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Good morning, Northwest.
People who live near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland are upset with tear gas and other munitions being deployed in their neighborhood.
Today’s newsletter starts with the account of a Yemeni family whose window was broken at a Saturday protest, filling their apartment with gas.
Also this morning, Oregon is enduring historically bad snowpack, but there could be winter weather on the horizon.
Here’s your First Look at Thursday’s news.
—Bradley W. Parks
A window broken in a Gray’s Landing apartment as a result of a crowd control munition from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility which is across the street, in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 31, 2026. Federal officers used crowd control munitions, which included chemical and projectile munitions that evening.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Yemeni mother and daughter shaken after apartment window broken by projectile near Portland ICE building
On Saturday, without warning, a projectile with a corkscrew tail of smoke smashed into a third-story apartment window across the street from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
Glass rained on the sidewalk below. People nearby screamed. Some had never been to a protest, let alone stood in the radius of tear gas clouds and less lethal whizbangs.
But it was grimly familiar to the mother and daughter who live on the other side of the now broken window, who came to the U.S. a decade ago to escape the civil war in Yemen.
“I never thought in a million years that would happen in the U.S,” said L.H., a 29-year-old medical student. (Troy Brynelson)
Related: ICE agents can’t make warrantless arrests in Oregon unless there’s a risk of escape, US judge rules (Claire Rush)
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FILE - Japanese macaques at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, Ore., April 17, 2025.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
3 things to know this morning
- Oregon is experiencing its lowest-ever snowpack for this time of year. But that could change, as mountain areas are expecting snowfall this weekend, and low-lying valleys might see snow later this month. (April Ehrlich)
- A new revenue forecast released yesterday morning shows Oregon’s budget gap will be about $100 million less than expected at the start of the legislative session. (Dirk VanderHart)
- The National Institutes of Health have approached OHSU to discuss transitioning its primate research center into a sanctuary. (Amelia Templeton)
Candidates for Deschutes County sheriff interim Sheriff Ty Rupert, left, and Lt. James McLaughlin, right.
Images via Deschutes County Sheriff's Office; McLaughlin campaign / OPB
Headlines from around the Northwest
- As Deschutes sheriff race heats up, county investigation tests employees’ free speech (Jen Baires)
- The Skanner, one of Oregon’s few Black-owned publications, shutters as newsrooms across the state shrink (Kyra Buckley)
- Oregon land-use groups, farmers at odds over agritourism (Alejandro Figueroa)
- Oregon bill seeks to temporarily fast-track siting of renewable energy projects (Monica Samayoa)
- Lawmakers take up bill to allow big changes to Oregon’s university system (Jane Vaughan and Tiffany Camhi)
- Multnomah Commissioner Shannon Singleton enters county chair’s race (Alex Zielinski)
- Nike faces federal probe over allegations of ‘DEI-related’ discrimination against white workers (Alexandra Olson and Claire Savage)
- Portland topples No. 6 Gonzaga 87-80 in stunning upset (Anne M. Peterson)
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):
- Eugene equestrian brings traditional Japanese horseback archery to Oregon
- Federal constitutional violations threaten foundation of democracy itself, says Portland legal scholar
A view of the mysterious "pinnacles" located in a remote part of Crater Lake National Park in 1975.
Lloyd Smith
How spectacular rock pinnacles got lost behind the scenes at Crater Lake National Park
Tucked away in a forgotten corner of Crater Lake National Park, a series of extraordinary rock spires tower over a meandering creek.
Today, they’re hidden behind the scenes of the park’s main attraction: Crater Lake.
The epic size, dramatic framing and dazzling blue of the 2,000-foot-deep lake never fail to dazzle visitors.
Formed after the eruption of Mount Mazama some 7,700 years ago, the site became the country’s second national park in 1902.
What modern tourists may not realize is that early visitors entering the park in horse-drawn coaches were treated to another spectacle known as the Pinnacles. (Jule Gilfillan)
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