It is my hope and belief that the Trail Blazers can be successful in Portland, Oregon,” said Silver at a press conference Tuesday, following an NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York.

Silver’s comments come as Portland leaders remain in closed-door negotiations with the Blazers over a new long-term lease of the Moda Center, which would include building renovations. The negotiations have divided Portland and its elected leaders, who’ve been asked to hand over more than $120 million to the team’s new billionaire owner Tom Dundon to restore the aging arena. The back and forth has led to swirling rumors that without sizable financial investment from the city, the Blazers’ owners could move the franchise to another city — though there have been no official threats made.

That has added pressure to talks that grew divisive earlier in the summer, when communication between both parties shut down over mention of legal threats. City officials say the two groups are now meeting multiple times a week.

The Blazers’ current lease with the city runs through 2030.

Silver said he spoke with Dundon about the negotiations at this week’s meeting.

“It is important that Tom Dundon reaches a deal with the city officials and the state elected officials that makes operating in Portland viable for the long term,” Silver said. “So that’s what we’re focused on.”

He acknowledged that the Moda Center needs renovations to accommodate the team, along with the building’s newest tenants, the Portland Fire. And he called Blazers fans “some of the best in the league.”

Silver has spoken publicly about the ongoing lease negotiations several times this year. His comments Tuesday were the strongest in favor of Portland yet.

His statement is likely good news for city officials, who have said their strategy is to make sure Silver and other NBA team owners see the city as negotiating in good faith and put pressure on Dundon to agree to the city’s terms. That’s because the board of governors would need to vote to approve – or deny – the team’s relocation.

In a statement emailed to OPB, Mayor Keith Wilson applauded Silver’s remarks.

“Portland is resurgent, the future of the Blazers is here, and I agree with Commissioner Silver that we all have a role to play in supporting a long-term deal where the Blazers thrive alongside our WNBA team, top entertainment acts, and our regional economy,” Wilson wrote.

Dewayne Hankins, president of business operations for the Blazers, also shared a brief statement.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our partners to finalize an agreement that supports the long-term success of Portland, the City-owned arena and the Trail Blazers,” Hankins wrote.

City negotiators are expected to bring a final lease deal to Portland City Council for approval by the end of the year.

Oregon lawmakers approved nearly $123 million to help cover the costs of this year’s wildfire season, sending money to two state agencies responsible for fighting wildfires.

The Oregon Legislature’s Joint Emergency Board agreed to allocate $108 million to the Oregon Department of Forestry and $15 million to the Department of the State Fire Marshal at a morning meeting Thursday. The 20-member board has the authority to allocate funding when the full Legislature isn’t in session.

As of late August, wildfires had scorched across 2.5 million acres and cost the state $236.2 million. Those costs are expected to reach $350 million by the end of the wildfire season — putting 2026 on track to surpass the state’s previous $318 million record when wildfires scorched 1.9 million acres in 2024.

The forestry department has been able to pay for nearly $79 million of those costs with federal recovery funding, grants and other contributions. With the emergency board’s approval Thursday, the agency will also borrow $150 million from the Oregon State Treasury through three loans over the next three months to maintain solvency through the end of the year.

The State Fire Marshal responded to 12 destructive wildfires this year that cost more than $50 million. The agency’s $15 million request will cover funding gaps needed to address those costs.

The federal government is expected to reimburse Oregon for some of these costs, though that money can take years to arrive.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency still owes Oregon about $92 million in fire management and public assistance grants from 2020. These are grants a state requests if they are facing a catastrophic emergency, and the federal government agrees to pay 75% of the costs.

Typically, they take about two to three years to be fully released to the states. This is not an unusual amount of money owed, nor is it unusual that it’s taking so long to be reimbursed, according to Joy Krawczyk, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

The slow pace of federal reimbursements frustrated lawmakers.

“Through the course of today’s allocations, we’re going to be taking general fund dollars away from our schools, from healthcare, from housing, from public safety, while we’re waiting for reimbursement from the federal government,” said Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis.

Lawmakers on the emergency board thanked all the agencies who worked to put out the wildfires this summer.

“It was predicted to be tough,” said Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane. “We exceeded tough by many levels in that period of time. Without the coordination, the dedication of the state agencies, and I’ll say our Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, Rangeland Fire Protection Associations, rural fire districts and the volunteers that are out there, there’d have been towns and houses taken out.”

Oregon Capital Chronicle senior reporter Alex Baumhardt contributed to this story.

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Bluesky.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.

Dozens of gray whales once visited Port Orford in Southern Oregon on their way north. But this year, a research team saw only one during its six weeks at the coast.

That near absence has become part of the research.

Since 2015, scientists, including two high school students, have returned to the same stretch of the Southern Oregon coast to study gray whales and the zooplankton they eat and the kelp forests where they feed. The long-running research project is documenting an ecosystem transformed by the loss of sea stars.

Early each morning this summer, the team splits up. Two researchers paddle a kayak to 12 sites around the bay, collecting samples of zooplankton. The other team members watch from a nearby cliff, scanning the water for whales.

Owen Fewell, an undergraduate student at Oregon State University, said the kayak is equipped with a GPS unit and a line used to lower scientific instruments and a zooplankton net into the water. The navigator must keep the boat in one place while the other researcher collects samples.

“Even if you have kayak experience before, it’s completely different doing this,” Fewell said. “Each day is different too. The current is moving in different ways. The wind is pushing you in different ways.”

Celest Sorrentino, a master’s student in marine mammal ecology at OSU, is the self-described captain of the program.

“On the cliff team, it’s typically three people, so we section it out in terms of, like, one person looking right, middle, left,” Sorrentino said. “It takes a while to build the focus, but by the end of the season, I think that students are really good at maintaining that.”

Back in the lab, Fewell identifies and counts the zooplankton collected from the bay. Some species are more nutritious than others.

“Some of them are much bigger than others, and you can kind of see them with the naked eye,” he said. “But some are really quite small, so you really need to look.”

In previous years, each sample contained as many as 500 zooplankton. This summer, the largest sample was about 25.

Where have the whales gone?

Sea star wasting disease has wiped out most of the sea stars in the area. With fewer predators around, purple sea urchins have multiplied.

“Purple sea urchins love bull kelp,” Sorrentino said. “It’s like their favorite tasty snack.”

When too many sea urchins graze on the kelp, she said, the habitat available to zooplankton shrinks, leaving less food for whales. The kelp forests the gray whales once visited to feed are now rocky, barren wastelands full of sea urchins.

The team saw just one gray whale this summer — called Prop Scar because of its distinctive marking. High school intern Gavin Vierra spotted it while working from the kayak about 150 meters away.

“We saw the blow of the whale, and I could barely see the back of it,” Vierra said. “It was really, really rewarding. It was worth this entire thing just to see that one whale.”

Besides the experience, it also offered a key piece of data. Fewell said the team collected an unusually large number of zooplankton that day.

“So on the one day there happened to be an abnormally high amount of plankton, we saw a gray whale foraging in that site,” he said.

Burgeoning scientists

Vierra and fellow high school student Gavin Cada were among this summer’s researchers.

Leigh Torres, an Oregon State professor and the project’s principal investigator, is running two intertwined programs.

TOPAZ, or Theodolite Overlooking Predators And Zooplankton, is the overarching gray whale foraging monitoring project. And JASPER, short for Journey for Aspiring Students Pursuing Ecological Research, is the part of the program that involves high school and undergraduate students.

“It’s about opening that door wide open so people can see the different career paths that you can take to get to different jobs,” Torres said.

Cada moved to Brookings recently and learned about the program through school.

“I was nervous on the first day. I didn’t really know what to do,” he said. “But by the end of this program, you can really learn a lot about that stuff.”

The interns also learn how to explain their research to the public. Vierra said he’s learned a lot about the importance of communicating the science they’re doing.

“It’s really fun to see the faces light up if they’re super interested, or for them to ask more questions,” he said. “Or I’ve even talked to a few little kids that were really fascinated by whales.”

All of the interns live together at Oregon State’s Port Orford Field Station for six weeks. Sorrentino said it breaks down the traditional barriers in academia.

“It’s scary talking to a professor or master’s student because they feel so far away and they seem like, ‘I’m so much older than you,’” Sorrentino said. “But with this situation where you all live together, that kind of all goes away because we’re seeing each other every day, we’re cooking dinner every night.

The researchers found that the former participants they could track had all gone on to study or work in science-related fields.

Nathan Malamud took part in 2017 and eventually got his master’s degree in botany.

“TOPAZ was my crash course,” Malamud said. “Here’s what it takes to be a part of science. Here are the logistics, and then here’s how you communicate it.”

Torres also involves high school students in her lab at Oregon State’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. She said other researchers may view working with teens as unnecessary or difficult, but she believes bringing in future scientists is important.

“They can be so motivated and helpful to learn and gain and to contribute to the research,” Torres said.

At the end of the six-week project in Port Orford, the students present their findings to the community.

“It’s not so much about how many whales we see out in the water or how many zooplankton we’re seeing,” Sorrentino said. “But rather, how much do the students themselves grow as scientists throughout the season?”

The data from the project has also contributed to five published research papers, exploring topics such as the nutrition content in zooplankton and the ecological changes resulting from the loss of sea stars.

Torres said the data students have been gathering is important to understand why the whales have left Port Orford behind.

Other scientists are working to restore sea stars and kelp forests.

“What I’m really curious now is how long it’s going to take for this system to recover,” Torres said. “This project is really well placed to document that because we have been using the same methods for over 10 years now.”

Future students in the JASPER/TOPAZ program could eventually document that recovery from the same cliff and kayak.

Roman Battaglia is a reporter with Jefferson Public Radio. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

Even after two decades, Wanna Lei still keeps a photo of herself and her work buddy at a Chinese restaurant in Southeast Portland where she started working as a part-time receptionist the year after immigrating from China. In the photo, she’s wearing a dark green bow tie that matches the color of the restaurant’s exterior.

Now the resident services manager with APANO, Lei experienced a full-circle moment on Thursday when she — no longer wearing the bow tie — attended a grand opening and toured a new affordable housing community that the nonprofit co-developed and that is named after the now-defunct restaurant.

“My first job [was] in Legin Restaurant,” Lei said. “And right now, I’m serving people living in Legin Commons — that’s just a really interesting and amazing thing.”

Partially funded by the voter-approved Metro Affordable Housing Bond, Legin Commons provides 124 homes to people in the ethnically diverse Jade District and beyond. Located on the edge of Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus, the apartment complex is just a block away from the old site of Legin (pronounced LEE-juhn) Restaurant, an iconic Chinese eatery demolished in 2012 to make way for the campus expansion.

Rosaline Hui, editor-in-chief of Portland Chinese Times, immigrated to the city just a year before Legin Restaurant opened in 1995. A frequent customer and business partner of the restaurant, she said it was originally established by a group of Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants before one of them became its sole owner.

Remodeled from a bowling alley, Legin’s banquet hall could accommodate roughly 1,000 people. Legin was more spacious than comparable Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco she had visited at the time, as well as any Portland Chinese restaurants still standing, according to Hui. She said Legin’s large size, including its parking lot, made it a go-to place among local Asian communities for weddings and other celebrations.

Hui remembered that when Legin Restaurant opened, it was significant for Portland’s Chinese dining scene — then dominated by family-run establishments serving styles of Cantonese cooking that reflected earlier Chinese immigrants. Legin introduced professional chefs and siu mei specialists from Los Angeles who could cook dishes similar to what she had had at contemporary restaurants in Hong Kong, the city she’s originally from.

“I liked the dim sum — it’s really fresh and hot from the frying pans on the carts there,” Hui said. “I liked the char siu and roast duck too.” She added that after Legin’s demolition, many staffers remained in the Portland area, diversifying the local Chinese dining scene by working at other restaurants or opening their own.

New housing project opens as step toward restoring Portland’s Albina neighborhood

Thanks to a voter-approved $374 million bond measure in 2008, Portland Community College purchased the Legin Restaurant site and nearby properties to expand its 94,000-square-foot Southeast Center into a 200,000-square-foot comprehensive campus to accommodate the center’s growing student enrollment.

Rebecca Ocken, PCC’s director of planning and construction, said Legin Restaurant’s building, as a single-story structure, didn’t provide the amount and type of space the college needed for educational purposes. But while the building itself was replaced, a piece of Legin remains: PCC’s Southeast Campus Library, which now stands on the former restaurant’s site, still houses Legin’s altar in recognition of the restaurant’s legacy.

Elsewhere on the campus, another piece of PCC property has undergone a different kind of transformation. In 2021, PCC designated an underused 1.6-acre parcel for affordable housing, signing a ground lease with Portland-based nonprofit Our Just Future to make the property available for development. The following year, Our Just Future brought APANO into the project because of APANO’s connections to the Jade District community.

Duncan Hwang, APANO’s community development director, said the organization had been looking for ways to honor Legin Restaurant’s history since its demolition. Besides studying Legin as part of the “Behind the Wok” project that documents the history of Portland’s long-gone Chinese restaurants, APANO recommended “Legin Commons” as the name of the new affordable housing development in 2024, an idea that the restaurant’s owning family approved.

Portland councilors to consider lifting income limits for some affordable homes

After Our Just Future finalized the name, APANO worked with local designers to create Legin Commons’ signage, drawing inspiration from the carp logo on the restaurant’s menu and the original typeface of the restaurant’s name.

Legin Commons is still accepting applications for its units, but APANO expects some tenants to start moving in within the next two weeks.

Hwang said that while APANO is still developing services it will provide at Legin Commons, they could include financial literacy and workforce development programs, resources that tenants could use to build skills for higher-paying jobs.

“Our services are really intended to help you navigate and flourish in Portland,” he said.

The idea of learning to navigate Portland resonates well with APANO Resident Services Manager Wanna Lei’s own experience as an immigrant.

Lei studied English as a second language part-time at PCC while working at Legin Restaurant, her first job in the United States. Besides the freshly made siu mei she brought home, Lei still remembers how working at the restaurant helped hone her English proficiency and American cultural literacy.

After pushing Black families out of North Portland, effort to welcome them back continues

Lei said she was saddened by the restaurant’s demolition, but when she looks at Legin Commons today — with its courtyard, community areas and outdoor play space that she feels are similar to what she imagined when the land was still vacant — she sees something valuable emerging from that loss.

“I worked with the community for many years [on] housing issues, and I know how badly we need more housing in this neighborhood, so I see Legin Commons as a new chapter,” she said. “We lost a piece of the history, but we also created a new housing we really need.”

Rachel Smolkin, President and CEO

Rachel Smolkin became president and CEO of OPB in 2024. She is responsible for leading the strategic direction and overall mission of the organization. Prior to OPB, she served as senior vice president of global news for CNN Digital, overseeing breaking news, politics and Washington, U.S. and international teams across the network’s digital platforms worldwide. She came to CNN in 2014 to build the network’s coverage of Washington, politics and elections into a top digital politics brand. Before coming to CNN, she served in leadership and editing roles at Politico, USA Today and American Journalism Review magazine. Rachel has an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where she attended the global executive program as a Batten Media Fellow alongside her work at CNN. She completed the Sulzberger Executive Leadership program at Columbia University and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brown University.

Contact Rachel at ceo@opb.org.

Jason Potts, Senior Vice President, Chief Content Officer

Jason Potts is OPB’s senior vice president and chief content officer, joining the organization in 2025. He is responsible for shaping OPB’s audience-centered storytelling through our journalism and strong partnerships around the region. Prior to OPB, he led business development and content strategy at Scripps News, driving audience growth and engagement. He conceived the popular Scripps News Viewer Hotline and Viewer Spotlight segments and led production teams to create award-winning news and documentary programming. Before Scripps, Potts managed experimental partnerships and internal innovations at the Disney-ABC Owned Television Stations group. Jason has received multiple accolades for his work, including a New England Emmy, National Headliner Award and a GLAAD Award. He received a BA in English from Yale University, an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a certificate in generative AI from the University of Chicago.

Contact Jason at cco@opb.org.

Cheryl Ikemiya, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer

Cheryl Ikemiya is OPB’s senior vice president and chief development officer. She leads a team of development professionals, focused on building relationships that provide revenue to power our public service mission. Our comprehensive development program builds support from members, foundation and individual philanthropy, and sponsors from corporate and non-profit sectors. With a background in non-profit management in performing arts, culture and history, Cheryl began at OPB in 2005 and moved into her current role in 2015.

Contact Cheryl at cdo@opb.org.

Lisa Garcia Grace, Senior Vice President, Programming and Audience Engagement

Lisa Garcia Grace is senior vice president of programming and audience engagement. Her team connects OPB’s content with diverse audiences, fostering meaningful connections that inspire, inform and engage. Lisa joined OPB in 2016 and moved into her current role in 2022. She has worked in public media and nonprofit management for 20 years in a variety of roles including programming, engagement, development and communications. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado, is a graduate of the Kellog Media Executive Leadership program at Northwestern University and is a 2025 Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow.

Contact Lisa at programming@opb.org.

Shayna Schlosberg, Vice President, Community Connections

Shayna Schlosberg is OPB’s vice president of community connections. She develops and oversees initiatives that ensure OPB and KMHD are representative of the communities we serve across all aspects of our work. In her role, Shayna drives the strategy, vision and implementation of OPB and KMHD’s community representation and inclusion practices. Shayna joined OPB in 2022, and prior to her role here, she served as the Director of Strategy and Operations for Women of Color in the Arts. Shayna also has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia.

Contact Shayna at equityleader@opb.org.

Holly Bullock-Denniston, Vice President, People and Culture

Holly Bullock-Denniston is OPB’s vice president of people and culture (P&C). She has been at OPB since 1999, serving in volunteer management and HR roles. As the leader of the P&C department since 2020, she ensures OPB’s culture is inclusive and welcoming so that staff belong and thrive. Her team combines a systems approach and personalized interactions to optimize individual employee experience while maintaining legal and regulatory compliance. Holly has a master’s degree in public administration focusing on nonprofit management from Portland State University and a bachelor’s degree in planning, public policy and management focusing on social policy from the University of Oregon. She has held both the SHRM-SP and SPHR credentials. She was an adjunct professor at Portland State University in the MPA program, teaching nonprofit HR management classes. She has also served as an AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteer in Philadelphia.

Contact Holly at people@opb.org.

Rebecca Morris, Vice President and General Counsel

Rebecca Morris is a vice president and general counsel for OPB. In her role, she oversees all OPB legal matters and leads an in-house legal team that works across the organization to solve problems, assess and mitigate risks, facilitate transactions, assist with regulatory compliance, manage litigation, and develop sound policies and procedures. Rebecca has been at OPB since 2006. Prior to that, she served as assistant general counsel at Thirteen/WNET in New York City.

Contact Rebecca at legal@opb.org.

Jonathan Newsome, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Technology

Jonathan Newsome is OPB’s chief technology officer and vice president of technology. In this role, he provides strategic leadership and vision for OPB’s technology department, ensuring the infrastructure supports seamless engagement with audiences, no matter the platform or location. His focus is ensuring that OPB’s systems empower staff and foster innovation across content creation and distribution.

Jonathan’s path to public media began after his time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, launching his career as a musician and recording engineer. He entered public media in 2005 with Live Wire! Radio, and joined OPB in 2010 as the technical director for Think Out Loud. Since 2014, he has played a key role in OPB’s Engineering and Technology teams, helping to shape the organization’s technical evolution.

Contact Jonathan at cto@opb.org.

Amanda Green, Chief Financial Officer

Amanda Green is the chief financial officer of OPB and KMHD, where she leads the Finance team and partners with fellow Operations leaders to advance the organization’s modernization efforts. Amanda began her career in the feminist anti-violence movement and has since held finance and leadership roles at Oregon Consumer Justice, SMART Reading, Bitch Media, Pro Choice Oregon, Northwest Earth Institute (EcoChallenge.org), SurvJustice, and PAVE.

Her board and public service include serving as treasurer for Pro Choice Oregon, as a founding member and board treasurer of VAWPAC, and as a member of the AG’s Sexual Assault Task Force. She is also currently a board member of For All Families Oregon (formerly Family Forward Oregon) and FEI.

Amanda is a CPA and holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin, an MPA from Portland State University, and a post-bac accounting certificate from Linfield College.

Contact Amanda at agreen@opb.org.

OPB Board of Directors

Chair: John Tapogna (email)

Vice chair: Curtis Robinhold

Secretary/Treasurer: Sandy Rowe

Members: Rukaiyah Adams, Laura Anderson, Jesse Beason, Nils D. Christoffersen, Roger Cooke, Graciela Gomez Cowger, Saskia de Boer, Rebecca DeCesaro, Kathleen George, Margaret Kirkpatrick, Peter Platt, Cara Samples, Lee Weinstein, Sheryl WuDunn; Lisa Skari, ex-officio voting member; Rachel Smolkin, ex-officio nonvoting member

OPB Board Liaison: Rad Probst (email)

Community Advisory Board (CAB)

Members: Lesley Albert, John Bloss, Linda Castillo, Sokho Eath, Alex Garfield, Connie Green, Stephen Green, Andréa Guedes, Tracey Lam, Pat Lynch, Katy Nesbitt, Julie Nist, Melanie Potter, Nikki Pritchard, John Riutta, Tamara Russell, Rick Short, Teresa St. Martin, Sam Stites

CAB Liaison: Haika Mushi (email)

Orton and his fellow musicians will perform the new compositions live in front of audiences inside the 100-year-old theater.

Among the highlights is Buster Keaton’s “The General,” which was filmed in Cottage Grove in 1926. For the film’s and the theater’s centennial anniversary, Orton will premiere an updated score he wrote for the 90th anniversary of “The General.”

Todd Sickafoose, a Eugene-based Tony and Grammy Award-winning producer, composer and bassist, will join Orton on stage for the weekend performances. Sickafoose has also contributed an original score for “Daisy Doodad’s Dial,” a 1914 comedy short showing at the festival.

Orton and Sickafoose join us for a preview of Sonic Silents.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

This comes after the Legislature this year already put in over $1 billion to shore up the state’s liability account.

But claims that lead to costly settlements or jury verdicts, not to mention attorney fees, continue to stream in. Often these are attempts to hold the state to account for sometimes decades-old misconduct. Issues in the cases range from government negligence that led to childhood sexual abuse, wrongful termination and deaths in prison.

As of the end of June, the state’s outstanding liability in these cases was estimated at $4.4 billion, according to an actuarial analysis. And the state liability account is still set to be $345 million in the red by the end of June 2027, despite this year’s huge infusion.

A new state panel is seeking solutions to the growing issue, which also plagues local governments, like cities, counties and school districts. But advocates for survivors who bring these lawsuits feel much of the committee’s ideas will restrict access to justice.

“It’s been concerning to see almost an exclusive focus on the budget as a mathematical problem, and not the real human suffering underlying all of these issues,” said Kelli Carson, government affairs director for the Washington State Association for Justice, a group of trial lawyers.

“The stakes could not be higher for these survivors and the lives that they have to live after suffering the kind of abuse that they suffered,” Carson added. “They did not create a budget problem, and they shouldn’t have their rights taken away to solve a problem.”

These growing costs come as the state faces another year with a budget shortfall that lawmakers will need to deal with by reducing spending or raising more revenue through taxes and fees. Gov. Bob Ferguson has said he wouldn’t propose tax increases and would lean on cuts to make ends meet.

This past fiscal year, the state spent over $537 million resolving these claims, an all-time high. Just five years earlier, the toll was $100 million.

In the most recent fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, Washington spent another $90 million for the attorney general’s office and outside defense attorneys to handle litigation and for related insurance.

At the same time, claims continue to rise.

Nearly 5,500 came in this past year, up from 4,233 the year before. The jump in recent years followed court decisions and legislation that expanded liability. In its request to Ferguson’s budget office, the Department of Enterprise Services, which manages the account that pays out the claims, said, “There is no indication that this volume will decrease soon.”

Office of Financial Management spokesperson Hayden Mackley said the Department of Enterprise Services request wasn’t unexpected.

“Costs have only increased over the past year,” Mackley added in an email.

Most claims target the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, which runs Washington’s child welfare and juvenile detention systems.

The actuarial analysis estimates payouts during the next two-year budget cycle, from mid-2027 to mid-2029, will total $1.3 billion. The base funding for the liability account is $360 million, leaving a $940 million gap. This makes up most of the Department of Enterprise Services’ funding request, with the rest going toward addressing next year’s deficit, for a total of $1.275 billion.

Lawmakers this year proposed requiring arbitration for civil cases against governments, leaving the outcome to a neutral third-party in hopes of speeding up cases. But the bill stalled in the face of staunch opposition from trial lawyers who bring these cases.

Instead, the Legislature established a new committee to recommend reforms to the legal system in hopes of keeping costs down. The group, which the state is spending $50,000 on, is tasked with delivering a report Nov. 1. Its next meeting is Sept. 23. The panel’s membership includes personal injury attorneys, victim advocates and representatives of state and local government.

Advocates for survivors who bring lawsuits against the state have been frustrated with the committee’s work, and believe its balance is tilted far in the direction of government voices who want to limit claims and awards to plaintiffs.

“The committee is very structurally set up to prioritize the concerns of state agencies and governmental entities,” said Alexander Dietz, a committee member and partner at personal injury law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala. “Survivor advocates are heavily outnumbered. There are no survivors on the committee.”

Dietz has some ideas to address the problem, without limiting damages that can be awarded at trial or capping attorney fees.

One would increase early resolution options to end cases quicker and reduce costs. Another would ban attorneys from directly soliciting clients, like the stereotypical “ambulance chaser.” And he’d also like to restrict companies that aggregate leads to sell to law firms that bring cases.

But Dietz said he believes government representatives on the committee “do not have any intention of collaborating with survivor advocates on this committee to try and reach jointly agreeable solutions, and they’re really pushing for changes to the tort system that would reduce access to counsel for childhood abuse survivors.”

“That’s what the goal appears to be,” he added.

The Department of Enterprise Services is also seeking about $400,000 per year for additional staff to handle the rising risk management caseload.

Ferguson will propose his two-year spending plan in December. This’ll serve as a template for the Legislature when lawmakers return to Olympia in January, and plan to pass the budget by the end of April.

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.

Since its launch in 1983, the organization says it has received tens of thousands of anonymous tips from the public that have helped law enforcement solve hundreds of crimes, from bank robberies to cold case homicides.

Chairman Henry Groepper is a retired Portland police officer who has been with Crime Stoppers of Oregon since its start. He served as its first coordinator and narrated public service announcements that aired on radio stations across the state, offering cash rewards as high as $2,500 for information about unsolved felonies.

But Groepper says in recent years, there has been a decline in the number of cash rewards the board has given out, with none so far this year. He says another factor in the board’s decision to end Crime Stoppers of Oregon was a data breach in March of a third-party company’s platform that Crime Stoppers programs, law enforcement and schools use to access confidential tips.

Groepper joins us to share more details about the decision to end Crime Stoppers of Oregon and his decades of service to it.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

And now, after just 18 months on the job, Doherty was awarded the Building Inspector of the Year award from the Oregon Building Officials Association. The Hermiston Herald previously reported news of the award which comes amid a construction boom in the city and rising demand for inspection services. Last year, Hermiston generated more than $200 million in building permit fees and 130 new homes were built.

Doherty shares what it’s like to be, as she says, a building inspector “living my best life in Eastern Oregon.”

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Alex Tatarsky is back in Portland. They graduated from Reed College about 15 years ago, went to clown school and then became an internationally celebrated performance artist. Their one-person show, “Sad Boys in Harpy Land” is part of this year’s Time-Based Art Festival put on by PICA (Portland Institute of Contemporary Art). You can see it this Friday through Sunday at Reed’s Greenwood Theatre. It is hard to describe: a blend of gross-out humor, dad jokes in various languages, existential clown sadness, song and dance, audience participation, and lots and lots of props.

Alex Tatarsky, welcome to Think Out Loud.

Alex Tatarsky: Thank you so much for having me. I’m really touched by that description. [Laughs]

Miller: Does it seem at all accurate?

Tatarsky: Totally accurate, possibly the most accurate. I never thought about the dad jokes in multiple languages, but I’m glad people…

Miller: I say that as an embarrassed practitioner of that art in one language. I say it with love.

Tatarsky: I think we should have pride in our dad joke proclivities. No more shame.

Miller: Yeah, well, I’ll work on that off the air [Laughter]. I mentioned that you went to Reed 15 years ago. What’s it like to be back in Portland?

Tatarsky: Oh, it’s so amazing to be back, and it’s also really haunting. I just got to the theater this morning, and it’s the same theater that I performed in 15 years ago, doing plays at Reed.

Miller: Because I’ve read that you did Russian literature at Reed with the plan or hope that you would use that degree to do some kind of academic-ey Russian-ey thing?

Tatarsky: It’s true. I was planning on Russian-ey stuff. I thought I would be a translator or a professor, an academic, yeah.

Miller: But at the same time, while you were in school, you were performing the whole time as well?

Tatarsky: Yes, I was performing kind of after hours. I would read and write all day, study really hard and then, at night, do strange, secret things. We called them vaudevilles. Like we’d set up a big, crazy tent and all go wild. So yeah, I never thought it would become the main gig. It was secret.

Miller: But it was important enough that you did it at night, using some version of your limited energy to do this theater, even though it wasn’t the idea that would be your career?

Tatarsky: I just didn’t know it was possible to somewhat make a living being a weirdo, like a professional, experimental clown. I’m still shocked that this is anything resembling a job.

Miller: So what did happen then between graduating and having you say, I’m gonna do this for real. I’m gonna try to be some kind of theater artist?

Tatarsky: Oh gosh, looking back on that horrible period in your early twenties when you have no idea what to do, I moved back to New York City where I grew up. Essentially, long story short, I couldn’t get a job. I was living at home and trying to make ends meet, any which way. And someone who’d seen one of these wild performances asked me to do a show at New York City’s La MaMa Theatre, which is this great old, experimental theater. And one thing led to another. I just kept saying yes to gigs. And weirdly, that’s been the most consistent work I’ve had.

But this show, “Sad Boys in Harpy Land,” in large part, grew out of that early twenties malaise and the existential spiral of what constitutes meaningful action? How does one survive in this world, survive your own mental hellscape? But also the difficulty of making a living and figuring out how to do something meaningful.

Miller: I want to turn more squarely to this ongoing work in just a second, the work that folks can see in Portland in a couple of days. But I don’t want to skip over the time you spent in clown schools – two years at a place called Pig Iron School in Philadelphia devoted to a particular tradition of clowning.

Tatarsky: Yeah, the folks at Pig Iron all studied together with this guy, Jacques Lecoq in the ‘90s in France. Maybe the only way I can say cock on air because it means chicken, Lecoq.

Miller: He’s French, so all is allowed.

Tatarsky: [Laughs] He’s French, so it’s OK. They brought his philosophy to the states and now have a two- to three-year conservatory that’s modeled on that style. So it’s clown training, but clown is like the most advanced moment. So you spend two to three years preparing the vessel, learning a lot of different traditions of mask performance. Clown is considered the smallest mask. The red nose of the clown is the smallest mask.

Miller: What drew you to that tradition?

Tatarsky: I think I was excited by the possibility to transform the entire body into an expressive instrument. A lot of American theater and performance is pretty psychological and almost resembles film in some way. This tradition is really big and expressive, and it treats the theater as this uniquely dangerous and weird situation where you’re actually trapped in a room with a bunch of other human beings, sharing the same air, experiencing the same things. And this tradition is very responsive to that. The clown sees what’s happening and responds.

Miller: What do you like about having the ability to, but also maybe being forced to respond to the audience?

Tatarsky: [Laughs] I love that phrasing. Yes, being forced to respond. I mean, I’m so drawn to this. And I think clown is having a renaissance because we spend a lot of our time these days really isolated, really in our screens, alone, alienated, not connecting to each other. So clown is exactly the situation that forces us to be present with each other for an hour. My show’s about 75 minutes. Seventy-five minutes where you’re not on any screens. You’re actually feeling present.

Miller: I should say I didn’t see your show in person. I saw what I imagined to be a lackluster representation of the in-person version. It was recorded and I saw it just online. And I loved it, but there were moments where I thought, man, I wish I were in person to watch it. But back to the question. You mentioned the 75 minutes and interacting with the audience. There are multiple times in the version I saw where you call attention to time, say things like, “this is gonna go on longer than you want, but that’s what it is.” Why add in those moments?

Tatarsky: The art of the clown is all about acknowledging what’s actually happening. Comedy can turn to tragedy very quickly if it’s so deeply uncomfortable and unfunny that actually your heart hurts for the performer and what’s going on. I think the clown acknowledges those moments of awkwardness and discomfort, and it’s precisely that truth about what’s happening in the shared experience that does this magical alchemy.

Miller: So let’s turn to this show in particular. You say in the show that when you were 24 years old, you vowed to yourself that you would adapt a coming-of-age novel, called “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship” by Goethe, alongside your own life for the rest of your life. I’d never heard of this novel. What’s it about?

Tatarsky: What is it about? [Laughs] It’s about a little boy who really wants to be a theater artist. Sound familiar? But he’s not very good at it, and that just really touched me. It’s a long, long novel. It’s hundreds of pages about this struggling young theater artist, and it’s written in the 1700s. But I was so moved and also I laughed out loud, because the struggles were so contemporary, just not being able to make a living and also not knowing how to have a meaningful life.

Miller: Had you read it before you graduated from college and were back living at home wondering how you would make a living?

Tatarsky: I actually had not. But in this period of time when I was trying to figure things out, probably in part because of my Reed College training, I looked to literature for answers. So I was looking around at the history of coming-of-age tales to think about what these classic narrative arcs are like. How do you become a successful integrated member of society, which is what these books are about. But there’s always a period of struggle, spiral, mental collapse and depression, and this whole show really looks at that moment. Like, what if we just stayed there and were curious about those feelings?

Miller: I love that. I mean, it does seem like a particularly Reed-ey thing. Maybe these great texts can give me some insight and some clues for how to live my life. But it actually seems like, in your case, that it worked. Or at least it is working. I mean, the work you’re doing now is like the working out of those ideas.

Tatarsky: Yeah, I mean, I think it gave me permission to face these questions head on in one’s art. These are old, old questions of how to get by and how to make a life. And we can make that the material of our work trying to figure it out together.

Miller: Have you made other vows to yourself that have been as consequential as this one that you made when you were 24?

Tatarsky: This one has occupied all my time ever since. There’s no time for other vows. No, this has been a pretty all-consuming project, kind of wildly. Even in 2020, when the premiere of this show was canceled … As we all might remember, the theater shut down for a while there. I even lived in a vacant storefront in Philadelphia, in character. So I turned it into little Wilhelm Meister’s bedroom, where he’s losing his mind, and got to really live out the dream of being an existentially confused little German boy.

Miller: So there are two little German boys whose voices and bodies we hear or experience. There’s also one of their mothers, there’s an old wandering Jew, a kind of lounge-singer voice vibe, an anxious performer super ego at times. These voices at this point, these individuals, are they bouncing around your head all the time, even when you’re off stage?

Tatarsky: Yeah, in some way, the show gave me metaphors through which to try to make peace with some of the voices in my head. So for example, the character of the harpy, who’s a mythical bird-woman who attacks these tree men in “Dante’s Inferno,” in one of the circles of hell, the harpy plays a big part in this show. The harpy, for me, represents one’s own self-attacking thoughts that peck at us and break us down.

So now when I have those self-attacking thoughts, it’s genuinely helpful to be like, “Those are the harpies, those are just the harpies. The harpies are always there.’ And if you make peace with them or you even try to make friends with them, get curious about their experience and the voices in your head, “OK, Harpies, what’s going on today,” it makes it all a lot more manageable.

Miller: Now, to be clear, the novel and the other works that you referenced, you mentioned Dante there as well, they’re super specific and super fertile as well. So, even though you’ve dedicated more than a decade at this point of your working life to a work that’s based on them, it doesn’t seem like it’s hemmed you in. How has the play morphed over the years?

Tatarsky: A strange thing happened when things shut down in 2020, where we all had to go into a kind of reflective period, out of necessity because it was such a different time. I felt like the show chewed itself up and then vomited itself back up in that time. Another way I’ve thought about it is the show, up to that point, got eaten by a worm and then the worm pooped it out. And the show, I hope, holds all of that digesting, chewing, spitting up, vomiting up, pooping out. That’s all fertile. That crap is literally fertile. It lays the ground for new ways of thinking and being to grow.

Miller: But both of those metaphors, these digestive, super-bodily, gross sort of metaphors, in each case, you’re talking about the show as a kind of external thing. Is that how it felt? I mean, whether it’s being digested or thrown up, it happened to this thing, but this thing is you in some ways, or your creation. But it feels external?

Tatarsky: That’s really interesting. You’re allowing me to reflect on something I haven’t in a way, but I think you’re right. It has a monstrous quality to me. I mean, I’m a quite shy person so it takes a lot of energy to find a way to be OK on stage in front of crowds. The show offers a bunch of masks in a way. All of these characters are masks that I can wear that then give me a sort of permission to play and to be truthful, and share things that are horrifying to share because they’re so vulnerable. Also, the humor of it sort of allows all of that to come out and feel OK.

Miller: What do you mean when you say that you’re a shy person?

Tatarsky: [Laughs] Like I’m squirming right now. No, I mean it’s terrifying, I think, to figure out how to be “normal” or “acceptable” with one another in life. Right now, we’re sitting in these chairs facing each other, being somewhat still. We’ve been trained and disciplined our whole lives to comport our bodies and our voices in socially acceptable ways, and it’s scary to navigate that and stay within those constraints. So in normal life, I feel a lot of shyness figuring out how to be. But on stage, I’m allowed, I’m encouraged to expand beyond those constraints.

Miller: Right, and that’s one of the things I’ve seen you talk about before. Everything in life is a performance. It’s most obvious, maybe, to an audience, that when we go to see a show, that that’s a performance. But a point it seems like you’re trying to make here is that we’re all performing all the time?

Tatarsky: Yeah, I think we also are performing so many identities, for instance, that are themselves constructions and fictions. Even if we think about being Americans and what is this story that we all agree to live within and carry forward? And to what extent can we, by learning what those stories, myths and fictions are, then also rewrite them?

Miller: There’s something so seemingly free about your performance, in this piece. The sense I got watching it was that you could just do anything. I had no idea what was coming next, and it just felt like, from my perspective as an audience member, that you didn’t have boundaries – in a great way. I mean, one of the words I’ve seen that’s been used a couple times to describe your performances is “unhinged,” which is a similar way to put that. Does it feel that way to you? When you’re on stage, do you feel like there are boundaries, that there are lines you can’t cross?

Tatarsky: The most delightful thing is to try to feel out where the line is, and then to approach that line and then play at the line. Especially in relation to the audience, which could mean physical proximity. It could mean content and themes. It could mean energy. Where is the line where you feel that you really shouldn’t cross it, and then how close can you get? And if you get too close, then there’s a whole game of backing away from the line, inching towards it again. How can you bring an audience to that line with you, then kind of dance around crossing it, and where that can bring you?

Miller: How are you reading an audience then? I mean, because inherent in what you’ve just described is an exquisite understanding, I imagine, of where the audience is. So how do you read an audience?

Tatarsky: I’m really looking at you all. [Laughter] I mean, that’s what’s so thrilling. You’re looking at me, I’m looking at you. I’m so curious about an audience, and I’m really watching everything. For instance, just practically speaking, clowns really don’t perform with the lights blacked out. There’s always just enough light that we can really watch. Not to make the audience nervous, but you should be a little bit nervous, we can see, with your body, what you’re taking in when people’s arms cross, when they’re processing on their face. Then you want to always notice and respond, and see what you can do to have people open up and receive.

Miller: And you’re able to do that, just craftwise, while also remembering your beats and where your props are, what prop is in your pants at that moment or which keyboard to pull out at some given time?

Tatarsky: It is a lot. It’s really funny. I always find myself laughing really hard during tech, when you’re loading into the show and getting all the cues, because it’s both so serious and so silly and ridiculous at the same time. But truly, if the rubber chicken is in the wrong place, it messes everything up. [Laughs] So it’s like utmost seriousness to make the most ridiculous thing possible.

Miller: Do you like being in an audience at this point?

Tatarsky: Oh, I love it. It’s like research. I’m just so curious.

Miller: What are you paying attention to, do you think, as an audience member, because of the work that you do on stage?

Tatarsky: I’m always looking to be surprised, and see and experience something that I haven’t before. I’m really paying attention to rhythm and to the shape of a work as a whole. If it’s the Time-Based Art Festival and it’s a time-based medium, really our material is time. Like a sculptor works with whatever material they sculpt, we work with time to shape it. So it’s really like if I have a little over an hour, what do I want that shape to look and feel like? So I love to watch how artists are sculpting time.

Miller: How vulnerable do you feel on stage?

Tatarsky: Well, on stage, I feel kind of invincible. I’m protected by the situation. I can go anywhere. As soon as I get off stage, the socialized judgment returns and I go, “Dear God, what have I done? How did I say that, do that, share that?” But the stage really is a kind of sacred, ritualized space that gives us a frame within which we can go places that we ordinarily would not.

Miller: But doing that, night after night in some cases, it doesn’t transmit that sense of invulnerability to offstage life. It only exists on stage. It’s that circumscribed?

Tatarsky: Maybe a little bit. This is kind of personal, but one thing I’ve reflected on is that I do think I’m more comfortable in my body from performing so much in front of audiences. Like a lot of this body shame that you grow up with that comes from all angles, that affects all of us I think, I have sort of made peace with it because, actually, the most exciting thing to do is find pleasure in your body, in your physical flesh vessel. If you can find delight and play, that transcends everything. That can really ease insecurities, and that does translate. So that’s been exciting. I welcome all into the clown healing.

Miller: What are you most excited about exploring in future performances?

Tatarsky: Oh, what a great and sticky question. In future performances, like in future works, I think I’m excited to continue figuring out this problem of how difficult our minds can be to us, and how that relates to a lot of injustice and horror in the world. How else can we use the theater to work out some problems together?

Miller: Alex Tatarsky, it was a pleasure talking with you. Thanks very much.

Tatarsky: Thank you. What a treat.

Miller: Alex Tatarsky is a New York City and Philadelphia-based clown and performance artist. You can see their one-person show, “Sad Boys in Harpy Land” as part of this year’s Time-Based Art Festival. It is Friday through Sunday at Reed’s Greenwood Theatre.

“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.

If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.

Battle Ground Public Schools in Washington is one such district. Students at Prairie High School run the Falcon Flyer; Battle Ground High School has the Tiger Times; and at Tukes Valley Middle School, a student with a small team launched a districtwide newsmagazine called Your Battle Ground Public Schools (Your BGPS).

We talk with the editor of the Falcon Flyer, Kennedy Tandrow, a junior at Prairie High, and Rye Geilenfeldt, the managing editor and founder of Your BGPs.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. There was a 20% drop in the number of school newspapers in U.S. high schools from 2011 to 2021. That mirrors a major decline in the outside world. But some young people in Battle Ground Public Schools in Southwest Washington are pushing against this tide. Last year, Rye Geilenfeldt, a student at Tukes Valley Middle School, launched a districtwide news magazine called Your Battle Ground Public Schools [Your BGPS]. Kennedy Tandrow is a junior at Prairie High School and the editor of the Falcon Flyer, the school paper. They both join me now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.

Kennedy Tandrow: Thank you.

Rye Geilenfeldt: Hello. Thank you very much.

Miller: Rye, I understand that the idea for YBG[P]S, Your Battle Ground Public Schools, came when you ran across an old newspaper insert focused on the district. Why did you want to revive this?

Geilenfeldt: Yes, when I was in sixth grade, I was in my school’s yearbook program. One day after we had finished the yearbook, I was bored, and I was just scrolling through an old district website archive. I discovered a PDF document of an old district insert that ran in the local newspaper, The Reflector. I had grown up reading The Reflector newspaper. So it just kind of showed me that there could be this connection between not only a single school, but the district and journalism.

I have always enjoyed photography and photojournalism, and the idea of being able to tell the stories of other students. As a student in this district, I just see some of the amazing things that people my age, older and younger, are doing every single day. But also, I see how sometimes those stories are just looked over by adult district communicators, no matter how hard they try, or adult journalists running local publications. So I felt I was uniquely qualified as a student to introduce a unique idea of a districtwide, student-led news magazine focusing on the accomplishments of students in our district.

Miller: You had this idea. How did you get buy-in, a green light from the district?

Geilenfeldt: OK, so immediately after I discovered this insert, I didn’t even know what I wanted this project to be, but I knew I wanted it to be a project. So I immediately took it to my sixth grade history teacher, Mr. Heasley, and said that I think this could be something really cool. He said, “I think it could be too, however, it is almost the end of the school year, so it might not get picked up,” because this was April 2025. But instead of taking the reasonable route, which is considering the district is really busy and it is the end of the year, I took it to my yearbook advisor, Amy Hanson. Mrs. Hanson and I worked together, and put together a project proposal that we sent off to the district with only 10 weeks of the school year left.

We scheduled the meeting via Zoom, discussed it, and they gave us the green light to begin recruiting other students to help put this together. They didn’t fully say that they were confident that the publication would turn out. But they said that they were giving us the green light to try. Immediately, I reached out to friends and acquaintances from my school, Tukes Valley Middle School, River HomeLink, and Battle Ground Virtual Academy. Myself, along with 12 other students, in less than a month, put together the full first issue. So by the time that district communicators could really check in to see our progress, we had nearly a finished final product to show them.

Miller: As I understand, you’re now three issues in, right? I want to hear more about your experiences there. But as I mentioned, Kennedy Tandrow is with us as well, a junior at Prairie High School, and now this year, the editor of the school newspaper, the Falcon Flyer.

Kennedy, what got you interested in working on the school newspaper?

Tandrow: I have always been interested in journalism. I’ve heavily grown up around it. My mom was always watching the news, always reading a newspaper or something. I feel like that’s a very much lost concept within my age range of peers. I feel like it’s something that people my age just don’t necessarily pay attention to or take time out of their day to read about.

I got into journalism because I wanted to share those stories and also just learn more about them myself. Being able to share those stories, write those stories and publish those stories, I feel like I’m able to reach a pretty wide range of people. And I feel like that’s just so important for me to be able to do.

Miller: Do you have a sense for why your peers aren’t paying attention to the news the way that you are?

Tandrow: I really credit a lot of my attention to it to my mom. But I feel like it also just can be inaccessible sometimes for people. Personally, our Falcon Flyer doesn’t print very often. It’s only a once-a-year thing. So you have to search for news going around at the school. And I feel like a lot of publishers are making that transition to online newspapers, and it just makes it so much harder or it takes a lot more time out of people my age’s day to search for those stories and stuff.

Miller: What difference do you think it would make if the Falcon Flyer were in print?

Tandrow: I feel like it would make a pretty big difference because we could post it around the school. I feel like when people are walking to class or just don’t have anything to do during the school day, it’s a good thing to just read about. It can be interesting and it can be informational, and you just learn more about your peers and what’s going on around the school and in the community.

Miller: Kennedy, who do you see as your audience? Maybe, who do you want your audience to be?

Tandrow: Currently, I feel like our audience is a lot of students’ parents that read the Falcon Flyer.

Miller: Is it that you’re writing with them in mind, or the parents are the ones who are used to taking in the news and they wanna find out what’s happening in school, and now they have access to the student publication and more than their kids care?

Tandrow: I believe that the parents grew up around the news more than we ever did, so they just have that kind of instinct to want to search for it. We don’t necessarily try to appeal to just one audience. We really try to get as wide of a range as we can. So I feel like this year I’m gonna really work on that with my writers and just the paper in general, to make it more appealing to the younger generations as well.

Miller: Rye, how do you think about audience?

Geilenfeldt: My goal with Your Battle Ground Public Schools, especially with the fact that it is a districtwide publication, is I want it to be something that anybody from up in Amboy down to northern Vancouver can pick up and read, and find a story that they enjoy. With Issue 3 especially, the most recent one, we did our very best to have a wide array of different topics, from academic to artistic to athletic successes among students. So, I would like for it to be something that students can read and enjoy seeing their own and their peer successes.

Parents can enjoy seeing what’s happening in their district. They are the voters and the taxpayers of our district, so really seeing what their children and their peers are doing. And then community members to see what’s happening in their schools, because for business owners and people like that, the students in Battle Ground Public Schools today who are working hard in their CTE programs, and their journalism programs, their art programs, those are the workers of tomorrow. So it just gives them an idea of some of the great things we have going on here in Battle Ground.

Miller: Kennedy, where do you get your ideas for stories right now?

Tandrow: Right now, since I was recently promoted to editor, I’m coming up with them on my own. So what I’m really taking into consideration, especially at the beginning of the school year, is interviewing new staff members, going over some new rules in the school, and also introducing all our sports and stuff, and all our clubs and all of the extracurricular activities that Prairie does offer.

Miller: Do you ever get pitched by classmates? Do classmates say, “hey, you should profile me” or you should write an article about this thing that’s happening?

Tandrow: Oh yeah, for sure. I definitely encourage my staff members to write about just about anything they want. If it’s school related, I highly encourage it. And I hope that they feel open enough to me to offer up those ideas, because I feel like it gives another perspective about more students in the school and what they see, what they do and what they want to read about.

Miller: Rye, what’s a story from the most recent issue that you’re particularly proud of?

Geilenfeldt: I think that would be the Tukes Valley students raising $22,000 to restore an outdoor classroom. Given that I go to Tukes, I was able to watch this in real-time. Students in grades Kindergarten through eighth grade participated in a fundraiser called “The Fund Run” where they ran laps, and for every lap they ran, a certain amount was calculated and donated by a community partner. With over $22,000 raised, that money was put towards the rebuilding and restoration of an old outdoor classroom that was initially established around a decade ago, I believe. Since publishing that story, I’ve been able to see that outdoor classroom come to life just off campus. Yeah, I’m very proud of that story.

Miller: What are you excited to cover this year?

Geilenfeldt: I have actually started working on a story already that is following the Battle Ground High School band program from first rehearsals to their big Friday Night Lights performance in October. So that is something I have absolutely loved doing. You ask anybody who’s been in my editorial circle, Rye loves band stories. [Laughter] I love taking pictures of bands. I love talking to band students. This year, I was given the opportunity to work with the Battle Ground High School Band Program to tell their story, which I am very excited about. I am so eager to get that written and published.

Miller: Do you find that as a journalist now, and as an eighth grader, that you have this license to talk to high schoolers that you wouldn’t have otherwise?

Geilenfeldt: I’m a very sociable person, so I go out of my way to make connections. I always have. I’ve always gone out of my way to make connections with people who you might not think that I, as somebody my age, would make connections with. Especially as I have gotten into the field of journalism, I will kind of just, as I’m making connections with new people, ask them a bit about themselves, about their environment and their school life. I’m just always on the look for more insight into my community because I do run a publication that covers 19 unique schools with 13,000 unique students with unique lives, personalities and interests. So I just really like to gauge these ideas.

I do have a lot of personal friends in high school already. So that has been really helpful for me to sort of bridge those gaps to find stories, because my editorial team is very small. It is just myself, my advisor and then my associate editor, Paisley Dunn, who is a student at Battle Ground High School. But her position as a student at Battle Ground High School allows me to learn new things happening at that nine through 12 level that I would not really hear about otherwise, as somebody still at the five through eight level in middle school for one more year.

Miller: Kennedy, what do you think you’re learning by doing this?

Tandrow: In the journalism program at Prairie, I’m obviously learning some great writing skills, but also I feel like I’m learning how to make connections and communicate with people of all types, characteristics and all of that. I feel like that’s such an important skill to learn because, personally, I’ve always been a pretty shy person. I feel like ever since I started doing journalism, I really learned how to carry a conversation, just be able to talk about really anything and be able to get a story about anything.

Miller: Kennedy, are you potentially interested in a career in journalism?

Tandrow: I believe so, yeah. I’ve definitely thought about being a rock journalist, for sure.

Miller: Writing about rock?

Tandrow: I love music so much, and I feel like if I can combine two of my niches, that would just be like the perfect thing for me to do. I feel like journalism, it opens just so many doors for really any type of writing you want to do.

Miller: Rye, what about you? Again, you’re only in eighth grade, but as I’m talking to you, it seems like I’m talking to somebody who’s 20 years older. Have you thought about potential careers?

Geilenfeldt: You know, my whole life I always wanted to go into public education, specifically secondary public education. But since I started this project in my sixth-grade year, I’ve fallen more and more in love with the idea of journalism. And I’ve had multiple discussions with Paisley, my associate editor, where I have said that it is my dream to work at a community newspaper. I really admire the editorial skill and the photojournalistic ability of our local newspaper, The Reflector.

So, I could see a career in journalism. I just love the idea of a small town newspaper that still finds a way to tell those big stories that really just make an impact on the community.

Miller: Rye and Kennedy, it was a pleasure talking with both of you. Thanks very much.

Tandrow: Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Geilenfeldt: Thank you.

Miller: You too. Rye Geilenfeldt is an eighth grader at Tukes Valley Middle School, founder and managing editor of Your Battle Ground Public Schools, Your BGPS. Kennedy Tandrow is a junior at Prairie High School, the editor of the school newspaper there, the Falcon Flyer.

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In an unexpected move, President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Pete Serrano, a former state attorney general candidate from Pasco, to be the next U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington.

Serrano now leads the federal prosecutor’s office in eastern Washington in his dual roles of first assistant U.S. attorney and special attorney to Attorney General Todd Blanche. His appointment is the latest development in a turbulent chapter for judicial nominees in the state.

Serrano served about four months in 2025 as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. That appointment expired in December when Trump failed to formally nominate Serrano for the job in the face of staunch opposition from Washington’s two Democratic U.S. senators.

A Republican, Serrano ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2024. He is also the founder of the conservative nonprofit Silent Majority Foundation, which has challenged Washington’s gun restrictions and COVID mandates.

The appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd in western Washington also ended without Trump nominating him for the job. Floyd now serves as first assistant U.S. attorney.

Judges in the western district then appointed Roger Rogoff, a former federal prosecutor and King County judge, to the post. Trump fired Rogoff an hour after the appointment, creating the vacancy that Serrano has been nominated to fill. Rogoff has sued, contending the president’s action violates a federal law that allows judges to act if the interim appointment is not confirmed.

On Monday, Serrano said he was informed of the nomination Monday and had “definitely” not spoken to the president. “It’s just another day in the Trump administration in Washington,” he said.

He also said he expects Washington’s senators will not drop their opposition. He was right.

“I will be using every tool I have to block this nomination,” Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement. “Let’s be clear about what a sham this is: After federal judges declined to appoint Serrano in Eastern Washington, this administration invented a workaround to install him anyway. Now they want to permanently install Serrano in the Western District.”

“The people of Washington state deserve a serious U.S. Attorney who will follow the law, not a political loyalist who thinks the law is whatever the President says it is,” she said.

One of those tools is the “blue slip” process, a longstanding tradition that allows senators to block nominees for U.S. attorney positions and federal judgeships in their states.

Once a president makes a nomination, a consent form, known as a blue slip, is sent by the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to the two senators in the nominee’s home state.

If the forms are signed and returned, the process continues. If not, it signals a lack of support and the chair will not advance the nominee.

Trump loathes the process because it has derailed some of his picks. He has called it “old and outdated” and threatened legal action to end it.

“I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump has posted on social media.

There are 93 U.S. attorneys nationwide. They prosecute federal criminal cases and work on civil litigation involving the federal government. Serrano supervises a staff of approximately 79 prosecutors, civil litigators, and support personnel, according to the Department of Justice.

Serrano was appointed in early August 2025 as interim U.S. attorney by former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. He could serve 120 days while awaiting confirmation. The clock expired in early December without Trump nominating him.

Originally from California, he moved to Pasco in 2015 with his family. He worked as an environmental lawyer for the U.S. Department of Energy and at Energy Northwest before founding the Silent Majority Foundation. Serrano is also the former leader of the Franklin County Republican Party.

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

This republished story is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org/partnerships.

There are over 130 data centers across Oregon. In the eastern part of the state, there are more than 50, many of which are owned and operated by Amazon Web Services. The tech-giant has brought millions to cities such as Hermiston, allowing for renovations to its city hall and library. But the data centers have also drawn criticism from local advocates for their water and energy use and environmental impacts. Roger Wehner is the vice president of economic development for Amazon. He joins us to share his company’s perspective on data center investments in Oregon.

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Alex Murrell is the founder and executive director of Dream Big City. He joins us to talk more about the nonprofit’s work.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The nonprofit Dream Big City aims to create safe, drug- and alcohol-free community events across Portland. Over the last six years, the organization has put on more than 170 events featuring live music, art, free meals and mentorship opportunities for young people. Its latest project is to turn a once blighted street in Portland’s Central Eastside into a community plaza with skateboard ramps, basketball hoops and more.

Alex Murrell is the founder and executive director of Dream Big City. He joins us now to talk more about the non-profit’s work. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.

Alex Murrell: Thank you for having me.

Miller: How do you describe Dream Big City? I mean, what kind of work is at the heart of what you do?

Murrell: Our whole goal at Dream Big City is to create a safe, alcohol- and drug-free space for youth.

Miller: Why?

Murrell: It’s because I didn’t have that as a kid. We were out in the streets in Portland skating, and we were surrounded by violence, by alcohol, by just things that kids shouldn’t be around. So my whole goal was to create a safe place for the youth and adults to come and be creative physically and through creative outlets.

Miller: How do you think your life was affected by not having the kind of place that you’re now trying to create for young people today?

Murrell: I think I learned the hard way. I had to go swim in the deep end for a while in alcohol, drugs, and I had to get into recovery. I’ve been in recovery for 26 years. Part of that is how can I be of service, how I can give away what I have. And that’s serenity. That’s a way where I’m able to find myself, through physical and creative outlets. So that was the key to starting Dream Big City. Just hey, we’ve all been through … A lot of the people who started it with me and who volunteer have been through tough times and they just want to make it easier for the youth.

Miller: One of the programs that you’ve been doing for a while now, you call “FamJams.” What’s a “FamJam?”

Murrell: FamJam is so fun because it is a safe block party. So I had a restaurant van. It started with a ramp, a rail and five people at a parking lot off Hawthorne. We just pulled up. It’s when I had a 5-year-old kid, and I just wanted to flip the script and just have this safe skate park. So we pulled up. Five people. We had so much fun. People drove by. They saw what we were doing. It was the beginning of COVID and they saw this group smiling, so people pulled up. It turned into 10 people, 20 people, 50 people, 100, 200. We’ve done up to 1,100 people at a FamJam. It’s everything free: skating, basketball, music, art, free food for all.

Miller: And was it just organic? You set this up and then people, like in “Field of Dreams,” if you build it they will come? Or was it more official and thought out than that?

Murrell: No, I really like doing the next right thing, and to just let go of goals and just do the next right thing. Because if we have goals like that and try to create something so unique, then it will limit what the possibilities can turn out to be. That’s been the beauty of Dream Big is we do the next right thing and we’re getting these things that are happening that are bigger than any of our dreams.

Miller: Do you do have to get permission though from the city, from, from PBOT, or buy-in from local business owners or local residents?

Murrell: I had a relationship with PBOT because I had Stickers Asian Cafe for 28 years, a restaurant. I did outdoor dining with them. Then they reached out to me to start a plaza with Central Eastside Industrial Council [CEIC]. And CEIC was a bridge that connected me with PBOT. PBOT was talking about me doing a plaza in a different area. I was in a building, a creative space, JaJa PDX. I looked out the window and there was violence. People would move to Portland and they would say, “Hey, walk around that street on 9th and Taylor. Don’t go through it.”

I was going to go, the next day, to do a tour of this other block, and I woke up at four in the morning and said, “Hey, we want to do the plaza right outside the window.” I told my wife that. She was like, “Go to bed, you’re crazy.” And I talked PBOT into coming. It was a tough talk because there were no businesses on 9th and Taylor, and usually the plazas are around businesses. I had the PBOT team come. I pitched it for 20 minutes. We never went to the other place to look at it. They believed in it. I believed in it.

And we were able to do what’s called a “never been done.” It’s something in skateboarding where you film and it’s a trick that’s never been done. There’s never been a plaza from PBOT given to Dream Big City. We’re the steward of the street. And we turned an outdoor community center right where it was an avoided street. So it was a dream.

Miller: Can you describe more fully what it was like before you transformed it?

Murrell: So it was a dark street. There was fentanyl, there was meth, there was violence. Houseless community wouldn’t even want to come in that street. It was a street that was pretty much banned to walk through.

Miller: How did you then change that? I mean, you got buy-in from PBOT, but did you walk through there one day and say, “Hey folks, please use meth, please sell fentanyl somewhere else because we wanna skateboard here with kids?”

Murrell: I think life is about respect, so I led with respect and just said, “Hey, my name’s Alex. I’m in recovery 26 years. No judgment, but I’m gonna bring kids here. And you can’t do that here.” Usually people, no matter how deep in the addiction, when you mention kids, they don’t want to influence kids in a bad way. I just really believe in bringing love to darkness. You bring light.

I was used to hanging out in the dark places. That’s where I used to hide. So I knew that if you bring love and bring light, that will flip the whole street. But also, what I didn’t realize … Because we’re out in the streets and we did bring love, I’ve created relationships with the houseless community, with a lot of people where we build trust because of what we’ve done, that impact we’ve made. It’s been a pathway to get people to get the help they need.

Miller: If I understand the timing right, this all happened more than a year ago, and now you’re working on what you call Dream Plaza 2.0. What’s changing?

Murrell: PBOT was amazing. They said yes. I was like, let’s call it a pilot project. I insured the street. I put around $80,000 worth of ramps, basketball hoops in the street. We did the biggest skateboard mural in America, 126 feet by Matt French, a famous skateboard artist.

Miller: It looks like a skateboard from up above. If you are in a drone and you look down, you’d see a huge skateboard spanning basically the entire block, right?

Murrell: Yeah, that goes out even into the intersection. So every car drives over skateboard trucks.

On this kind of stuff, it’s challenging. So you have to have fun. We had a blast, and I somehow won the Central Eastside Industrial Council award. It was a privilege. I had to Google what it was. I didn’t know. But around 1,250 or 1,300 businesses voted Dream Big to win a Catalyst Award. It shined a light on what we had. Bora Architecture and Anderson Construction, Creative Neighborhoods, Pickathon and KPFF Structural Engineers, KNL Paving, all joined, and we’re redesigning the plaza and putting up to $400,000 for the people.

Miller: What are you excited to work on next? You don’t seem like the kind of person who says, “OK, that was good. Now I’m going to put my feet up.”

Murrell: Through all this, I was able to move into the Propel Building at PSU. It’s an entrepreneurship building, and I really believe in the building. I looked out the window and there was an abandoned green space that had foil, needles. I led a whole cleanup with Oregon Metro. We took out 1,450 pounds of trash with 40 volunteers. Now we just got a five-year stewardship agreement to possibly – I’m working right now – turn it into a community garden and space. I just really believe in cleaning what we can see. So, make an impact on what we can touch, what we can see, and dream big, start small.

Miller: What’s your advice for other people who want to do even a small version of what you’re doing?

Murrell: I think just grab a grabber and a bucket.

Miller: Literally, OK. Pick up trash?

Murrell: Go pick up trash. If you have a vision, believe in it. And if you hear someone say, “we’ve never done that,” that’s green light, go full speed ahead for me. If something hasn’t been done, that’s my love, that’s what I love, that pocket. I think just dream big, listen to your gut, follow your dreams and just get in action. Build a team of people. A lot of people wanna do good things in Portland. We haven’t given up on it.

Miller: Alex, thanks very much. Alex Murrell is founder and executive director of the non-profit Dream Big City.

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Nike founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight, have pledged $1.1 billion to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and to Providence Heart Institute, Providence announced Tuesday.

The gift is pledged over a 10-year period, with the first distribution of funds this year.

Providence plans to use part of the gift to build a new hospital tower dedicated to women’s health on the St. Vincent campus in Washington County. The hospital, which Providence says is Oregon’s first of its kind, will be anchored by an updated labor and delivery unit and neonatal intensive care unit, along with cardiac care, menopause care and gynecology.

The gift will also support new cardiovascular treatments, diagnostic tools and prevention strategies at the Providence Heart Institute, also headquartered on the St. Vincent campus.

In a statement provided by Providence, Knight said the gift will change what’s possible for communities across Oregon.

“Penny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people willing to take on the toughest challenges,” said Phil Knight. “Providence has shown that kind of ambition in cardiovascular care, and we see the same opportunity to do something truly distinctive for women’s health.”

The gift further cements the Knights as Oregon’s leading philanthropists.

Last year, they pledged $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Research Institute, a gift the Chronicle of Philanthropy called the largest public donation of the year. They’ve also made major gifts to the University of Oregon and the 1803 Fund, an initiative investing in Oregon’s Black community and neighborhoods in Portland’s urban core.

And it offers a major tailwind for Providence, one of Oregon’s largest employers and healthcare providers. In recent years the health system, based in Renton, Washington, has weathered financial losses and a statewide nursing strike, laid off staff and closed service lines, and announced the shuttering of its insurance division.

New women’s hospital ‘a dream’

St. Vincent is Oregon’s oldest hospital, founded in 1875 by the Sisters of Providence, a Roman Catholic women’s group.

Today, women make up 60% of Providence’s patients, and St. Vincent delivers more babies annually than any other hospital in the state. But hospital leaders say the maternity unit and NICU were built in the 1990s and have grown out of date.

While the birthrate in Oregon has fallen, a higher percentage of pregnancies involve complex health conditions, from diabetes to substance-use disorders.

Across the state, healthcare providers have struggled to maintain maternity wards, with closures in recent years from Seaside to Baker City.

Dr. Ray Moreno, the chief executive for Providence St. Vincent, said he and others at Providence have long discussed the idea of a women’s hospital with more centralized, coordinated care and better technology to support women across their lifespan. But he said until the Knights’ gift, they didn’t have a path to make it happen.

“That was just a dream until this incredible transformative gift,” he said.

Among the facility upgrades planned: The NICU in the new women’s hospital will have private rooms for families, replacing an existing older design featuring a single shared room with a long row of specialized incubators called isolates.

Goal to make cutting-edge heart healthcare ‘easier’

Over the past decade, the Knights have contributed $200 million to the Providence Heart Institute, helping to expand it and establish a heart transplantation program. The institute treats about 63,000 patients from across the Northwest.

Dan Oseran, the institute’s executive medical director, said their new pledge will allow them to recruit top talent from around the country, invest in research like clinical trials and stay at the cutting edge of diagnostics and treatment.

“With this type of gift over a period of time, we can not only keep up with technology, but sort of anticipate where technology is going,” he said.

Oseran said he expects the gift will also ease the way of patients dealing with a stressful cardiac diagnosis. For individual patients, the investments in technology could mean shorter waits for an MRI or CT scan. Providence says it will also invest in some patient support services that go beyond what can be billed to insurance providers.

“I think there’s a lot that we can do if we are thoughtful about how individual patients encounter the health system and how we can just make it easier for them,” Oseran said.

The Knights’ family foundation reported $4.47 billion in assets and $520 million in revenue in 2024, according to the most recent public filings with Oregon’s Department of Justice.

Courtney Marecki has been a blur of activity all morning. She shuttles between refrigerators, lab hoods, storage cabinets and mixers. A persistent beep cuts through the electric hum of the lab.

“Perfect timing. There’s the centrifuge,” the University of Washington chemist says on a November day last year in Seattle.

Marecki pulls out a test tube of clear liquid, pushed through a filter for purification by the high-speed spinning of the machine.

“Here we go,” she says, holding up the tube. “Now we have the stuff we don’t want in the bottom and the stuff we do want remained.”

These are deceptively simple words to describe the biomedical marvel in her hand: a vaccine for fentanyl, one of the most insidious and deadly drugs on the illicit market.

Opioid use disorder is a devastating health crisis facing our communities. And for those seeking recovery, the medical treatments available can be difficult to access and to stick with.

“Opioids specifically are very scary just because of their mechanism of action,” says Marecki. “A lot of times people are accidentally addicted to them. They get prescribed something as a pain medication, and it’s the gateway into harder opioids.”

Researchers in UW’s Pravetoni Research Group are harnessing the power of the immune system to prevent overdoses before they happen and loosen the grip of addiction.

And now, the lab plans to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the go-ahead to move their fentanyl vaccine into human trials, a major step in the vaccine testing and approval process.

“I think eventually we will get there,” says Fatima Hamid, an immunologist working on the project. “Sooner or later, we’ll have a vaccine on the market. Patients will have this option that will decrease the risk of overdose, decrease the risk of relapse.”

The opioid scourge

Lab director Marco Pravetoni began working on opioid vaccines more than a decade ago, when oxycodone was the main addiction culprit.

“At the time there were about 30,000 people dying each year of opioid overdose,” he says. “Those numbers seemed huge already. They were comparable to some cancer.”

But the tragedy only became worse from there. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, annual overdose deaths peaked in the United States at more than 100,000. The proliferation of the synthetic opioid fentanyl drove the spike.

Oregon and Washington have some of the highest overdose death rates in the country, ranking eighth and third respectively among the 50 states.

“I’m someone who has a family that has a history of addiction and struggled with it in my family’s life, and it’s something that I don’t want other people to experience,” says Marecki.

Her experience is quite common. In a 2023 poll, nearly 30% of U.S. adults said they or a family member had experienced opioid addiction.

“If I can have a small part in making the world a better place for other people to not go through what I went through, that’s my personal motivator,” she says.

The lab’s vaccine could make a difference.

“I never thought in the past we’d get this far,” says Pravetoni. “Then, when we started working with contractors, started talking with the FDA, all the sudden [it became] more real. We can actually do this. We can have an impact.”

A vaccine for fentanyl

For millions of years, humans have evolved immune systems to fight off harmful invaders in the body — like bacteria and viruses — before they can make you sick. Our bodies are very good at this, but they can’t always act fast enough.

Vaccines give our bodies a running start. They train our immune system to recognize the invaders and make specialized antibodies that can attack much faster than your body could normally.

“I’ve always been fascinated with immunotherapy,” says Hamid. “The idea of using the immune system … to tackle not only infectious disease, but also uncommunicable diseases like cancer and addiction.”

But tackling opioids is a particular challenge.

“These opioids are very, very small molecules, and they enter the brain very easily because of their size,” says Marecki. “They enter the brain undetected by the body’s immune system because they’re not large enough to elicit an immune response.”

Opioids getting through the brain’s protective barrier is great for pain relief. That’s where the drugs do their work. But having too much opioid in the brain can also lead to addiction and overdose, which happens when the drug dulls your brain function so much that you stop breathing.

The team’s challenge was to teach the immune system to see something it normally ignores. So they built a vaccine component that engages in a little biological deception.

“We mimic [fentanyl] by making a copycat molecule, called a hapten, that is opioid-like in structure but not in behavior,” says Marecki.

Then they take those decoys and attach them all over the surface of a comparatively massive protein they know the immune system will see.

“That’s like putting a small smiley face sticker on a stop sign. The stop sign would be the protein. It’s something that’s large enough for the immune system to recognize it and say, ‘Oh, I need to make an antibody,’” she says.

Then, when actual fentanyl shows up down the road, the antibodies spring into action. They bind to the fentanyl molecules, making them too large to pass through the barrier protecting the brain.

“The antibodies are not just preventing the drug from getting to the brain, [they] seem also to have effects on craving. We see that in animal models and even in our preliminary clinical data with the oxycodone vaccine,” says Pravetoni.

So not only would the vaccine prevent people from overdosing, it could help people reduce their dependency on the drug.

And early data suggests the vaccine’s effects could last up to a year.

Next steps

Although the vaccine holds great potential for helping people struggling with opioid addiction, Pravetoni does not see this as an opioid addiction panacea.

“With addiction there is this perception that we have to come up with a silver bullet medication,” he says. “If this was diabetes or cancer or even depression or some other mental health or psychiatric disorder … nobody would blink if you’re on three or five medications at once.”

He sees a vaccine as one tool among many needed to pave the pathway to addiction recovery. And he’s not alone in that.

Naomi Lee is a biochemist at Northern Arizona University who has worked on opioid vaccines but is not affiliated with the Pravetoni Lab.

“If you could efficiently treat individuals who are suffering from addiction with some type of vaccination or therapeutic, that can be used maybe in conjunction with some sort of behavioral health,” says Lee. “It’s not just the addiction part, it’s also the social behavior aspect as well.”

Lee’s current work focuses on creating a vaccine for methamphetamine and doing education and outreach with Indigenous communities across the country.

“Maybe they needed an extra boost to help them get over that addiction, but you still have to treat the addiction,” she says.

So far, the Pravetoni Lab has developed vaccines for oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl. They’re working on other non-vaccine therapeutics to prevent fentanyl overdoses as well.

Their oxycodone vaccine is undergoing human trials. The heroin vaccine has received approval from the FDA to begin human trials. The researchers say those trials should begin soon.

In addition, the team soon plans to submit an Investigational New Drug application to take their fentanyl vaccine into human trials. These tests on human volunteers happen in three phases, and the testing and approval process can take 10 years to complete.

“The pipeline of developing vaccines is really long, starting from the chemistry … up to clinical trials,” says Hamid. “We’re trying to be better every time — making better vaccines. Making them more efficacious. Making them safer.”

And the advantage of the vaccine technology, or platform, they’re using is that it can be relatively easily modified to target other drugs as well.

“We keep adding to match what’s going on in real life out there in the drug supply, and see if we can actually come up with treatments to counteract those particular drugs,” says Pravetoni.

They’re starting work on vaccines that can target newly emerging drugs like xylazine, a powerful sedative sometimes referred to as the “zombie drug,” and nitazenes, opioids that can be even more potent than fentanyl.

“Every day is a challenge, and it’s a new challenge. Especially when you read the newspapers and you see there’s a new item that has made it onto the illicit drug market,” says Marecki. “We now have to figure out, ‘Okay, how can we get ahead of this?’”

The lab is also considering another reality of the illicit drug market: when using, people are often exposed to several different drugs in one dose, often without their knowledge.

“Our overall plan is to develop a vaccine, a multi-valent vaccine, that would target multiple drugs at once,” Pravetoni says.

Ultimately, their hope is that all of their vaccines can provide a safety net and treatment for opioid users.

“A lot of the West Coast was hit really hard with addiction, especially with the fentanyl crisis,” says Marecki. “And if we have a small part in mitigating that, that’s success for me.”

Portland journalist and zine maker Shay Mirk loves comics.

“I always like just making comics as a fun kind of side hobby. I would spend all my weekends photocopying stuff that I’ve made and distributing it out to people,” they said.

From their North Portland home, Mirk creates their comics and zines, short, handmade booklets, usually made with a printer, and distributes them to the public at local pop ups around the city.

Mirk is one of hundreds of comics artists working in Portland, creating new and original work that push the boundaries of the visual medium.

“One thing that’s really special about Portland is that there are a lot of people here who are making their own path,” they said. “There are people who say ‘I want to be an artist. I want to do it my own way.’”

Oregon’s history of comic creation

Portland is known as one of the biggest hubs for independent comics creators.

Comics publishers like Dark Horse Comics, Oni Press and Image, and classic tales of Batman, Captain Marvel and dozens of alternative heroes have all come out of Oregon.

So how did Portland, a mid-sized city thousands of miles from the nearest major comics publishing company, become a hotbed of independent comics?

Oregon’s history of comics dates back to the early 1900s.

Silverton’s own Homer Davenport made a name for himself as the United States’ top political cartoonist. His work could be seen in newspapers around the country.

Newspapers were the first places where people could read what we now know as a modern comic.

During World War II, comics were used as simple, and effective, propaganda tools. Publishers featured famous heroes like Captain America urging the public to contribute to the war effort.

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In the 1970s and 1980s, most mainstream comics were published by two major companies: Marvel Comics and DC Comics, both of which were based in New York City.

With hit characters like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, mainstream comics grew in popular culture.

Rise of Portland’s indie comics

But around that same time, Portland was developing a reputation as a haven for underground and alternative comics, which focus on stories outside the mainstream superhero genre. The movement was quickly gaining steam.

Artists like “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, and cartoonists like Lynda Barry, John Callahan and Rupert Kinnard laid the groundwork for Portland’s rise as a hub for the independent comics community.

Kinnard moved to Portland in 1979 after graduating from Cornell University and fell in love with the city.

In 1983, he helped start “Just Out,” Portland’s first queer news magazine, and introduced the world to his two most popular characters, The Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé, through his comic strip, “Cathartic Comics.”

The Brown Bomber is the first ongoing gay, Black superhero in comics, as a reflection of Kinnard’s own identity as a gay Black man.

“It was a thrill for me to create a character whose weakness was sweet potato pie because I love sweet potato pie and that would be my weakness,” he said, laughing.

Through his work at “Just Out,” Kinnard used “Cathartic Comics” as a vehicle to address issues that he saw within the queer community.

Kinnard’s work came at a time when independent comics were still relatively niche.

It took the arrival of one company to make them a household name.

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Dark Horse Comics

Mike Richardson founded the independent comic book company Dark Horse Comics in 1986, in Milwaukie. A born and raised Oregonian, Richardson grew up loving comics and pop culture.

In 1980, he opened up his own comics shop, Pegasus Books, in Bend. He then met other artists who were frustrated that they couldn’t own their creations if they worked for the big comics companies, like Marvel and DC Comics.

“So that put the idea in my head that someday I would start a company where the writers and artists who created properties could own them,” he said.

He named the company Dark Horse Comics.

“My intention was at some point if someone got tired of reading stories about men in tights and wanted to move into something more serious, we wanted to be the next level,” he said.

Through original stories like Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy” and Bob Burden’s “The Flaming Carrot,” Dark Horse Comics’ reputation as an independent publisher grew.

Then in 1991, famed comics writer Frank Miller approached Dark Horse with a new comic, one that would continue to push the boundaries of what a comic could be.

That title was the gritty neo-noir “Sin City.“

Sin City’s black-and-white imagery, and narrative that evoked nostalgic pulp fiction detective novels, captured the imagination of its readers, and proved that audiences wanted more than super-hero comics.

“It shocked the industry that he didn’t take them to Marvel and DC,” Mike Richardson said. “And that started a stampede of well-known creators coming to Dark Horse.”

Along with original work, Richardson had the foresight to license original film properties, and adapt them to comics, something that he says no other comics companies were doing at the time.

Comic artists flock to Portland

Meanwhile, Oregonian creators like David F. Walker and Arnold Pander witnessed firsthand Portland’s comics boom.

“When I was about 15, I was working in a comic book store called Future Dreams here in Portland. And the comic store was like after school where kids would go,” Pander said.

“I remember being in art school on the East Coast and people saying to me, ‘What’s that Dark Horse?’ Like ‘Should I move to Portland, you know, are there jobs there?’” Walker said.

Arnold Pander, and his brother Jacob Pander, broke into the business when writer Matt Wagner asked them to be the artists on his influential indie comic, “Grendel.”

“I said yeah, but I work with my brother and so, we both got the job as, as a team, as the Pander Brothers, and then that book sort of really just took us into uncharted territory,” Arnold Pander said.

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David F. Walker has written for Marvel and DC, and taught comics courses at Portland State University. He has since moved to writing his own original stories and publishing them himself.

“And now I’m moving more into prose because Jack Kirby said it best, comics will break your heart,” he said.

Many comics creators ended up moving to Oregon, including writers like Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction.

“I like how many different comics communities there are in Portland. And artists like to be around artists…here Portland, we clearly found our people,” DeConnick said.

Artists Steve Lieber and Paul Guinan came to Portland and co-founded Helioscope, a collective of comics artists dedicated to creating a wide variety of comics.

“Portland is a place for people who think a little differently, for people who have a different way of living their lives,” Lieber said.

“It’s all Mike Richardson’s fault,” Guinan said, laughing. “Mike invited dozens of people to come out and not just work for him but to live here. And so Portland became the largest per capita city in the United States for comics creators and remains so to this day.”

Hub of indie comics publication

Soon, more independent comics publishers like Oni Press, IDW, and Image, called Portland home.

Katie Pryde opened the comics shop Books with Pictures in 2016. Pryde loves comics and saw a need to create a space that was inclusive to all comics lovers, regardless of age, genre, or identity.

“I actually wrote a list in my business plan of the 12 imaginary customers that I was going to be of specific service to,” she said. “And the thing that I find reassuring now nine years in, I know who those people are and they are people who come to the store.”

At 35, Oregon’s Dark Horse Comics has proven itself a significant cultural force

In 2020, Books With Pictures won the prestigious Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award. The Eisner Award is considered the top honor in the comics industry.

“It felt like a really clear recognition of my vision for inclusive stores that support kids, for stores that support women, for stores that are really a center of community,” she said.

Pryde also partially owns the store Books With Pictures Eugene, which, in 2026, took home the same Eisner Award.

New genre of comics

Portland would also play a role in popularizing a new genre of comic that blended real world reporting with the visual medium.

To many people, University of Oregon graduate Joe Sacco laid the groundwork for comics journalism.

“People don’t expect heavy information from a comic book, so it’s disarming in that way, but the thing itself is a piece of art, which I think is what comics are about,” Sacco said in a previous interview with OPB.

From 1993 to 1995, Sacco published what would be his defining work; the nonfiction book “Palestine,” which chronicled his travels in the region from December 1991 to January 1992.

Shay Mirk looked to Sacco as inspiration for their own journalism work.

Rose City Comic Con Preview: Wonder Woman | Luke Cage | Shutter | Autumnlands

In 2020, Mirk published “Guantanamo Voices,” a collection of 10 first-person narratives about the experiences of those who have been involved with the prison.

“A lot of people are not gonna take the time to read a whole big dense book about Guantanamo Bay. But I can make it a comic and more people will be drawn to it,” they said.

Mirk and comics editor Audra McNamee established the comics journalism website “Crucial Comix” in 2023.

“It’s the nonfiction stories that feel most crucial to me, and that’s why we call the press Crucial Comix,” they said.

Artists’ financial challenges

Despite Portland being seen as a place to thrive artistically, art comes at a price. And sometimes, that price can be too high.

For many artists, moving to Oregon was simply a cost-effective decision. But rising costs of living are making careers in comics much more difficult.

In 2000 median rental cost was just over $600 and had ballooned to well over $1,600 by 2024, according to data from Oregon Housing and Community Services.

And artists are feeling those effects.

Shay Mirk admitted that the reason they are able to create comics is because of the Oregon Health Plan.

“I am shocked that I’ve been able to continue to make comics in Portland. … I make so little money that I qualify for OHP, and that’s what makes it possible for me to be an artist,” they said.

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Artists aren’t the only ones struggling financially to make it in comics.

The Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts, a museum dedicated to the history of comics in Oregon, opened its doors in downtown Portland in November 2025. But by June 2026, the museum officially closed.

As for Dark Horse, Mike Richardson sold the company to the media conglomerate Embracer in 2022.

By 2026, Richardson was out as CEO and Dark Horse’s employees voted to unionize.

Dark Horse remains a company in transition.

Comics as an academic discipline

But even with the growing cost of living and the changing business of comics, Oregon continues to attract creators, and more recently, academics.

At the University of Oregon, Ben Saunders established the nation’s first-ever comics minor program in 2012.

“It’s tremendously satisfying when a student comes up to me at the end of the class and we’ve read maybe the first part of a series of graphic novels, and they are politely cursing me because they feel obliged to now go out and buy four more books in order to find out how the story ends,” Saunders said in an earlier OPB interview.

In 2017, Kate Kelp-Stebbins joined the staff as an associate professor and first Director of Comics and Cartoon Studies.

“I have the great honor of teaching all of my comics studies classes. I want my students to leave the course knowing how little they know about comics,” she said.

‘A love letter to communities’

Portland’s community of comics lovers has grown significantly over the years.

Now, every year, thousands of fans come to Portland to attend Rose City Comic Con.

And, with more conventions like Salem’s Mid Valley Comic Art Expo, Oregon continues to grow and be a home for comics lovers.

Comics will change. They will evolve. But whatever they look like years from now, one thing will remain the same:

Portland’s artists will continue the independent spirit one panel at a time.

“You don’t need anyone’s permission to share your voice and that everyone’s story matters,” Shay Mirk said.

Rupert Kinnard’s experience led him to publish a book in 2015, years after a car accident left him in a wheelchair: a collection of all his comic strips… and a thank you to the people who stuck by him.

“In a way it wasn’t until I held the book in my hand that I realized this is like a love letter to communities. I am honored that I’m in a position to be able to tell a bit of that story and that journey,” he said.

Note: Jacob Pander, brother of comic creator Arnold Pander, is currently a producer with OPB’s Oregon Art Beat series.

On Sunday evening, the Washington Post reported that the Kennedy Center administration told its board that the arts institution is on the brink of bankruptcy — and that it might be forced to close as soon as Tuesday. Both the majority of the center’s administration and board were selected by President Trump.

The document detailing this plan, which NPR has obtained, was issued ahead of a board meeting slated for Tuesday. That’s the same day as a status hearing set by Judge Christopher Cooper, who is overseeing the federal lawsuit brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty to stop renaming of the center to honor Trump last December. The Democrat from Ohio is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board.

The status meeting previously scheduled by Cooper is essentially to set more deadlines and court dates. But critics of the Kennedy Center’s administration said the timing of this report may not be a coincidence.

On Monday, Beatty submitted to the court two proposed resolutions from the board’s packet. In these documents, the board calls the center “unsafe for continued occupancy.” Beatty claims that the construction consultants brought in by the board have never said any such thing. The second resolution states: “The Kennedy Center is in such a precarious fiscal position that it will not be able to support its payroll obligations, nor routine maintenance contracts within a matter of weeks.”

In the meantime, most of the center’s staff have either been fired or departed, but those who remain are largely loyal to President Trump. Most of the Kennedy Center board was handpicked by the president, who now serves as its chairman.

On Sept. 5, the center’s administration said that a portion of the ceiling in the main building’s grand foyer collapsed due to rain damage. The Kennedy Center’s argument regarding the institution’s financials are that the center is in dire shape, and that President Trump is the only person who can fundraise at such a massive scale or successfully oversee such an extensive renovation project – and as such, he deserves his name to be on the building, just like how big donors at hospitals and universities, for example, get to see their names on prominent display.

The Kennedy Center did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment on Monday.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — whose wife, Allison Lutnick, was named to the Kennedy Center board in Feb. 2025 — made that argument last month outside of a court hearing in the Beatty suit. Lutnick said: “Basically, it would cost four or $500 million if you do it over time or it’ll cost $257 million if President Trump is the construction manager. He has the power and he has the expertise to get this done. He is the greatest builder in the world. And he will get it done on time and on budget.”

Nevertheless, the institution faces real challenges. Large, legacy, not-for-profit institutions like the Kennedy Center generally depend on a balance of earned revenue, philanthropic giving and some amount of government grants.

The last president of the Kennedy Center, former Ambassador Richard Grenell, tried to insist that every performance be revenue-generating or at least revenue-neutral. Its current president and CEO, Matt Floca, was elevated from his position as head of facilities for the Kennedy Center. He has no experience in artistic direction, fundraising or arts administration, unlike his peers at similar centers across the country. No one else on the board has any known experience with similar performing arts institutions, either.

Both artists and audiences have fled the Kennedy Center over the past year plus, saying that it’s become politicized under Trump. Its live event calendar is a small fraction of what it used to be. Donations have also dried up. It’s unclear whether or not Trump’s further imprimatur would change the situation.

The escalating trade fight between the Trump administration and Canada is just the latest headwind facing American farmers who were already dealing with soaring fuel and fertilizer prices.

After President Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian products, earlier this month Ottawa imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, including farm equipment.

“I’d like to consider buying a new drill and I’m also looking at grain bins that come out of Canada and I’m afraid I won’t be able to afford them,” says Steve Sheffels, a local wheat farmer.

He farms in what’s known as the Golden Triangle, an area in north-central Montana that’s one of the most productive wheat and barley growing regions in the U.S.

Touching three Canadian provinces, the economies and cultures of Montana and Canada are largely intertwined. Canada is hands down the state’s biggest trading partner, accounting for $1 billion in cross-border sales, according to the Montana World Trade Center at the University of Montana.

“Canadian companies also purchase Montana cattle and they send them up to Canada where they’re fed out, and when they’re up there a lot of times they’re eating Montana barley,” says Brigitta Miranda-Freer, the center’s executive director.

Montana farmers had turned to Canada for select equipment and supplies due to the favorable exchange rates. But now most farm equipment is subject to a 15% or higher retaliatory tariff.

This is just the latest economic stress for grain farmers who have endured generally flat commodity prices since the 1970s and recent rising interest rates, as well as the second trade war spanning two Trump administrations that’s threatened longtime business deals.

“Things are more volatile,” says Lee Dahlman, a fourth-generation wheat farmer and cattle rancher near the tiny town of Dutton, Mont. “The uncertainty is what bothers me.”

But for Dahlman, all of this uncertainty underscores how farmers need to adapt and control what they can in order to be less susceptible to geopolitics.

“As long as you’re smart and wise about it, you know, we don’t have to buy out of Canada,” he says.

Dahlman’s lately been investing in soil-based probiotics he’ll add during planting so he doesn’t have to buy as much fertilizer. Where and when he can, he’s also rotating in chickpeas and lentils, crops that naturally inject nitrates into the soils. Still, he hopes this latest tariff battle between the U.S. and its longtime neighbor and ally will end in a stable deal.

Support for Trump complicates things

“I think I’ve got this administration figured out,” Dahlman says. “A lot of it comes out pretty harsh, pretty quick, pretty fast. But it usually softens as time goes.”

Montana voted overwhelmingly for President Trump three times which makes the politics around tariffs complicated.

“It’s just sad that food has to be a bargaining chip,” says Jillien Streit, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture.

Streit, who also runs a family farm with her husband near the Canadian border, has been pushing producers here to shift away from monocrops and explore more regional food markets closer to home.

“These tariffs are very trying at different times,” Streit says. “But there’s also opportunity that comes with it.”

Steve Sheffels, who is also president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, figures he’s saved tens of thousands of dollars on inputs after investing in new equipment that uses computers to more selectively drop pesticides and fertilizer like liquid nitrogen on his fields.

But he doesn’t mince words when it comes to the deteriorating relations between Washington D.C. and Ottawa. For him, it’s personal. His wife is Canadian.

“You don’t treat your neighbors like this,” Sheffels says.

Good morning, Northwest.

Monday’s commute was relatively smooth sailing, despite the two-mile closure of I-5 southbound through Portland — even from Vancouver.

OPB’s Erik Neumann reports this morning on how the Rose Quarter project is affecting Southwest Washington and why transportation officials aren’t celebrating yet. His story starts today’s newsletter.

Also this morning, a longtime camp crier prepares for his final performance at Pendleton Round-Up.

Here’s your First Look at Tuesday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

Vancouver traffic largely unaffected by start of I-5 Rose Quarter project

From Vancouver, Washington, you’d never know that a massive highway project, ominously dubbed “carmageddon,” was underway seven miles away in downtown Portland yesterday morning.

Transportation officials have warned that gridlock from the closure of all southbound I-5 lanes in Portland’s Rose Quarter Improvement Project could back up traffic into Washington.

But during the first rush hour of the construction project, the eight big-screen TVs at the Washington State Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center showed cars speeding across the Interstate Bridge at their usual clip. Traffic was slightly heavier on the I-205 bridge a few miles to the east. (Erik Neumann)

Learn More

3 things to know

• Traffic officials hope yesterday’s relatively uneventful morning commute is a sign that drivers worked from home, took public transit or carpooled to work. But they warn traffic could easily spike at any time during the five-week I-5 closure. (Monica Carrillo-Casas and Joni Auden Land)
• One person is dead, and several others were injured in a four-vehicle crash in Clatsop County Saturday night. One of those four vehicles was a van carrying 13 Oregon National Guard members. (OPB staff)
• The Supreme Court yesterday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway. (AP)

Northwest headlines

• Some Eugene students could see larger class sizes after 4J budget cuts (Nathan Wilk, KLCC)
• Oregon organization helps young people recover from psychosis (Mia Maldonado, Oregon Capital Chronicle)
• New water tanks on College Hill increase seismic resiliency of Eugene’s water system (Tiffany Eckert, KLCC)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Hermiston’s very busy building inspector wins statewide honor
• Crime Stoppers of Oregon ends after more than 4 decades
• Hollywood Theatre festival showcases new musical scores created for silent films

One more look

Longtime Camp Crier and his horse prepare for final ride at Pendleton Round-Up

Dancer knows the routine.

The 21-year-old black-and-white war pony has memorized the turns through the outdoor arena that transforms into a stage for Eastern Oregon history every September.

His rider Aaron Hines, dressed in a bright orange shirt and jeans, sat atop Dancer during a recent rehearsal, both at ease, waiting for their cue. The bond he and Dancer have built over the last eight years made their routine look smooth and effortless.

They’re veterans of the Pendleton Round-Up’s Happy Canyon Night Show, a pageant involving about 700 animals and volunteers aiming to tell the stories of the region.

A whole roster of events for Eastern Oregon’s largest rodeo starts this week, with Happy Canyon opening its 110th season to crowds tomorrow night. This Round-Up will also be Hines and Dancer’s last performance together.

“It’s time to pass it on to the younger generation to take over and keep doing it,” he said. (Monica Carrillo-Casas)

Learn More

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

From Vancouver, Washington, you’d never know that a massive highway project, ominously dubbed “carmageddon,” was underway seven miles away in downtown Portland on Monday morning.

Transportation officials have warned that gridlock from the closure of all southbound I-5 lanes in Portland’s Rose Quarter Improvement Project could back up traffic into Washington.

But during the first rush hour of the construction project, the eight big-screen TVs at the Washington State Department of Transportation Traffic Management Center showed cars speeding across the Interstate Bridge at their usual clip. Traffic was slightly heavier on the I-205 bridge a few miles to the east.

For weeks, there had been warnings that commute times could take two to three times longer than usual. But the first day’s breezy commute across the Columbia River could cause a false sense of security in the coming days, said Rob Brusseau, an operations manager at the department’s offices in Vancouver.

“I’m worried that people will watch the news today, and say ‘Oh, it wasn’t really that bad,’ and they’re not going to modify their behaviors,” he said, standing in front of the wall of traffic camera feeds.

Mondays aren’t a reliable indicator of what’s to come, said Tyler Branch, a WSDOT operations engineer. “Usually, Tuesdays are when folks come back out and hit the roadways a little bit more.”

The Rose Quarter Improvement Project has closed southbound lanes of I-5 between I-405 and I-84. Construction will run 24 hours per day, seven days a week. The project is expected to last for five weeks.

In the end, a two-mile section of road will be repaired, including resurfacing concrete that dates back to 1985 and making the highway earthquake-safe.

The project in Oregon poses a unique challenge for WSDOT, which doesn’t have much control over construction in a separate state, even though Washington commuters could be seriously impacted if congestion backs up.

WSDOT is using metering to control how quickly cars enter I-5, while the City of Vancouver is warning drivers that backups could occur near the following highway on-ramps:

• I-5 On-Ramps: SR-500, 39th St, Fourth Plain, Mill Plain, and Washington/6th St.
• I-205 On-Ramps: SR-14, Mill Plain, 18th St, and SR-500.

To help commuters avoid driving, Clark County’s transit agency, C-TRAN, has altered or suspended some bus routes into downtown Portland and added extra buses from Vancouver to the terminus of the MAX light rail Yellow Line at the Expo Center.

State traffic managers have been focused on educating the public as the construction project gets underway. Oregon officials have been doing a good job of scaring people, “in the best way possible,” said Celeste Dimichina, a spokesperson for WSDOT.

“You let people know with enough time that they can plan how they’re going to get to work or appointments, and they plan accordingly because they don’t want to be stuck in traffic. Nobody does,” she said.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.

The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.

It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.

The Supreme Court majority wrote that the administration’s push to implement the restrictions this year is likely to lose in court, though the brief emergency order didn’t detail its reasoning. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented.

The Trump administration had asked the justices, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.

Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump’s restrictions.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, meanwhile, agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time.

Mail ballots are already being sent to voters

Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.

The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.

The administration’s efforts had the potential to be especially disruptive in states that send out ballots entirely by mail. Washington’s Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said the decision means work “to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election” can continue ”without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”

In Arizona, another largely vote-by-mail state, Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said “it is crucial for us to continue rejecting the notion that access and security are mutually exclusive when it comes to running strong elections.”

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican serving as the state’s chief election officer, said on social media that the Supreme Court’s decision means “Utahns can have confidence that the 2026 election will proceed as normal.”

The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but have in the past framed the restrictions as commonsense changes aimed at keeping elections secure.

State officials and voting rights groups pushed back

Democratic state officials and voting rights groups challenged the restrictions in court, arguing that the president has no constitutional authority to set election rules that would “virtually eliminate mail voting on the eve of a major election.”

A whistleblower report, meanwhile, said the postal system’s requirements could lead to millions of mail ballots never being sent, because problems with the not-yet-operational portal meant a single bar code error could result in an entire batch of ballots being tossed out.

Some states don’t have the infrastructure to quickly pivot back to in-person voting, according to court documents.

The League of Women Voters, a plaintiff in the case, called the proposed restrictions “an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting” and said it would have thrown elections into chaos. “Voters should never be caught in the middle of a political power warfare,” said CEO Celina Stewart.

Lower courts agreed to block Trump’s plan, including a preliminary injunction issued by a judge nominated by the president.

But the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that federal control of the Postal Service allows them to set rules for mail ballot handling and that compliance was possible.

The federal government won an early procedural decision at the Supreme Court, but the justices pointedly did not decide the legality of the plan.

Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.

A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

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Associated Press writers Nicholas Riccardi in Mason, Michigan; Ali Swenson in New York; Gene Johnson in Seattle; and Jacques Billeaud and Wufei Yu in Phoenix contributed to this report.