First Look

OPB’s First Look: Government shutdown ends

By Bradley W. Parks (OPB)
Nov. 13, 2025 3:30 p.m.

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Good morning, Northwest.

The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is over.

Last night, President Trump signed a bill to fund most of the government through the end of January. Six House Democrats, including Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, joined Republicans in voting for the bill yesterday.

We start this morning with the latest on the slow reopening of the government.

Also this morning, OPB premieres a documentary on the historic first descent of the undammed Klamath River.

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

—Bradley W. Parks


President Donald Trump shows the signed bill package to re-open the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2025.

President Donald Trump shows the signed bill package to re-open the federal government in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 12, 2025.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images

The longest government shutdown in US history comes to a close

President Trump last night signed a bill to keep the government open through January. The package includes funding for SNAP and reverses some shutdown-induced layoffs, but does not address expiring health care subsidies. (Barbara Sprunt)

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Hoopa Valley Tribal member Julian Rogers, 16, paddles through a rapid in Kikacéki Canyon on the Klamath River, June 22, 2025.  Rogers is a participant in Paddle Tribal Waters, a program that trained Indigenous youth for several years to be the first group of people to paddle the free-flowing Klamath from source to sea.

Follow Indigenous kayakers on a historic journey after Klamath dam removal

A historic kayaking journey that started at the headwaters of the Klamath River in Southern Oregon on June 12 traveled the entire length of the river, ending July 11 on the Yurok Reservation.

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Indigenous kayakers passed through the free-flowing river at the four sites where dams were taken out in the country’s largest dam removal project.

OPB’s “Oregon Field Guide” team joined the paddle for multiple days to create the documentary “First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath,” which premieres today. (Jessie Sears and Brandon Swanson)

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FILE - Newport's Dock 5 on May 2, 2025.

FILE - Newport's Dock 5 on May 2, 2025.

Kyra Buckley / OPB

3 things to know this morning

  • Newport residents met yesterday to express confusion, frustration and anxiety about the relocation of a Coast Guard helicopter and the possibility of ICE setting up a detention facility there. (Conrad Wilson, Michelle Wiley and Dirk VanderHart) 
  • Public school enrollment in Oregon dropped by almost 22,000 students after COVID-19 shuttered schools. It continues to decline. (Elizabeth Miller) 
  • The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is planning to take action against a landfill north of Corvallis accused of inadequate physical coverings and emissions monitoring. (Nathan Wilk)

City of Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson speaks to supporters during an election night party on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle.

City of Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson speaks to supporters during an election night party on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle.

KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

Headlines from around the Northwest


Nathan Hunter, second from left on the front row, and Brooke Nugent, second from right on the front row, hold the flag they designed at a City Council meeting in Vancouver, Wash., on Nov. 10, 2025.

Nathan Hunter, second from left on the front row, and Brooke Nugent, second from right on the front row, hold the flag they designed at a City Council meeting in Vancouver, Wash., on Nov. 10, 2025.

Courtesy of the city of Vancouver

Vancouver adopts new city flag

The city of Vancouver, Washington, has officially adopted a new flag, replacing its first flag that flew for three decades.

On Nov. 10, City Council passed a resolution to adopt the design recommended by the city’s seven-member flag selection committee.

The design combines elements from two of the committee’s recommended finalists. (Winston Szeto)

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THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:

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