People across the Willamette Valley could see record-breaking heat this weekend, when temperatures are expected to climb into the triple digits.

The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat watch from 11 a.m. Sunday morning through Monday evening for the Portland-Vancouver metro area, parts of the Columbia River Gorge, and east Clark County.

Starting Saturday, forecasters say, temperatures could reach into the 90s and could climb above 100 degrees on Sunday and Monday. Some areas could see temperatures as high as 105 degrees.

David Bishop, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said people should avoid going outside if possible and instead find an air-conditioned building to cool off.

“Making a plan to say, like go visit the library or go to the mall and walk around or something along those lines, ways to get out of the heat or the outside during the very hottest parts of the day, that’s always a good idea,” he said.

Even though it's raining right now, we should begin preparing for upcoming heat! There are chances for 100°F or hotter on Sun, 6/14.

🏡 Prep your home with cooling devices
🧢 Make sure you have sun protection
🗓️ Schedule plans during the coolest parts of the day #ORwx #WAwx pic.twitter.com/V0MhxzDd4K

— NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) June 9, 2026

Bishop also recommends checking on vulnerable neighbors and family members who are more sensitive to the heat – especially since overnight temperatures are expected to only fall into the mid-60s, and could be higher.

Dangerously hot temperatures can cause a range of heat-related illnesses, which can be fatal, and the risk rises when people are unable to cool off overnight. Officials urge people to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids.

According to Bishop, this weekend’s heat has the potential to break records across the Portland-Vancouver metro area.

“We’ve had like a couple days here and there that have broken into the low 90s,” he said. “But nothing in the triple digits for 2026.”

This region doesn’t typically see triple-digit temps until around mid-July, Bishop said. The earliest Portland has seen 100-degree heat was in May 1983.

So Mary decided to help by donating $50,000 to start a fund for cancer patients in the North Coast region to pay for expenses like transportation, utility bills, lodging and rent. Nine years later, the Arm-in-Arm Fund has nearly tripled in size and has given grants to dozens of patients at the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative in Astoria.

This year, the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation increased to $2,000 the grant money a team of social workers can award to an individual to help them, for example, replace a broken refrigerator or repair a home furnace. Money from the fund has also been used to provide Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday meals for patients and their families. Joining us to discuss the fund and its impact are Mary Armington and William Armington, who is now retired and has also donated to the fund. Mark Kujala, foundation director of Columbia Memorial Hospital also joins us.

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

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. In 2017, 96-year-old Mary Armington took a trip from her home in Florida to visit her son, William Armington in Astoria. William, who has since retired, was a radiologist at Columbia Memorial Hospital. He had diagnosed cancer in hundreds of patients. Some of them had delayed care because of financial hardships.

Mary decided to help by donating $50,000 to start a fund for cancer patients in the North Coast region. It was called the Arm-in-Arm Fund. It paid for non-medical expenses like transportation, utility bills, lodging and rent. Nine years later, the fund has nearly tripled in size and has given grants to about 100 patients.

Mary is now 104 years old. She, her son William, and Mark Kujala, the executive director of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation, all join me now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.

Mark Kujala: Happy to be here.

William Armington: Hello.

Mary Armington: Thank you.

Miller: Mary, I want to start with you. What made you want to donate your own money to create this cancer fund?

M. Armington: You mean in Astoria?

Miller: Exactly.

M. Armington: It goes back to State College, Pennsylvania, where I was attending church, and they sent me out to visit a woman out in the outskirts. I went to visit her, and while I was there, she said she had cancer. I became interested, and she said, “let me show you.” So she showed me her left breast that was practically eaten by cancer at the time.

I was so taken aback with that, that when I went out to visit Bill in Astoria, I knew that area, in the outskirts of Astoria, was kind of a poor area. I was quite certain that we would find cancer patients there who were not able to reach the program to get treatment.

Miller: Bill, let me turn to you. You worked as a radiologist at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. How much of your clinical work was with cancer patients?

W. Armington: I’d say approximately 20-25% of the cases that I dealt with. We’re also dealing with cancer in some form or another, either early in diagnosis or stable after some sort of intervention, or in the last throes of the disease. So I got to see cancer in multiple phases and then cancers associated with other disease processes.

Miller: And was your mom right? Was Mary right that there were financial struggles among your patients that were getting in the way of their care?

W. Armington: Unfortunately, she was absolutely right. And as a consequence, many of the early diagnoses of cancer that I made, were in late stage. Patients would develop a lump here or there and didn’t think anything of it. [They] didn’t want to go to the doctor, couldn’t afford to go to the doctor, and consequently, the cancer would progress. And when I would see the patient, the cancer would have spread from the original site to other multiple locations, having metastasized. And that was almost always due to the lack of finances, to allow them to take time off from their job or away from childcare to come in and be diagnosed.

Miller: This is an important point because cancer care itself could be unbelievably expensive, whether it’s surgery, chemo, radiation, diagnostics. But you’re not even talking about that part. You’re talking about incidental costs, say like travel or time away from work?

W. Armington: Yeah. It’s true. The major safety nets – Medicare, Medicaid, different insurance companies – will cover the bulk of cancer care itself. But it’s the impediments that keep the patients from getting in to get that cancer care that can be sometimes less than $50. And that keeps them from getting the treatment that they receive. They just can’t come up with the $50, because to them, that is a large amount of money. So what mom is talking about is having monies available to help patients to overcome those very simple things that keep them from accessing the majority of their cancer care.

Miller: Mary, it’s one thing to say, based on, as you were noting, your personal experience with a woman in Pennsylvania and your assumption that there was a need where your son was practicing medicine … It’s one thing to say there is this need here. It’s another to say, I’m going to spend my own money to do something about it. Why did you want to do that?

M. Armington: I’m not wealthy, but I had some extra money. And thinking of this woman in Pennsylvania, that really bothered me. And then being in Astoria and seeing the outskirts of Astoria, I knew there were people there that probably would be having problems with cancer and they would say, “well, I can’t afford to go anywhere to get treatment, so I’ll just let it go.”

Miller: And as you say, you had some money that you didn’t need and there were people who you thought could use it.

M. Armington: Well, I had some money I could have used myself, but I thought this was more important.

Miller: And that’s why you did it.

As I noted, Mark Kujala is with us as well, the executive director of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation, which now manages this fund. Mark, the fund started giving out money in 2019 after a couple of years of getting all the various financial ducks in a row. Was there any sort of similar safety net for people to pay for general life expenses, while getting cancer treatment, before this Arm-in-Arm Fund was created?

Kujala: No, this is really unique, and it came on at the same time as the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative was established here at Columbia Memorial Hospital. So, we had just built a new cancer center, and as Dr. Armington said, we were seeing a real need in the community. We have great social workers who work at the Cancer Center and so they are able to link up with local nonprofits and assist folks, when they are in need. But oftentimes, folks just aren’t eligible or they need the money faster than what can be provided, and that’s where the Arm-in-Arm Fund has come in.

Since 2019, the Arm-in-Arm Fund has helped about 100 patients with real crucial needs, and most of those are for utility bills, and travel and lodging expenses. These are people that get diagnosed, they have to start treatment right away. They have to take significant time off of work. Sometimes they’re the sole provider for their household. And this can be a huge strain. Again, they’ve also helped in instances beyond just those utility bills, and travel and lodging. They’ve helped with eyeglasses, they’ve helped with nutrition supplements. In one case, the Fund bought a refrigerator for a patient whose refrigerator had gone out and they couldn’t keep their food cold.

It’s just been a huge blessing to so many in the community to have this Fund. I listened to the story Mary was talking about, the breast cancer patient. We actually had an instance where a patient was going through treatment for breast cancer and was really having some mental health struggles. The Fund paid for this patient to go to a camp for breast cancer survivors and to bond with other breast cancer patients. It was a huge benefit to them in their journey and in their effort to heal. These are just a few examples of how the Fund has helped.

Miller: Mary, what’s it like for you to hear that the fund that you started with your own seed money is doing what you hoped it would?

M. Armington: Well, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen, that it would reach the less fortunate people and bring them some stability in their lives.

Miller: Mark, how do you decide who will actually get money from this fund?

Kujala: Well, thankfully, we have social workers who work at the Cancer Center. We have had about 6,000 patients actually come through the Cancer Center since 2017, and they work with each one of those patients and are able to identify those who really have a need. They often connect them with a local nonprofit and are able to satisfy that. But there are cases when they’re just not able to do that. So this is where the Arm-in-Arm Fund comes in. And it’s really the social workers working on the ground with all these patients who say, “hey, you know this might be a good fit for the Arm-and-Arm Fund to help.”

There’s not going to be a resource for everything in the community, although we have a really good network of nonprofits. But things like Thanksgiving dinners or Christmas dinners, people don’t often think about that. If you’re going through cancer treatment and you don’t have enough money to provide a holiday dinner for your family, the Arm-in-Arm Fund has actually done that over the last few years and done it for several families of cancer patients. That’s the kind of thing that the Arm-in-Arm Fund does. And it’s really up to our team of social workers, our team of providers and caregivers here at CMH who are able to match up a patient that has that requirement and the Arm-in-Arm Fund.

Miller: Bill, are there any particular stories that stand out to you, of people who are recipients from this fund?

W. Armington: I can certainly tell you about patients and their difficulties during their cancer treatment. But from my perspective, to know that my mom was generous enough and foresightful enough to create this fund so that, as a clinician, I could know that the patients who I was caring for would be able to get in to see me for the visits where I could provide their care … that gave me a great deal of satisfaction.

Miller: So if people hear that a 99-year-old started a support fund for people with cancer, they might be surprised. But knowing your mom, were you surprised?

W. Armington: No, I really wasn’t. Mom has been a very giving person, throughout her life. I could share instances of her generosity that show you what kind of a person she is. As she mentioned earlier, she’s not a wealthy person. My dad was a college professor and did not make very much money. Nevertheless, for example in 1956 when the Hungarian Revolution occurred, my mom and father took in a Hungarian family who was fleeing from the Russian invasion and put them up in our three-bedroom house, with four children of her own, for over a year. So having been her child, I’ve certainly learned the benefit of giving and looking for opportunities to benefit others.

She’s always been a wonderful role model for me and a symbol of what you can accomplish in life if you look beyond your own necessities and your own desires. And I don’t know if you mentioned, but Mom is now 104. She will be 105 on August 9, and she’s still very interested in helping others. In fact, I think she will tell you that’s why she was put here on Earth.

Miller: Bill, I understand that nearly a decade ago, you and your wife put up the Mary Armington Healing Garden outside the Cancer Center where you worked. Can you tell us about the garden?

W. Armington: It’s a wonderful place for cancer patients to go out, sit and reflect, and visit with loved ones. My wife and I gave a significant gift for the creation of the Cancer Center. And as a consequence, in honor of our gift, the Cancer Center created the Mary Armington Healing Garden, which has trees, flowers, a water feature and a beautiful pottery installation on the wall, in addition [to] a plaque which denotes the space as the Mary Armington Healing Garden with a one-word moniker. The word is “gratitude.”

I think that word embodies my mom. If I’d have to say what my mom is all about in one word, it would be gratitude. She’s very happy to be here and very happy to share what she has with others. And she’s grateful for what she has.

Miller: Mary, how has gratitude shaped your life?

M. Armington: Well, could you rephrase that?

Miller: Yeah, Bill was just saying that when he made this healing garden in your honor, he put one word there, the word gratitude. I’m curious how gratitude has shaped your life?

M. Armington: I think knowing that the garden is there and that people can, after having cancer treatment, go into the garden and reflect. I think that that’s enough.

Miller: What are you grateful for today?

M. Armington: I think probably I’m grateful that the Lord has kept me down here this long to do the things that I love doing, and that is reaching out to help other people that have less than I have.

Miller: One hundred and four years old is a long life. What’s your definition?

M. Armington: You say it’s a long life, but it isn’t. If you turn around, you’re there. I don’t know how I became 104, really.

Miller: What’s your definition of a good life?

M. Armington: I don’t know how to answer that.

Miller: Bill, what about you? I’m curious, maybe based on what you’ve learned from your mom, what’s your definition of a good life?

W. Armington: I would say that a good life is one that you are fully immersed in while you’re living it, looking each day to be as present as possible and as involved outside of yourself as you can be. And that may mean several different things, depending on the circumstances that you find yourself in, but a life, which is lived day to day with some long-range views in place, that perhaps after a period of time, you can look back on and see that you’ve achieved.

For example, staying somewhere is to leave the place better than I found it. And if I can do that in each situation that I find myself in, I’m quite satisfied. If that means having a career where I can look back and see how many patients I’ve helped over time, or if I can say I’ve lived in a house that I left in better shape than when I found it, I’m satisfied. So I think it’s the satisfaction of knowing that, in life, you’ve made a difference. And that obviously may take many forms, but you’ve made a difference for the good.

Miller: Bill, Mary and Mark, thanks very much.

W. Armington: Thank you for having us.

M. Armington: Thank you.

Kujala: Thank you.

Miller: Bill Armington is a retired radiologist who previously worked at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria. His mother, Mary is the founder of the Arm-in-Arm Fund for cancer patients at the hospital. And Mark Kujala is the executive director of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation.

“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.

Terry Flanagan is the chair of the Tree Climbing Competition Committee at the PNWISA. He competed in his first tree climbing competition in 1981 and has been working in arboriculture for 49 years. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the tree climbing competition, as well as the operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division of Portland Parks and Recreation. They both join us to share more ahead of the upcoming competition in Portland, which will take place June 6 and 7 at Farragut Park.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally 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. Some of the best tree climbers in the Pacific Northwest will be in Portland this weekend. The Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture is hosting its annual regional tree climbing competition. This year, 345 climbers are going to be competing in five events over two days at Farragut Park. They’re going for glory and the chance to compete at the Chapter Championship in Boise.

Terry Flanagan is the chair of the chapter’s Tree Climbing Competition Committee. He’s been working in arboriculture for nearly 50 years. He competed in his first tree climbing competition in 1981. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the competition. In his day job, he is the operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division at Portland Parks and Recreation. They both join us now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.

Terry Flanagan: Thank you.

Kyle Thomas: Thanks.

Miller: Terry, first – why were tree climbing competitions like this created?

Flanagan: They were created, first, for camaraderie and then, secondly, to help educate climbers in more efficient and safer ways to climb trees, to get the job done that we need to do to care for the trees in our urban areas.

Miller: Kyle, what’s an example of what you could learn as a professional tree climber, as an arborist, someone who’s already been doing this, say, for a couple of years, but then you go to a competition? What might you learn?

Thomas: Well, there’s a lot of gear involved in tree climbing, and depending on how you use the gear, you’ve got a lot of opportunities ahead of you for different methods. At the competition, you get to see these pieces of gear used in various ways that you might have never thought of before. And it helps in the way of [expanding] your mind for better use in the future.

Miller: So different people do the same job in different ways, and there’s more than one safe, effective way to do that same job?

Thomas: Certainly, yeah, there’s more than one way to do the job.

Miller: What’s it like to actually compete?

Thomas: It’s really thrilling. It’s probably one of my favorite things that I’ve competed in. You get your five minutes to shine in each event and you give it what you can. And if you love the work, the competition is where you should be.

Miller: So what are some examples of the events? So, as we just heard, five minutes to shine. Terry, what are the different competitions?

Flanagan: There’s the area rescue. You have five minutes to get a dummy that weighs 80 pounds – but feels like 300 – to the ground.

Miller: How high is the 80-pound dummy?

Flanagan: Forty feet up in the tree. So you start from the ground and you have to get up to him, the dummy, and get it down on the ground within five minutes.

Miller: You have to put this on your shoulder, an 80-pound dead weight?

Flanagan: It varies, depending on the scenario that you’re given. But you can lower the dummy on its own rope or clip him to you, so it’s dependent on your rope. There’s various ways to do it based on the scenario given.

Miller: But you need to be, in addition to having a lot of skills I imagine, very strong to do that?

Flanagan: It takes either a lot of strength or a lot of balance.

Miller: OK, so that’s one of them. What are some of the other events?

Flanagan: The Work Climb is where you start at the top of the tree and you work your way down through five different stations. You have the pole clipping, [where] you simulate clipping an end branch, all the way down to landing in a certain circle at the base of the tree. And then there’s the Throwline, where you’re trying to throw a line to the very top of the tree, so you can install the line to make it easier to get into a tree. And there’s also the Ascent event, which, after you throw the line in, you would ascend up into the tree using the rope that you just threw in. Then there’s also Belayed Speed Climb, which is just a speed to the top.

Miller: Kyle, do you have a favorite to compete in?

Thomas: The Work Climb was always my favorite. It’s the ability to swing and make really cool moves in the tree. That’s where the Word Climb shines.

Miller: Make really cool moves. What do you mean by that?

Thomas: So, there’s the ability to move around limbs and navigate through the tree. You can take different approaches to it, but it’s really an advantage if you can do some neat things, like get around in ways that other people didn’t think about or move your gear more quickly.

Miller: As you’re describing this, I’m hearing echoes and people talking about rock climbing and sort of the creativity of this three-dimensional problem, of a vertical problem in space. To what extent is style a part of this competition? Terry, you mentioned five minutes, so that’s just absolute clock time. But what about style?

Flanagan: Style comes into play a lot, in the sense [of], how do you hook up to the victim? And how do you get the victim down without jostling them to death? So there’s a lot of style and there’s a lot of role playing.

Miller: And it’s up to the judges to figure that out, to look at what’s happened to the dummy, for example, and decide if the climber has treated it well?

Flanagan: Yes, exactly.

Miller: What about the non-rescue parts? How does style figure into the other events?

Thomas: A couple of them don’t have it as much, [like] the Ascent event, because it’s just a really fast climb and you’re connecting as quickly as possible, going up as quickly as possible. But say you got the Belayed Speed Climb. What that event does is you get to climb the tree without worrying about gear, as quickly as you can. But maybe you did something cool like jump from one stem to another to circumnavigate a really problematic gap, versus everybody else who keeps climbing. That could be a style point addition.

Miller: How much do arborists use the various skills that you’re all describing, the skills that are being shown off and tested in a competition? How much do you use them in your day to day job?

Flanagan: The reality is competition is a little bit different than the climbing you would do day to day. But like Kyle said, it’s definitely going to show you some techniques that will make your job easier day to day, if you’re paying attention. So, a lot of the gear that we use gets developed to a larger degree or a higher level through these competitions.

Miller: In general, are arborists professionals who loved climbing trees and then found a job that entails tree climbing? Or are they people who found a job and then learned to try to climb trees because that’s how they had to do their job?

Thomas: That’s exactly where I came from.

Miller: Which one?

Thomas: Oh well, I didn’t even know tree climbing was a thing until I moved to Portland. I got a job tree climbing. I asked the boss three times to make sure, “you’re gonna pay me to climb trees, right?”

Miller: So you weren’t an 8-year-old who loved climbing trees?

Thomas: Well, I was, but I didn’t know it was a job. Eventually, I found out about the climbing competition and did that. And that took a couple of years, and that’s when I got there.

Miller: And Terry, what about you? How did you become an arborist and tree climber?

Flanagan: A unique story in the sense that, in the Boston area where I grew up, we had a May 5th wet, heavy 8 inches of snow that busted up every tree in the region. So a local tree company had a “help wanted” sign on. I went down to apply, and of course they laughed me out the door because they were looking for people who had experience with their open saddle. I didn’t even know what that was. But as I walked out the door, in walked an assistant gymnastics coach from high school, and he said, “Oh, wait, why are you here? Stay right here.” Ten minutes later, I had a job.

Miller: Because the gymnastics coach knew that you might be good physically doing this job?

Flanagan: Yeah, he basically told the bosses, if you don’t hire this kid, you’re stupid. [Laughter]

Miller: What’s it like for an arborist to be able to compete and showcase their skills in something that’s usually just a sort of a regular job, even if some of the details are different? This is still, it’s a competitive version of daily life. What’s that like?

Flanagan: It’s pretty interesting to see a really good climber throw their line into, say, the Master Challenge, and as he throws it to the crotch to get him set up to go up the tree, his gear rope is coming out of the bag at just the right height for him to hook into this carabiner, it’s ready and willing to go. So, they’ve got this all mapped out as to how they’re going to do the competitions. And to see how smooth they are, with the flow, is pretty amazing.

Miller: Kyle, what are you most looking forward to this weekend?

Thomas: I’m looking forward to having a slightly larger competition. We’ve got more competitors this weekend than we have in the previous couple of years from the Willamette Valley Regional, and it’s expanding. I’m looking forward to meeting new folks who haven’t participated in the competition before. That’s where I always find the most information and learning really happens.

Miller: The winners of this will go to Boise, as I mentioned. Then the Pacific Northwest winner from there will go to the international competition. In general, how do climbers from the Pacific Northwest fare at the international level?

Flanagan: One of the reasons I’m so involved with this competition is I want to see the Pacific Northwest climbers beat the Aussies and the Kiwis.

Miller: They’re the best?

Flanagan: They’re the best at this point in time. We have had some champions from the Pacific Northwest chapter. I mean, we’ve got the size of the trees to really get good at it. Every day, the guys and gals are climbing these huge trees we have. So we should be able to beat the Aussies and the Kiwis pretty easily.

Miller: And what about the folks from Boston, your old stomping grounds? Not so good?

Flanagan: Not so much.

Miller: Terry Flanagan and Kyle Thomas, it was fun talking with you. Thanks so much.

Thomas: All right. You’re welcome. Our pleasure.

Miller: Terry Flanagan is the chair of the Tree Climbing Competition Committee for the Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. Kyle Thomas is the regional coordinator for the competition happening this weekend. He’s also an operations supervisor for the Urban Forestry Division at Portland Parks and Recreation.

“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.

The ordinance passed in an 8-4 vote, and was introduced by Councilor Sameer Kanal and co-sponsored by Councilor Elena Pirtle-Guiney and Angelita Morillo. Opponents of the law say the policy raises concerns around labor laws and workload for PPB officers. Joining us to share more on the policy and its impacts are PPB Chief Bob Day and Councilor Morillo.

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

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Portland City Councilors recently passed a new policy barring law enforcement of all kinds from wearing masks. It also directs the Portland Police Bureau to investigate people who engage in law enforcement activity, such as detaining someone without showing proper credentials.

The ordinance passed in an 8-4 vote after a spirited debate. Proponents say that even if it is unlikely to survive a legal challenge, the City has to do something to stand up to the Trump administration. Opponents say this is a costly and symbolic gesture.

We’re gonna hear from both sides right now. Angelita Morillo was one of the co-sponsors of the ordinance. She’s a City Council member from District 3 – that stretches from inner Southeast and a little bit of inner Northeast Portland to I-205. Bob Day is the Portland Police Chief. It’s great to have both of you back on the show.

Angelita Morillo: Thanks so much for having us.

Bob Day: Morning.

Miller: Angelita, first, I want to start with the basics. What does this ordinance actually say?

Morillo: This ordinance requires that there are identification standards for our Portland police officers. It creates credible additional authority for anyone who’s acting as a law enforcement officer in Portland. It requires PPB to verify when someone is acting like a cop without having any identification. And it requires documentation, reporting of these incidents, and creates an enforcement path for that, if those needs are not met.

Miller: Chief Day, before we get to more details about the implementation of this ordinance, the feasibility, legal questions, I’m just curious if you agree with the basic idea behind it. Should law enforcement be, in most cases, for example, prohibited from masking their identity?

Day: Yeah, I believe that we have a responsibility to be able to be identified by the community, and Oregon law already provides for that for all local law enforcement within 14 days. So Police Bureau’s been a leader in that statewide. I don’t see a reason why we should not be able to have access to the identification of our law enforcement officers, regardless [if they are] state or federal.

Miller: So you agree with the idea behind this. But, of course, it’s the implementation where the debate has been raging for weeks or months, at this point. So Councilor Morillo, why did you want to co-sponsor this ordinance?

Morillo: I wanted to co-sponsor this ordinance because I think that local jurisdictions have a responsibility to do everything we can to try to address the fact that there are masked men on our streets who are kidnapping our neighbors and we have no idea who they are. And this has created a real public safety issue, as we’ve seen, because there are also people who are posing as ICE agents who are kidnapping people, assaulting them, stealing things from them, that sort of thing. And we have no idea who is doing what and for what purpose. So, this is our way of making sure that we have some sort of accountability for that type of behavior, and so that we can create a record and use our own surveillance state against the people who would come into our community to do us harm.

This is a change because it’s not just saying that police can use their own personal ideas of when they should do enforcement. It’s actually creating a requirement for looking into this, tracking this. That becomes a publicly available report that will be given to the public, so that we can see how, when and where ICE is operating,

Miller: Right. So Chief Day, what exactly does this ordinance require that your officers do going forward?

Day: There’s no change in requirement for our officers going forward. Our behavior will be the same as it was for the last 18 months. I gave clear direction, a year ago, that we would respond to these types of calls. I gave clear direction that we would document these types of calls. So there’s really no change for us regarding the ordinance. It just outlines what we’ve already been doing.

Morillo: I would say that’s not accurate. Under the status quo, PPB officers have discretion to not intervene in situations or do reporting. And this ordinance actually requires an obligation to investigate and report when someone in a mask is doing something that only law enforcement can do.

Miller: So Councilor Morillo, are you saying there have been times when Portland police officers have not recorded the operations of federal masked law enforcement in the last 18 months? Is that what you’re saying?

Morillo: I’m saying that we wouldn’t know if they had or hadn’t done that because there was no obligation of requirement before. Now, it’s not just up to someone’s discretion if they feel like doing it. It’s up to the standard of our updated code.

Miller: Chief Day, I want to give you a chance to respond to that.

Day: Well, they’re not going to know, nobody’s going to know whether it was discretion or not because the genesis of the work is that we’re in the field and we’re making those decisions. So just because it’s on paper doesn’t change the behavior of what we’re expecting of our officers. It’s been clear from the beginning that they would investigate these calls for service where somebody may be committing a crime. That’s what we do every day. So I don’t see any change at all in our officers’ behavior.

We’ve responded to several of these types of calls over the last year-and-a-half. We’ve investigated them. We’ve documented one particular case. We made an arrest. We’ve made several arrests over the years for impersonating a police officer. So this is not a new mandate, a new direction or a new demand. This is a reasonable expectation that we’ve had of our officers, from the beginning. So like I said, it’s very performative to put it on paper. Maybe it feels good to do so, but it doesn’t change the dynamic of what we’re doing.

[Voices in the background]

Miller: I should say, given that folks hear some voices in the background, Chief Day, you are at the airport right now. So there’s some announcements in the back there. Is your main issue with this ordinance, Chief Day, that you’re already doing this or do you have other substantive concerns about the ordinance?

Day: Yeah, I have two primary concerns. One, is that there’s been a false expectation set amongst the community that this is going to change the behavior and performance of federal officers. And it will not. The courts have been clear that we can’t do that. I fully agree with the intent here. Its impact is what concerns me, these false expectations that there’s going to be some sort of higher level of safety provided for Portlanders because of this ordinance. And the courts are clear that we cannot dictate the behavior of the feds. So that’s one concern I have, that we will be disappointing a population that’s already struggling and impacted terribly by the behavior of the federal officers.

Secondly, this just adds additional administrative and bureaucratic responsibilities, in the Police Bureau, for an organization that’s already been leading the state on proper identification of its members. So we now have additional reporting requirements, exceptions, policy and training that we have to train to at a time when it’s not changing, once again, the actual operational effect this has for the community.

Miller: Councilor Morillo, I want to give you a chance to respond. I should say that your colleagues, some of your fellow co-sponsors, for example, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, said, “barring a miracle in the courts, it will not allow us to unmask federal agents.” So your colleagues have, it seems, tried to temper the expectations of Portlanders who might see a headline and think that this action of the Portland City Council will mean that federal agents no longer wear masks. Let me just start with that. Do you agree that this will not prevent federal officers from doing that?

Morillo: Well, I want to say a few things because there’s a lot to unpack in what Chief Day just said. For one thing, I am the only immigrant on the City Council. I’m a Paraguayan immigrant. For another thing, Councilor Kanal worked for eight months doing community engagement with immigrant rights groups, with the ACLU and with the police, to draft this ordinance. So there was extensive community involvement, and the community was the one that pushed for this effort. Thirdly, we did not say that this is going to magically create our ability to unmask federal agents. The Supremacy clause of the Constitution is very strong, and that does create limitations for local governments trying to protect our community members against federal agents who are encroaching on people’s rights.

However, there is a double bind here. Because Chief Day is purporting that our officers already do all of this, so this changes nothing. Yet he’s also saying that passing this ordinance means that we are changing workload, training and requirements. So either we are the Gold standard and we are already engaging in this behavior, or we are not. And to me, that indicates that we are not. There is absolutely a difference between an officer having discretion to do something versus actually being required to do it.

To me, the most important part of this ordinance and the part that I have always spoken about, because I have never claimed that this is going to force federal agents to be unmasked, is that this is our way of turning our own surveillance state, at the local level, against federal agents who come in. Because when we create reports that have tracking of where federal agents have been sighted, community members have actually been doing this work for free. They have been organizing together to track where ICE agents are, how they’ve been kidnapping our neighbors, who have gone missing. They are doing all of that for free.

So why shouldn’t we use the surveillance state, that we pay for with our tax dollars, to have our police actually do some of that work, and then create a public report that the community can access so that they are empowered with information to protect themselves? I think that that is the core part of this ordinance that I have discussed. And any assertions that we have stated that it does something different are not true.

Miller: I want to give Chief Day a chance to respond to the money question. But just so I understand, and we can all have some clarity about what you are expecting Portland police officers to do … Let’s say that there is some unmarked black SUV with people in masks who are purporting to be immigration agents, [and] they go to, I don’t know, some place somewhere in Portland and detain someone, what do you want Portland police officers to do? When you say you want them to act as surveillance, what does that entail?

Morillo: It means that if you have a group of men in masks who are kidnapping a woman off the street, you have no idea if they are ICE agents or not, right? They could be kidnappers for all we know. It requires that federal law enforcement actually maybe pull them aside, try to get some sort of identification or verification from them...

Miller: When you say “federal,” you mean it requires that Portland police officers pull the people purporting to be federal agents aside and ask for their identification?

Morillo: Yeah, they should be asking. If there is a random masked person, how are we supposed to know if they are federal agents or not? They should be asking for the indicia of authority, and then if that indicia is not given, there should be a report. Something that is written down and tracked as to when, where, time, place, who, what was going on. ICE needs to be able to verify that.

Miller: Bob Day, is that happening right now?

Day: Yeah, so let me clarify a couple of things. Maybe I wasn’t as clear as I wanted to be. It does not change our response to the question you just posed. When I say that this changes things, it’s the internal administrative portion that it changes. So I just want to be clear that it’s not a contradiction, because I was talking about the operational piece on the street that will not change. The internal accounting of exceptions and things like that is what I was referring to. And this is already happening, as I stated.

When we get a call for service that somebody believes something’s happening that’s illegal, we show up, bound by the Constitution, we have reasonable suspicion, we have probable cause. We investigate that. When we no longer have reasonable suspicion or probable cause, then we disengage, as we have done consistently for the last 18 months. When we get a call for service that is related, potentially, to immigration or ICE concern, we show up. We do the exact same steps as we would in any other lawful setting. And then we record that document. We went to this, we wrote whatever the outcome was.

We cannot require them to show their faces. We cannot require them to give us a picture ID. We use all of the information available at the time to establish that initiative authority, which the ordinance, it’s clear, is very, very broad.

Miller: Are they, in general, going along with that? I mean, are you satisfied, are your officers satisfied that, yes indeed, these are federal officers lawfully carrying out their duties? Are they cooperating?

Day: Yes. Portland police officers take their responsibility very seriously. They, first and foremost, took an oath to protect the Portlanders and their rights. And I have also spent a tremendous amount of time in the last 18 months with our immigrant community. We have several officers who are immigrants themselves and the children of immigrants. We have navigated this on a national level that we can be proud of. We’re the only agency in the United States that’s testified in federal court against the behavior of federal law enforcement.

Portland has really led this, and the Portland Police Bureau has really led this, as an example nationally, on how to navigate this challenge and provide this high level of safety for Portlanders. So I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve done.

Miller: I want to get some more clarity also on the other point that Councilor Morillo was making about the money you’re saying this is going to cost. You started to get into that a little bit, but I want to fully understand it. You’re saying, in the back end, this is going to be more paperwork?

Day: Anytime you create a new policy, you’ve gotta be able to first craft the policy, then you have to be able to train to the policy. That doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Then you have to put measures in place to make sure that the policy is being adhered to. And then when there are gaps in the policy or there’s failure to follow the policy, you have to have follow up in that regard. So making policy isn’t just something you say. It actually has to be operationalized.

Second is the exception requirements for when officers can mask. There are several, so we’re going to have to train to and make sure that officers are clear when that can and cannot happen. And for those exceptions to be granted, it requires supervisory notification. It also requires documentation by the supervisor. So if an officer wants to wear a mask because they’re directing traffic at 3:00 in the morning in 30-degree weather on I-84, they have to get an exception granted, that has to be recorded, who they are, who granted the exception, etc. So it is just more administrative time and cost for us when we could be addressing other issues.

Miller: Councilor Morillo, I want to give you the last word. I know you’re almost out of time, but I just want to look at the big picture for a second. You’ve made the point in Council arguments that it’s up to local governments now, who oppose the Trump administration, to do everything in their power, and even some things that need to maybe be argued in court that are not yet in your power, to prevent the Trump administration from carrying out some of their priorities. Given that, what else do you have in mind right now?

Morillo: I will make extra time to answer some of these questions because we can find a path to cover paperwork. But I don’t want to assume that there needs to be extensive training to explain to Portland police when they can or can’t wear a mask. I’m sorry, but this is just not that complicated. And the policy is very clear about when and where there are exceptions for when officers are allowed to wear a mask. We should be substantiating claims that the Police bureau or any other bureau are making about the costs of enforcing ordinances.

We do have a duty to do everything we can at the local level, and when we are in unprecedented times, it means that we are also going to be facing unprecedented legal decisions. This, I think, is eventually going to end up in a situation where there was someone who kidnapped a person and it was unclear whether or not they were a federal agent. And Portland police or any other police across the country have to intervene, assuming they’re a kidnapper. I assume that this will end up being a federal court case [concerning] what happens when a police officer unknowingly intervenes, trying to help someone against a kidnapper, and then it turns out it was a federal agent.

These are unprecedented times. We are going to be creating precedent in policy, and Portland has never been shy of being a leader on this. So I think that we shouldn’t be shy about defending our immigrant communities with every tool we have right now.

Miller: Angelita Morillo and Bob Day, thanks very much.

Morillo: Thank you.

Day: Thanks, Dave.

Miller: Angelita Morillo is a Portland City Councilor from District 3 – that stretches from inner Southeast and a little bit of inner Northeast Portland to I-205. Bob Day is the Portland Police Chief.

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

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City Council President Jamie Dunphy introduced the proposal and voted in favor of it. Councilor Steve Novick voted against it. We’ll hear from both councilors to get their thoughts on the tax and the new proposal.

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Former Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran is running for the county’s top office.

Meieran told OPB she hadn’t initially planned to enter the November race for county chair.

“Running for office is not a pleasant thing,” Meieran said Tuesday, “but I care deeply about Multnomah County and I have firsthand frontline experience doing the work the county does and seeing the people who fall through the cracks.”

Meieran is an emergency room physician who represented the county’s westside on the board from 2017 to 2024. She previously ran for the chair’s office in 2022, but lost in a runoff election to Jessica Vega Pederson. Vega Pederson is not running for reelection.

Meieran said she had hoped to support one of the two top contenders in the race — Commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards and Shannon Singleton — but hasn’t been convinced by their leadership.

“I haven’t seen a plan, let alone even a basic outline from either of them how they would change the county if they were elected,” said Meieran. “They seem more interested in talking about being elected than doing what’s needed as chair.”

Meieran has long called for systemic changes to how the county addresses behavioral health and homelessness. While on the County Commission, she pushed to dissolve the joint city-county Homeless Services Department, questioning its oversight and approach.

Earlier this year, Meieran released a plan to overhaul the county’s approach to homelessness and mental illness, centered on restructuring the county’s operations and more transparently tracking policy outcomes and spending. Meieran said that “roadmap” is the foundation of her campaign for chair.

Meieran’s politics are more closely aligned with Brim-Edwards, who has focused her first term on the commission on building substance abuse treatment programs and addressing public safety. Singleton previously ran the Homeless Services Department Meieran sought to upend.

It’s not clear how Meieran’s candidacy will impact the dynamics of the race. The Nov. 3 election will be the first in Multnomah County to use ranked choice voting.

The Global Trade Desk advises businesses large and small on how to export their products and find business overseas. Tatum Albertine, the Global Trade Manager at Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, joins us to share more details.

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Les Schwab Tires is laying off 70 employees at its head offices in Bend.

In a statement, Les Schwab Chief Administrative Officer Jodie Hueske said the changes were not driven by short-term business challenges, but to better support company stores moving forward.

“Saying goodbye to coworkers who have contributed to the company is never easy,” Hueske said in the statement. “We recognize the impact this has on employees and their families.”

Laid off workers will receive a severance package, extended benefits and help transitioning to new work, according to Hueske.

Les Schwab runs about 600 tire stores across 15 western states. It’s one of Oregon’s largest employers, with 9,000 staff.

About 430 people will remain at Schwab’s Bend headquarters.

The layoffs come as the company is expanding. Les Schwab has added more than 100 locations in four new states over the past three years. It’s planning to add another 30 stores this year.

Les Schwab founded the company in Prineville in 1952. A California investment firm bought the company in 2020.

“Les Schwab Tires remains deeply committed to the principles established by its founder,” Hueske said, “including taking care of customers and supporting the people who serve them every day.”

Background: Les Schwab announces sale to out-of-state investment firm

Oregon officials who recently blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from receiving undercover state license plates won’t extend the restrictions to all federal law enforcement, including other agencies that assist immigration enforcement operations.

Gov. Tina Kotek’s office announced last week that Oregon’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services division would block ICE agents from receiving undercover plates, citing “repeated violations of state and federal law by ICE agents and the need to protect community trust and public safety.”

Although the U.S. Department of Justice sued Oregon over the decision in May, DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said the move would insulate the agency from litigation under state law.

“We cannot expend state resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement,” Joyce said in a statement. “We need to follow state law and protect taxpayers from legal risk.”

Joyce said the DMV would, however, continue to provide the FBI, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service undercover plates “where there is not risk of breaking state law,” despite data and lawsuits showing the agencies are increasingly working on immigration enforcement actions. The Oregon DMV originally began reviewing its undercover license plate program on April 15, pausing the issuance of the plates to all federal agencies.

The U.S. Marshals Service, for instance, has been at the center of two recent lawsuits against local Oregon law enforcement agencies over sanctuary law violations. In a settlement in one of those cases brought against the Columbia County Jail by immigrant rights advocates, the jail agreed to update its policy on cooperation with the Marshals Service to prevent the detention of Oregonians solely for immigration-related crimes such as illegal entry.

The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office is facing a similar lawsuit over detaining in county jails individuals apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service. The Oregon State Police are also facing a state sanctuary lawsuit over their data-sharing agreements with federal law enforcement and immigration authorities.

“While Oregon is right to not use state resources to enforce federal immigration law, they make a mistake when they still enable federal criminal law enforcement agencies to operate undercover in Oregon more effectively with undercover plates,” Wanda Bertram, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts-based Prison Policy Initiative, said in a statement.

The U.S. Marshals Service, tasked with apprehending fugitives and protecting federal court officials, has increasingly undertaken immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration, according to data compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative.

It’s the result of a January 2025 U.S Department of Justice directive that authorized the Marshals Service, DEA, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to perform the functions of an immigration officer under the powers of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Around one in five members of the Marshals Service have been tapped to conduct immigration enforcement arrests under the Trump administration, according to the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice.

Kevin Glenn, a spokesperson for Kotek’s office, defended the governor’s decision to block undercover license plates solely for federal immigration agents in a statement.

“Federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, have legitimate needs that do not conflict with state sanctuary law,” he wrote in an email. “The governor does not want to impede efforts that ensure public safety, and that is why she asked that DMV restrict access to undercover license plates only to those agencies that primarily conduct immigration enforcement.”

But some legal experts question whether targeting just one agency could hurt the state’s case when it goes to court over the federal lawsuit.

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a professor of law at Ohio State University, said Oregon officials will need to explain how they are applying standards for offering the undercover plates “uniformly and objectively.”

Blocking only one agency from access to undercover plates could “seep right into the Trump administration’s position that it (the state) is violating non-discrimination principles by targeting DHS specifically,” García Hernández said.

Unmarked vehicles unaddressed

Advocates also question whether the decision to revoke covert plates from federal immigration agents will go far enough. Though they can continue to operate with their federal fleet plates on Oregon roads without violating any state vehicle laws, some federal immigration agents have operated with unmarked vehicles when detaining people throughout major American cities.

“Undercover license plates aren’t the end-all, be-all of keeping immigration enforcement out of communities,” Bertram said. “For example, in Chicago this last fall, ICE wasn’t even bothering to use license plates at all.”

The Trump administration has claimed its agents are subject to a dramatic rise in doxing and threats, though it has yet to provide transparent data substantiating that claim or explaining how its own federal plates are traceable to the individual identities of federal agents, who often wear masks or facial coverings.

It’s unclear how exactly the state could push back on unmarked vehicles. Chris Crabb, a DMV spokesperson, said that Oregon is a two-plate state requiring both front and back plates, but that the DMV does not solicit reports about violations from the public as it is “not an enforcement agency.”

Attorney General Dan Rayfield has also launched a tip line for reporting violations of the law by federal agents. The information could be used during criminal inquiries into federal agents, state records show, though in March, Rayfield declined to pursue an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court involving a federal DEA agent who ran a stop sign and killed a cyclist in Salem.

Crabb encouraged residents to report potential license plate law violations to a non-emergency phone line for local police, though many Oregon police officers have expressed hesitancy at directly impeding or challenging the actions of the federal government.

“We have no authority to enforce two plates on a vehicle, same with expired registrations and trip permits,” Crabb said in a statement. “That authority belongs with law enforcement.”For bottom:

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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.

It’s been nearly five years since a deadly heat dome gripped the Pacific Northwest. Many hundreds of people died — including 69 in Multnomah County alone — from the extreme heat event that sent the temperature soaring to 116 degrees in Portland and broke other temperature records in the region.

As climate change makes extreme heat events more frequent and longer-lasting, a new Portland State University study predicts that heat-related illnesses could double by 2040 across more than 50 of the largest metro areas in the U.S., including Seattle and Portland. The cost of treating heat-related illnesses is also expected to double, according to the study, likely further straining healthcare systems and vulnerable populations.

The study’s authors developed a model integrating multiple variables, including demographic information about age, race and health; climate data; visits to hospitals and emergency rooms for heat-related illnesses; and access to air-conditioning or other cooling infrastructure. The study reveals that cities in the Pacific Northwest could bear an especially high public health burden with their aging populations and lack of cooling infrastructure.

Vivek Shandas is a professor of earth, environment and society at PSU and co-author of the study. He joins us to share more details.

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Portland’s 31-year-old Moda Center arena is in a moment of transition. So too is its major tenant.

With a lease between the city and Blazers coming up for renewal and the team’s new owners coming in with big demands, city and state leaders have been pressured into making big funding commitments on a whirlwind timeline.

Proposals over how (or whether) to fund proposed arena renovations and what the city can get in return have fueled political debate, a signature-gathering campaign, and city budget arguments.

Portlanders are now being asked to weigh in, with public hearings scheduled for next weekend and votes scheduled before city council. But information on the next steps remains scant.

Here’s a refresher on how and why the city’s playing an active role in negotiations and how the public can get involved.

How did we get here?

In August, an investor group announced plans to buy the Blazers from the estate of Paul Allen, the team’s longtime owner.

That group is led by Tom Dundon, a subprime auto loan billionaire who lives in Texas and owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. The NBA approved that sale, valued at roughly $4.25 billion, in March.

In the months between signaling plans to buy the team and the NBA’s sign-off, representatives for Dundon pressed local and state elected officials to commit financially to upgrading the Moda Center, arguing that it needs at least $600 million in renovations.

The campaign worked.

The state committed $365 million in bonds, which will be paid off by current and future income taxes currently paid by the Trail Blazers and other employers in Portland’s Rose Quarter.

Multnomah County has promised around $88 million coming from a tax on rental cars, business income tax revenue and other sources – and $13 million more over the next 20 years. Additionally, Mayor Keith Wilson pitched in a total of roughly $120 million toward renovations in the near-term, and $285 million more in the next 20 years.

It’s not yet clear how the city will cover that cost.

Mayor Keith Wilson has suggested using $50 million in tax proceeds from the team’s sale, and filling the remaining gap with money from the Portland Clean Energy Fund and Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development bureau.

City councilors, who will have to vote on the final funding package, are undecided about where this money should come from.

This was just the start of the commitment. Now the government bodies are set to negotiate a long-term lease with the Blazers, which will include these funding commitments and other promises.

They’re on a tight timeline.

The state’s bonding authority ends in January, and it has given all parties a mid-December deadline to close the deal.

What kind of renovations does the arena need?

According to an in-depth report the city commissioned in 2024, the Moda Center needs a good amount of renovations to maintain basic operations – like fixing cracked concrete and corroded steel, upgrading aging elevators, replacing stained seating and uneven aisle stairs, fire alarm maintenance, and major plumbing fixes.

In a June 3 internal memo, city venues manager Karl Lisle said that these fixes would cost about $482 million over the next 20 years.

Skeptics of the city’s renovation funding plan have raised concerns that these fixes are focused largely on meeting the Blazers’ needs.

According to Lisle’s report, just $80 million of that total cost estimate directly impacts Blazers-related activity, like locker room renovations, broadcasting upgrades, sports lighting fixtures, and other things.

The Blazers, meanwhile, estimate the renovations to cost at least $600 million.

It’s not clear what that would be spent on. In his memo, Lisle wrote that he believes the Blazers are vying for new features that may be non-negotiable.

“These more transformational projects are necessary to achieve a truly state-of-the-art facility and secure a long-term commitment from the Blazers,” Lisle wrote.

When will city leaders decide on their funding plan?

Conversations will begin in July, when the PCEF Committee will review how – and whether – climate funds should be used on arena renovations.

A similar discussion will come to Prosper Portland’s board, which will decide whether to spend money from its “strategic investment fund” on the arena. That revolving fund generally pays for small business loans and real estate acquisitions.

The city is scheduled to vote on Aug. 12 on something called a “term sheet.”

That’s a document that all involved parties – the city, state and Blazers – agree as the starting point in their lease negotiations. It will include agreed-upon funding plans and non-financial commitments.

What could the city ask for in the lease agreement?

Perhaps the most important to city leaders is a guarantee that the Blazers will keep playing in Portland for the duration of the lease – and a steep penalty for breaking that agreement.

But officials are also looking for public benefits beyond who plays at the arena. Other cities that have won concessions in exchange for public financing on new arenas or stadiums have set a precedent.

In Philadelphia, a 2024 agreement to build a new 76ers arena came with the franchise promising to build affordable housing and support workforce development in the neighborhood surrounding the new stadium.

Milwaukee’s 2016 public investment in a new Bucks stadium required the franchise to allow arena workers to freely unionize.

And in 2019, the L.A. Clippers agreed to put millions into affordable housing and youth programs in Inglewood, the home of their new Intuit Dome arena.

Already, city and county leaders have discussed including some kind of pledge that the arena renovations are carried out by unionized construction firms, and possibly plans to invest in development around the area in partnership with 1803 Fund and Albina Vision Trust.

Those two organizations are focused on redeveloping historically Black Portland neighborhoods, like the one surrounding the Moda Center.

How can the public get involved?

The city is holding a series of weekend community listening sessions spread out across a number of city parks on June 13 and June 14, and collecting an online survey.

The public will also be able to submit comments and testimony at the PCEF and Prosper Portland meetings, and at city council hearings ahead of the August 12 term sheet vote.

Could Portlanders vote on this?

City Councilors Mitch Green and Steve Novick have both expressed interest in allowing Portlanders to decide if they want to spend public money to revamp the arena.

In that scenario, the city would likely ask voters if they’d be willing to pay higher taxes to pay off a city bond that will cover the $120 million bill. And, because of the state’s bonding deadline, it would need to be voted on before the end of the year.

That could be a long shot – and not just because of growing opposition to new taxes. According to the city elections office, July 22 is the last date that the City Council could refer a measure to the November ballot. That doesn’t give councilors and city attorneys much time to pull together a draft.

Neither Green nor Novick says they’re currently working on the ballot proposal language.

When will councilors vote on the final lease plan?

After an early August term sheet vote, the city’s negotiating team will spend the following three months hammering out final details. The long-term lease proposal is scheduled to come to the city council for a final vote no later than Dec. 17.

Members of the public will have several opportunities to give feedback on the lease before then.

What happens if they don’t reach a deal in time?

This is a question local leaders won’t speak to directly.

If the deal falls through before the end of the year, the state’s financial commitment – the bulk of the funding package – goes away. State lawmakers have a chance to introduce an identical bill to issue bonds in the January legislative session.

It’s not clear where that would leave lease negotiations.

If it does pass, where are renovations expected to begin?

If the funding plan is finalized on time, construction is expected to begin next summer, with a goal to be finished in time for Portland to host the NCAA Women’s Final Four in 2030.

Oregon’s new state Forester Kacey KC’s first experience with wildfire was watching flames move down the mountainside toward her childhood home in Nevada.

On a summer break from college in 1996, “literally working at the car wash,” she explained, she saw from across town a huge plume of smoke growing around her neighborhood. She called her father, who frantically explained that he’d seen the fire start a street over, and that the wind was blowing the flames straight at their house.

After racing home to help him, it also became when she learned firsthand what not to do in the event of a wildfire.

“We didn’t know at the time, I mean my dad was on the roof with the hose, putting out hotspots. I was on the deck, I was just doing what my dad told me to do,” she explained, “but it was a wind shift, really, that saved our home.”

KC has become a lot more pragmatic about fighting fire since then, but does not underestimate the power of changing winds. She is hoping to harness that energy as the Oregon Department of Forestry’s new director, taking over after her predecessors were embroiled in accusations of financial mismanagement and workplace misconduct, including creating a hostile culture toward women.

She’ll be the first woman to permanently lead the agency in its history, and comes to the job after 24 years at Nevada’s forestry and natural resource agencies, including eight years as Nevada’s first female state forester firewarden.

KC said she brings with her from Nevada a “zero tolerance policy for a lot of different issues, both financially and treating people poorly.” As she embarks on her third month on the job, she said she is still in learning mode and ensuring “everyone understands my expectations and that we are moving forward together in the right direction.”

KC sat down briefly with the Capital Chronicle to talk about her first couple months on the job, preparing for a long fire season likely to leave her overseeing some of the biggest blazes of her career, and negotiating desires and dollars between conservationists, the timber industry, ranchers, firefighters, and local, state, federal and tribal governments.

Bigger responsibilities

In Oregon, KC is taking over an agency with almost five times as many staff as she managed in Nevada, and with a significantly larger budget. She’s well versed in working with federal natural resource agencies — more than 80% of Nevada’s land is federally owned and managed — but will be new to overseeing a larger state-run land and forest portfolio in Oregon, where the agency depends on logging to fund its operations.

There are about 8.5 million acres of forested land in Nevada and practically no timber industry, compared to Oregon’s more than 30 million forested acres. Although the state Forestry Department manages just 3% of that, it is the primary fire-fighting resource for 16 million acres of land across the state, including private forest and rangeland acres.

KC is one of few leaders in the Oregon Department of Forestry’s history with no background in timber, but she said she is used to managing the desires of industry and of conservation.

In her first few weeks she said she met with environmental organizations, timber operators, tribes, and rural and rangeland fire protection associations, and said she meets at least twice a month with the directors of Oregon’s other natural resource agencies.

Her work in forestry started in conservation, and she spent years managing the state’s sagebrush ecosystem program meant to protect native species and return the landscape to a more fire-resistant state. She said she sees wildlife and habitat conservation as critical to the work of a department tasked with protecting forests from drought, disease and climate change, and fighting fire.

“Any project that I’m doing for fire mitigation should be considering habitat,” she said.

And though she’s never been a firefighter, she said she has “been supporting firefighters for all of my career.”

KC participated for years in the National Association of State Foresters, where she recently spent a year as president, and during that time got to know Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s Wildfire and Military Adviser Doug Grafe, and later worked alongside Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple as an adviser on the Congressional Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission.

And though on average more acres burn annually in Nevada — about a million on average, compared to Oregon’s 10-year average of 680,000 — they tend to lead to less home loss because they burn in much less densely populated areas, she said.

Creating change

KC said she’s currently evaluating what kinds of changes might be needed at the forestry department following the departure more than a year ago of its leader Cal Makumoto amid misconduct claims among senior leaders, and an unexpected emergency infusion of funding from the Oregon Legislature when it became clear the agency could not pay all its bills after the 2024 wildfire season.

“I don’t believe in coming into an agency and making big changes before I really have an understanding of how we operate, and so I’m spending a lot of time learning,” KC said, and acknowledged that “the increasing costs of wildfires, and being able to get that funding to be able to pay your bills on time, has been a challenge across both states.”

When it comes to paying to fight wildfires, she said she understands well the complex system of payments and reimbursements that exist between the Forestry Department and state, local, federal and tribal agencies and governments, and private contractors. She said her job is to balance all of that so partners have a reasonable expectation for getting paid, and to make sure lawmakers and budget writers understand, if not the full complexity she has to manage, the cost and timing needs and demands she is trying to meet.

When she took over in Nevada, she started building the agency’s first ever strategic plan that included policies around this and around workplace conduct. She said she is spending a lot of time with the Oregon Department of Forestry’s strategic plan and thinking of ways to build on it, including when it comes to accountability for leaders and staff.

When it comes to the cultural issues that came to a head at the Forestry Department in recent years, including complaints that leaders were hostile to women and to employees based on race and sexual orientation, KC said they are not new issues for her and she takes them seriously. She described her strategy as being transparent about addressing complaints, discussing challenges with staff and enforcing accountability, especially among agency leadership, as well as training.

The biggest changes will likely occur first in her own life. She is, for the first time since college in Montana and a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, living away from the “little town” of Gardnerville, Nevada, where she grew up and where she saw that first wildfire 30 years ago.

“My family’s all there. I wasn’t really seeking a new career,” she said of her move to Oregon, “but I definitely saw the opportunity.”

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.

In a 30-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon sided with a group of Eastern Oregon residents who initially filed suit in 2024. Simon scheduled a three-week jury trial to begin in May 2027.

These Lower Umatilla Basin residents are suing Lamb Weston Holdings, Madison Ranches, the Port of Morrow, Threemile Canyon Farms, Portland General Electric and Columbia River Processing.

They accuse these businesses of violating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a law that sets standards for the disposal of solid and hazardous waste.

“This ruling is a significant win for the thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties who have waited years for safe drinking water and for someone to be held accountable,” said Steve Berman, an attorney representing the residents, in a statement.

The seven residents suing are seeking class action status for the case — a move that would open it up to include thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties whose well drinking water has been contaminated with nitrates.

Fed up with slow fix, Oregon residents sue businesses over nitrate pollution

The Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, or LUBGWMA, is a 550-square-mile area in northern Morrow and northeastern Umatilla counties.

In 1990, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality designated it a “groundwater management area” because of the high nitrate levels in the groundwater.

Nitrate is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Drinking it in excessive amounts can lead to miscarriages, respiratory infections and thyroid dysfunction. It can be especially harmful to infants.

Many residents in the region rely on domestic private wells for drinking water, but over the last few years, some have had to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and bathing.

The decades-long crisis has long been linked to the nearby food processors and farms that use nitrogen-rich fertilizers that then seep into the Lower Umatilla Basin.

In his ruling, Simon allowed the plaintiffs to proceed with their claims of negligence, trespass and nuisance under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The defendants being sued had filed a motion to dismiss the claims.

In court filings, the businesses had also asked the court to dismiss claims that they’d engaged in a “civil conspiracy” with the port seeking “economic activity using methods that pollute groundwater” in the basin.

Those claims allege they knowingly applied nitrogen-rich fertilizer on fields at much higher rates than what crops can naturally absorb.

The businesses had argued the people suing had not sufficiently alleged a civil conspiracy under Oregon law, and that without a well-pleaded conspiracy, those residents had failed to “plausibly allege standing and injuries traceable” to the defendants.

But Simon ruled the plaintiffs did present enough evidence against the businesses for the conspiracy claim to move forward during the trial.

“The allegations give rise to the plausible inference that [Columbia River Processing] CRP, Lamb Weston, Madison, and PGE acted in concert with the Port by generating and sending high-nitrate wastewater that they knew would be improperly disposed of by the Port,” Simon wrote in the ruling.

In the lawsuit, the residents are seeking compensation, an environmental remediation program, and a medical monitoring program to diagnose and keep track of the health of residents exposed to nitrate-contaminated water.

In March, Amazon Data Services agreed to a $20.5 million settlement over allegations arising from its data centers in the region.

That settlement, which came out of the same lawsuit, is currently pending court approval. Amazon has denied that it contributed to the nitrate crisis.

For the third year in a row, many Oregon families with school-aged children will have access to financial assistance for their summer groceries.

Oregon is one of 39 states participating in the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer program, or Summer EBT, offering families a one-time payment of $120 for each eligible child to be used on groceries during the summer. In 2025, at least 336,000 Oregon children received these benefits.

The state began rolling out the benefits on Friday, and families with children enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and those receiving benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, will automatically receive an Oregon EBT card to use at grocery stores, farmers markets and convenience stores.

Other automatically eligible families include those with a child attending a qualifying Head Start program, a child in foster care, in a migrant education program, experiencing homelessness or participating in the Food Distribution Program on Indian reservations.

Interested in Summer EBT? How to apply

Those who didn’t automatically receive Summer EBT benefits can apply online or with a paper application available on the Oregon Department of Human Services website. New families must apply for the program by Sept. 1.

Families are eligible if they have a child attending a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program, or if they meet the income requirements for free or reduced-price meals at school. 

The program does not use immigration status to determine eligibility, and the benefits expire four months after they show up on an EBT card.

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.

A decade ago, a building in Portland’s Nob Hill neighborhood exploded in a gas leak and was consumed by a fire soon after. That building was home to Portland Bagelworks and the eyewear shop Fetch, as well as Art Work Rebels Tattoo Studio, which was located in the building for seven years. Artist Jeff P, who now co-owns Tattoo Smile, was an artist at the shop when this happened. After the dust settled and rubble was sorted, much of the shop was lost, including memories, personal belongings and much of the hand-drawn art and flash that many artists like Jeff created.

But for Jeff, some of his work survived as digital scans and phone camera photos he captured as he documented his own work. Now, Jeff has released a book marking the anniversary of the explosion. “Everything That Burned” is a collection of scans and photos of his art and the shop after the fire. Jeff joins us to share more on his memories of the shop and his new book.

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

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. A decade ago, a commercial building blew up in Portland’s Knob Hill neighborhood. It was home to a bagel shop, an eyewear company, and the Art Work Rebels Tattoo studio. Jeff P was one of the tattoo artists who worked there. He lost hundreds of sheets of hand painted art, at least he lost the originals. He had digital scans and iPhone photos of some of his work. You can now see those photos in a book that’s been released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the explosion. It’s called “Everything That Burned.” Jeff P joins us now to talk about it. It’s great to have you on the show.

Jeff P: Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

Miller: How did you get into tattooing?

Jeff: I was going to film school at NYU at the time and kind of feeling like that wasn’t actually what I wanted to be doing with my days, and I drew a tattoo for a friend that asked, and that seemed like maybe a good way to make a living, drawing pictures.

Miller: In that case, you drew the tattoo and then the friend took it to a tattoo artist and then put it on their skin.

Jeff: That’s right.

Miller: But then you went from that to actually doing it yourself?

Jeff: Yeah, I started looking into what that might look like and started telling people that’s what I wanted to do. And a friend happened to know a couple of tattoo artists, or a friend of a friend knew a couple, and got me in touch, and it worked out. Got my foot in the door and figured out the rest from there.

Miller: What can you tell us about Art Work Rebels, the studio where you worked?

Jeff: Art Work Rebels, it’s an existing name. It was owned by Jason Kundell, who had been a big name in tattooing, well before I even started. It was a graffiti crew before that, and he happened to be moving to Portland the same time I did, at the end of 2009. Some mutual friends put us in touch and ended up working at that shop, helping them build out the shop. And just that name – Art Work Rebels and Jason Kundell – that opens a lot of doors, and that provided a lot more opportunities for me.

Miller: What was the vibe of the shop?

Jeff: It was all about hard work and taking it seriously. It was really supportive. Jason is an incredibly hard worker. He sets a really high bar and he also provides the support to improve with regular critiques of our drawings and tattoos. He was very good at helping with drawings, explaining why you were doing things certain ways, why certain things didn’t work.

Miller: What do you remember about the last time you were in that shop?

Jeff: It was the night before the explosion. I actually finished a painting, it’s the first painting in the book. It was painted the night before, I finished it, put it in a drawer, and the next morning it blew up.

Miller: You weren’t there, right, this was the morning of October 19, 2016?

Jeff: That’s correct. Our shop manager, Jen, was in the shop that morning cleaning up. We had some aquariums with fish and snakes and lizards and stuff, and she thought it was just kind of funky from the aquarium, so she was cleaning up, airing the shop out. At a certain point when she was cleaning up, she started getting a headache and thought maybe it was gas.

And so she went down where there was some construction being done on the sidewalk, some excavating, and she asked them, she was like, “I think it smells like gas up there.”

And they’re like, “Well, we hit a gas line, so if it smells like gas, we should get out of there.” I guess people hit gas lines all the time when they’re working on things. It’s typically not a big issue. The gas company comes out, the fire department makes sure it’s not combustible or explosive, and that’s what they were doing when the building exploded. They didn’t know until Jen mentioned that it was backing up into the building. I guess that’s abnormal.

So my understanding is, I feel like Jen should get a lot of credit for this, when she came down and said that it smelled like gas up there, that’s when they started evacuating people from those businesses. And we got a text from Jen that morning saying, “There’s a gas leak at the shop. Fire department’s got to clear it before we can go in, so don’t come in yet. I’ll let you know when we can go in. Shouldn’t be long.”

And then 20 minutes later I think it was three rapid explosions that just leveled that building.

Miller: That shook a big area. It was such a big explosion and made the national evening news, and amazingly, because people were cleared out just in time, nobody was killed. The book that you ended up making has photographs and scans of what’s known as flash art. What is flash art?

Jeff: Flash art, I think the name flash originally comes from the carnival world, to catch people’s attention. Within tattooing flash art, if you ever walk into a tattoo shop and you see the sheets of designs on the wall, that’s flash. It’s just a kind of ready-to-go tattoo designs.

Miller: As opposed to someone saying, “I want a tattoo of a walrus eating an ice cream cone on a unicycle.” That has to be done in the moment.

Jeff: Correct. Yes, it’ll be a custom tattoo. A flash is ready to go. You pick it and we stick it on you.

Miller: How much flash art did you have just in a filing cabinet at the studio?

Jeff: I had close to 100 sheets of flash and similar flash-style paintings, probably about 100 sheets altogether. Some of them were hanging on the walls in the shop and some of them were in a drawer. I think that one of the harder things for me was processing the explosion afterwards.

Because there was asbestos in either the flooring or the ceiling, that site was shut down and a lot of those sheets were in this heavy steel flat file, and they would have been damaged, burned, waterlogged, ripped, whatever. But I feel like anything that I could have gotten out of there, it would have been amazing to have, whatever condition it was in. So that was, I think, the hardest thing to let go of.

Miller: So you weren’t able to get anything in the end?

Jeff: The only thing we really got out of there was a big, probably an eight-foot tall hand painted blade sign on the corner of the building that our friend Ken Davis had painted for us and that we saw on the news later that night. We saw a fireman kind of lifting it out of the rubble and walking off screen with it, and we ran back to the site and argued with the fire marshal for a bit to get our hands on that. And that hung in the shop that Jason eventually opened downtown.

Miller: Is there something that you miss most about what you lost?

Jeff: Well, I think it’s a little, what’s the word, hard to put your hands on. I mean, tattooing is a big world and trying to carve out a spot for yourself can be difficult, especially these days there’s so many tattooers. And there are a lot of tattooers that tattoo in the style that I do. And that flash, for me, was how I was defining myself in tattooing. I was spending a lot of time painting. I really love it as much as I love tattooing.

I think it was just losing that, it was losing those objects that I put time into, but it was losing something more than that. And I don’t know exactly what it is, but it took me a while, and still, I’ve never gotten quite back to the same pace of painting flash. I still paint flash regularly, but I think losing that was losing something of myself, you know, not just like the books that I also lost.

Miller: Right. I mentioned that you had some sort of professional scans of some of this hand-painted work, and then at a certain point, it was just taking pictures with your phone. What changed?

Jeff: I felt like I was being a little too precious about…

Miller: …serious documentation?

Jeff: Yes. It just felt like, it’s just flash. I’m just painting it. It’s supposed to hang on the wall and people come and pick something out. I don’t know, it just felt like at a certain point, why am I shipping these off to be professionally scanned, shipping them back, it just seemed excessive.

So at a certain point, I just started finding a good spot in the shop under a light, shooting an iPhone photo of it and tucking that away. But after the explosion that really helped processing and moving on, being able to still have those. I missed those original sheets, but the images were very valuable to me.

Miller: You made a few copies, as I understand it, of a book for yourself, a year after the fire with these scans, professional scans, and then some iPhone photos. Why did you want to make it more widely available now?

Jeff: Oh, I think the reason I didn’t do it originally, there were kind of two reasons. One was those sheets were still new for me, you know, I had just painted those. I hadn’t tattooed a lot of those things. So I didn’t want to put them out in the world and let everyone start tattooing them.

Miller: Is that a thing? I mean, do people just copy flash that’s out there? I mean, this is your work, your IP, but people can just..

Jeff: Yeah, I mean, it depends who you talk to. Some people are pretty protective of it, especially if it’s just hanging in their shop, they don’t want you taking photos and taking them to other places. But people sell sets of flash, books of flash, and I think if you’re putting it out there like that, you should be expecting that people are going to use it.

Miller: And on somebody else’s skin.

Jeff: Personally I think that’s the point. Like, if I’m putting out a book of flash, it’s for you guys to make use of whether you’re redrawing or tattooing.

Miller: Has that happened since you published this new book?

Jeff: Yeah, the day after we put it out, a friend of mine, Dean, who was at the convention in Portland where we released the book, bought the book on Thursday, and on Friday did a tattoo out of it, just had a design that he was looking for. It was an old design by a tattooer named Pinky Yun, who, again, a lot of flash just gets passed along through the years and people do their version of it and then someone does their version of that and it’s really fun.

Miller: What’s it been like to revisit that time and that serious loss a decade later?

Jeff: It was a little more emotional than I was expecting it to be. I felt like I had processed everything and moved on. And I had, but going back and really looking at that flash again in a way that I hadn’t looked at it really. And looking for some news photos to use for our book release to put up, to give it some context if people didn’t know the full story, seeing the photos, it just makes it more real again. You realize, that was really crazy. It’s crazy to remember at the time, thinking, it’s a really strange feeling to look at a pile of rubble and recognize things in it, you know, seeing…

Miller: Your things in it.

Jeff: Yeah, your things. Just things that you would see every day, you know, like, just as silly as, a jar of peanut butter. I was like, “I know that jar of peanut butter,” you know?

Miller: Has that changed your approach to, not just the art you’re making in the world, but your physical stuff in the world?

Jeff: I don’t know. I mean, on one hand, maybe I wasn’t being overly precious by scanning the things, but I think there’s also a point where you learn to let go of certain things. I think really more than that, the explosion taught me a lot about community.

We had a really successful GoFundMe after that, and to feel a part of a community, to be on the receiving end of that, you learn what that means more than when you’re giving. That was really emotional for me at the time and continues to be. And the reaction that I’ve gotten to this book, which has been more than I ever would have hoped, that’s been another surge of that feeling in that community.

Miller: Jeff P, thanks very much.

Jeff: Thank you for having me.

Miller: Jeff P is a co-owner of Tattoo Smile in Southeast Portland. His new book is called, “Everything That Burned.” It’s made up of art, his art that was lost in an explosion at his old tattoo shop 10 years ago.

“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: This story contains a description of suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally 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. Around 44,000 people died in a gun-related injury in the U.S. in 2024, according to a new report from Pew Research. Homicides get more attention, but suicides made up 62% of those deaths. In Oregon, that number was much higher – 80% of all firearm deaths were people who had taken their own lives. Becca Valek is a research project coordinator at OHSU’s Gun Violence Prevention Research Center. Katie Iossi is a member of the center’s faculty and a physician at the Portland VA. I should note before we start that if you or somebody that you know is struggling, you can call or text 988 to reach a national suicide and crisis lifeline. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Becca Valek and Katie Iossi, welcome to Think Out Loud.

Becca Valek: Thanks for having us.

Katie Iossi: Thank you.

Miller: Becca, I mentioned the percentage of gun deaths in the U.S. and in Oregon that were suicides, and it’s very high in Oregon, 80%. But the other number that I said before, the break is just as stark. It’s that Oregon’s overall suicide rate is something like 50% higher than the national average. So I want to start there. What are the reasons for that?

Valek: Suicide is a complex public health issue. So I just want to start by noting that there’s no one cause, nor one solution. But research has identified some factors that contribute to elevated suicide rates, including elevated rates here in Oregon. For one, in particular with firearm suicide, Oregon has a high rate of gun ownership, similar to other Western states, and so there’s a correlation between firearm ownership rates and firearm suicide rates within states.

There are other factors. Oregon ranks pretty low in terms of mental health care access. In a 2024 report, I believe, 32 of our 36 counties had less than one mental health care provider per 1,000 residents in the county. So there’s really a limitation in terms of accessing needed mental health care that can also contribute to elevated suicide rates.

Miller: I wanna go back to the gun piece, and Dr. Iossi, how do you explain that? I mean, maybe it seems obvious, but it’s maybe a mistake to take anything at face value here. What’s the connection between access to firearms or the number of firearms that are in a certain place and that place’s suicide rate?

Iossi: Firearms are the most lethal method of suicide. So 90% of people who attempt suicide with a firearm will die by suicide with a firearm. So that is really the key piece. The other piece is that they are generally easily accessible, and when they are easily accessible, it can be a short amount of time between having that suicidal thought and then completing the action. That right there is how they end up being more lethal, and even though it’s not the highest method that is used in suicide attempts, it is the major cause of suicide death.

Miller: Because of the lethality.

Iossi: Exactly, exactly.

Miller: Becca, how much do suicide rates in Oregon vary by regions, and specifically, I’m wondering about cities versus more rural areas?

Valek: Rates in cities vs rural areas vary pretty significantly. Rural areas tend to have, both in Oregon and in the U.S. generally, rural areas tend to have higher rates of suicide and firearm suicide in particular.

Miller: Is that one of the things that you see? Because another huge stat that that jumps out that came from a recent study is that people who work in farming, fishing, and forestry have a suicide rate that’s five times higher than the already very high state average. How do you explain that?

Valek: I think that contributes to that rural-urban difference, and I think there are a variety of factors. For one, those working in those professions may be more likely to have firearms and have easy access to firearms. There is also the factor of some of those professions may be more associated with workplace injury or could lead to some chronic pain, and those physical health conditions can also increase risk for suicide.

Miller: Katie, what about gender? How does gender play into this?

Iossi: Men generally have a higher rate of suicide, and that, we think, is due to several reasons. One is that stereotypes still exist, for sure, around mental health and expressing emotion and vulnerability. I work with predominantly male patients who recognize that their health is important and also have a hard time sometimes talking about their mental health, so a sense of being able to ask for help or mention that things aren’t going as well as they’d want them to go can certainly contribute to that.

Miller: How much training did you get? When you were, say, doing rotations in med school or doing your residency, specifically about this, about talking to patients about suicidal ideation and about really serious mental health issues, and I should say again you’re an internist?

Iossi: Yes, I’m an internist, and I don’t recall learning much about talking about firearms in particular in medical school or residency. We certainly talked about suicidal ideation and how to assess risk, but I really learned about how to do lethal means safety counseling, which is an intervention that reduces suicide risk in individuals, while working at the VA and recognizing that it was such an important piece of taking great care of my patients.

Miller: Is that at this point a standard part of training or clinical work at the VA, or is this something that just some people there recognize was good and so some people there do it?

Iossi: It is a part of standard training at the VA, and it is a universal screen that we do for all patients now at the VA, is to ask people about thoughts of suicide. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has found insufficient evidence for universal screening for suicide elsewhere, and I think there will be more data coming out on this in the future, but clinicians all should be able to identify warning signs and risk factors for suicide and then appropriately counsel patients on how to help manage and mitigate that risk.

Miller: What does that second part look like? Because you had said earlier that part of this, to the extent that it’s gendered, one of the pieces of it is this idea that men should just tough it out and figure out their own ways of dealing with challenges without having to maybe talk to somebody else, but here you come along and start asking questions. So how do you navigate that?

Iossi: Yeah, it can be challenging, especially when patients are asked about firearms, it can feel very personal because firearms are such a huge part of many people’s identity and because that topic has been unfortunately politicized. So I always ground the conversation in care about health and safety and often about their family members and how much they’re cared about and what an effect of not doing well personally would have on their family.

So I will root the conversation in health and safety and say, hey, we know that people going through hard times may develop crises where they might think about suicide. And in those moments, we know that keeping people safe really matters, that reducing access to lethal means, like maybe not having your firearms right nearby when you’re having a crisis can actually help keep you alive and save your life. So if we do some talking right now and brainstorming around how we might keep you safe in a crisis moment that might actually help save your life if you are to develop a crisis moment.

Miller: What you’ve just been describing sounds very voluntary, and we can talk in a little bit about red flag laws, Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which, now we’re one of many states that have that in Oregon. But I’m curious, before we get to that, where a judge is saying, for some period of time we’re going to remove your guns.

What you’re saying seems different. I mean, what would the method be, let’s say, as you were just outlining in a pretty careful, kind way, you’re going through challenges, I care about your life, and maybe it’s not a great idea to have guns around right now. What do people say and what are you actually asking them to do?

Iossi: Yes, people will sometimes be surprised by that. And other times they’re not at all surprised. So then we talk about, you know, a lot of my patients own firearms. If you own them, how do you store them? How do you use them? Tell me more. Then the patient is telling me about what matters to them and why they might own firearms.

And then I share my medical experience and say, you know, we do know this from studies that having these around can be hard. So what do you think we can do together collaboratively, you and I, to help mitigate your risk, to lower your risk? And some patients will agree that it really isn’t safe to have their firearms in their home. So maybe they’ll give them to a friend or a family temporarily, while they’re going through this hard time.

Other times that doesn’t work for patients, and that’s OK. Then we brainstorm about other ideas that we could take. Securely storing firearms is also a really fantastic way to put time and space between that thought and the lethal action. Secure storage involves storing the firearm unloaded, locked up and separate from ammunition, and that can give you time to rethink a fleeting thought of suicide that someone might have.

Miller: Even if we’re just talking about, say, a couple minutes of finding the key or maybe two different keys to get access to ammunition and the gun itself, that can make a difference?

Iossi: It can. Twenty minutes, ten minutes, thought to be a critical window, not for every person, but it can definitely reduce harm.

Miller: Becca, I’m curious, we have been talking about removing people’s access to firearms. How much is that the focus right now, meaning the means of suicide, as opposed to addressing people’s underlying causes, not that it’s either/or, but if we’re talking about where you’re focusing your energy right now?

Valek: Like you said, it can’t be either/or. There’s really a need for upstream interventions, and I think that those are happening pretty widely. But in terms of my energy, because my research focus is firearm injury, I focus more on firearm suicide in particular and lethal means.

And I think that is a really effective mechanism because there’s a lot of work that needs to happen more upstream.

As a public health professional, I care a lot about the upstream interventions, and we have people that are dying now. And so we know that reducing access to lethal means during a time of crisis can save lives now.

Miller: I just want to give the number again. The number to reach the National Suicide Crisis Lifeline is 988. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Becca, for as long as we’ve been talking about suicide on this show, which is close to 20 years, since the beginning of this show, we’ve been giving out some version of a phone number, but it was only about four years ago or so that it became that three digit number. Has that made a difference?

The hope was, I remember hearing this, that, like 911, this is an easier to remember number. And part of the thinking was, it would make it easier for people to call in. Has that happened?

Valek: It certainly has. We’ve seen increased call volumes. In addition to having that easier number, there’s also text options and an ability to message online. So I think by expanding the different ways that individuals can reach out and seek help, it has made it more accessible and more people have been using this resource.

Miller: I’m curious about another societal shift. Katie, I feel like I’ve seen a shift in societal norms about the way suicide is talked about in the last 20 years or so. Basically, people seem more comfortable talking about suicide head on, including in places like obituaries where, I mean there’s still sometimes, maybe still frequently, a euphemism like “so and so died suddenly.” But I feel like I see more often families and loved ones saying, “So and so died by suicide after a long struggle with mental illness,” something like that. What effect do you think the normalization of talking about suicide has had?

Iossi: I think the normalization has generally been helpful, as long as it is helping people to open up about what they’re going through and then be able to seek resources or have people help connect them with resources to get the help they need. We do worry about folks who have been impacted by suicide then having their own mental health crises. So postvention resources are also really important when a community has been impacted by suicide, to ensure that others are not then in a new crisis. But I do think that having that conversation is important.

And one thing that’s also really important to know is that asking about suicide does not cause a person to have suicidal behavior. So exploring someone who’s feeling down, and finding out if they’re having thoughts of wanting to end their life, is really important just to figure it out, open up, and get them connected to resources.

Miller: I want to go back to the non-voluntary piece of this. So we were talking about, hey, how would you feel about locking your guns up or giving them to a safe loved one for a little while, as you work through what you’re working through, but there are also these red flag laws. In the big picture, how are they working? How is it working in Oregon?

Valek: Research has found in some of the states that have red flag laws or Extreme Risk Protection Order laws, that they are effective at reducing firearm suicide. In a four-state study, it was found that one suicide was prevented for every about 17 ERPOs issued, which is a really impressive number.

In Oregon, our team has done research looking at the court records, speaking with law enforcement and judges and other professionals who are involved in ERPO implementation, and talking to some of the family and household members who have filed for ERPOs. And what we found is that for these family and household members, they’re offering a sense of relief. They’re offering time and space so that an individual can receive other interventions; because it won’t solve the underlying problems, it won’t solve the underlying crisis, but it can create a safer home environment in which an individual can get help.

Miller: Are there other policies that you’d like to see in Oregon? Because we’ve been talking to some extent about local interventions or doctor-patient conversations or a family reaching out for their own loved one. But what about at the societal level?

Valek: Certainly. Before we move fully away from the local interventions though, I’d just like to note that in addition to the healthcare setting and family and friends, many of the local prevention activities are really being spearheaded by firearm owners.There are examples of gun shops that will store your firearms during a crisis, and gun shops that distribute secure storage information and talk about suicide or have coffee chats. And I think that really contributes to normalizing the conversation and to reaching out to those who may be more vulnerable.

Miller: And the idea there is this is a gun shop owner, so this is not someone who you think is out there to take your guns away from you.This is a second amendment supporter who’s on your side.

Valek: Certainly, it’s a trusted messenger. It’s someone you may be more comfortable having that conversation with, and it shifts the culture because it shows this person who I agree with broadly, who I have a connection with, also cares about firearm suicide prevention and it is willing to have that conversation.

But on the societal level, I think there’s a lot that can be done. Every few years, the Oregon Health Authority creates youth and adult suicide prevention plans that outline the overall strategic plan for the state. And the youth suicide prevention plan has general fund funding from the legislature, but the adult plan does not. So it’s funded through grants – federal, state and local grants – which can create instability or uncertainty. So there’s really a need for more dedicated resources to support that.

Miller: Becca Valek and Katie Iossi, thanks very much.

Valek: Thank you so much.

Iossi: Thank you.

Miller: Becca Valek is research project coordinator at OHSU’s Gun Violence Prevention Research Center. Katie Iossi is a member of that center’s faculty. She is an internal medicine physician at the Portland VA.

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Washington state’s deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century has raised concerns about Oregon’s level of readiness and resources to respond to hazardous materials incidents.

That experience dates back to 1989, when Oregon became the first state in the nation to establish a state-level hazmat program. Today, there are 12 regional hazardous material emergency response teams, from Astoria to Ontario, who can quickly deploy to support local first responders in emergencies, as well as offer training to local agencies and industries. The Community Right to Know program allows members of the public to see where hazardous substances are being stored in their communities, unless that information is determined to be sensitive or confidential.

Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple joins us to share her thoughts on the Longview disaster and Oregon’s efforts to mitigate the risks hazardous materials pose.

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

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Eleven people have died after a chemical tank holding hundreds of thousands of corrosive chemicals ruptured last Tuesday at a paper mill in Longview. It was Washington’s deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century.The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is leading the investigation as questions mount over workplace safety at the facility. The disaster has also raised questions about Oregon’s ability to respond to incidents involving hazardous materials. The Oregon State Fire Marshal, an independent agency, oversees twelve regional hazmat teams. Mariana Ruiz-Temple leads the agency, and she joins us now. It’s great to have you back on the show.

Mariana Ruiz-Temple: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Miller: What went through your mind when you heard about the disaster in Longview?

Ruiz-Temple: I think, like most people, it was just devastating to see, and like you mentioned, this is not only Washington but the Northwest’s most devastating hazardous materials incident and our hearts and prayers go out to not only the community, the emergency responders, but certainly the victims and their families. And I think from a human standpoint that was my first reaction like many of us that watched it unfold on TV.

And then in terms of my professional side, knowing the kinds of exposures, the kinds of chemicals we see in those facilities and the kind of response that’s necessary to protect not only the victims but the people in the surrounding areas, it just quickly goes to the things that people may not see. The extra level of training, the extra level of capacity and preparation and planning for these kinds of facilities that are in and around a lot of our communities in the United States and around the world, frankly.

Miller: Well, can you give us a sense for the challenges of an emergency response in an industrial facility like this one, like the Nippon Dynawave plant?

Ruiz-Temple: You know, many of these plants are necessary for the kinds of products that we all use every day, not only these kinds of plants, but many different types of industrial or manufacturing plants. They exist around many of our communities, and the kinds of things that are in the facility that are stored within the facility, all necessitate not only strong and swift planning and action from the company, but also the responders.

In Oregon we have a state hazmat response team program, you mentioned it earlier. We have twelve hazmat teams around the state and their number one priority is to be trained, equipped, and prepared to respond to these types of chemical incidents that we have. The Longview incident highlighted a significant incident, but every day we have other incidents that may not be as similar but happen every day.

For example, last week we had an anhydrous ammonia leak in Portland and Gresham where we responded. We’re seeing, down in Orange County, a significant hazmat incident that occurred in the last couple of weeks down there. So I think having the right personnel – like I said, trained and equipped and prepared – are necessary for these types of incidents that don’t happen every day but do happen, and when they happen, you need the right tool. And in Oregon we have those tools within our response system that we have in Oregon.

Miller: I do want to hear more about the Oregon plans and preparation level, but just to stick with Longview for a second, has Oregon had any role in the cleanup and recovery there?

Ruiz-Temple: Early on when the incident first occurred, our state Hazmat 7, which is Portland Fire, did receive a call initially for the possibility of a mutual aid response. So helping that Vancouver had materials in the team that responded. During that call it was determined that they did not need mutual aid, but they did help out in terms of resource identification, the hazards with that type of chemical exposure information, so what we would call resource information, a consult.

What did quickly happen, however, is we do know that victims were transported to two different hospitals, one of those being Legacy Emanuel Hospital. And our Hazmat Team 7 did respond, and we did provide decon. As you can imagine with this type of chemical, in order to get victims the best and quickest life safety measures, you have to decon victims. And so those hazardous materials technicians did decon those patients before they were able to receive that life saving…

Miller: Decon meaning decontaminate, get the hazardous chemicals off of their skin or clothing?

Ruiz-Temple: Yes, apologies. Yes, “decon” is decontaminating them. In this case, a significant amount of water, upwards of thirty minutes for each patient before they were able to be treated.

Miller: Could what happened in Longview last week happen in Oregon?

Ruiz-Temple: Yeah, great question. I think that’s a question that many of us ask when we hear. I think the answer is yes. We have the potential, given the right circumstances, and we’re still watching to see how things are unfolding in the investigation in Longview and learn those lessons, but we do have chemicals and we do have facilities like that in Oregon. And so having the right training and planning in advance and having the community part of that planning and training, but also the knowledge of what chemicals are in your community are important.

So we know that they exist here, and we have facilities such like that we’ve seen at Nippon, but also others. So the answer is yes, and that’s why we want to do our very level best to be prepared for hazardous material incidents in Oregon.

Miller: Why did Oregon start the nation’s first state level hazmat program back in 1989?

Ruiz-Temple: It’s a lot of what we talked about early on when the legislation was created, but around the 1970s, you start to see pretty significant hazmat incidents occurring in communities. We saw Love Canal in ‘77, which was a community being built on a landfill that began to have significant impacts to the people living there. We saw Three Mile Island, which was a partial nuclear reactor to one of the reactors. So we started to see that on our soil in Oregon.

In the ‘70s, you started to see the Environmental Protection Agency stood up, and then in 1984, the world’s worst hazmat incident occurred in Bhopal, India, which about 20 to 30 thousand individuals were impacted with methyl isocyanide, which was the release of a chemical around their community, and you start to see the nation talk about what are we doing to prepare and plan.

So there was no significant incident in Oregon, but Oregon led the way not only in creating the first Community Right to Know program in ’85, which was a year before the feds, but creating the first state hazmat team in ’89 program. And so Oregon really was the tip of the spear, saying we’re going to do what we need to do for planning, Community Right to Know, and response. So having a program 35 to 40 years, depending on the program, in the making, has really set us up to be prepared, as much as we can in this space.

Miller: What role does the state play now, in response to hazardous materials, emergencies, catastrophes, compared to local agencies, say, Portland Fire Bureau? Or Eugene? Or a local fire district?

Ruiz-Temple: In terms of planning, under what we call the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, at the federal level there was an element of that law that required each state to create a State Emergency Response Commission, and that’s called the SERC. In addition, that piece of legislation required each state to create local emergency planning committees. And so you take those two programs, you take the efforts happening at local emergency management, state management, those are the places where communities and those that are part of those programs plan, train, exercise, and be prepared for chemical emergencies.

When you go to response, in terms of, you mentioned Portland and Eugene, those happen to be two of our twelve state hazmat teams. But every fire department in Oregon has a certain level of capability and response, and many times they can manage a hazardous materials incident depending on how big and depending on the chemical. But once it exceeds their capacity and capability, then they call in a State Fire Marshal incident or a hazmat team. So having coverage around the entire state of Oregon that you can call and have a team come in is important so that we don’t have gaps in our response system.

And let’s say if it’s in rural Oregon or a smaller department that doesn’t have those capabilities, and we equip them, we plan and train and exercise for them to be ready. And in the state of Oregon, there is no gap in terms of a response team, but where we know some of these chemical plants are, you start to see larger departments that have even more level of training than maybe just an average hazardous materials kind of training, baseline trade training.

Miller: But how do they know that? I mean, you mentioned Three Mile Island, there it’s pretty obvious. Everybody around there knows this is a nuclear power plant. Fukushima would be the same thing, but if you’re a firefighter in Eugene or in Portland or anywhere, how do you know that some particular place that’s now on fire or has had some kind of serious industrial accident, that that is also a place where there are potentially very hazardous materials?

Ruiz-Temple: In Oregon, we have the Oregon Community Right to Know Act, and that law requires facilities and companies that store hazardous materials to report to our agency those materials. We have a validation process, and in addition to that, we provide that information to community members that might want to see those chemicals.

But it’s also provided to each local emergency planning committee, emergency management agency, and every fire department. And they use that to preplan for those chemicals in their communities, but also during response, when they receive that 911 call, they have that information at their fingertips so they know the kind of exposures and they know the right type of response, and that helps protect them in advance of a fire, but also during an actual response or chemical emergency.

Miller: You mentioned that the public has access to this, too. I tried. I didn’t actually fully register myself, but I went to the website where you have to register to get an account to access the information, and to be perfectly honest, I think I have an average technical ability for website navigation, and this was not easy. It didn’t seem like the most user-friendly method to get this information. But why do I need to register anyway? If the point is public access, why isn’t this just readily available?

Ruiz-Temple: If you were to go to the OSFM’s website, towards the bottom there’s a “Community Right to Know” link, and when you click on that, to your point, we ask you to register so that we can validate bad actors, or where you live and you’re from. And once you receive approval, then you have the ability to go in and look up a particular address or look up a particular facility. There are some chemicals that are extremely hazardous chemicals or chemicals like etiological disease-causing agent chemicals, radioactive, those kinds that are an extra layer before individuals receive.

So if folks want to go to our website, they can scroll down, go to “Community Right to Know.” There is a form that you referred to, and what we want to make sure is that the people that are using it are using it appropriately, that they’re using it safely. And then we do have a hotline if folks need a different level of training or to your point, if you want additional information where we’d be happy to walk folks through that as well.

Miller: So just to be clear, the reason for asking everybody to register is to prevent terrorists from getting access to dangerous materials?

Ruiz-Temple: You know, early on in the early 2000s, there was a pretty significant response to all this chemical information just being available to folks. And so what we did is worked with different partners at that time, and we just don’t want folks that may want to know, for example, where all the chlorine is or where all these bad chemicals lead to have them at their fingertips. We want to be able to show that we’re doing a certain level of security, but then also meeting that balance where communities and individuals want to know the types of chemicals.

That’s why we’re doing these efforts to make sure that we’re tracking that kind of information. But certainly to your point, we want Oregonians to know the kinds of chemicals that are in their communities, and we want to be able to provide an extra layer of training or information through our hotline if folks need that information.

Miller: Last week we had a conversation about freight train traffic, and we got a voicemail from somebody who works in industrial Northwest Portland and who was concerned about hazardous materials and derailments in particular.They mentioned a pretty serious derailment in Ohio a couple of years ago. How much does your agency prepare for disasters like that?

Ruiz-Temple: We know that hazardous materials are flowing through our communities on the road, on rail. We know we have fixed facilities like we saw in Nippon. So our hazardous materials teams plan, train, exercise for anything that is coming through your community. And earlier in the decade we also had the crude oil response program.

So we do have personnel that are laser focused on crude oil and other hazardous materials on rail, and their job is to conduct those exercises. So we work with the local community, our responders, and our hazmat teams to make sure that we also can report or respond also to those kinds of incidents.

A lot of those impact our waterways. A lot of them can impact communities, and so we have the right kind of equipment and training for those as well. A lot of that you saw come out of those pretty significant crude oil incidents that occurred in the early 2000s as you saw the uptick of crude oil being transported through communities.

Miller: Does any particular hazmat disaster keep you up at night right now?

Ruiz-Temple: I think all of them keep me up at night. I worry that do we have the right amount of people that want to do these jobs? Are people that work as safety officers within their own commercial manufacturing companies, are they paying the right attention? I think when you look at a hazmat incident, it is a whole ecosystem where you are wanting the community to be prepared, and we do that through planning, training, and exercise, but also are the facility owners and operators doing their part? And they also play a part. And then do we as a response system have a response system that’s ready?

When you see incidents like the significant incidents we’ve seen on the West Coast in the last month, those larger types of incidents keep me up at night. I’m thankful for the programs that Oregon implemented over 40 years ago, but not any one of them is foolproof, and so we want to continue to make sure that people have the information, and certainly our responders have that information, so they know those life decisions that need to happen in just seconds, frankly.

Miller: Mariana Ruiz-Temple, thanks very much.

Ruiz-Temple: Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Miller: Mariana Ruiz-Temple is Oregon State Fire Marshal.

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Tobacco companies spent decades honing marketing strategies, flavor engineering and processing technologies that helped addict consumers to cigarettes. Then, in the 1980s, they started buying up large food firms and deployed these same strategies to sell more ultra-processed foods.

So says Laura Schmidt, a professor and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who has been studying old tobacco company archives.

She’s one of dozens of researchers who contributed to a new series of papers published June 3 in a special section of the American Journal of Public Health. Together, many of them make the case that the fight to curb our over-consumption of ultra-processed foods should become the new war on tobacco.

The researchers say these foods – things like salty chips, sugary sodas and prepackaged meals – which now dominate the American diet, have become major drivers of poor health, and the time to act is now.

The new research “adds to a growing body of evidence that these [food] products are associated with chronic disease, that they have addictive characteristics, and that they were also intentionally developed by tobacco and food companies,” says Nicholas Chartres, an associate editor of the journal and one of the authors of the new papers.

He and other researchers say the same sort of public health strategies that were sharpened during the war on tobacco could help Americans cut back on these foods.

How cigarette science helped shape ultra-processed food

Back in the 1980s, tobacco giants began aggressively expanding into manufactured foods, buying up some of the biggest food firms. For example, Philip Morris used to own Kraft General Foods and RJ Reynolds owned Nabisco. This was the era when ultra-processed food production really ramped up in the U.S., Schmidt says.

She says tobacco firms had spent decades amassing research on how to make cigarettes more pleasurable and addictive with chemical additives. And she says internal company records show they deliberately applied this knowledge to food manufacturing.

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“The very technologies that were used to figure out how to optimize the addictive properties of nicotine using added sugar and artificial flavorings – that core technology was transferred from the tobacco industry to ultra-processed food development,” Schmidt says.

She says these kinds of additives have now become one of the defining characteristics of what makes a food ultra-processed. Her study looks at the development of Lunchables, and how Philip Morris applied the same flavor technologies used to make lower-nicotine cigarettes more palatable to creating lower-fat cheeses and processed meats.

The cigarettes business also informed marketing strategies for ultra-processed foods, researchers say. For example, take the concept of king-size candies and other packaged snacks. The term “king size” actually originated as a way to market longer cigarettes. For consumers worried about health, tobacco companies used to sell so-called light cigarettes.

“They applied the same strategies to developing light and reduced food products with the express goal of retaining customers who might otherwise stop consuming some of their products, such as cheeses and other items that customers had concerns about due the health harms,” says Tera Fazzino, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Kansas.

Fazzino’s prior research has found that during the period when tobacco giants owned major food firms – from the 1980s through the mid-2000s – they saturated the market with ultra-processed foods that were more likely to be classified as hyper-palatable. Basically, these are foods that contain unnaturally high combinations of fat, sugar, sodium and carbohydrates that activate our brain’s reward system in ways that make it hard for us to stop eating.

Schmidt found a quote from a former Philip Morris CEO who said that ultra-processed foods and cigarettes were really similar businesses. He said they were both low-cost consumer packaged goods with a huge market.

Tobacco companies Reynolds and Altria, which operates Philip Morris, did not respond to NPR’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Natalie Rubino, director of media relations at Consumer Brands Association, which represents packaged food and beverage companies, pointed to the safety of its brands.

“As consumers continue to seek a diverse selection of foods and beverages, the makers of America’s trusted household brands provide a wide variety of affordable products to choose from, along with access to the information consumers need to make informed choices. Companies adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards and nutrition policy established by the FDA to deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers depend on every day,” she said in an email.

Adding to the body of research

The new papers also look at the health and environmental impacts of the ultra-processed food industry.

A large body of research already exists that links over-consumption of ultra-processed foods to a host of poor health outcomes – from obesity to diabetes to all-cause mortality. Several of the papers in the special section add to this body of evidence.

For instance, one study that followed more than 5,000 older Americans over 10 years found a possible association between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods and an increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.

And ultra-processed foods take a toll not just on the body but also on the environment, an editorial in the section argues. Previous research has identified ultra-processed food companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Danone as being among the top 5 plastic polluters globally.

The Consumer Brands Association statement did not address NPR’s request for comment on the environmental impact.

A threshold for change?

The new issue includes a survey of a nationally representative group of 2,000 adults. It found that, across party lines, the majority of people who responded said they want the government to regulate ultra-processed foods.

“It feels like we’ve reached a tipping point between the strength of the science, public support, and then also political will,” says Lindsey Smith Taillie, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina and co-author of the papers. “And those three factors combined to me suggest that we might be at a place where we start to see real policy action on this topic the way that we did in tobacco.”

The food industry is powerful, and many policy experts say we are likely to see change at the state level first. Several states have passed restrictions or bans on the use of synthetic dyes in foods, for instance.

Litigation could also be an important strategy against the ultra-processed food industry, Jennifer Pomeranz, an expert on food policy and law at New York University, argues in an editorial. In other words, state attorneys general could file suit against food companies alleging damage to the public health, not unlike the lawsuits filed against tobacco companies in the 1990s.

She and other researchers say now’s the time to act, because the Make America Healthy Again movement has become so influential and its proponents are very vocal in calling for removing artificial additives from the food supply.

“The last time there was this kind of universal upheaval about the safety of our food supply was the 1906 Food and Drug Act,” Pomeranz says.

A trust fund that helps pay Social Security benefits for more than 60 million retirees and family members is expected to run out of money in 2032.

Unless Congress makes changes by then, seniors will see an automatic cut in their monthly benefits of 22%, according to a report released Tuesday by Social Security Trustees.

“The Trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way to phase in necessary changes gradually and give workers and beneficiaries time to adjust,” the report says.

The forecast shows the trust fund will be exhausted three months earlier than was predicted last year. Social Security’s finances are challenged by a falling birth rate, reduced immigration and the tax cut passed by the Republican Congress last year. Those moves are partially offset by stronger productivity gains.

The basic challenge for Social Security is demographic. Baby boomers are retiring at a rapid pace, and there are fewer younger workers paying into the system for every senior collecting monthly benefits.

Congress could patch the shortfall by raising taxes, reducing benefits or some combination of the two.

Otherwise, beneficiaries will see their monthly payments cut automatically.

“Nationally, the average monthly cut would total $500, which is more than what the average retired household spends on groceries each month,” said a report from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Employees with the state Department of Agriculture are traveling across Washington to set traps for species such as spongy moths, Japanese beetles and apple maggots.

Of the agency’s top priorities is the eradication of Japanese beetles in south central Washington. The small green and brown beetles skeletonize leaves and damage flowers and fruit. The species established itself in the eastern U.S. and has become a pest for both residents and the agricultural industry.

In 2021, the agency found nearly 24,000 beetles in Grandview and surrounding areas. After a decline in numbers in 2023, the Japanese beetle population jumped up to over 70,000 in 2025. The beetles were found in Sunnyside, Mabton, Wapato, Pasco, Kennewick and near SeaTac.

Residents in those areas can opt-in for a free treatment of reduced-risk insecticide. The pesticide is not considered a health risk for humans, pets and wildlife, according to the agency.

If a population were to establish in Washington, Japanese beetles would pose a serious threat to gardens, parks, and farms.

“Our only hope of eradicating this beetle is for people in treatment areas to give consent and sign up for treatments,” said Sven Spichiger, pest program manager.

Last month, the pest program treated areas around Lake Youngs and in Lakewood for spongy moths. Residents in those areas can expect to see insect traps in their neighborhoods as part of the ongoing detection effort.

“If you see a trap, please don’t disturb it,” Spichiger said.

The department will also set out traps for apple maggots, grape and stone fruit pests, wood-boring insects, spotted lanternfly, and yellow-legged hornets.

The traps are labeled for easy identification. The department encourages residents to email reports of fallen traps to the pest program.

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.

Pham and his mother fled Vietnam by boat in 1981. The film, Sea Rose Ashes, explores Pham’s journey learning more about his mother’s past and making efforts to take restorative justice pathways with her murderer. Pham joins us to discuss his journey and his current film.

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

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“The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan,” part of OPB’s “Oregon Experience” historical documentary series, digs into the questions that still surround the 220-foot steamship, which slammed into a nearly submerged rock and sank to the ocean floor about 20 miles south of the Oregon border.

The steamer took with it more than 200 passengers and crew members, 346 barrels of whiskey, two camels and $20 million in gold. Salvage crews have spent more than 100 years searching for the lost treasure, but only about $4 million has been accounted for.

“Legend has it that most of the gold remains unrecovered,” said OPB producer Kami Horton. “Even now, no one knows for sure.”

A snapshot of the West Coast in the 1860s

More than a shipwreck saga, the 30-minute film is a story of promise, profits and peril shortly after the Civil War. The S.S. Brother Jonathan was one of many commuter steamships that traversed the Pacific Coast before cars and planes existed, shuttling miners, merchants, settlers, and goods between California and Canada.

The steamer was also known as a “freedom ship” because it ferried Black citizens from San Francisco and Portland, where they faced severe restrictions and exclusion, to what was then called Vancouver’s Island in British Columbia, where they could start businesses, own property, vote and enjoy full citizenship.

The Brother Jonathan story “became a way to show what was happening on the West Coast during this time when there was so much change happening for a variety of populations,” Horton said. These affected groups included Native Americans decimated by diseases introduced by settlers, miners following the Gold Rush, Chinese railroad workers and Black Americans from Southern states.

New scholarship by Zachary Stocks, executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers, added another layer to the story. Stocks connected the steamer to the experiences of Black Americans on the West Coast in the 1860s and to early Black Portlanders, including Allen Flowers, who worked aboard the Brother Jonathan as a teenager. Months before the wreck, Flowers jumped ship when it docked in Portland. He eventually made a home in the city with his wife, Louisa Thacker.

“They started a family, which would become among the most prominent and successful Black families in all of Oregon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” Stocks said.

Horton also interviews Dennis Powers, author of “Treasure Ship,” who describes the efforts of salvage crews that in 1996 recovered bags of gold coins 287 feet below the ocean surface. She tours the Del Norte Historical Museum in Crescent City with director Karen Betlejewski, who shows off the ship’s original bell, a crew member’s shoe and one of the salvaged gold pieces, among other artifacts housed there.

Although only one photo of the Brother Jonathan remains, the film uses black-and-white silent movie footage to evoke what it was like for wealthy travelers and the steerage class aboard the steamer.

More recently, Horton and cinematographer Dan Evans caught a ride with Crescent City boat captain Harry Adams. In “The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan,” they steer viewers into the frigid waters off Crescent City and up to the edge of the rock that started it all.

The creative team behind “The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan,” produced by OPB:

• Producer, writer, narrator: Kami Horton
• Editor: Danika Sandoz
• Cinematographers: Dan Evans, Evan Rodríguez
• Executive producer: Arya Surowidjojo

How to watch

Viewers can watch “The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan” on OPB’s website, YouTube, and the PBS app. They can watch on OPB TV on Monday, June 22, at 9 p.m.

Good morning, Northwest.

The city of Portland is on a tight timeline to decide whether to approve funding — and how much — to renovate Moda Center.

Looking to get involved? OPB’s Alex Zielinski lays out what we know about how the process will work and how Portlanders can make their voices heard.

In other news, Washington state could soon be facing a budget battle of its own.

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

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

Portland unveils timeline for Moda Center deal

Portland’s 31-year-old Moda Center is in a moment of transition, as are its primary tenants, the Trail Blazers.

The lease agreement between the city and Blazers is coming up for renewal, and the team’s new owners have come in with big demands. City and state leaders have been pressured into making big funding commitments on a whirlwind timeline.

Proposals over how (or whether) to fund proposed arena renovations and what the city can get in return have fueled political debate, a signature-gathering campaign and city budget arguments.

Portlanders are now being asked to weigh in, with public hearings scheduled for next weekend. (Alex Zielinski)

Learn More

3 things to know

• Local immigration advocates say federal immigration officers may have violated Oregon’s sanctuary law by using Port of Astoria property during a Sunday morning operation in which three people were reportedly detained. (Katie Francowicz, KMUN)
• An outside investigation into complaints against Bandon Superintendent Shauna Schmerer has prompted the school board to place her on paid administrative leave.(Jane Vaughan, JPR)
• Washington could be facing a big budget shortfall. The governor’s office is warning state agencies and lawmakers to plan to pause phasing in programs and avoid proposing new ones.(Bill Lucia, Washington State Standard)

Northwest headlines

• Washington oyster farmers say ‘vibrocompaction’ may help control ghost shrimp (Bellamy Pailthorp, KNKX) 
• Transgender Idahoans hope to halt new bathroom law in federal court (James Dawson, BSPR)
• Federal court holds trial in lawsuit challenging constitutionality of Idaho’s abortion ban (Julie Luchetta, BSPR)
• Eugene police expand online reporting system to include scooter, e-bike and motorcycle complaints (Zac Ziegler, 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):

• Illnesses from extreme heat events could double by 2040, PSU study predicts
• State agency helps Oregon businesses reach international markets

One more look

Portland filmmaker Vu Pham’s new documentary explores his family history

Portland filmmaker Vu Pham has long been known for his work in the arena of narrative fiction.

During a 2020 trip to Juneau, Alaska, which coincided with the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in the U.S., Pham began to formulate the idea for his foray into feature-length documentary.

The project, “Sea Rose Ashes,” explores Pham’s family history, including he and his mother’s escape from communist Vietnam and his mother’s murder in 1983.

“There was sort of the wellspring of a motivation to somehow seize control and regain agency of my life,” Pham said. “And the answer that arose was, ‘I need to find the man that killed my mother.’” (Jacob Pander)

Learn More

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

Today’s primary contests stretch from Maine to North Dakota, South Carolina and Nevada, where voters will decide on races for the U.S. Senate, House, governor and more.

A lot is riding on the Senate race in Maine, where political newcomer Graham Platner, facing a series of controversies, is the presumptive Democratic nominee to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has had the job for 30 years.

Another Republican incumbent, Nevada’s Gov. Joe Lombardo, is facing a tough challenge in November.

And in a field of MAGA-devoted Republicans in South Carolina, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was the one to grab President Trump’s endorsement in the race for governor.

Here, reporters from the NPR network tell us about the key races to watch.

Maine U.S. Senate seat | Maine’s 2nd Congressional District | Maine governor | Nevada governor | South Carolina governor

You can also check out voter resources for the June 9 primaries from the NPR network.

Maine’s primary winners will set up crucial November races

— Kevin Miller and Steve Mistler, Maine Public 

Maine’s U.S. Senate seat

If Democrats want control of the U.S. come November, they almost certainly need to take five-term Republican Sen. Collins’ seat in Maine.

The outcome of the pivotal race could hinge on whether voters value Collins’ clout and ability to secure federal dollars over Democratic insurgent Platner’s call to upend a political system he says is rigged against working-class Americans.

The first-time Democratic candidate has so far run a barnstorming campaign that’s already pushed his Democratic rival, Gov. Janet Mills, out of the race.

After recent accusations published by The New York Times that he was physically threatening in a past relationship, and previous revelations that he sexted with several women early in his marriage, some are wondering if he still has enough support to flip the seat in November. In an interview with Maine Public, Platner denied the accusations.

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Maine’s 2nd Congressional District

In a district that has voted for Trump three times, four Democrats are vying to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. Whoever wins the primary will face former Republican Gov. Paul LePage in the fall.

The Democratic nominee in this congressional district will offer a sense of what kind of candidates primary voters think can succeed in hard-to-win seats.

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Maine’s governor

The race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is likely to go to a Democrat, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report, but it’s still a question of who. There is a five-way Democratic race for the nomination, seven active candidates on the GOP side and both races have the potential to go to a ranked-choice runoff.

The affordable housing crisis, rising property taxes, access to health care and standing up to President Donald Trump have emerged as central themes in the primary contest.

Recent polls show former Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah in the lead, though former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson appears to be surging in popularity ahead of the ranked-choice primary election.

The presumptive frontrunner in the GOP contest is Bobby Charles, an attorney and former Navy intelligence officer.

In November, State Sen. Rick Bennett will also be on the ballot running as an independent.

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Nevada’s GOP governor faces a tough November

Paul Boger, Nevada Public Radio

Trump’s economic policies are so unpopular in Nevada that the incumbent governor, Republican Joe Lombardo, is facing what could be a tough November election. Cook rates the race as a toss-up, and the candidate who may have the best shot against Lombardo, former Clark County Sheriff, is the state’s top cop, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford.

With a sizeable war chest, Lombardo should sail through the primary. Still, it may not be enough in November to assuage Nevadans worried about increasing costs in a tourism-based economy that is welcoming fewer domestic and international visitors every month.

Ford’s path to the Democratic nomination isn’t guaranteed. He’s drawn criticism from Republicans for his extensive domestic and international travel as attorney general. And from his main Democratic opponent in the primary, Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, for Ford’s support of data centers, which are an existential concern in the country’s driest state.

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The governor’s race in South Carolina tests Trump’s endorsement power

— Gavin Jackson, South Carolina Public Radio

The crowded race for governor in South Carolina doesn’t have a clear frontrunner, even though the president has endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, a longtime supporter of his, in Tuesday’s primary.

Evette’s biggest challenger is another Trump enthusiast, four-term Attorney General Alan Wilson. Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who claims her vote for more transparency of the Epstein files cost her Trump’s endorsement, is also on the ballot. The race is widely expected to go to a runoff.

Three Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination: Columbia state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, Charleston lawyer Mullins McLeod and Greenville businessman Billy Webster.

After Trump lost his first primary endorsement race last week in Iowa, political watchers are sure to have a close eye on how votes shake out in South Carolina.

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Voter resources for the June 9 primaries from the NPR Network

Maine | Nevada | North Dakota | South Carolina

JOHANNESBURG — If you’ve been thinking it seems like there are more wars raging in the world these days, it turns out you’re right and the data proves it.

A new study by researchers at a university in Sweden recorded the highest number of conflicts between states in 2025 since World War II, and the highest number of fatalities recorded since the Rwandan genocide.

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There were 65 active conflicts in 2025, according to researchers at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University, regarded as a leading source of information on violence worldwide.

Out of that total, the number of direct conflicts between individual states doubled from the previous year to eight in 2025 — the highest number of such conflicts since UCDP began collecting data in 1946.

They included the wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Iran and Israel, as well as conflicts between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, and Israel’s conflicts in Syria and Yemen. The final two are: the border conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the conflict in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between the U.S. and U.K. against Yemen’s Houthis.

“We are seeing a clear increase in conflicts between states. For a long time, interstate wars were relatively rare, but developments in recent years point to growing international tensions and a changing global security order,” said Shawn Davies, a senior analyst at UCDP.

The rest of the 65 were all intrastate conflicts — government forces fighting rebel groups within the country.

Most conflict deaths since Rwanda

Fatalities were the highest on record since 1994, with approximately 244,600 people killed in conflict in 2025, the data shows. That’s up from 187,000 deaths in 2024.

“It is not only a story of more conflicts, but also of extremely high levels of lethal violence. Most notably, we see a dramatic increase in violence directed against civilians, particularly in Sudan,” said Therése Pettersson, senior analyst and project manager at UCDP.

The researchers break down the data into several categories. One is “state-based violence,” which includes both internal, civil wars and “interstate wars,” meaning wars between nations. Either way this grouping means one or both parties to a conflict are a government: for example Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza.

Then there is “non-state violence,” which encompasses clashes between two groups, neither of which is a state: for example sectarian fighting in Pakistan or cartel violence in Mexico.

A third category is “one-sided violence,” which targets civilians, for example last year’s government crackdowns on protests in Tanzania or rebel group attacks on civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Of last year’s 65 conflicts, 13 of them rose to the level of war — as defined by over 1,000 battlefield deaths a year.

Russia-Ukraine was deadliest war of 2025

The Russia-Ukraine war was the deadliest interstate conflict, accounting for 62% of all battle-related deaths, with 77,700 from the Russian side killed in 2025 and 14,000 from the Ukrainian side. While the warring sides do not regularly release casualty figures, the Uppsala researchers use a variety of open sources, including social media to come up with the tallies.

“Russian battlefield losses have increased and Ukraine losses have remained relatively stable,” the researchers noted.

The Israel-Hamas war was the second-deadliest conflict, with 14,400 fatalities, though that was still a decrease compared to the previous year due to ceasefire agreements.

And, the third deadliest state-based conflict was Sudan with 12,200 deaths. But those figures only account for fighting between government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudan dominates in terms of violence against civilians. Tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians were killed by the RSF in massacres after the capture of the Sudanese city of El Fasher alone last year.

Part of the reason the researchers gave for the rise in conflicts globally over the past decade was a shift in the international order as led by the U.S. since World War II.

“Now the United States is is turning against the world order it built, as expressed in its 2025 National Security Strategy,” the study said. “The extremely high number of conflicts and wars recorded in 2025, particularly the record number of interstate conflicts lends credence to the growing number of voices arguing that we are witnessing the end of Pax Americana and the liberal world order."

Asked if that meant wars had become worse under the Trump administration, co-author Petterssen said: “Our data does not allow us to establish a direct causal link between specific U.S. policy changes and the increase in conflicts recorded in 2025.”

“What the data shows is that interstate conflicts have increased sharply over the past decade and reached their highest level since World War II. This trend predates the current U.S. administration and cannot be explained by any single policy decision or political leader,” she added.

“The discussion in the article concerns a broader debate in international relations about whether we are witnessing changes in the post-Cold War international order.”

Whatever the causes, 2026 doesn’t look like it will be any more peaceful than last year, the researchers warn. Data this year so far shows the rise in conflicts globally is a trend that’s likely to continue.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has added several prominent Chinese businesses, including the tech giant Alibaba, electric car maker BYD and search engine Baidu, to its list of Chinese military companies, preventing them from getting U.S. defense contracts.

The list, updated and published Monday by the Pentagon, now sanctions well-known, non-state-owned Chinese companies that are not traditionally considered to be in the defense or security sector. It reflects growing wariness of Beijing’s strategy of tapping the strength of non-state businesses for military purposes.

Created in 2021 by a congressional mandate, the list seeks to identify Chinese companies that the Pentagon considers to have links to the Chinese military — not only those directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces but also those contributing to the country’s defense industrial base.

When updating the list last year, the Pentagon said the Chinese military sought to acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by Chinese companies, universities and research programs that “appear to be civilian entities.”

The Chinese Embassy on Monday accused the U.S. of “overstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies.” It said Chinese companies observe the laws and regulations of the countries where they do business. “The U.S. should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies,” the embassy said in a statement.

Alibaba and Baidu said there is no basis for including them on the list. “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” a statement from the leading e-commerce company said. Baidu, which has expanded into artificial intelligence and self-driving taxis, said the suggestion that it is a military company is “entirely baseless.”

This year’s list has grown to 188 Chinese entities, up from last year’s roughly 130 named by the Pentagon. It already had covered companies such as DJI, a major maker of consumer drones. While a company on the list can still do business in the U.S., it faces reputational damage and could be subject to more restrictions.

After the Pentagon released the updated list, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party called it “a warning to American businesses, all levels of government, and the American people.” It said the companies on the list that are traded publicly on U.S. exchanges should be delisted and no American company should do business with those on the list, “otherwise they are enabling China’s military ascendance.”

In naming Alibaba, the Pentagon said the tech giant helps boost China’s defense industrial base because it is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Alibaba is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Pentagon said BYD and Baidu are affiliated with the same ministry, which oversees China’s technology and industrial policies. BYD is dominant in the global electric vehicle market, and President Donald Trump said in January that he would welcome Chinese carmakers such as BYD if they built plants in the U.S. and hired American workers.

However, a number of U.S. lawmakers have said they will seek a ban on Chinese electric vehicles.

Another addition is the Chinese robotics company Unitree, whose dancing robots impressed Simon Cowell on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” The Pentagon said the company “knowingly received assistance” from the Chinese government through its designation as a small or medium-sized company that is highly innovative, highly competitive globally and critical to the country’s supply chain.

BYD and Unitree did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The U.S. Supreme Court is heading into its crunch time, the part of the year when the justices are racing to finish decisions and dissents in the cases that remain undecided.

There are 23 cases left, out of the 58 that have been argued. Two major cases have already been decided: One essentially gutted what remained of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, prompting Republicans in a number of Southern states to redraw congressional maps to diminish or eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Black members of Congress.

The second major case that has been decided struck down President Trump’s tariff program because the court said Congress had not authorized it, and Trump exceeded his authority in doing it on his own.

Many of the most difficult and controversial cases, however, remain to be decided in the coming weeks, with the justices aiming to conclude their work by the end of June or early July. The Supreme Court is next expected to release decisions on Thursday, June 11.

So what’s left?

Birthright citizenship

Trump v. Barbara

Trump has long maintained that the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil, and on the first day of his second term in office, he signed an executive order barring citizenship for children born in the U.S. if parents entered the country illegally or if the parents are living and working in the U.S. legally with temporary visas. The executive order never went into effect because every lower court judge to review it concluded, in the words of one, that the order was “blatantly unconstitutional.” Specifically, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted after the Civil War, says that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

While almost all scholars interpret that language broadly, and as applying to all babies born in the U.S., Trump himself maintains that it applies only to the children of former slaves, and definitely not to the children of those in the U.S. illegally or the children of noncitizens living here legally.

Read more about the case:

• A once-fringe theory on birthright citizenship comes to the Supreme Court
• Supreme Court majority seems inclined to rule against Trump on birthright citizenship
• As birthright citizenship goes to Supreme Court, here’s how Americans feel about it
• Trump attends Supreme Court arguments over his executive order, a presidential first

Trans bans in sports

Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J.

At issue are laws recently enacted in about half the states that ban trans girls and women from participating in women’s sports at publicly funded schools. Before the court are two cases — one involving varsity competition at colleges and universities, and the other involving sports in high schools. Supporters of the bans say the laws are needed to prevent athletes whose assigned sex at birth was male from having an unfair advantage in women’s sports. Opponents of the bans say they discriminate based on sex, in violation of both federal law and the Constitution’s guarantee to equal protection of the law. And for athletes at every level, the issue is deeply personal, with tennis greats Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova on opposing sides, along with hundreds of other athletes.

Read more about the cases:

• A conservative Supreme Court tackles the question of trans women in school sports
• Supreme Court appears likely to uphold state bans on transgender athletes
• Trump’s ban on gender-affirming care for young people puts hospitals in a bind

Will independent government agencies remain independent?

Trump v. Slaughter

Donald Trump is not the first president to try to fire the heads of independent agencies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to fire one of the five Federal Trade Commission commissioners then serving in office. But in 1935, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the president; the court declared that under the federal law, commissioners could only be fired “for cause,” meaning “inefficiency in office, neglect of duty, or malfeasance.”

Every Supreme Court since then has reaffirmed that decision. If the conservative supermajority sides with Trump, he (as well as future presidents) will be able to fire, at will, agency leaders in all or almost all previously independent agencies.

Ironically, the commissioner in the crosshairs this time was also a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Trump appointed Rebecca Slaughter to the FTC in his first term and fired her in his second. The Supreme Court allowed the firing to go through on a temporary basis, over staunch dissents from the court’s three liberal justices.

But the odds are that the court’s six conservative justices will rule definitively in Trump’s favor, the result being that independent agencies will no longer be independent.

Read more about the cases:

• Supreme Court appears poised to vastly expand presidential powers
• How Trump’s firings could upend a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling limiting his power

So does that mean he can fire members of the Federal Reserve Board?

Trump v. Cook

Trump threatened to fire the head of the Fed, Jerome Powell, and tried to fire Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed board. But the Supreme Court so far has refused to allow her removal. Cook’s case, now awaiting decision by the court, has prompted considerable anxiety among economists, business leaders and others. When the Slaughter case was argued in December, some of the conservative justices seemed to suggest that the Fed had more protections than other agencies. Just how the court will thread that needle remains to be seen.

Read more about the case:

• Supreme Court doubtful of Trump claim he can fire Fed governors by fiat
• It’s showdown time for the Fed’s independence at the Supreme Court

Mail-in ballots

Watson v. Republican National Committee

By law, 29 states count at least some ballots that arrive after Election Day, including ballots from overseas and from members of the military, as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day.

In the case before the court, Mississippi defends late-arriving ballots, noting that the Constitution gives states the right to run their own elections. That said, the Trump administration and the Republican Party take the opposite position. They maintain that under federal law the election has to happen on Election Day, and anything that happens after that is not part of the election.

Read more about the case:

• Supreme Court appears skeptical of laws counting mail-in ballots after Election Day
• The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to grace periods for mail ballot returns

Temporary protected status for eligible migrants

Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot

Congress enacted the Temporary Protected Status law in 1990 to allow fully vetted and eligible migrants to live and work legally in the U.S. if they cannot return safely to their countries because of natural disasters, armed conflicts and other extraordinary conditions. Since the law was enacted 36 years ago, every president, Republican and Democrat, has embraced it. Except Trump. In his first term, he tried and failed to kill off TPS. But in the 16 months since he returned to office, he may well be more successful. Currently, there are 17 countries whose migrants have been designated with TPS status, and so far Trump is seeking to eliminate 13 of those countries from the TPS list.

The two test cases before the Supreme Court involve migrants from Haiti and Syria. The Haitians — more than 300,000 of them — have been living legally in the U.S. since a devastating earthquake in 2010, followed by a deadly cholera epidemic, domestic terrorism, including widespread kidnappings and killings by marauding gangs, and political assassinations that have continued to this day. The Syrians are a much smaller group of roughly 3,800.

The Trump administration argues that decisions about TPS are entirely up to the president and that the courts have no power to review those decisions. If the court agrees, that could well lead to mass deportations.

Read more about the cases:

• Supreme Court appears to lean toward ending TPS for some migrants
• Supreme Court weighs Trump’s effort to end temporary protected status for Haitians, Syrians

Geofencing — a new tool for law enforcement

Chatrie v. US

Geofencing entails drawing a virtual geographical fence around an area where a crime was committed. In this case, the area within the geofence line included not just a bank where a robbery took place but also a church and a senior citizens home. The government sought a warrant that required Google to search its data and turn over any of the names of users who were within the geofence line at the time of the crime.

Essentially, the question for the justices is whether this new technique is ingenious, Orwellian, or both? The government contends that because people are free NOT to give their location data to their tech provider, the data that the tech company does have must be turned over to police pursuant to a warrant. Countering that argument, opponents of geofencing contend that because the warrant directs the tech company to search millions of users’ location history, millions of people were subjected to a search despite never having done anything suspicious.

Read more about the case:

• Supreme Court considers constitutionality of ‘geofence’ warrants
• Privacy and law enforcement clash as the Supreme Court wrestles with ‘geofence’ warrants
• WATCH: The Supreme Court case that could redefine digital privacy

Guns

Wolford v. Lopez and US v. Hemani

In most states, gun owners can bring firearms onto private property, unless the property owner tells them otherwise. But five states — Hawaii, California, Maryland, New York and New Jersey — have passed laws that require gun owners to get permission in advance. The question facing the justices is whether that requirement for advance permission violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

In a second case, the question is whether a federal law that makes it a felony for drug users to possess a gun violates the Second Amendment. The law is akin to one that resulted in the prosecution and conviction of Hunter Biden. Biden was convicted of the gun law in this case, along with two other charges, in connection with his purchasing a firearm in 2018.

In 2022 , the court issued a broad ruling declaring that gun regulations henceforth would be deemed unconstitutional if they had no analog to a similar gun regulation that existed at the founding. Lower courts have found the decision confusing and difficult to administer, and they have unsubtly complained about the lack of guidance on gun issues from the Supreme Court. The two gun cases this term may answer at least some of those questions.

Read more about the cases:

• Supreme Court wrestles with gun rights, marijuana, and the right to own a gun

BOSTON — A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike.

The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs.

But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote.

H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India. The states argued that using the H-1B program to fill vacancies for much-needed doctors and teachers was already difficult before the higher fee.

Most H-1B visa applications cost several thousand dollars before the announced increase set off a wave of panic among confused employers, students and workers in the United States and abroad and led to several lawsuits, including in Boston.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued, in federal court in Washington, D.C., and has appealed a denial of a summary judgment against the fee hike. That left the higher fee in effect, at least until September 2026, when it is scheduled to expire. Monday’s ruling is also a summary judgment, to the opposite effect. Still another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, by religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits.

In the Boston case, the states argued that the policy impedes their ability to hire primary and secondary school educators and to staff public colleges and universities, will stymie academic research and will lead to a decline in medical workers.

“Today’s victory protects the integrity of the H-1B visa program as a tool to address severe labor shortages in vital industries like education, healthcare, and medical research,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. “In Massachusetts, this win will ensure we can fill critical vacancies and hire world-class faculty and researchers at colleges and universities across the Commonwealth.”

Bobby Mukkamala, the president of the American Medical Association, called the ruling “a victory for patients.”

“At a time when communities across the country face physician shortages and growing barriers to care, we should be removing obstacles — not creating new ones — to attract talented physicians and other highly skilled professionals,” Mukkamala said. “International medical graduates play a vital role in caring for patients, particularly in underserved and rural areas.”

A Department of Homeland Security statement said the agency disagrees with “this blatant judicial activism dismantling President Trump’s historic efforts for immigration reform.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, our immigration system is being reformed to serve American citizens, American workers, and American families and to preserve our national identity — not to rapidly import foreigners who take American jobs, commit crimes, burden our welfare system, and erode our cultural and social fabric,” the statement said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

In a separate statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the administration “is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”

Two biologists at the University of Washington believe they have found a nontoxic method to control burrowing ghost shrimp.

Since state officials banned the use of pesticides against them in 2018, the shrimp have rebounded.

They are native to the mudflats of southwest Washington and are well-adapted. That poses a problem for oysters and the people who rely on them, because the shrimp kick up sediment and bury the oysters, suffocating them.

The state’s $270-million oyster industry is floundering as its farmers look for solutions. Growers in places like Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor County have lost big portions of their crops to the dense populations of returning shrimp.

“The oysters...they just get buried,” said Kyle Deerkop, a regional operations manager with Pacific Shellfish who oversees growing, research, and development in Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

Abandoned acres

Deerkop said the shrimp bioturbate and kick up sediment “like little dogs digging.”

At the same time, when baby oysters cement themselves onto a shell or another surface as they grow, they lose their foot — a muscular appendage — and thus their ability to move. They get stuck in place on the bottom of the mudflats. The result is a slurry of thick mud full of thriving shrimp and dead oysters.

“So you know, tens of thousands or more dollars worth of seed and investment just get buried,” Deerkop said.

Since the 1960s, the growers built their farming techniques on the use of the pesticide carbaryl, which was discontinued in 2013. Growers then tried to move to a more benign alternative, called imidacloprid.

Deerkop insists that the use of these pesticides is safe.

“Similar to dog flea powder. So, you know, something that we’re accustomed to having around us and our food, our families,” he said.

But imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid. A class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, act as systemic, indiscriminate neurotoxins that persist in soil and water and can be lethal to more than the shrimp. They can make their way into plant pollen and nectar and potentially travel through the water and plant matter to expose other wildlife — such as salmon, crabs, aquatic insects, and even birds and bees — to lethal and sublethal doses.

Following extensive pushback from environmentalists, the Washington Department of Ecology halted the use of imidacloprid in 2018. Attempts by the oyster growers to overturn that decision in court failed.

New tools

That left the oyster industry with few choices but to study other options. One of the most promising new ideas is mechanical. It uses tools from construction — specifically from large-scale concrete pours — to control the shrimp through vibration and pressure.

The UW biologists pioneering this technique built a platform with vibrating heads that they moved along the surface of specific plots of mud in the tide flats, pressing all the oxygen bubbles out and tamping down the sand to immobilize and suffocate the shrimp.

Jennifer Ruesink, a biology professor at UW, co-authored a new study showing that the vibrating devices are effective against the shrimp. She said the burrowing behavior that hides them from many predators turns out to be a vulnerability in the face of the vibrocompaction tools.

“We’ve been able to collapse the sediment around them and pack it in tightly enough that they can’t start re-burrowing, trapping them underground,” Ruesink said.

The shrimp decompose quickly in the mud. And the tool leaves behind restored mud flats that are ready for re-seeding by the oyster growers.

“With the vibrocompaction technology, our results from last summer say that we can trap 72-98% of them underground,” she said.

Ruesink said a lot of research still needs to be done to make sure the noise and vibrations from the machines are safe to use at a larger scale.

The next step will be building and testing a farm-scale model in the mudflats, with support from the industry, Ruesink said. She is seeking about $6.5 million for about five years of study, likely from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The goal is to restore abandoned shellfish farms without harming the ecosystem or species such as gray whales, which feed on ghost shrimp.

Pacific Shellfish manager Kyle Deerkop said the Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor region has lost between 30-50% of its oyster-growing tidelands over the past decade due to the ghost shrimp.

Deerkop said he has been following the research of the Integrated Pest Management Working Group, which was set up by the state to help growers in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor find new alternatives for controlling the burrowing shrimp.

The new work on vibrocompaction is promising, he said, and his company is participating in it.

“It seems to work, and at this point it doesn’t seem as controversial as other potential control methods,” Deerkop said.

Other possibilities include using naturally occurring bacteria to kill the shrimp, an organic pesticide derived from chrysanthemums, and using plastic gear to suspend oysters off the bottom as they grow.

Bellamy Pailthorp is a reporter with KNKX.

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.

Authorities are particularly worried about aerial drones carrying dangerous payloads, like explosives. They’re acknowledging the risk ahead of the soccer tournament, which will feature matches across North America, including Seattle. Even more harmless acts, like flying a drone with a camera in restricted areas, could result in penalties.

It’s one week until Seattle hosts its first World Cup match, between Belgium and Egypt. The tournament, FIFA’s biggest ever, is expected to bring hordes of visitors to the city, though not as many as had once been anticipated. Seattle will see five more matches through July 6. Fan events and watch parties are planned across the state.

Washington got $19.5 million in federal funding to detect and monitor unmanned aircraft, as part of $250 million in federal grants awarded to the cities hosting matches across the country. The money was appropriated in the “big, beautiful bill” congressional Republicans passed last year.

FBI officials said last week they hadn’t identified specific credible threats related to the tournament. Officials also did not flag any specific threats during a Monday news conference in Seattle. But security concerns are heightened, especially as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.

During the press conference, held at the U.S. Coast Guard Base in Seattle, the U.S. Secret Service special agent in charge here said he thought “we’re as prepared as we can possibly be.”

“The fans should feel very comfortable coming to Seattle and enjoying the games here,” agent Trent Heinrichs said.

Out of an abundance of caution, officials have implemented temporary flight restrictions around World Cup matches and celebration venues.

The Washington Military Department has embarked on a yearlong effort to prepare to counter drones during the tournament. Seattle police went to Alabama for specialized training as part of their preparations. Last week, federal, state and local law enforcement officials participated in a demo on dealing with drones at the Yakima Training Center.

Seattle also got a $32 million federal grant to bolster security more broadly for the World Cup. The feds awarded $625 million across the 11 host cities. Seattle got the least, by far. Authorities have spent nearly three years prepping for security threats related to the tournament, considered the world’s biggest sporting event.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently said his biggest security concern for the World Cup is drones. They have breached airspace at other recent major sporting events. Authorities can potentially seize control of an illegal drone and move it. The Safer Skies Act, passed by Congress last year, enables state and local law enforcement to disable drones seen as a threat.

Generally, penalties for flying in restricted airspace include a fine up to $100,000, federal felony or misdemeanor charges and seized drones.

Mullin also said disbursing World Cup security funding was delayed due to the lengthy shutdown of his agency this year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is expanding its fentanyl trafficking prevention work during the World Cup. Outreach vehicles will be stationed at fan events, for example, said Seattle Special Agent in Charge Robert Saccone.

The King County Sheriff’s Office will be flying its police helicopter, and the Spokane County sheriff is sending another chopper to have one in the air at all times during the tournament. And the Seattle Fire Department will have increased paramedics in the stadium for matches to aid players, referees, fans and staff, as well as emergency medical technicians on bikes around the stadium to respond to fan celebration sites.

Notably absent from Monday’s press conference was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal and local officials in attendance declined to comment on the potential ICE presence during the tournament, which will bring fans from around the globe to Seattle.

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.

Several mostly low-rise buildings collapsed or sustained heavy damages in the hard-hit city of General Santos. Tsunami damage was reported in at least one southern coastal village. Smaller waves were measured in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.

The quake also triggered a landslide in Glan, a municipality in the province of Sarangani, that killed 13 villagers, Rene Punzalan, a provincial disaster-mitigation official, told the DZBB radio network. Four other villagers died in Sarangani, he said.

The major earthquake was the strongest to hit the Philippines this year, Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said. He warned people to seek advice before returning to damaged buildings and houses, which could collapse due to aftershocks.

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said it was coordinating with Manila and was ready to support Philippine response efforts. France, Japan and New Zealand also expressed support.

“Our pickup truck suddenly jerked and I thought we had a flat tire,” Rod Sosmeña, a regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, told The Associated Press from General Santos, where he was traveling when the quake struck at 7:37 a.m.

“The shaking was very strong and people dashed out of houses into the streets,” Sosmeña said.

Epicenter in sea off Mindanao

More than 100 students in uniforms and a dozen teachers had gathered for a flag-raising ceremony in a coconut tree-ringed grade school compound in the rural town of Malita in Davao Occidental province when the ground shook, turning the first day of school after a two-month summer break into chaos.

“Their excitement on the first day of school turned to trauma,” school principal Rosavel Cachuela told the AP.

Some of the young students screamed in panic and wept but most remained seated and still, preventing any injuries, Cachuela said, adding that a motorcycle was damaged when a shed crumbled to the ground.

At least four people remained missing in General Santos, a port city of more than 700,000 people and a regional hub for the tuna export industry. Search and rescue teams worked to find people who may have been trapped in a supermarket, a warehouse, a grade school, and other small buildings that either collapsed or were severely damaged, officials said.

The international airport in General Santos was temporarily shut due to the earthquake and 17 domestic flights were canceled, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.

The quake was centered at sea off Mindanao, the second most populous island in the Philippine archipelago. According to Bacolcol, the quake occurred at a depth of 20 miles, about 20 miles southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province.

Assessing damage and casualties

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the cancellation of classes and directed disaster-response agencies to immediately get to work in quake-hit provinces, saying “the national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind.”

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat of a tsunami largely passed about five hours after the quake. Philippine officials also lifted a tsunami warning by mid-afternoon. Six shanties on stilts were damaged in a coastal village in Zamboanga del Sur province due to the quake and taller waves, officials said.

Aside from the landslide in Sarangani, most of the other deaths were caused by collapsing buildings and falling debris, including in a damaged mosque, in the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental, and on Balut Island, according to Sosmeña and another disaster-mitigation official, Ednar Dayanghirang.

The DZRH radio network in Manila reported that a four-story commercial building where its provincial station was located partly collapsed and staffers dashed to the ground floor without injuries.

Tsunami waves near 3 feet measured

Waves of 3 feet were monitored in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani. A 4.6-foot wave hit at one time in Kiamba town, Bacolcol said.

The quake was also felt in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island. Sabah is just a boat ride away from southern Philippines. An 2.7-feet tsunami was measured by a gauge off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, and the PTWC said 1-foot waves were measured in Palau.

Waves up to 7.8 inches were detected on the remote Japanese island of Chichijima and the central Japanese town of Kushimoto, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

The archipelago is also battered by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

___

Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines. Associated Press writers Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and global executive producer Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.

The fighting has since died down, but the differences between the two leaders are likely to persist.

That’s because Trump, whose party faces elections later this year, wants to wind down an unpopular war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ease gas prices. Iran says a full ceasefire in Lebanon is key to any deal.

Netanyahu, who also faces elections this year, is under pressure to stop Hezbollah’s attacks and prove that he is winning the war with Iran and its allies. He also needs to manage relations with Israel’s most important ally without appearing to kowtow to it.

Political considerations push in opposite directions

When the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the allies appeared shoulder to shoulder.

Netanyahu said the goal was to degrade the Islamic Republic’s military, eradicate its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and topple its government. Trump announced the death of Iran’s supreme leader in the opening barrage and urged Iranians to “take back” their country.

But it soon became clear that while Trump was seeking a quick win — like the one he secured in Venezuela — Netanyahu wanted to vanquish Iran and its allies, even if it required an extended conflict.

As Iran withstood weeks of heavy strikes and kept the Strait of Hormuz closed, Americans and Israelis grew increasingly frustrated — but for different reasons.

In the U.S., the price of gas and other goods soared as even some erstwhile supporters accused Trump of breaking a campaign promise and plunging the U.S. into another Mideast quagmire. He has pushed back against those critics as rising anger threatens Republicans in November’s congressional elections.

In Israel, anger grew over Netanyahu’s failure to secure a lasting victory in the wars sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which happened on his watch. More than two years on, Hamas still rules part of Gaza, Hezbollah still fires rockets and Iran’s government and nuclear program remain intact, despite heavy losses.

Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon strains relations

The collision course runs through Lebanon, where fighting still rages between Israel and Hezbollah despite ceasefire announcements.

Iran wants Lebanon included in any wider regional truce, a demand Trump seems to have accepted in order to get a deal. Iran has threatened to attack Israel again if it keeps striking Lebanon.

Israel is determined to keep the theaters separate and continue its campaign in Lebanon, where it has occupied large swaths of the south, until the threat from Hezbollah has been eliminated.

The tensions spilled into the open last week, when Trump acknowledged holding a tense call with Netanyahu about Lebanon. He admitted to using expletives and calling the Israeli leader “crazy,” saying he’d grown frustrated that Israel’s war on Hezbollah threatened the Iran talks.

In a series of interviews, Trump made clear that he was not happy about Israel’s Sunday strike in Beirut, which came without warning and hit a residential building, killing two people and wounding 20, according to Lebanese authorities.

He then urged restraint from Israel after Iran launched its first barrage of missiles later that day. “I call all the shots,” not Netanyahu, Trump told the Financial Times.

Hours later, Israel bombed Iran.

Officials downplay differences

Trump had initially urged restraint in order to calm markets and keep negotiations from falling apart, according to a person familiar with the U.S.-Israel deliberations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversations.

Israeli officials made the counterargument that the U.S. would not tolerate attacks without a swift response. The person added that it was also understood by both sides that not responding to the Iranian strikes would put Netanyahu in a difficult position politically.

Netanyahu has downplayed any perceived differences.

After the latest strikes, he told reporters in Hebrew that “Israel has a full right to self-defense, and we are exercising it to the extent necessary.”

“I say this to you, just as I say this, with appreciation and respect, in my good conversations with my friend, President Trump,” he added.

It’s unclear if there will be lasting damage

It’s not the first time that Trump has been publicly at odds with Netanyahu about a military operation.

In March, less than three weeks into the conflict, Trump was riled by Netanyahu’s decision to attack a critical Iranian gas field, which prompted Iran to retaliate against energy infrastructure in the Gulf.

“I told him, ’Don’t do that,’” Trump said at the time. “We get along great. It’s coordinated, but on occasion he’ll do something.”

While Trump publicly disagreed with the decision, two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly said the U.S. was made aware of Israel’s plans ahead of the attack.

It’s unclear whether the latest dispute will cause lasting damage.

“It’s not so uncommon for the U.S.-Israel relationship to have these kinds of tensions. What’s so different right now is how publicly it’s playing out,” said Michael Singh, managing director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He noted that Trump has had similar public spats with other heads of state, including close allies.

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel’s Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities, said he doubted the rift seriously threatened the alliance. He said Netanyahu had been careful not to push things too far.

“If there was a big threat, like if Israel were to continue the war in Iran and drag the U.S. into it, that would have been a different situation,” he said. “But that is not happening.”

He noted, though, that there are still “basic disagreements between Netanyahu and Trump on Iran, Lebanon and Gaza” that remain unanswered.

___

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed.

Bob Packwood, a longtime Oregon Senator who entered national politics young and ascended to the pinnacles of congressional power before his career ended in scandal, died Saturday. He was 93.

Packwood died in a residential care facility in southern California, where he and his wife rented a vacation home, according to one family friend. His family released an obituary to media outlets Saturday afternoon.

“It is with great sadness that I share the news that Senator Packwood passed away earlier today,” Packwood’s wife, Elaine Franklin, said in a statement from a private Facebook post that was also provided to OPB. “He touched many lives and leaves behind a lasting legacy of public service. He will be deeply missed.”

A moderate Republican, Packwood spent decades in the Senate building a reputation for bucking his party’s hard-liners and for supporting women’s rights. That included much-heralded stances in favor of abortion rights and securing landmark federal protections for the Columbia River Gorge.

But that reputation came crashing down in late 1992, just after Packwood had been re-elected to his fifth term in the Senate.

The Washington Post published an investigation detailing allegations by former female staffers and others who described a decades-long pattern of forceful kissing and other sexual misconduct by the Senator.

Packwood kept Congressional investigators at bay for years, while also serving in one of Washington, D.C.’s most powerful roles as chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

But in 1995, he ran out of time.

The Senate Ethics Committee voted to expel Packwood from the Senate, finding he had made unwanted advances toward more than a dozen women and tried to obstruct the investigation into his conduct.

Packwood resigned the next day, but spoke to OPB in 2013 about the scandal.

“In the majority of the cases, I could not remember the woman, could not remember the incident,” he said. “In some cases, it was one time, one night. And all of the charges, save one, were over 10 years old, and in two cases 20 years old, and I just couldn’t remember.”

In the years following his departure from the Senate, Packwood became a successful Washington lobbyist. But he kept a relatively low profile in his home state.

Still, his contributions to his party live on. Packwood played a major role in starting the Oregon GOP’s annual Dorchester Conference, now in its 60th year.

Robert William Packwood was born in Portland in 1932 to a family with a strong pedigree in state affairs. His great-grandfather attended Oregon’s constitutional convention and designed the state seal, Packwood would recall.

His father was a tax analyst at the state Legislature.

After graduating from Grant High School in Portland, Packwood attended Willamette University in Salem and began to dabble in Republican politics. It was there that he first met Mark Hatfield, an advisor who would eventually become governor and Packwood’s equally powerful counterpart in the U.S. Senate.

After attending law school in New York, Packwood returned to Oregon and began his rise through the political ranks. He won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1962, crediting an army of volunteers – many of them women – who helped to get his name out.

By 1968, Packwood had learned the ropes in Salem and went for a larger prize. He challenged Democratic U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse and made an issue of Morse’s outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. He won the race by three-tenths of a percent and, at 36, became the youngest senator in the country.

In the Senate, Packwood cultivated a reputation as a maverick.

He was the first Senate Republican to support the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. And he was among the first national politicians to embrace the environmental movement, pushing to protect Hells Canyon in 1975, and helping to preserve the Columbia River Gorge as a national scenic area.

Where Packwood generated most attention, though, was in his stance on abortion and women’s rights. He would ascribe his position favoring a woman’s right to choose an abortion, in part, to the female volunteers who assisted him on the campaign trail.

“They each had, if not personally experienced it, had something very close to a personal experience,” Packwood told OPB. “And they described how brutal it was, how unsanitary it was, and I thought, well, this is wrong.”

Packwood unsuccessfully introduced a bill to legalize abortion in the early 1970s. With the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision at the Supreme Court, he was thrust into the national limelight as the voice of support in Congress.

Packwood said he at first assumed furor over the issue would subside.

“It did not, and it went on,” he said in 2013. “It’s going on. I guess it’s going to go on.”

Packwood was also one of two Senate Republicans to vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who had been accused of sexual harassment.

Packwood said at the time that his vote was based on Thomas’ legal theories, not the allegations against him.

Packwood also played a major role in the nation’s tax policy, eventually ascending to chair of the Senate Finance Committee. And he was among the Senate’s staunchest defenders of Israel.

But the events Packwood would ultimately become best known for were darker. The Washington Post investigation that was published on November 21, 1992, marked the beginning of the end of the senator’s career in elected office.

It detailed allegations that Packwood had forcibly kissed female staffers, attempted to remove one woman’s underwear by force in his office, tried to force himself on another woman in an Oregon hotel room, and more.

The earliest allegation stemmed from Packwood’s first year in the Senate, when a staffer at his Portland office said he came up and kissed her on the neck. “Don’t you ever do that again,” the staffer, Julie Williamson, said she told Packwood.

According to the Post, “Williamson said Packwood then followed her into an adjoining room, where he grabbed at her clothes, pulled on her ponytail and at one point, stood on her toes” to prevent her from kicking him as he tried to remove her undergarments.

Stories from other women followed a similar pattern.

The article launched a three-year process in which Packwood first welcomed – and then obstructed – a Congressional investigation.

That investigation turned up damning evidence from Packwood himself. The Senator’s personal diary included some shocking entries.

In a 2017 memoir, former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer included one excerpt detailing Packwood’s account of an encounter with a staffer, NPR noted. It read:

“If she didn’t want me to feather her nest, why did she come into the Xerox room? Sure, she used that old excuse that she had to make copies of the Brady Bill, but if you believe that, I have a room full of radical feminists you can boff. She knew I was copying stuff in there. I had my jacket off and my sleeves rolled up, revealing the well-defined musculature of my sinewy arms which are always bulging with desire. I know what she wanted. This didn’t require a lot of thought.”

The investigation concluded with a nearly 200-page report detailing findings that Packwood had committed at least 18 instances of sexual misconduct between 1969 and 1990. The document also concluded that Packwood attempted to obstruct investigators’ work, and that he had sought to use his position as a senator to win work for his then-wife.

Rather than being formally expelled by the Senate, Packwood opted to leave on his own.

“It is my duty to resign,” he said on the Senate floor. “It is the honorable thing to do for this country, for this Senate… I leave this institution not with malice, but with love.”

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Packwood and his wife did not own the vacation home in southern California where they were living when he died. OPB regrets the error.

The Eugene Police Department now accepts complaints about powered bicycle and scooter users online.

The department added a category to its online reporting portal as complaints about how people drive the electric-assist vehicles grow with the devices’ popularity.

“Everywhere I go and meet with neighborhoods, this is an issue that comes up,” said Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner.

He said the data from the portal will be used to help plan out enforcement efforts in the future, making sure that officers are stationed at the time and place where complaints happen most frequently.

“We want to make sure that we get your hotspot on our radar screen so that we can do that. It’s one of those things that we’ll get this information and then plan these enforcement and education campaigns into the future,” said Skinner.

The largest concerns are around e-motos, a class of vehicle more akin to an electric dirt bike. They’re only legal on private property and OHV trails in Eugene.

“Educate yourselves on the restrictions, educate yourselves on the different classes of e-bikes and what is an e-motorcycle, and remember that violation of park rules in any respect is an arrestable offense,” he said.

The city’s website states that any electric bike is considered a bicycle, but those that go faster than 20 miles per hour and have a throttle are considered e-motos.

The website also shows another distinguishing characteristic of e-motos is that they do not have pedal-assist.

Zac Ziegler 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.

In this episode of “Literary Arts: The Archive Project”, Marjane Satrapi talks generally about her work and specifically about the film production of her book Persepolis. She first establishes that she makes “comics” not “graphic novels,” and she dismisses the term “graphic novel” as a marketing ploy of the publishing companies. She also establishes that the comic form is not a genre but an artistic medium—one that allows for narrative structures that are quite different from books and paintings. She goes on to explain that she wanted to stay true to this medium throughout the film production of Persepolis, and touches on her initial difficulties with the extremely social moviemaking process as opposed to the solitude of creating comics. Her humor is evident when she talks of the luxury of civilization, the need for gaining distance (both time and geographic) from a personal story to tell it well, and the challenges of traveling as an Iranian with a French passport.

Bio:

Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author. She was born in Iran in 1969 and grew up in Tehran in a middle-class Iranian family, attending the Lycee Francais, until she left for Vienna and, later, Strasbourg to study Decorative Arts. She eventually moved to France, where she now lives with her husband, Mattias Ripa. Satrapi has worked on many graphic novels and animated films, but she attracted worldwide attention for her autobiographical graphic novel series, “Persepolis”. The work chronicles her childhood in Iran and her adolescence in Europe. In 2007, Persepolis was adapted into a critically acclaimed animated film of the same name, which received over 25 major international award nominations and received over 15 major international awards.

It’s pretty unusual for an arts non-profit to last 50 years. But here in Oregon, one such organization is celebrating just that.

“It’s really rare to have a gallery last that long,” said Christopher Rauschenberg, one of five co-founders of Portland’s Blue Sky Gallery, also known as the Oregon Center for Photographic Arts.

Blue Sky is the collective brainchild of five 20-something creatives who wanted to provide space for photographers to show work outside the mainstream art world. In 1975, the young artists pooled their unemployment checks (the story goes) to open a nine-by-14-foot gallery space on NW 23^rd Avenue.

Despite dimensions Rauschenberg compared to those of a freight elevator, the name “Blue Sky” suggested the unconstrained, innovative approach to artmaking the friends shared. In addition to photographing novel subject matter, they regularly conducted experiments such as activating a camera’s timed shutter and tossing it in the air to see what kind of images it captured. The name may have also presaged the gallery’s unexpected success, which did seem to come out of the blue.

The power of an image

In the mid-seventies, photographers Ann Hughes and Robert DiFranco were paying $40 a month for a storefront darkroom in Portland’s old Northwest district. When the weavers they were sharing the space with decided to move out, their friend Craig Hickman suggested they open a photography gallery and invited Terry Toedtemeier and Rauschenberg to join. The five friends’ original idea was to create a place for local photographers to show work. But Rauschenberg remembered Hughes taking the idea a step further.

“Ann thought about it and she said, ‘Well, that’d be good because then if a photographer comes to town, they’ll come to the gallery and we’ll meet them.’ So, the gallery was conceived as kind of a honey trap to meet photographers,” Rauschenberg chuckled.

Hughes, also a gifted graphic designer, immediately went to work on publicity posters. The posters were sent out using mailing lists borrowed from New York’s now-defunct Light Gallery and Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA). The homegrown enterprise thus joined just a dozen other American galleries focused on photography. Rauschenberg described the huge response to their venture as “overwhelming.”

“As soon as we opened, we were getting show proposals from all over the country and Blue Sky became a highly sought-after place to have a show,” Rauschenberg said.

A window on the world

Fifty years later, Blue Sky has been joined by well over 100 other photography galleries, and according to the Oregon Encyclopedia, is one of the oldest fine arts galleries in the United States operating as a collective.

In 2007, Blue Sky relocated to the Pearl District and a space 20 times larger than its original storefront. The gallery typically opens two new shows each month, selected by a committee made up of gallery members from all walks of life. It’s also home to a revolving group of 60 regional artists, whose work is selected by a guest curator for the gallery’s “Pacific Northwest Drawers” project. Each photographer presents 10 prints in flat file drawers, accessible at the gallery year-round. Semi-annual “Print Walk” exhibitions invite the public to meet the artists behind the work.

“It has this really cool dynamic of having this sort of micro impact here in our community, but then a macro impact too by providing an opportunity for emerging artists to get their work seen by curators from all over the country,” explained Blue Sky executive director Kristin Solomon.

According to Solomon, the gallery’s remarkable ability to draw local, national and international talent to a small city like Portland allows Blue Sky to stay relevant in a rapidly changing artistic landscape.

“It’s also been critical to really creating this space here in Portland that was a window into the rest of the world. And I think the strength of this gallery is that it continues to do that.”

A year-long party

Throughout 2025, events commemorating Blue Sky’s 50^th anniversary, such as a rooftop gala and a series of openings, each of which is focused on a decade of Blue Sky’s exhibitions, have drawn enthusiastic crowds.

“The vibe has been kind of like a college reunion,” mused Solomon.

This December’s First Thursday opening, which featured past and present work from alumni of Blue Sky’s second decade (1985-1995), was also attended by gallery founders Di Franco, Rauschenberg and Hickman.

“I’ve really found it so satisfying to be playing point guard on the photography team,” quipped Rauschenberg. “I have my own shows in galleries around, and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to help photographers further their careers by having exhibitions here. And it’s really fun to talk with other photographers about work.”

A Pacific Northwest ‘parade’

The gallery has now shown more than 1000 artists and is still going strong.

“People are just really proud that we have something so special here in Portland that’s lasted so long,” explained Solomon. “When the founders talk about this gallery and everything we’ve achieved, the vision for those things have always come from the community.”

Blue Sky also reserves gallery space to elevate voices from outside established art circles, including Street Roots, P:ear, and students from PNCA and PSU.

What Rauschenberg called “a nice, communal thing to do” was also responding to a genuine need that surfaced from the creative tumult of the 1960s, combined with the down-to-earth practicality that’s always been part of living in the Pacific Northwest.

“I mean, if you’re doing something that is really actually useful, you find it self-sustaining in a certain kind of a way,” reflected Rauschenberg. “It’s been something where you feel like you’re just walking down the street, and you look behind you and find you’re leading a parade.”

The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers in Vancouver, Washington, is the union that represents the nearly 400 workers who were working at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. when a chemical tank ruptured at the paper mill last month. Eleven employees died, all of whom were union members.

AWPPW has been coordinating relief efforts, including donations, to support and assess the needs of victims and their families. Last week, the union announced it had reached an agreement with Nippon Dynawave to secure full pay until at least Aug. 8 for workers who are unable to or were instructed not to work. Those who are scheduled to work will receive an additional three hours of pay for each shift they work.

A federal investigation into the cause of the rupture is currently underway and being led by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Josh Estes, a spokesperson and former local union president at AWPPW, says the union supports the demands for answers and accountability from victims and their families to ensure that a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again.

Estes joins us to share the union’s focus on supporting workers and their families and the importance of this industry to the local economy.

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

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Dr. and Lady Glaucomflecken — otherwise known as Will and Kristin Flanary — began making TikTok videos during the COVID-19 pandemic. Will is an ophthalmologist and two-time cancer survivor. Kristin supported Will through those diagnoses and, more recently, provided 10 minutes of CPR after he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in his sleep.

The couple has used their personal and professional experience to tackle topics such as private equity in healthcare, unrealistic expectations placed on medical students, and providers’ struggles to balance the needs of their patients with the requirements of insurance companies.

In addition to social media, the two host a podcast and create educational resources for clinicians and “co-survivors,” or people who support a loved one through a traumatic illness or medical crisis.

Will and Kristin Flanary join us to talk about healthcare advocacy and the role that humor can play in 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.

Since the repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Idaho bans doctors from providing almost all abortions, unless the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or threatens the life of the mother.

Federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill will hear opening arguments in court on Monday in Boise. The lawsuit was filed in 2024 by Dr. Stacy Seyb, a maternal fetal medicine specialist.

“People have a right to medically indicated abortion for the same reason they have a right to self-defense; our society has long recognized that individuals are legally justified in defending themselves against threats of death or serious bodily harm,” wrote the Lawyering Project in a press release ahead of the trial.

The organization is representing Dr. Seyb.

“Dr. Seyb wants to be able to offer abortion care to patients with serious medical needs without fear of criminal prosecution or professional discipline,” the release reads.

Under Idaho’s ban, physicians who provide abortions outside of the law’s narrow exception can face criminal prosecution, leading to felony charges and up to five years in prison. Doctors can also lose their medical licenses.

“Any time a patient has a serious medical need and would benefit from terminating their pregnancy, they should have legal access to abortion care in Idaho,” said Lawyering Project director Stephanie Toti.

“Our law and our tradition has afforded people the right to protect their lives and to protect their health in all circumstances,” she said.

That includes, the suit argues, terminating pregnancies likely to result in a still-birth, or death shortly after birth, and if patients have a medical issue, such as renal failure, that would be alleviated by abortion care.

“The law currently bars doctors from providing abortion care to patients with serious mental health conditions who are at risk of suicide and overdose,” Toti said, adding those are a leading underlying causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Idaho and nationwide.

“The abortion bans create a real moral hazard for physicians like Dr. Seyb, who are unable to provide their patients with the full range of care that they need and are increasingly having to turn their backs on patients with serious medical needs and tell them that they have to travel out of state,” she said.

In an email, the Attorney General’s office wrote there is no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution.

“[S]tates have the right to decide abortion policy,” the statement reads.

“This applies to all manner of abortions, including abortions that are done for a claimed medical reason. In short, abortion, regardless of the reason for the abortion, is not deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition and is therefore not implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

The trial is expected to run until Friday, June 12.

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.

The law, which is set to take effect July 1, would make the first offense a misdemeanor, with subsequent offenses committed within five years a felony.

ACLU of Idaho lawyer Emily Croston, who represents transgender plaintiffs in the case, said the law is unconstitutionally vague and unenforceable in the real world.

“Are we just going to look at folks as they enter a restroom and determine whether or not we think they look enough like a man or a woman? That’s ridiculous,” Croston said.

Those behind the lawsuit are asking a federal judge to prevent the law from taking effect, but only as it applies to restrooms. It could still affect who’s allowed to use gender-specific changing facilities.

In order to receive a preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs must convince the judge they’re likely to win the case based on its merits — not on legal technicalities.

During oral arguments Friday morning, another attorney for the plaintiffs, Kell Olson, pointed out law enforcement lobbying groups testified against the legislation making similar points.

“There will be a moment to moment assessment for that officer,” Olson said, noting that individual officers may choose to enforce the law differently.

Without clarity and consistency, he said it puts them in a tough situation.

Idaho District Court Judge Amanda Brailsford repeatedly questioned the state attorney general’s office over these points.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Zarian acknowledged it will be tough for law enforcement to determine whether a crime has been committed.

“It might be difficult on the spot for a police officer to decide. But, if anything, that works in the plaintiff’s favor,” Zarian said, suggesting that fewer people will ultimately be charged.

Brailsford also asked how police will interpret out-of-state identification from states that list a person’s gender identity as their given sex.

At some point, Zarian said making these determinations will be “easy” by using DNA testing to find out a person’s chromosomal makeup.

State law protects criminal defendants and general citizens alike from being forced to give a DNA sample unless presented with a warrant or if they’ve previously been convicted of a felony.

Ultimately, if the law goes into effect, Croston said transgender people will likely withdraw from typical, daily activities.

“We know that when folks are not able to access restrooms they stop going in public. They’re not able to be in public safely and that impacts the lives of every trans person who is in Idaho.”

Brailsford said she will issue a decision on the preliminary injunction “as soon as possible.”

Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio.

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.

State agency leaders received a dire warning from Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office on Friday that they’re headed toward “what will likely be the most challenging budget any of us has yet faced.”

“There will be significant budget shortfalls next biennium in both operating and transportation budgets,” the governor’s budget director, K.D. Chapman-See, wrote in a three-page memo.

Chapman-See added: “This year’s revenue forecasts will likely not provide sufficient support for the maintenance of current programs, let alone any expansions.”

She emphasized that it’s still unclear how large a gap the governor and lawmakers will have to solve. But she said that, “A ‘business as usual’ approach will not meet the need of this moment.”

Agency directors will have until Sept. 14 to submit their budget requests to the Office of Financial Management. Chapman-See told them they should plan to pause the phase-in of most new programs and not propose new ones.

Ferguson is asking agencies to take a hard look at spending on programs created or expanded after January 2019, a time period covering a pandemic-driven spike in government spending.

The governor also wants agencies to scrutinize areas where “Washington provides particularly high levels of service relative to other states, or is one of only a handful of states that provides a specific service or program,” according to the memo.

Next year’s session will mark the third in a row where Washington lawmakers will confront significant deficits. The first year, the solution involved cuts and a sizable tax package. This year’s fix relied on rainy day savings, one-time maneuvers, and reductions in child care funding.

The state’s two-year operating budget is now checking in around $80 billion.

Republicans and, more recently, former Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire, have criticized the growth in recent years under the Democrat-led state government. The two-year operating budget signed into law in 2017 was around $43.7 billion.

Chapman-See, in her memo, highlights steep price inflation and 14.2% population growth in the state between 2015 and 2025 as underlying factors driving up costs.

An upswing in the economy is a wild card that could reduce some of the budget pressure. But there are no signs of one at the moment.

As for the state’s new income tax on millionaire earners, Chapman-See notes that the revenue from it will not be available until the second half of the upcoming budget cycle.

She also pointed out that about 42% of the money it is expected to generate will go to tax relief provisions embedded in the tax law. So-called “maintenance level” spending to maintain current programs is poised to chew up much of the remaining revenue.

Meanwhile, the tax faces court challenges and a likely ballot initiative this year that could result in it being overturned.

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.

Something unusual is happening with only a few days remaining before the U.S. men’s national team opens its World Cup campaign against Paraguay: Tickets for the match are not sold out.

Although numbers fluctuate regularly, FIFA’s ticketing website still shows 132 tickets left to sell for a game that’s set to take place in Los Angeles on Friday. Meanwhile, resale platforms such as StubHub and SeatGeek — and FIFA’s own marketplace — also show thousands of tickets on sale.

The number is even higher for Canada’s opening match against Bosnia Herzegovina in Toronto on the same day, with 226 tickets left in FIFA’s website and a high number of tickets available in resale markets.

That’s unusual for high-profile events such as the opening matches of the World Cup — traditionally among the hardest to get tickets in the tournament. This year will feature three hosts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico — but so far only Mexico’s opening match against South Africa on Thursday looks to be virtually sold out.

Ticketing experts widely agree on the reason: the prices. FIFA dramatically jacked them up for the tournament — especially for high profile games. The most expensive regular seats for the U.S. opener against Paraguay are priced at $2,735 — more than the final cost for the 2022 World Cup final — while the cheapest are $1,120.

Even President Trump said he wouldn’t pay those prices.

“I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you,” Trump told the New York Post in a recent interview.

The other two remaining games for the U.S. national have far fewer tickets available, given that prices are well below the ones for the opening match.

Prices have also fallen sharply

There are not only plenty of tickets left to sell — a number of them are also available below FIFA’s face value. According to Ticketdata, which tracks prices across the resale platforms, the cheapest pair of tickets for the opening match for the U.S. and Canada was $951 as of Monday morning, while in FIFA’s resale platform, tickets were available for as low as $690.

Other games across the 104-match tournament also still have many tickets left to sell — despite FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s claim that every match is "already sold out." That’s especially the case for lesser well known teams such as the Jordan against Algeria match, which still had hundreds of unsold seats in the FIFA’s web site.

Demand for high-profile tickets such as Argentina and Portugal was far higher, however, with many of those games looking largely sold out.

Will the opening matches sell out?

Whether eventually the U.S. and Canada opening matches will sell out is hard to answer. Throughout the sales process, FIFA has closely guarded how many tickets it has actually sold and how many are left to sell, making it virtually impossible to gauge.

In addition, like other teams, FIFA could also sell tickets in other platforms including third-party ones such as SeatGeek, which can further obscure how many tickets are left to sell.

FIFA and organizers, however, are hoping for a surge in excitement that leads to a last-minute rush of sales for the opening matches as well as for those such as Jordan against Algeria that look far from being sold out.

Ben Shields, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says perceptions so far of the tournament have been shaped by how expensive tickets and travel has been for a tournament taking place across an entire continent.

That, he says, “does not seem to sit well with many.”

But that could change.

“The hope or bet — for FIFA is that once the matches start — and the greatest players in the world compete for the most prestigious prize of them all, the sport as business lens will fade into the background and the World Cup will be seen and experienced as the enduring global institution that it is,” Shields says. “We shall see.”

The recording of the meeting seemed to include part of the board’s executive session.

Chair Troy Russell appeared to be discussing the investigation.

“To a person, they said that the stories you’ve heard about a toxic workplace are absolutely true,” he said.

Another board member asked who, and how many, had made those statements. Russell responded that five staff members had said that.

That portion of the video was later removed from YouTube.

Neither Schmerer nor the board responded to a request for comment.

Russell said the decision to place Schmerer on leave was not intended as punishment but to protect the investigation.

“To ensure that there is no interference with the investigation and no retaliation against participants in the investigation, as well as to protect the superintendent in this process, the superintendent should be placed on leave,” Vice Chair A.J. Kimball said while reading from a prepared statement.

Schmerer, who has already resigned, will remain on leave until her contract expires or the investigation concludes, whichever comes first.

Russell said the investigation is expected to conclude within a few weeks but may continue into July if investigator Keith Ussery’s planned travel delays completion of the report.

The district’s director of programs, Sabrina Belletti, was named acting superintendent.

At a Monday meeting, the board is scheduled to discuss qualities and qualifications of an interim superintendent, approve a salary range for the position and finalize a search calendar.

The board voted in January to hire Ussery to look into a series of complaints. One was filed by former employees against Schmerer, alleging a hostile work environment and intimidation. Another was filed by the teachers union against Schmerer, alleging retaliation as well as dishonest and manipulative communication.

Schmerer, who has served as superintendent for five years, said at a meeting in February that she has faced slander and abuse.

“I am a human being, and the way that I have been treated... I have sat up here and have been professional every meeting, listening to people that I work with, parents that have never even spoke one word to me, to attack me, to bully me, to intimidate me,” she said.

The board has also dismissed some complaints that were filed against board members and the superintendent.

Meanwhile, the board has two vacant seats due to resignations and is scheduled to fill them at the Monday meeting.

The district is also awaiting a decision in an unfair labor practices complaint filed by the teachers union. A hearing with the state Employment Relations Board concluded in February.

Jane Vaughan is a reporter with the JPR newsroom. 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.

Remote work has soared in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic. But, a new study suggests the practice has made workers more socially isolated, anxious and depressed compared to people who work in-person in offices and other settings.

“Other studies have found that workers are willing to give up 4 to 10% of their earnings in order to have the ability to work remotely,” says Natalia Emanuel, an economist at Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the main author of the new study published in the journal Science. “So there is a great desire for remote work.”

Yet she and her colleagues found that people in remote jobs have seen a rise in hours spent alone during the workday, and more visits to mental health care providers. In self-reports, they also assess their own mental health negatively.

How does working from home change us?

The findings suggest that “people might be choosing poorly,” when it comes to their well-being, says Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, who wasn’t involved in the study.

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That’s probably because “it’s very easy to recognize that the commute is a pain in the neck and the traffic sucks,” compared to anticipating how missed social connections at work will impact us down the line, he says. His own research has documented that people “underestimate how well things will go when we actually reach out to connect with other people,” he adds.

Epley says Emanuel and her colleagues found a way to answer a question he gets asked often: “What work from home does to us?”

“Everybody wants to know how is that changing things? And usually the answer is we can’t really tell,” he explains. “We can’t really tell because people weren’t randomly assigned to work from home or not as a terrible experiment.”

“Remotable” vs. “non-remotable” jobs

To get around that problem, Emanuel and her colleagues looked at data from five large national surveys on American workers, both in jobs that allow remote work, like software engineering and marketing — so-called “remotable jobs” — and those in jobs that can’t be done remotely (“non-remotable jobs” like surgery, or mechanical engineering).

They found that workers in remotable jobs had experienced a 58% rise in hours spent alone compared to people in non-remotable jobs. These workers also saw a 72% rise in chances of spending their whole day with no human contact.

“Not even like a wave to a barista, not somebody also checking for ripeness of the avocados at the grocery store,” says Emanuel. “Just no human contact at all.”

Remote workers aren’t making up for that lost social connection by socializing after work, she adds. “We even see a decrease in spending time with friends after the work day relative to people in non-remotable occupations.”

More psych meds, too

People in remote jobs also saw a rise in symptoms of emotional distress, evaluated with a standardized questionnaire about symptoms of anxiety and depression. They also had more visits to mental health care providers and used more prescription psychiatric meds.

All these impacts were worse for remote workers who live alone. For example, they saw the largest increase — 83% — in chances of spending their days with no social contact.

“Likewise, the increase in mental distress is almost twice as large for those living alone as for those living with their family,” notes Epley.

That’s no surprise, he adds. Scores of past studies have documented the negative impacts of isolation and loneliness on our mental and even physical health.

“Being alone compromises your immune system functioning, your cardiovascular system functioning,” says Epley.

Studies have also documented that the biggest predictor of well-being and happiness is “the quality of your social relationships,” he adds.

“Psychologists believe this feeling of human connection and belonging is just absolutely crucial to us as humans, that we cannot thrive, we suffer, if we don’t have that need met,” says psychologist Gillian Sandstrom at Sussex University and author of a book called Once Upon a Stranger: The Science of How ‘Small’ Talk Can Add Up to a Big Life.

While the new study’s findings are important, Epley notes that they “don’t suggest that every office should be forcing everybody to come in to work.” However, employers should take into account that remote work is taking a toll on workers’ mental health, and they should make working in the office “more attractive for people.”

As many organizations are starting to bring employees back to work, Epley suggests, they should make sure that those who come in have other co-workers there, too. “What they’re providing that’s rewarding at work is social interaction, social connection,” he says.

And for those still working remotely, Sandstrom, who also often works from home, recommends being intentional about seeking daily human interactions like she does.

“I leave the house every day. I go for a walk, I see my neighbors, I pet some dogs,” she says. “I have my activities that I do. I play tennis. I have hobbies that mean that I see other people.”

Tracy Hoagland is the chair of the Portland chapter of Willamette Writers, and by day, she works in the tech industry with AI. She says she doesn’t use AI in her writing practice, but has to consciously separate the two areas of her life. Jessie Kwak is an author and ghost writer based in Portland, who uses AI to supplement her writing work. They both join us to discuss their own ethos around AI in the world of creative writing.

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

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This law prohibits local and state police as well as state agencies from participating “directly or indirectly in immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.”

Port officials say they did not realize ICE was in the area or that federal officers were staging vehicles at fenced-off port property at Pier 1 across from the port’s administrative offices.

Port of Astoria Commission President Dirk Rohne agreed use of the property by ICE is a legal question, but said it’s complicated and ICE officers may have been trying to find a loophole.

U.S. Customs and Border Protections maintains an office at Pier 1, a checkpoint for international travelers and cargo as they enter the United States via the Columbia River.

And when U.S. Navy ships are at the port, the fenced area at Pier 1 is considered federally controlled. A massive, gray Military Sealift Command vehicle carrier, the USNS Watkins, was docked at the end of the pier on Sunday. It is expected to depart Monday.

Rohne believes ICE officers contacted Customs and Border Protection and then went behind the fence. He said it isn’t clear who gave this permission or suggested the location. Port commissioners and Executive Director Will Isom told KMUN they were not aware of what was going on.

“I think we need to find out whose idea it was to move behind the fence — because that is port property,” Rohne said.

He believes someone on the port’s security staff suggested the move, “maybe without thinking.”

“The best case scenario, I believe, is that (ICE) should have been told to cease and desist and be gone,” Rohne said.

He has instructed Isom to begin interviewing staff on Monday to determine what happened. If it is the case that port employees allowed ICE to stage on port property, “I would be terribly disappointed,” Rohne said.

Isom told KMUN he wasn’t aware of ICE’s presence at the port, but that a number of different law enforcement agencies are in and out of the port regularly.

“Most of the port property is open to the public,” he said.

On Sunday, several community members who were present as observers to document the detainments tried to gain access to the fenced area on Pier 1.

They told KMUN that people they understood to be security personnel with the Port of Astoria would not allow them in and warned them that they would be arrested by federal agents if they went onto port property.

The observers instead watched from a distance.

Details about the people who were detained and their immigration statuses were not immediately available, nor is it clear if ICE had judicial warrants to arrest them. KMUN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information, but has not received a response.

Consejo Hispano, a nonprofit that serves the North Coast’s Latinx community, condemned the day’s events and the port’s alleged involvement, calling the latter “a breach of trust with the people they serve.”

Executive Director Jenny Pool Radway said the nonprofit plans to file a formal complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice.

“We call on the Port of Astoria to immediately disclose how and why this cooperation occurred, and what steps they will take to ensure it never happens again,” Pool Radway said.

“Our message is simple,” she added. “Public institutions must follow the law, and our community members deserve to live without fear.”

ICE agents also appeared to have pepper sprayed a woman who confronted a line of federal vehicles as they left the port property Sunday and drove up Portway Street.

In a video viewed by KMUN, Astoria resident Stefanie Collar, recording the video on her phone, moves quickly towards a line of vehicles stopped at a red light. She shouts expletives at the first car, telling them to get out of the community. As she walks by a second car, the driver side window rolls down and the driver sprays something from a canister at her.

Collar told KMUN it was pepper spray. She said when she approached the first vehicle, a minivan, she saw the driver pull a mask over his face. She said he grabbed a can of pepper spray and started to open the door. She slammed her body against the door. He briefly pushed back then drove away.

She said the next two cars behind the van sprayed her with pepper spray as they drove past.

Collar was not part of the group attempting to observe and document the detainments Sunday. KMUN was told she has since been removed from the group overall because she refused to follow policies and training and was antagonistic with the officers.

In the afternoon, an ICE officer, who only provided his badge number, called the Astoria Police Department Dispatch to confirm that officers had used pepper spray after a crowd of people swarmed their vehicles. According to Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly, the ICE officer said that as he tried to exit his vehicle to address the situation, someone shoved the door shut.

Kelly said ICE had not told local law enforcement they would be operating in Astoria — notification law enforcement associations in Oregon had requested and been told they would start to receive following increased and more aggressive ICE activity across the state last year.

At least a dozen people were detained in Clatsop County in November and December of 2025.

Katie Frankowicz is a reporter with the KMUN newsroom. 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.

Three years ago, Jessa Davis had an epiphany: After she came out as a trans woman, remaining in deep-red Texas felt untenable. So, she sold her house in Odessa and moved to the liberal bastion of Seattle, Wash.

Davis describes herself as a trans refugee. Back in Texas, she says, lived in a “pretty hostile and frankly dangerous” place. “I had a lot of close calls, a lot of threats.”

Davis volunteered with organizations advocating for trans and queer rights in Odessa and remembers thinking, “I’ve got one life and I don’t want to spend the next 20 years of [it] fighting a battle that I’m not sure we’re going to win in a place like Texas.”

Her fight for LGBTQ rights continues, but it feels more manageable in a city she views as welcoming and supportive. After arriving, Davis quickly became active in local issues and now serves as co-chair on a commission advising the city on LGBTQ issues. She and other commissioners have urged Seattle to declare a state of emergency to provide more resources for the growing number of people relocating there to escape anti-LGBTQ laws and hostile social climates elsewhere in the country.

Davis’ case reflects what sociologists call “ideological sorting” — the tendency to choose communities aligned with one’s political and cultural values. Popularized in the 2008 book The Big Sort, it sets out to explain the widening divide between red and blue America.

In a country that’s growing ever-more polarized, the shifting demographics cut in both directions — and it is happening across the country. In one study from 2022, researchers concluded that “at no point since the Civil War have partisans been as clustered within individual states as today.”

Research in recent years, however, suggests that the story is more complex and nuanced — and that simply seeking out like-minded neighbors is more often than not just one factor among several driving the shift.

From blue state to red

As Davis and others arrive in Seattle seeking refuge from hostile laws and rhetoric, some of Seattle’s longtime residents, like Kirby Wilbur, have moved out, fleeing to conservative enclaves.

Wilbur also describes himself as a “refugee.” He relates an experience that is a virtual mirror image of Davis’. In Seattle, the local conservative talk show host — who also briefly served as Washington state Republican chair — felt like a stranger in a strange land.

As he neared retirement, he and his wife Trina began thinking about an escape plan. A friend told them about McKinney, Texas, a conservative Dallas-Fort Worth suburb. Wilbur had never heard of McKinney, but decided to have a look.

“There were like 3,000 square foot homes with a pool for $300,000,” he says.

In Texas, Wilbur met with Paul Chabot in 2020, who runs a specialty realty service, Conservative Move. Started in 2017, the company has helped thousands of people relocate from blue states to red states, Chabot says.

But the Wilburs still weren’t ready. Then came the 2020 George Floyd protests in Seattle. Kirby Wilbur says after the mobs, looting and vandalism, he and Trina had their own epiphany. “We looked at each other and said, ‘No, we can’t live this way. This is it.’”

Chabot, a retired U.S. Navy commander, says Wilbur — who has since become a part-time realtor with Conservative Move — is like most of his clients, who “feel like they can’t talk politics with people on their street.”

Conservative Move assists a lot of families with children who say they want a better quality of life for their kids — things like lower crime, stronger schools and lower taxes, according to Chabot. They also want to be somewhere they don’t feel judged for their political beliefs, he says.

“It’s not like people are leaving just because they hate Democrats. They don’t like Democrat policies, but they really feel like they’re alone, alienated, ostracized,” he says.

Chabot’s counterpart on the left is Bob McCranie. In 2020, McCranie started a web page called Flee Texas. “Very quickly… it got overwhelmed by people from all sorts of other places saying, ‘Oh my gosh, talk to me,’” he says.

As a result, he broadened the reach a few years later, launching Flee Red States. Since then, he says he has 40 closings related to the project and more than 875 people on a mailing list. He says he’s even helped people move out of the country.

McCranie says for some of his clients, the stakes are much higher than simply whether they can have a political conversation over the back fence. “People are moving because they don’t feel safe in their own state, in their own country,” he says.

For instance, some conservative groups are trying to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling that established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. McCranie says some of his clients are wondering, “Where would we be safe as a couple and as a family?”

U.S. Census Bureau data for 2024 indicates that almost exactly as many people moved from Texas to Washington as went the other direction. However, a nationwide Stateline analysis paints a more one-sided picture. Republican counties, defined by the 2020 presidential election vote, gained 3.7 million people from mid-2020 to mid-2023, while blue counties lost the same amount — a time period that encompasses pandemic dislocations and lockdowns and the rise of remote work, Stateline notes.

But those broad trends can belie individual experiences. Rachelle Vega, interviewed last year by NPR, moved from Austin — widely considered the most progressive city in Texas — to Santa Fe, N.M., which has some of the country’s strongest LGBTQ protections. Vega wanted a more welcoming environment for her two adult trans children. In her new home, “There’s this sense of live and let live that is pervasive,” she told NPR.

This political sorting is not only occurring from state to state, but on a city, county and neighborhood level, according to Bruce Desmarais, a professor of political science and social data analytics at Penn State University. In a 2019 study, Desmarais and colleagues found that “people tend to be moving from one very sort of left-leaning city to the next” — like Vega — and the same is true, Desmarais says, for people moving from one right-leaning area to another.

Ticking the boxes beyond party affiliation

Take Stefanie Chiappetta’s experience. Four years ago, she and her husband, Samuel, moved from Middleborough, Mass., to Conway, S.C., and politics were the main reason.

In solidly blue Massachusetts, the town of Middleborough is an exception. It went for President Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris by a comfortable margin in 2024.

Chiappetta says “more conservative” was “box one” on her list when looking for a fresh start after retirement. Second was taxes. She and her husband had been paying nearly $7,000 a year in property taxes in Massachusetts, but in Conway, it’s a fraction of that, she says. The last important item was the weather. Chiappetta says she and her husband both have back issues. The cold weather “was making us more miserable,” she says.

Although Chiappetta puts politics at the forefront, her weighting of other factors illustrates a key caveat, says Steven Webster, an associate professor of political science at Indiana University.

“Americans do have a preference for living near co-partisans,” Webster, who has also researched ideological sorting, says. However, “things like the affordability of homes [and] living in a good school district far outweigh any explicit partisan-based motivation for choosing one location over another.”

The neighbor agreeing with you about President Trump is “the cherry on top,” he says.

Just as Chiappetta gravitated to a lower-tax city and state — which often tend to be conservative — “a Democrat might move to an area with good access to public transportation,” Webster says.

“While desiring access to public transportation may correlate with being a Democrat, one’s decision to move to that area is based [on] that desire rather than being with other Democrats,” he says.

“Places shape people more than people sort into places,” he concludes.

Political birds of a feather

Some researchers put more weight on party realignment — a long-term shift in the political landscape caused by voters changing their allegiances – than voter migration to explain the biggest share of the ideological sorting.

“Southern whites converted Republican, suburbs of major cities converted Democratic, and the political map redrew itself without most people moving,” notes Josh Zhang, an assistant professor of sociology at Stony Brook University.

In 2023, Zhang and colleagues published a study that looked at ideological sorting on a granular level. Using anonymized cell-phone data and other real-time information, they found that “people in heavily Democratic or Republican neighborhoods tend to visit places — religious institutions, schools, restaurants — whose other visitors lean the same way.”

James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, points out that while the general trend is understood, “geographic sorting is rarely, if ever, going to be absolute. Despite aggregate sorting, there are always going to be individual exceptions in a given area.”

Despite Wilbur’s decision to move to be closer to fellow conservatives, he readily acknowledges that such ideological sorting is a negative for the country as a whole. “Nobody talks to each other anymore,” he says. The divisions in our political discourse have increasingly led to physical division, he says.

Davis is also concerned about “isolating ourselves in bubbles” and recalls the rare occasions when she was able to break through to someone in Odessa. She argues that physical sorting reduces those opportunities for connection.

“That’s the importance of being able to sit down with someone, share a beer in a dive bar in West Texas, and have a conversation about why I’m leaving — what’s happening, and why I feel I have to go.”

Every year, thousands of gray whales swim along the Oregon Coast as they migrate north to feed in the cold Arctic waters in the summer and then back south to breed and calve in Baja in the winter. But a small number do not make the long journey north.

They stick around and feed off the shallow waters of the Oregon Coast all summer — where they do surprisingly acrobatic headstands and rolls — leading researchers to ask: Why?

Whale scientists call this subgroup the Pacific Coast Feeding Group, and twelve years ago, Leigh Torres, a marine ecologist who leads the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Mammals Lab at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, set out to understand what sets the feeding group apart.

I see them as risk takers. They’re willing to try something new and see if it works. And sometimes it works out for them, and they find a new niche to feed in and live in.

Marine Ecologist Leigh Torres

Gray whales are having a hard year, capping off several very challenging years. Ship strikes are high, calf counts are low, and a record-breaking number of beached whales show indications of being extremely malnourished.

“There has been a lot of press lately on dying gray whales,” Torres said. “Through this project we are doing long-term monitoring of gray whale behavior, health, habitat to help us understand how whales cope with changes in habitat and prey, which could help us understand and anticipate their resilience.”

Torres and her team are finding that these Oregon whales have different body shapes, different foraging styles, and are doing something that might be harder than heading to the giant buffet up in Alaska, but it might just give them a way to survive this lean time.

“I see them as risk takers,” said Torres. “They’re willing to try something new and see if it works. And sometimes it works out for them, and they find a new niche to feed in and live in.”

Studying whales is often difficult and expensive, Torres explained, with ship time and offshore boat work. But this project is different. ”It’s because grey whales feed so close to shore that allows us to study them" on the Oregon Coast, she said, using relatively cheap tools.

Every morning, half the team gets up before dawn and sets off in a tandem kayak into the bay at Port Orford to collect data on dissolved oxygen, temperature, depth, kelp cover and zooplankton abundance. Gray whales sometimes surface right behind the kayak while the researchers are lowering instruments and cameras into the water.

At the same time, the other half of the team spends the day on top of a nearby cliff, where they use a theodolite to precisely map the position of whale blows.

It’s not without its challenges. Some days the fog rolls in, and it’s notoriously windy on this part of the coast. It’s salty, wet work, with early mornings and long days.

Their data set goes back more than ten years, and in that time, Torres has discovered some fascinating patterns. These whales seem to be distinct from the majority of the population, trekking back and forth to the Arctic to feed. For one thing, they are smaller in overall length, closer to 40 feet on average than the usual 45-50 feet. And they have some unusual foraging styles.

“They swim upside down and do rolls—they’re often doing headstands where they’re literally head down, fluke up,” explained Torres. “We also have learned that the animals will shift foraging strategies as they age, so when they’re younger, they feed more in a forward-moving strategy. But as they get older, they feed more stationary like a head-standing strategy.”

Another intriguing pattern is that the whales on the Oregon coast often feed right in the thick patches of kelp. It turns out that zooplankton concentrations, especially the high-calorie kind, are denser near the kelp. But like gray whales, kelp has had a hard few years, declining an estimated 60% along Oregon’s coasts, which presents a challenge for the hungry whales.

“Basically, they’re eating gobs and gobs of mini-shrimp all summer long, as well as some other things when they can find them,” Torres said. “Dungeness crab larva is also a really calorically rich prey for whales when they can find it. So when the kelp started having a hard time, it got harder for the whales, too.”

Gray whales only eat six months a year, and that determines their capacity to have young. “It takes a lot of energy to raise a calf,” said Torres. “That’s all energy that they basically take out of the blubber that they manage to build up during the feeding season. So when they’re here off our Oregon coast, it’s super important that they feed well and they’re able to gain that energy.”

The research project utilizes a small team of college and high school students, providing mentoring and real-world STEM experience in marine research.

“With six weeks every day waking up at 6:30 in the morning, that’s not really the norm, especially for high schoolers and undergraduates,” said Celest Sorrentino, field project lead and grad student with the GEMM Lab. “It can be taxing, but I also feel like it inspires them so much to understand what kind of question you can ask in the real world…especially with how these two prey and predator interactions actually come together.”

Sorrentino has seen the experience have a real impact on the students, almost all of whom pursue degrees and careers in STEM fields. “I love to give students the opportunity to see and engage with things that they never even thought about before,” she explained. “And I love that sparkle in students’ eyes when they really get something.”

The whales are making a pit stop on their long migrations from Mexico to Alaska, detouring under the Golden Gate Bridge for a snack as climate change is shrinking their normal food supply in Arctic waters.

But as gray whales try to adapt to one human-caused impact by feeding in San Francisco Bay, it’s putting them squarely in the path of another hazard: ships.

Of 16 gray whales seen in San Francisco Bay this year, seven have died. Researchers have found evidence that several were killed by ship strikes.

With some whales now hanging out in the bay for weeks, a coalition of marine scientists and local officials is trying out a new system to prevent collisions.

Researchers installed a thermal camera on an island in the bay that can spot heat from the whales’ exhalations. Potential whale sightings are screened by artificial intelligence and then confirmed by human screeners. The U.S. Coast Guard can then use that information to alert vessels and ships.

“We want the word to get out,” says Gary Reed, director of Vessel Traffic Service San Francisco for the U.S. Coast Guard. “We want people to know there are whales in a particular location so they don’t encounter them.”

Gray whales in the North Pacific are declining. The current population is around 13,000, half of what it was a decade ago. Last year, 22 gray whales died in the larger San Francisco Bay Area, the highest number in 25 years. The same is happening in other areas along the West Coast.

“We’re looking at a moment for gray whales where every whale that comes in and goes out of the bay matters for population,” says Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “So even though this is just one piece of the problem, it’s a piece that we want to solve, can solve.”

Climate change ripple effects

On a beach on Angel Island, the giant vertebrae of three whales lie in a row on the sand. They’re the remnants of whale necropsies — animal autopsies done by two Bay Area research institutions, the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences. When a dead whale is spotted, the researchers rapidly try to assess the cause of death.

Broken bones and bruised tissue are often a sign of a ship strike.

That’s visible in the middle skeleton, from a female that came into the bay this year, says Kathi George, director of Cetacean Conservation Biology at the Marine Mammal Center.

“She died from injuries due to blunt force trauma from vessel strike,” George says.

In recent years, an alarming number of whales have also been washing up malnourished, both in California and in the Pacific Northwest.

Gray whales undertake one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling around 12,000 miles round trip every year. They spend the summers feeding in the cold waters of the Arctic, where prey is abundant. Then they swim to Baja California, Mexico, for the winter, where they have their young.

In the Arctic, gray whales need to fuel up, building the reserves necessary for such an arduous migration. Their goal is to start the trip with a full tank. But lately, that’s been harder to do.

Sea ice is shrinking in the Arctic, one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. That fundamental shift is altering the ecosystem, reducing the availability of the tiny, shrimp-like animals that gray whales like to feed on. Gray whales need to eat more than a ton of them per day. As a result, scientists believe that whales are running out of fuel before they can finish their migration.

“These whales are hungry,” George says. “We think they’re stopping at different areas along their route to find sources of food, and San Francisco Bay has become one of those hotspots.”

Heat-sensing cameras

Not far from the span of the Bay Bridge, a puff of spray, the sign of a whale breathing, appears in the distance. Shawn Henry, CEO of WhaleSpotter, pulls up an image on a laptop to show how his company’s camera detects the whale’s exhalation.

“That blow is a little bit warmer than the water and the air around, so it provides a very good thermal signature,” Henry says.

Once it’s detected, the whale’s position is posted on the WhaleSafe website, run by UCSB’s Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory. The Coast Guard then uses the information to alert vessels over the radio about a whale’s position. Before this project, Coast Guard alerts relied on visual reports of whales from vessels during the day.

“Now with this new technology, it’ll show us whales at night, so we can identify them and notify traffic,” says the Coast Guard’s Reed.

Another camera is also being installed on a local ferry. The Bay Area’s two ferry companies say their operators either slow down or go around the areas where whales have been seen. It’s tougher for larger container ships, which are much less maneuverable and are constrained to specific shipping lanes in the bay.

For now, the effort is voluntary for ships. On other parts of the California coast, researchers have seen significant compliance with voluntary speed limits from shipping fleets without mandatory regulations, McCauley says.

“I’m really optimistic that this is one of those solutions where the community comes together, and the community solves it, but we’ll see,” he says.

Conditions for gray whales may only get more challenging in the future, McCauley says. The whales are showing an ability to adapt, but it may only go so far.

“The world is changing, they’re trying their best to change themselves,” he says. “The one thing they’re not doing is quitting.”

SEOUL, South Korea — Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un underscored their commitment to deepen cooperation in a closely watched summit on Monday, as Xi made a rare visit to Pyongyang in a likely attempt to reassert Beijing’s unique influence over its socialist neighbor.

It’s Xi’s first visit to North Korea in seven years. Earlier Monday, he was given a lavish welcome upon arrival at Pyongyang’s international airport. He and his wife Peng Liyuan were greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, who broadly smiled and clapped.

Xi later arrived at Pyongyang’s main square, where a military honor guard and thousands of people, including children carrying balloons and hopping, staged a welcoming ceremony. Buildings surrounding the plaza were draped in the two countries’ flags, giant portraits of Kim and Xi and red-and-yellow banners welcoming the Chinese leader and celebrating the nations’ “friendship and unity.”

Xi and Kim express their hopes for greater ties

In a summit later Monday, Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas including trade, agriculture, construction and technology, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report.

Xi said the two countries should strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests, according to the report.

Kim said Xi’s visit “clearly demonstrates how unbreakable” the North Korean-China relationship is, CCTV said. It cited Kim as saying that consolidating a new era of friendship between the two countries is the “unchanging strategic choice” of North Korea.

Full details of the meeting weren’t available. But foreign experts earlier predicted the meeting would have big ramifications on bilateral ties and beyond, as they both seek to fully restore their traditional alliance in the face of separate confrontations with the U.S.

Xi and Kim last met in Beijing in September, after viewing a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.

Sway over North Korea could help Xi’s dealings with US

Xi’s trip comes after his back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin in Beijing last month. Xi is expected to meet Trump again on a planned U.S. visit in September.

Xi will try to demonstrate China’s “sway over the Korean Peninsula” and “a leadership role in entire Northeast Asia in the age of strategic competition with the U.S.,” said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs.

China has long been North Korea’s economic lifeline and main diplomatic backer. Experts say China has avoided fully enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and sent clandestine aid to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat. This year marks 65 years since the two countries signed a mutual defense treaty.

But there have been questions about their ties in recent years, with North Korea prioritizing cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and weapons to support its war against Ukraine. In return, North Korea has received economic and military assistance from Russia.

Restoring an exclusive influence over North Korea would give Xi a leverage in dealings with Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to restart diplomacy with Kim, experts say.

“Implementing U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforcing sanctions do not appear to be priorities for China,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

A two-way trade volume between China and North Korea last year recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Earlier this year, the countries also resumed direct flights and passenger trains, stalled since the pandemic. Xi said Monday that both nations should use the reopening of flight and train services as a chance to expand people-to-people exchanges.

Kim needs Xi’s support for his push for nuclear state

Xi would likely offer Kim economic aid packages such as shipments of rice and fertilizers, a resumption of Chinese group tourism to North Korea. and joint economic projects, analysts said.

“North Korea can’t solely rely on Russia. It needs to align with China,” Kwak said.

Xi could also refrain from pressing Kim on the issue of denuclearization of North Korea, and vaguely speak about peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. That would be essential for Kim, who is desperate to win international recognition as a nuclear weapons state as a way to call for lifting of U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

“Chinese officials have taken the position of not speaking publicly about denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula while still maintaining it as a long-term goal. Kim appears to want Xi to accept North Korea as a nuclear neighbor,” Easley said.

After last month’s summit between Trump and Xi, the White House said the two leaders confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea. But China only said the leaders discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. On Sunday, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, echoed her brother, dismissed as an “anachronistic dream” a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea.

Last week, Kim unveiled a new plant to produce nuclear ingredients and vowed to bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” He also observed sea trials of a new naval destroyer and called for speeding up efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told reporters Monday that North Korea is producing enough nuclear ingredients annually for about 10-20 bombs and is close to perfecting intercontinental ballistic missile technology. Lee said the world must first focus on convincing North Korea to freeze its nuclear materials production and ICBM program as a short-term goal.

Kim Jong Un has focused on enlarging and modernizing his nuclear arsenal since his high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. The North Korean leader said in September that he still had “good personal memories” of Trump but urged the U.S. to withdraw its demand for North Korea to denuclearize as a precondition for resuming diplomacy.

On July 30, 1865, the side-paddle wheel steamer Brother Jonathan departed Crescent City, California, and headed north toward Portland on its usual route up and down the West Coast.

It would be the ship’s final journey.

According to Captain Samuel DeWolf’s widow, Maria DeWolf, the ship’s captain had been worried about the latest northbound journey.

The night before they were to leave, the officers and many of the crew met with the Captain in the saloon to converse the situation and decide whether to leave in a body or take their chances of going to the bottom.

Maria DeWolf

A recent collision in Portland’s harbor had damaged the heavily used ship. In addition, Maria reported that her husband had expressed concern to the ship’s owners that the vessel was overloaded. Despite the warning, the ship set sail on schedule.

A ‘North’wester’ strikes

Soon after leaving the harbor, a fierce summer storm unexpectedly formed out of the blue skies.

Locals called these strong northern winds a “North’wester.”

Gale winds created giant rolling waves that pounded over the bow of the 220-foot-long ship.

According to an official inquiry, the captain called for the ship to turn back. The call came too late. A mountainous wave lifted the boat out of the water and tossed it onto an uncharted rock just below the water’s surface. The collision impaled the ship and ripped its side open.

As the wheeler jolted to a sudden stop, passengers tumbled to the floors of their cabins.

Within minutes, Captain DeWolf made the call to abandon ship.

I was suddenly startled by a fearful shock, followed by the labored rolling of the ship, a creaking of her timbers and the distinct roar of rushing water.

Mina Bernhardt, 1865 shipwreck survivor

A West Coast Titanic

The paddle-wheeler traveled a regular route from British Columbia to Portland, Crescent City and San Francisco. The steamer shuttled merchandise between ports, transporting heavy mining and farming equipment along with household items and hundreds of gallons of whiskey, among other things.

The highest-paying customers enjoyed private, luxury accommodations while steerage class crowded together in the bowels of the ship.

Passengers included miners headed to the newly discovered gold fields in Canada, merchants ferrying wares between port cities, families visiting far-off relatives or settling into expanding frontiers, and a few adventure seekers exploring the Far West.

Most go down with the ship

Less than an hour after hitting the rock, the Brother Jonathan, along with most of its passengers, crew and cargo, disappeared under the waves.

Over 200 passengers and crew died in the wreck.

I seized my child with one hand and, grasping a life preserver with the other, I ran upon the deck. When reaching the deck I saw one of the boats already lowered and was full of ladies...and in the same instant, the steamer careened and upset the boat, engulfing all in a merciless wave.

Mina Bernhardt, 1865 shipwreck survivor

According to eyewitness accounts, crews scrambled to launch lifeboats, but waves tossed the small crafts — dumping passengers into the frigid water.

Only one small wooden boat managed to escape the disaster, taking just 19 people to safety. Eleven were crew members. Those who survived included eight women and children. Two were listed only as “Chinese woman and child.”

A Chinese woman was helped in with her child. Her husband asked to get in, but was repulsed. He begged hard, but the sailors were firm. The parting between husband and wife was enough to wring even the hearts of those whose only emotion was that of self preservation.

Mary Ann Tweedale, 1865 shipwreck survivor

For months, bodies washed up along the shores of Northern California and Southern Oregon.

Many could not be identified and were buried in local cemeteries. Crescent City residents erected a memorial in their honor.

Treasure ship

The ship was well known for carrying gold. At the time, paper money was rare along the West Coast.

Passengers might hold their entire net worth in gold coins or ingots, often stored in the purser’s safe.

Along with the passengers’ personal money, the ship also transported payrolls for federal military troops and Native American reservation payments.

Salvaging gold and artifacts

In the 1990s, salvagers finally discovered the sunken ship, about six miles off the coast of Crescent City. Over the course of several deep-sea explorations, divers recovered numerous artifacts, including more than 1,200 gold coins.

Many of the artifacts recovered from the shipwreck are now housed at the Del Norte County Historical Society in Crescent City.

That includes a five-dollar gold piece recovered during the salvage operations.

The rest of the gold became the subject of a drawn out court battle.

Ultimately, most was auctioned off to pay the salvagers’ bills.

Today, the wreck site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is protected by the government, and all salvage efforts have halted, at least for now.

The ship and any treasure remain at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Southern Oregon and Northern California.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Last summer, OPB cinematographer Dan Evans and I traveled to Crescent City, California, to visit the Del Norte County Historical Society and see the infamous rock that sank the S.S. Brother Jonathan.

It was an exceptionally calm day with low tides. It was perfect for viewing Jonathan Rock — and whales! That type of ideal situation is not the norm. The waters off Northern California and Southern Oregon can quickly turn deadly. The weather and waves can be fierce, and the water is frigid. As Captain Harry Adams told us, “If the gold were easy to get, they would have gotten it (all) by now.”

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire in the first such attacks between the two bitter rivals since a Middle East ceasefire was declared two months ago. President Trump on Monday called on both countries to stop the attacks.

“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting,’” Trump wrote on social media.

Shortly afterward, Iran’s military said it was halting further attacks for now, saying Israel had “learned a lesson.”

In Israel, an official said that Israel agreed to stop attacking Iran, but the military would continue to operate in Lebanon. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity.

Trump then took to social media again and said, “Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE! Final negotiations on “Peace” are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.”

Trump has been claiming for weeks that a deal was within reach, even as the ceasefire declared on April 8 was increasingly fragile.

The missile exchanges marked a major escalation that came on the 100th day of a war that began on Feb. 28. Yet this was only part of increased military action in recent days that has also included the U.S., several Arab Gulf countries and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said its missiles late Sunday night and Monday morning targeted three military air bases in Israel, two in the center of the country and one in the north.

Altogether, Iran launched nearly 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the Israel military.

The Israeli military said it had shot down the incoming fire. Falling debris ignited brush fires, but no damage or injuries were reported. Israel ordered schools closed on Monday as a precautionary measure.

Trump told Britain’s Financial Times that his message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not to fire back on Iran, and Netanyahu had no option but to accept.

“He won’t have any choice,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”

But Israel made clear it would hit back.

“Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel,” Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, said on X after the first wave of Iranian attacks. “No self-respecting country in the world would tolerate such an attack, and neither will Israel. Israel is now targeting Iranian surface-to-surface missile launch sites.”

In the early hours of Monday, Israel unleashed missile strikes on Iran. Dozens of Israeli warplanes took part in the operation that focused mostly on Iranian air defenses that were being restored after the earlier fighting, Israel’s military said.

Iranian citizens reported explosions in the capital Tehran, as well as Isfahan and Tabriz. The Iranian media reported that the country’s airports had been shut down.

The Israeli military also said it hit several targets at a huge petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, in southwestern Iran. The workers at the plant were evacuated, the Iran media said.

In another development, the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen said they fired missiles at Israel, prompting another round of sirens in the Tel Aviv area. There were no reports of the missiles hitting any targets.

The Houthis also said they would prevent Israeli-linked ships from sailing in the Red Sea. The Houthis disrupted shipping traffic in the Red Sea for two years, from the fall of 2023 to the fall of 2025, in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

A recent increase in attacks

The two-month-old ceasefire has been fraying with missile and drone attacks picking up in recent days across the region.

Most of the shooting exchanges had involved either the U.S. and Iran, or Israel and Hezbollah.

The direct attacks between Israel and Iran further complicate the efforts to end the fighting.

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict has been particularly intense. Israel last month invaded southern Lebanon to the deepest point in 26 years and now has a large force operating in that territory. It has been fighting the militant group Hezbollah, which Iran helped establish to counter Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and stills support.

Israeli and the Lebanese officials met in Washington last week and agreed to renew the earlier ceasefire that had collapsed. However, the Lebanese government army is not strong enough to control Hezbollah, which rejected the agreement, saying it amounted to the group’s surrender. The agreement stipulates that Hezbollah, but not Israel stop attacks and does not include an Israeli withdrawal from occupied areas.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the war began on March 2 have killed 3,600 people, including hundreds of women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel says two civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks.

Iran had been warning it might act against Israel due to its ongoing attacks against Hezbollah.

A series of events escalated rapidly on Sunday. In the morning, Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.

Hours later, Israel launched airstrikes against Hezbollah strongholds in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

By late night, Iran unleashed its missile barrage against Israel, and Israel fired back early Monday morning.

Officials in countries throughout the region — including Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — have been holding a series of phone calls in an attempt to calm the region.

NPR’s Jane Arraf contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

MANILA, Philippines — An offshore magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 32 people, injuring more than 200 others mostly in damaged buildings and sending a 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami into nearby coasts.

A few buildings collapsed and key infrastructure sustained quake damage in the city of General Santos, and tsunami damage was reported in at least one coastal village. Smaller waves were measured in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.

The quake also triggered a landslide in Sarangani province in the southern Philippines that killed 13 villagers. Rene Punzalan, a disaster-mitigation official for the province, told the DZBB radio network that the landslide hit houses in the mountainous town of Glan. Four other villagers died in Sarangani for still-unclear unclear reasons, he said.

“It’s a major earthquake,” Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said, warning people to seek advise before returning to damaged buildings and houses which could collapse due to aftershocks.

“Our pickup truck suddenly jerked and I thought we had a flat tire,” said Rod Sosmeña, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, told The Associated Press from the hard-hit port city of General Santos, where he was traveling when the quake struck at 7:37 a.m.

“The shaking was very strong and people dashed out of houses into the streets,” Sosmeña said.

Another regional disaster-response official, Ednar Dayanghirang, told The AP that he was able to “hardly stand and keep my balance when the ground shook as I was leaving my house” in the southern port city of Davao.

General Santos is a port city of more than 700,000 people that is a regional hub for the tuna export industry and other commerce.

The quake, the strongest to strike the country this year, was centered at sea off Mindanao, the second most populous island in the Philippine archipelago. According to Bacolcol, the quake occurred at a depth of 33 kilometers (20 miles), about 32 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the cancellation of classes and directed disaster-response agencies to immediately get to work in quake-hit provinces, saying “the national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind.”

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the threat of a tsunami largely passed about five hours after the quake. Philippine officials also lifted a tsunami warning by mid-afternoon. Six shanties on stilts were damaged in a coastal village in Zamboanga del Sur due to the quake and taller waves, officials said.

Assessing damage and casualties

At least 19 people were killed, mostly in collapsed buildings and landslides, while thousands of villagers were displaced, Office of Civil Defense spokesperson Junie Castillo said without providing specific details.

Among the dead were seven people in General Santos, where a few small buildings, including a popular hamburger joint, collapsed or were severely damaged, Sosmeña said.

The other deaths were caused by falling debris, a damaged mosque and a landslide in the southern provinces of Sarangani, South Cotabato and Davao Occidental and on Balut Island, Sosmeña and another reginal disaster-response official, Ednar Dayanghirang, said.

Sosmeña said authorities were checking reports of some students being trapped in a two-story school that collapsed in General Santos. He could not immediately provide details but the national police said at least 12 people were missing in General Santos.

The Bureau of Fire said without elaborating that it was involved in search and rescue efforts in a damaged building and a warehouse in General Santos.

Public schools had reopened nationwide Monday after the summer vacation from April to May. Dayanghirang said more than 100 students attending morning flag-raising ceremonies in his southern region sustained bruises and some fainted in panic.

The international airport in General Santos was temporarily shut, and 17 domestic flights were canceled, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said.

The DZRH radio network in Manila reported that a small commercial building where its provincial station was located partly collapsed and staffers dashed to the ground floor without injuries. It wasn’t clear if other people were trapped in the rubble of the four-story office building. Debris also fell from other buildings, hitting tricycle taxis parked below.

Tsunami waves near 3 feet measured

Waves of 1 meter (3 feet) were generally monitored in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani. A 1.4-meter (4.6-foot) wave was monitored at one time in the coastal area of Kiamba town in Sarangani, Bacolcol said.

The quake was also felt in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island. Sabah is just a boat ride away from southern Philippines. An 83-centimeter (2.7-feet) tsunami was measured by a gauge off Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, and the PTWC said 30-centimer (1-foot) waves were measured in Palau.

Waves up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) were detected on the remote Japanese island of Chichijima and the central Japanese town of Kushimoto, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the depth of the original quake at 55 kilometers (34 miles). Variations in measurements by different agencies are common in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake. Aftershocks as strong as 6.5 magnitude were recorded.

The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year.

Good morning, Northwest.

It’s been a difficult year (capping off several difficult years) for gray whales off the West Coast with lots of ship strikes, low calf counts and signs of malnourishment.

A small population of whales has forgone migration to feed among kelp forests off the Oregon Coast. OPB’s Stephani Gordon starts today’s newsletter with a look into why scientists have taken interest in this group of whales.

In other news, new video shows the aftermath of the deadly chemical tank rupture at a Longview paper mill.

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

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

The unexpected connection between gray whales and kelp on the Oregon Coast

Every year, thousands of gray whales swim along the Oregon Coast as they migrate north to feed in the cold Arctic waters in the summer and then back south to breed and calve in Baja in the winter.

But a small number do not make the long journey north.

They stick around and feed off kelp forests in the shallow waters of the Oregon Coast all summer, where they do surprisingly acrobatic headstands and rolls — leading researchers to ask why.

They’re finding whales of this subgroup have different body shapes and foraging styles that may help them survive challenging conditions. (Stephani Gordon)

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3 things to know

• Bob Packwood, a longtime Oregon senator who entered national politics young and ascended to the pinnacles of congressional power before his career ended in scandal, died Saturday. He was 93. (Dirk VanderHart and Kristian Foden-Vencil)
• The Washington Department of Ecology has released footage of the aftermath of the chemical tank rupture at a Longview paper mill late last month that killed 11 people. (Joni Auden Land)
• The National Labor Relations Board has ordered management at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford to begin bargaining with more than 250 healthcare technicians who voted to join the Oregon Nurses Association union in 2023. (Justin Higginbottom, JPR)

Marking Pride with intergenerational conversations among queer people

Pride is about celebrating queer communities, and it’s also a chance to learn about queer history. This week, we’re revisiting two intergenerational conversations about the importance of history and combating queer erasure with friendship and resilience. (Julie Sabatier, Lillian Karabaic and Jess Hazel)

Listen Here

Northwest headlines

• ODOT director finalist fell through before Kotek turned to top aide (Dirk VanderHart)
• Lloyd Center ice rink hosts final showcase showcase celebration (Lillian Karabaic)
• With levee breached, Siuslaw Estuary connects to its past life as a sanctuary for salmon, lamprey, and tule (Brian Bull, KLCC)
• Park ranger from Washington state dies after falling into a crevasse on Alaska’s Denali (AP)
• Ogwumike and Hamby have double-doubles to help Sparks beat Fire 89-72 (AP)

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):

• Washington union supports workers and their families after deadly Longview mill disaster

One more look

One of the West Coast’s deadliest shipwrecks happened over 160 years ago

In July 1865, the S.S. Brother Jonathan sank south of the Oregon border in what remains one of the region’s deadliest maritime disasters.

The Brother Jonathan acted as a commuter ship, transporting passengers and goods up and down the West Coast. It sank after striking a rock similar to the iceberg that took down the Titanic.

Over 200 people and a treasure trove of gold coins went down with the ship.

For more than a century after the wreck, salvagers tried to find any lost treasure. (Kami Horton)

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

Dan and Louis Oyster Bar opened in downtown Portland in 1907. Nearly 120 years later, it remains in operation at the same location, now run by five generations of the Wachmuth family.

Inside, nearly every wall and corner displays decades of its seafaring history.

Describing the interior, co-owner Michelle Wachsmuth offers four words: “Nautical, Portland, Wachsmuth, oysters.” In other words, a little bit of everything.

She says, at some point in the 1930s, someone started to decorate with oyster plates, “The original owner, Louis C., did not like that they were junking up the walls. So what do customers do when they hear there is an internal struggle? They bring you a plate from everywhere they ever went.”

Over the years, the collection grew to hundreds of nautical knick-knacks and historic treasures, including a rare wheel from a deadly 1800s-era shipwreck.

​In July 1865, the side paddle wheel steamship, the S.S. Brother Jonathan, wrecked off the coast of Crescent City, California, while on its way from San Francisco to Portland.

Only one small lifeboat escaped the wreck, leaving over 200 people dead with just 19 survivors.

According to Michelle Wachsmuth, the story goes, “The wheel washed ashore with the dead man still clinging to it.”

Newspaper accounts of the time back that up.

An article in the Sunday Oregonian from 1865 regarding the shipwreck recovery states: “One of the bodies which came ashore was that of a quartermaster who had grasped in his two hands handles of the pilot wheel, and it required force to open his hands and release them.”

Wachsmuth says that in the 1930s, the original owner’s son purchased the recovered wheel from a restaurant in Newport and brought it to Dan and Louis Oyster Bar.

For years, it remained on display in the lobby. About 10 years ago, Wachsmuth noticed the 150-year-old artifact was showing signs of decay and moved it to a high shelf, where it remains on display but is safely out of reach.

For decades afterward, divers searched for the lost ship and the millions in gold coins it was thought to be carrying. Their efforts paid off in the 1990s, when the ship and about 1,2000 coins were recovered by salvagers.

Learn more about the 1865 shipwreck in the Oregon Experience documentary, “The Wreck of the Brother Jonathan.”

Nneka Ogwumike had 20 points and a season-high 17 rebounds, Dearica Hamby added 22 points and 12 rebounds and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Portland Fire 89-72 on Sunday to snap their three-game losing streak.

Ogwumike had her third consecutive double-double and fifth this season. Kelsey Plum finished with 16 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals for the Sparks (5-6). Rae Burrell added 10 points.

Megan Gustafson had 16 points and a season-high 12 rebounds, her first double-double since 2023, for the Fire (6-7). Carla Leite and Emily Engstler added 10 points apiece.

Portland committed nine — which included six steals by LA — of its 15 turnovers and was 5-of-14 shooting as it was outscored 23-12 in the third, the Fire’s lowest-scoring quarter this season. Plum had nine points and two assists, while Hamby scored seven in the period to help the Sparks take a 64-55 lead into the fourth.

Plum stole the ball from Leite, then threw it ahead to Hamby for a fast-break layup that capped an 11-2 run and gave Los Angeles an 18-point lead with 6:07 to play.

The Fire tied a season low with three 3-pointers and shot a season-worst 10.7% (3 of 28) from behind the arc.

The Sparks — who entered allowing 93 points allowed per game, the most in the WNBA — gave up their fewest points this season.

Portland had lost a season-high three consecutive games and four of its last five.

Up next

Sky: Host Atlanta on Tuesday.

Tempo: Host Connecticut on Wednesday.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Two weeks before Gov. Tina Kotek announced she was sending her chief of staff to lead Oregon’s troubled transportation department, she had another person in mind for the job.

OPB has confirmed that the state flew in a Midwest-based official with the Federal Highway Administration as its sole finalist to helm the Oregon Department of Transportation.

That candidate met with state officials and leaders of labor unions that represent ODOT employees on Monday, May 18. By the following Wednesday, the potential hire had fizzled.

“It went from ‘Here’s our candidate’ to ‘We’re not even doing it,’” said Karen Scott, president of the Association of Engineering Employees of Oregon, who met with the prospective hire alongside others from the union. “I don’t know why.”

Now, after a search that has spanned half a year, the state appears to be headed back to the drawing board.

Kotek said last week that she is sending her chief of staff, Chris Warner, to oversee ODOT while she continues to search for a permanent director. The person who had been filling the role, Lisa Sumption, is returning to her post atop the state parks department.

The shuffling reflects the challenge of finding a person for a job that is full of unknowns, and that has been in the spotlight for its myriad challenges for more than a year.

Faced with a structural funding shortfall, ODOT has been forced to leave vacant positions unfilled and strip money from some popular programs in order to fund basic maintenance.

If lawmakers aren’t able to pass a package of funding increases next year, layoffs and steeper service cuts could be in the offing.

“They’re probably having a hard time finding someone willing to step into what feels like a booby trap,” said Scott, a program engineer at ODOT. “It’s not a safe landing.”

It’s not entirely clear what went awry with the finalist Kotek flew in last month. Union officials OPB spoke with said they were uncertain whether it was the governor’s decision not to move forward or the candidate backed out.

“We had a meeting [with the candidate],” said Melissa Unger, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 503, which represents many ODOT workers. “By the time I was ready with feedback, they had changed their mind.”

The candidate’s visit came at a notable time. They were in Oregon the day before voters overwhelmingly rejected a package of tax and fee increases meant to bolster ODOT’s finances. That outcome was widely expected, however, and there is no indication that it played a decisive role in the state restarting its director search.

Neither the governor’s office nor the state’s Department of Administrative Services answered questions about why the finalist didn’t move forward. The candidate did not respond to an inquiry from OPB.

The ongoing search for a new director at ODOT has some precedent in Kotek’s administration.

In March 2023, the governor’s newly hired pick to lead the Oregon Health Authority resigned after just months on the job. It took the state roughly eight months to select Dr. Sejal Hathi, the agency’s current director, to fill the spot.

It has been nearly seven months since Kris Strickler, the former ODOT head, announced he would step down after more than six years as director. He officially left the agency in January.

Now, the search is leading to changes at the highest levels of state government. Warner is leaving Kotek’s office after more than three years — two of them as her top aide.

Stepping into the role of chief of staff is Emerald Bogue, a Port of Portland executive who in recent months has served as an advisor to the governor.

Happy Pride from “The Evergreen”! June is officially Pride Month, and of course, queer visibility isn’t limited to one month of the year; it’s important all the time.

Pride is about celebrating queer communities, and it’s also a chance to learn about queer history. This week, we’re revisiting two intergenerational conversations about the importance of history, and combating queer erasure with friendship and resilience.

Listen to all episodes of “The Evergreen” podcast here.

Paramedics responded around 7 p.m. and found one victim with a serious injury, two with moderate injuries, and the rest with minor injuries, the city’s fire department said in a statement. All were transported to Bellevue Hospital. It said the suspect was in custody without elaborating.

The stabbings occurred in one of the city’s busiest transit hubs on the eve of President Donald Trump’s planned attendance at Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, which sits directly above Penn Station.

The presidential visit has already prompted heightened security measures around the arena and surrounding blocks, with the Secret Service, New York Police Department, and other agencies expected to have a substantial presence for the nationally televised event.

Authorities did not immediately indicate whether the stabbing incident would affect security plans for Monday night’s game. But the violence unfolded in an area where millions of commuters, tourists, and sports fans pass through each year. Penn Station is expected to be particularly crowded ahead of the first NBA Finals game at the venue since 1999.

President Donald Trump is dismissing the idea that launching the war with Iran this year betrayed his refrain of “No new wars” that he made repeatedly as he campaigned again for the White House.

Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said he “didn’t guarantee” there would be no wars if he were back in office.

“First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said.

Trump also defended plans for a now-scrapped $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president and he repeated his baseless claims of mass fraud in California’s drawn-out vote count from Tuesday’s primary. He ended the interview abruptly when he became frustrated with pushback from NBC’s Kristen Welker.

Iran ‘is not an endless war’

In his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly cast his Democratic opponents as warmongers and said he was a president who started “no new wars” and would bring an era of peace.

But Trump said in the NBC interview, taped Friday in Wisconsin, that as a candidate, “I didn’t promise anything.”

“I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months,” he said of the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28.

Trump said he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a service” because he had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. But elsewhere in the interview, Trump repeated a contradictory message where he said U.S. strikes last year “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites.

He also defended his decision in his first term to withdraw from Democratic President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, an agreement he has heavily criticized, without negotiating the “better deal” he has promised to reach.

“It takes years to do these things,” Trump said.

Trump without evidence claims fraud in California vote

California’s notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for election conspiracy theories, and Trump since Tuesday’s election has claimed without evidence that Democrats are rigging the election. The Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said Friday that his office had opened “multiple election fraud investigations.”

Late-tallied Democratic-leaning mail ballots have eaten into the vote totals for Trump’s preferred candidates for governor and Los Angeles mayor. While Trump has often said that changes to vote totals as late ballots are counted are a sign of fraud, they are merely a reflection of a slow vote-counting process.

Trump in the interview kept claiming that it was a sign of “cheating” and “a rigged election,” and grew increasingly frustrated as Welker pressed him for evidence to support that.

“All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look,” Trump said.

“But that’s not evidence,” Welker responded.

“And I listen. And I listen to people. And let’s see what happens,” Trump replied.

‘Anti-weaponization’ fund

Trump defended plans that his Department of Justice said it has now abandoned to create a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of a settlement to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that the department was scrapping the plan. That announcement came after the plan was paused by a judge and after both Democrats and some Republicans said they were concerned about the fund’s lack of oversight and the possibility of payouts being made to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Trump told NBC he thought the fund was “a great idea” and that he would be “disappointed” if it were not approved.

When asked if he thought people who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 should get a payout, Trump said, “I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.” He then began making unfounded and false claims about the riot and those who stormed the Capitol. Trump granted a sweeping pardon on his first day back in office in January 2025 to the more than 1,500 people prosecuted over Jan. 6.

Rain interruptions and an abrupt end

The NBC interview was conducted in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, before Trump was set to speak at a roundtable event with farmers. The interview was repeatedly interrupted as waves of heavy rain fell on the metal roof of the barn where the taping took place, making it difficult at times to hear.

At the end, Welker pressed Trump on the settlement fund and his claims about the California election. Trump raised his voice and began calling Welker and the media “crooked,” attacking her credibility and complaining about what he called “the fake, dirty press.”

As Welker tried to switch subjects, Trump continued on and there was cross talk between the two. Trump ended the interview, saying said, “Let’s call it quits.” He took off his microphone, telling Welker, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.” He said he had given the interview enough time, stood up and walked away.

Welker said during the broadcast that she spoke to Trump on Saturday and he agreed the rain had caused complications and said he would do another interview in the future.

Israel airstrikes hit Beirut’s suburbs on Sunday, the first such attack on the Lebanese capital since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was renewed last week.

In a post on X, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the attack in the Dahieh district of Beirut,, saying it was in retaliation for an earlier Hezbollah strike on Israel

Hezbollah, an Islamic resistance group separate from the official Lebanese Armed Forces, confirmed it attacked a group of Israeli state fighters with drones overnight, according to the National News Agency of Lebanon.

Middle East Institute senior fellow Brian Katulis noted that multiple ceasefires had been breached since November 2024. The latest ceasefire went into effect on April 17 and was renewed on Thursday. “These ceasefires between Israel and Hezbollah essentially have been quite tenuous, and they’ve been broken almost on a daily basis over the last few weeks,” he said.

“Today’s strikes seem like the latest tit for tat escalation,” Katulis said. He added that the attacks on Beirut’s suburbs did less damage than previous Israeli attacks throughout Lebanon.

Netanyahu was quoted in another post on X as saying that Israel’s military is “completing the elimination of the terrorist villages adjacent to our border.”

“We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run. We will not allow firing at our territory or our communities, and we will act accordingly,” he said.

In a June 3 interview on The New York Post‘s “Pod Force One” podcast, President Trump confirmed a fiery telephone call on June 1 with the Israeli prime minister, in which Trump asked Netanyahu if he was, “f****ing crazy” for continuing the conflict in Lebanon.

Trump said he’d been “perturbed” by Israel’s persistent attacks in Lebanon.

“If there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel,” he said.

The call, Katulis said, showed that Trump – who has repeatedly expressed support for Israel’s moves in Gaza and Iran – has strong opinions about Israel’s force in Lebanon.

“Trump really dug himself in a hole here. And on some level, he understands it,” Katulis, a U.S. foreign policy expert, said.

Between March 2 and June 4 of this year, more than 3,500 women, men, and children were killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, which said more than 10,000 Lebanese people had also been wounded during that time period.