OPB’s First Look: National Guard trial comes to a close

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

Good morning, Northwest.

A federal trial over whether President Trump can legally deploy the National Guard to Portland is set to wrap up today.

OPB’s Michelle Wiley starts us off this morning recapping the first two days of testimony and previewing the day ahead.

Today is also Halloween, and we have a special story to mark the occasion.

The Portland-made film “Deafula” premiered 50 years ago, becoming the first feature-length film performed entirely in American Sign Language.

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

—Bradley W. Parks

National Guard deployment trial set to end today in Portland

Today marks the third and final day of a trial examining whether the Trump administration’s efforts to send in the National Guard are lawful.

Hearings began Wednesday with a startling revelation: Despite a restraining order, some Oregon National Guard members were deployed to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

The trial continued yesterday with competing views on Portland protests and crowd control tactics.

No matter the outcome, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut’s decision will likely be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Michelle Wiley)

Learn more

3 things to know this morning

• The U.S. Forest Service is going back to the drawing board with an update to the Northwest Forest Plan, a set of policies that broadly dictates where logging can occur on 25 million acres of forests in Oregon, Washington and northwest California. (April Ehrlich) 
• Bend paid its equity director, Andrés Portela III, $86,000 to resign after he had already quit. Each side has a very different view on what happened. (Kathryn Styer Martínez and Emily Cureton Cook) 
• Residential customers of NW Natural, Oregon’s largest gas utility, will see an increase on their energy bills starting today. (Monica Samayoa)

Headlines from around the Northwest

• ‘I will fight for my father’: Family of Hillsboro man arrested by ICE push for his release (Holly Bartholomew)
• Portland Public Schools weighs options as it seeks to make Jefferson High a neighborhood school again (Natalie Pate)
• Feds propose opening up more public lands for cattle grazing in Oregon, Western states (Alejandro Figueroa)
• Man faces felony charges for threats against Washington governor (Jake Goldstein-Street)
• Washington state Democrats look at imposing income tax on higher earners (Jerry Cornfield)

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):

• 2025 Oregon Book Award winner ‘We Were the Universe’ explores motherhood, grief and more 
• After historic dam removal, salmon return to Williamson and Sprague rivers in Southern Oregon

Portland-filmed ‘Deafula’ was the first feature-length movie in ASL

The year 1975 was groundbreaking for the American film industry.

The release of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” that year forever shaped the psychological horror genre (and instilled global fear of a certain two-note score).

Some 1975 blockbusters had Oregon connections. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‚” often regarded as one of the greatest and most financially successful movies of all time, was filmed in Salem and based on Oregon author Ken Kesey’s novel.

The state can claim another superlative, though likely less known: the first full-length feature film performed entirely in American Sign Language, premiered at the old Broadway Theater to a large Deaf audience. (Arya Surowidjojo)

Learn more

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