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Good morning, Northwest.
Federal officers’ use of tear gas on protesters, including children and elderly people, in Portland is set to go before a judge this morning.
In court filings late last night, the ACLU of Oregon and other lawyers representing protesters cited federal officers’ heavy use of chemical munitions against demonstrators at the Portland ICE building over the weekend.
We start today’s newsletter in Salem, where Oregon lawmakers will convene a short legislative session that is long on priorities.
Here’s your First Look at Monday’s news.
—Bradley W. Parks
FILE - The Oregon Capitol in Salem. The release of an eye-catching list of possible budget cuts signals the start of the Oregon Legislature's endgame: negotiations about taxes and budgets.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Oregon’s 2026 legislative session: What you need to know
It’s fitting that Oregon’s 2026 legislative session convenes on Groundhog Day.
As lawmakers gavel in the five-week session on Monday morning, they, like the protagonist of the 1993 Bill Murray film, are caught in a bit of a time loop.
As in last year’s session, the Legislature faces major questions over how to close a hole in the transportation budget. They’re wrestling again with high housing and energy costs, soaring homelessness, and a host of other unresolved problems.
And yet for all the similarities, this year’s session brings some special wrinkles — many of them brought on by President Donald Trump.
There is no shortage of interesting issues lawmakers could tackle between now and their mandatory adjournment on March 8. Here’s a rundown of some of the most pressing. (Dirk VanderHart, Lauren Dake, and Bryce Dole)
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Protesters try to get tear gas out of their eyes and escape the area after federal agents deployed the chemical munition on a crowd of more than a thousand demonstrators near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 31, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
3 things to know this morning
- Protesters outside the ICE building in Portland say officers fired large amounts of chemical munitions this weekend on nonviolent demonstrators, including children and elderly people. They’re asking a judge to limit officers’ use of force. (Conrad Wilson)
- More than five years after allegations came to light that West Linn doctor David Farley had been sexually abusing dozens of his female patients, the civil trial involving him and the medical institutions he worked at will begin today. (Holly Bartholomew)
- Asian elephant Tula-Tu, one of the star animals at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, has turned 1. Weighing about 210 pounds at birth, the baby elephant now tips the scales at close to 1,000 pounds. (Winston Szeto)
OHSU primate research center under scrutiny from scientists and activists opposed to animal research
As OHSU considers the future of its primate research center, “The Evergreen” revisits its episode on the facility. (Amelia Templeton and Julie Sabatier)
FILE - This artist’s illustration depicts 2025 MN45, the fastest-rotating asteroid with a diameter over 500 meters that scientists have ever found.
NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld / NSF's NOIRLab
Headlines from around the Northwest
- University of Washington astronomers discover a record-breaking asteroid (Anna Marie Yanny)
- Oregon hospitals failed in 2024 to meet national standards on several preventable infections (Lynne Terry)
- Novelist explores grief and sense of place on the Oregon Coast in ‘Finding Lost’ (Geoff Norcross)
- Avdija earns All-Star nod but misses game as Cavaliers beat Trail Blazers 130-111 (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):
- Lewis & Clark College in Portland displays rare manuscripts from the Middle Ages
- Portland host of ‘Conspirituality’ podcast on debunking health misinformation
Wayne Sutton, founder and curator of Wayne's Chainsaw Museum, poses for a photograph on Jan. 23, 2026, inside the museum located in Clark County.
Courtesy of Wayne Sutton
Clark County chainsaw museum showcases the power tool that left its mark on Pacific Northwest
Wayne Sutton’s earliest memory of a chainsaw was when he was 5 or 6 years old.
Sutton had accompanied his father into the woods on a timber-cutting job when his father asked him to hold the handles of a chainsaw as he carved up a felled tree.
While it didn’t actually shock him, the experience did spark in Sutton a lifelong curiosity and love of chainsaws nurtured by his early exposure to them.
Today, Sutton is the founder and curator of Wayne’s Chainsaw Museum.
Located a few miles outside of Amboy in Clark County, the private museum holds about half of the 4,000 or 5,000 chainsaws Sutton has collected or that people have donated to him over the years. (Sheraz Sadiq)
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