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Oregon News
POLITICS
Gov. Tina Kotek, saying Oregon agencies must do better, isn’t shy about sending leaders packing
Oregon Live | By Carlos Fuentes, Sami Edge
When Gov. Tina Kotek took office, she pledged to hold state agencies accountable. Just over two years into her tenure, she’s proven she’s not afraid to fire people to do so.
Since winning the state’s top office, Kotek has ousted at least five key agency leaders and encouraged the resignation of at least four other state agency leaders or top administrators. This year alone, Kotek has pushed out the leaders of the Oregon Youth Authority, the Oregon State Hospital and the Oregon Public Defense Commission.
Multiple agency heads said they meet regularly with Kotek’s policy advisers and occasionally with the governor to get feedback on agency performance.
“In cases where there has been significant public pushback because of a trigger event, I don’t blame her,” Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham of The Dalles said of the firings. “She is a politician at the end of the day and she responds to political pressure.”
But several state government observers noted Kotek has been quicker to fire agency heads than her predecessor – and more transparent than several former governors about her motivation for doing so.
Proposed wildfire funding bill could impose additional beverage container tax
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
A proposed bill from state representatives aims to fund long-term wildfire prevention and mitigation. The catch is an additional 5-cent tax on beverage containers.
The 5-cent tax would be in addition to the 10-cent deposit on cans and bottles established in the Bottle Bill. Unlike the deposit, the 5-cent tax would not be refundable, as the funds would be directed toward wildfire prevention and mitigation.
The comprehensive funding package would introduce several other revenue streams. Under the bill, 50% of the insurance retaliatory tax revenue would be distributed to wildfire prevention. The tax is a retaliatory tax on out-of-state insurers based in states with a higher aggregate tax burden.
The bill also proposes transferring 0.5% of general fund appropriations per biennium to wildfire response efforts and 50% of Oregon's Rainy Day Fund to wildfire prevention and response.
It would also increase the fire-related harvest tax from 62.5 cents to $1 per 1,000 feet of board. This tax applies to all timber harvested in Oregon and would be adjusted annually for inflation.
The bill also proposes increasing landowner charges to help pay for fire protection. It would raise the minimum amount landowners would pay for fire protection services and increase the yearly fee for properties to help cover firefighting costs. Both charges would rise with inflation.
The bill would establish the State Forestry Department Large Wildfire Fund. A proposed amendment would equally split the revenue from the 5-cent tax on beverage containers between the newly established fund and the State Fire Marshal Mobilization Fund. The proposed amendment would also split the Rainy Day money between the two funds.
As ‘placeholder’ bills surge in Salem, what you see isn’t always what you get
OPB | By Dirk Vanderhart
The bill on tap for the Senate Judiciary Committee that Tuesday could hardly have been more simple. In a scant eight lines, Senate Bill 469 ordered the state’s parole board to “study parole law in the state” and report back in 2026.
But the committee wasn’t meeting to consider that version of SB 469.
As testimony from a small group of interested parties began, it became clear that a far more consequential policy was being proposed — one that would overhaul the state’s process for paroling convicted murderers.
Anyone looking for that version of the bill would have been out of luck. It was still being written by legislative attorneys and wouldn’t emerge until a day after SB 469’s only public hearing. Caught off guard, opponents of the idea scrambled to mount an opposition.
It’s not a unique occurrence in Salem this year.
No one in the Capitol believes this is how things should work. Some recoil at such antics. But they’ve become increasingly likely in recent years, as Oregon lawmakers have relied more on so-called “placeholder” bills to move their ideas.
Loved, tolerated or reviled, placeholders have exploded in Salem. A recent analysis by legislative lawyers estimated fewer than 40 were introduced in 2015. This year, lawmakers sent more than 615 into the legislative ether, an increase of more than 1500%.
For years, advocates at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, a nonprofit focused on criminal justice issues, have argued the process for paroling convicted murderers is too onerous. Prosecutors and victims rights groups disagree.
But this year, a renewed push for the OJRC’s idea seemed to come out of nowhere. The group and its allies knew an amendment was being crafted. Opponents did not.
The next day, Prozanski killed SB 469. “I do not believe there was enough testimony allowed on this bill, and the parties need to have a more thorough discussion,” he said in a hearing.
Prozanski told OPB afterward that this was always his plan. He said he’d taken up the idea to “send a message” to the state parole board that he’s serious about making changes down the road.
“Oh God, I hate ‘em,” said Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, who has directed his staffers to monitor Democrats’ placeholder bills. “It’s like I have to watch this Senate bill forever because the relating-to clause is something that could destroy our economy, could end private rights, whatever it might be.”
Bonham’s counterpart in the House feels the same. House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, calls placeholder bills “the ultimate exercise of absolute power” by Democrats.
INSIDE DOUGLAS COUNTY 5.5.25
KQEN News Radio
Live from Salem, State Senator David Brock Smith has an update on the budgeting process for education and transportation, and covers other topics as well.
Oregon Rep. Dwayne Yunker under investigation over speech on book ban
Statesman Journal | By Dianne Lugo
A southern Oregon lawmaker's March 17 speech on the House floor on a bill that restricts book bans has led to an investigation against him under the Legislature's conduct rule.
Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, said in an April 30 social media post that he was under investigation for reading a sex scene from the 2016 book “The Haters" during remonstrances, verbal protests during floor sessions.
Senate Bill 1098 would prohibit teachers, schools and school districts from removing books solely because they contain content related to a state-protected class, such as race or gender.
On the social media platform X, Yunker stated he had been informed by the Legislative Equity Office on April 2 that two complaints had been made about his reading from the book.
Yunker provided a copy of the letter marked "CONFIDENTIAL" to the Statesman Journal. It states that one complaint was made by a partisan staff member and another by a nonpartisan staffer, who both reported that his comments created a hostile work environment under Rule 27, which prohibits harassment, discrimination and retaliation at the state Capitol.
The second complainant also reported another remonstrance Yunker made on March 27 against funding for menstrual products in all Oregon student bathrooms. During that speech, Yunker was twice stopped when Democrats raised a "point of order" claim or objection.
If it is decided that Yunker violated the conduct rule, he could face a reprimand, a fine or expulsion. Expulsion requires a vote from two-thirds of the House members.
The Senate passed SB 1098 on April 2 on an 18-10 vote with Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, voting with Democrats.
Lawmakers pass bill that could reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions
Bend Bulletin | By Michael Kohn
A bill to improve coordination between state agencies to facilitate the construction of wildlife crossings has passed the Oregon Legislature.
House Bill 2978 facilitates coordination between agencies to increase wildlife crossings at key areas, including parts of Central Oregon. The vote on Wednesday was broadly supported by the Oregon senate, passing 24 votes to three.
Critics fear unemployment pay during strikes will skew negotiations
Capital Press | By Mateusz Perkowski
Union employees could collect unemployment payments while on strike under a bill that Oregon farm and business organizations fear will prolong work stoppages during labor disputes. Opponents are now urging the House Labor Committee to reject or revise the proposal, arguing the version passed by the Senate will skew negotiations over work contracts.
“Oregon already has a reputation for being unfriendly to business,” Paloma Sparks, executive vice president of the Oregon Business & Industry organization, recently told the committee. “We won’t pretend this will chase away all businesses but it is yet another factor that weighs against Oregon.”
Sen. Todd Nash, R-Enterprise, who is now a rancher but was employed at a sawmill in the 1980s, said he participated in a strike against his employer but recognized at a certain point it was time to get back to work. “We found a way to meet in the middle,” Nash said. “This doesn’t inspire that sort of thing to take place.” People expect lawmakers to “protect the sanctity” of the unemployment insurance system, which they rely on “not in their time of want, or their time of desire, but their time of need,” said Sen. Dan Bonham, R-The Dalles. “I believe we are absolutely unbalancing the bargaining table with the base bill,” Bonham said.
Oregon Passenger Rail Plan bill passes both house and senate votes
Elkhorn Media Group
Oregon House Bill 3233, Relating to rail; and prescribing an effective date, has officially passed a vote in both the Oregon House of Representatives and the Oregon State senate. The bill, if fully approved, would direct the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to develop a new passenger rail transportation plan, with long term goals of increasing rail ridership, boosting tourism, increasing rail capacity, and improving rail infrastructure.
Federal funding cuts hit Oregon programs supporting kids in foster care
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Advocates for abused and neglected children in Oregon lost more federal funding in late April after the U.S. Department of Justice abruptly terminated grants.
While attorneys and caseworkers are overburdened, CASA volunteers — short for Court Appointed Special Advocates — take on one child at a time and support them during the court process, Yamhill County CASA Network Executive Director Sarah Johnson told the Capital Chronicle. The Yamhill County CASA network, which represents about 150 foster kids in rural northwest Oregon, lost access to a $35,000 federal grant it received to maintain its full-time staff and support its CASA volunteers.
The Yamhill County network is one of 19 programs across Oregon that lost federal funding after the U.S. Department of Justice on April 22 announced it was cutting funding to the National CASA Network, which had distributed funds and support to local programs. With those funds gone, Oregon programs now face budget shortfalls as they continue helping vulnerable children.
There are more than 1,800 CASA advocates in Oregon, and 65% of children in foster care have a CASA, according to Oregon CASA Network Interim Executive Director Kat Hendrix. Local Oregon CASA networks train their volunteers and receive marketing assistance from the national CASA organization.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the national CASA organization that it was terminating federal grant awards because the program “no longer effectuates the program’s goals or agency priorities.”
According to the letter, the department is changing its grant priorities to focus on “law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and better coordinating law enforcement efforts at all levels of government.”
Oregon CASA programs were already facing budget shortfalls after Congress passed a continuing resolution in March cutting $1.7 million in community project funding, KDRV reported. Federal U.S. Department of Justice grants would have helped offset the loss for those funds, Hendrix said.
“The termination of federal funding to the national CASA organization, which creates grant opportunities for state and local CASA programs, means that a viable funding pathway is no longer available,” she said.
Oregon Republican lawmakers propose transportation budget cuts
KOIN | By Michaela Bourgeois
Oregon House Republicans unveiled their transportation funding proposal on Wednesday, featuring $730 million in “refocused spending,” and budget cuts for various programs from public transportation to safety initiatives for pedestrians and bicyclists.
In a press release, the House Republican Caucus said the funding package prioritizes “core functions” of the transportation department while avoiding spending on “non-essential programs and divisive agendas.”
The proposal includes a handful of budget cuts to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s 2025-2027 biennial budget.
When hospitals ditch Medicare Advantage plans, thousands of members get to leave, too
Oregon Capital Chronicle
But in the past 15 months, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the Medicare Advantage program, has quietly offered roughly three-month special enrollment periods allowing thousands of Advantage members in at least 13 states to change plans. They were also allowed to leave Advantage plans entirely and choose traditional Medicare coverage without penalty, regardless of when they lost their providers. But even when CMS lets Advantage members leave a plan that lost a key provider, insurers can still enroll new members without telling them the network has shrunk.
At least 41 hospital systems have dropped out of 62 Advantage plans serving all or parts of 25 states since July, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Over the past two years, separations between Advantage plans and health systems have tripled, said FTI Consulting, which tracks reports of the disputes.
ODOT whistleblower sues again over rescinded job offer
Eugene Register-Guard | By Alan Torres
A Lane County resident who won a $1.5 million jury verdict against the Oregon Department of Transportation is suing the agency again — this time claiming ODOT rescinded a job offer in retaliation for his previous legal victory.
Whistleblower Sues Oregon Department of Forestry
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
The embattled Oregon Department of Forestry faces a new whistleblower lawsuit in Marion County Circuit Court.
Shauneen Scott, a 40-year state employee who most recently served as ODF’s human resources director, alleges in the April 18 lawsuit that she filed reports with the state about a variety of concerns about ODF management after joining the agency in 2024. After some of those concerns contributed to high-level departures, Scott’s lawsuit says, the department’s acting director, Kate Skinner, fired Scott in February 2025. She is seeking $800,000 in damages.
Oregon’s nice guy senator embraces abrasiveness to fight Trumpism
Oregon Live | By Douglas Perry
Most Oregonians only know a world that has Ron Wyden in Congress. You could almost say he’s the state’s unofficial grandfather — kindly, affable, always around for a buck-up chat when you need one. He seems as timeless as Mount Hood.
He enjoys holding town hall meetings across Oregon, listening intently to Republicans and Democrats alike, shaking hands, exuding endless optimism
But Republican Donald Trump’s return to the presidency after four years out of office, vowing “retribution” on his political opponents, has changed everything.
Wyden — who has five children and is married to Nancy Bass, owner of New York’s iconic Strand Book Store — says he worries that in the years ahead his youngest child, “my 12-year-old daughter Scarlett, with bright red hair, might have to leave the United States, like her grandmother fled the Nazis. Because she would fear for her safety.”
Yes, he went there.
There have been a lot of flippant comparisons to the Nazis in the 10 years since Trump descended that golden escalator at his eponymous skyscraper, two miles from the Strand Book Store, to begin his populist political career.
But Wyden is not one to bring up the Nazis flippantly. His late parents — journalist Peter Wyden and academic researcher Edith Rosenow — separately got out of Germany in the 1930s, just in time.
Major Oregon health systems call off controversial merger
Oregon Live | By Kristine de Leon
Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Health have abandoned their plans to merge, ending a high-stakes proposal that figured to reshape the state’s health care landscape.
Former Oregon Secretary of State faces $1,600 fine for ethics violations
Oregon Live | By Noelle Crombie
Former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan has agreed to pay $1,600 in civil fines to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for using her position to obtain a $10,000-a-month side job and for seeking state reimbursement for roomier accommodations on work trips where she was accompanied by her kids and the family dog, records show.
Fagan signed the final order spelling out the settlement last week. The commission is set to vote on the agreement at its meeting Friday.
Bill to have big tech pay for local news advances in Oregon Legislature
OPB | By Bryce Dole
Democrats on the Senate Committee on Rules on Monday advanced Senate Bill 686 to the floor over Republican opposition.
The bill would have tech companies pay at least $122 million annually to access the media produced by journalists across Oregon. It would also allow companies to determine a different payment through arbitration and fund a consortium at the University of Oregon that supports journalism statewide through grants.
Money under the bill would be distributed to newsrooms based on how many journalists they employ in the state.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland. It’s sponsored by 14 Democrats — including caucus leaders like House Majority Leader Ben Bowman — and one Republican, Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City.
The bill faced additional challenges during a work session with lawmakers Monday. Christopher Allnatt, an attorney from the Office of Legislative Counsel, testified that the bill could violate constitutional law barring the government from taking private property for public use.
Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, opposed the bill, saying he was concerned it would result in legal challenges that could cost taxpayers money.
“It absolutely violates the Constitution, in my opinion,” Bonham said. “I am no constitutional scholar, but I’ve read the document and I’ve read our oath of office. And I don’t see how we could put this forward with the explanation that we’ll let the courts decide with the evidence that we have from our own paid attorneys.”
Bonham isn’t pleased with the prospect of Oregon once again leading the way into such uncharted legal waters.
“One of the fundamental things that we’ve done in the United States is to say that we’re not going to tax the internet,” Bonham said. “And yet here we are in the state of Oregon, the tip of the spear. We’re going to wage this war. This is going to cost significant amounts of money.”
Editorial valley: Legislators’ anti-transparency gamble
The Oregonian Editorial Board
Oregon legislators last week passed a bill aimed at closing a loophole at the Oregon Lottery. Too bad they also added a provision that will make it easier for the next scheme that arises to go uncorrected.
The general idea behind House Bill 3115 was a good one. Legislators sought to explicitly prohibit the practice of discounting, in which individuals buy winning lottery tickets from the actual winners at a discount – and then claim the full amount from state lottery officials. State law is currently ambiguous, lawmakers agreed.
But along the way, legislators casually and without much discussion, added an amendment that makes the names of those claiming lottery payouts anonymous. There’s no rational reason for doing so, unless the aim is to shield the Lottery’s management from scrutiny. Sickinger’s investigation was possible only because Oregon currently recognizes the names of claimants are public information, just as 22 other states do. The slim discussion and even slimmer excuses for hiding this information simply don’t hold up.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Trump administration cuts hit programs for Oregon crime victims
KGW | By Evan Watson
The Trump administration has slashed grant funding for Oregon-based programs supporting disabled crime victims, youth gun violence prevention, and hate crime reporting, as the U.S. Justice Department becomes the latest federal agency to aggressively downsize.
People who worked on some of those programs in Oregon can attest to the way decisions made with the stroke of a pen in Washington, D.C. are having a dramatic impact on local communities.
5 things to know about alleged bribery scheme allowing unqualified truckers to hit PNW roads
Oregon Live | By Ted Sickinger
An upstart commercial driving academy with branches in Washington and Oregon was allegedly bribing an independent driving tester to obtain passing grades on exams for its unqualified students in Washington, according to state investigative records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive and detailed in a story published Friday.
Oregon Democrats criticize Trump’s order targeting NPR, PBS funding
OPB | By Bryce Dole
Oregon Democrats on Friday condemned President Donald Trump’s order to defund NPR and PBS, accusing the president of acting beyond the scope of his authority in an effort to silence the press.
The president’s order, issued Thursday night, told the board of directors with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop taxpayer funding NPR and PBS, two of America’s largest public broadcasters. He claims their reporting is biased, inaccurate and unfair.
ECONOMY
Oregon gas prices drop as OPEC+ plans production increase
KATU
Average gasoline prices in Oregon have decreased by 2.6 cents per gallon over the past week, now averaging $3.83 per gallon, according to a GasBuddy survey of 1,307 stations in the state. This marks a decline of 11.4 cents per gallon from a month ago and a significant drop of 60 cents per gallon compared to the same time last year.
The cheapest gas station in Oregon was priced at $3.29 per gallon Sunday, while the most expensive was $4.49 per gallon, reflecting a $1.20 per gallon difference.
EDUCATION
Secretary of State Comes Knocking at Oregon Department of Education’s Door
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Another top state official is jumping headfirst into the K–12 education accountability conversation that’s gripped the Oregon Legislature this session.
In a letter to the Oregon Department of Education dated April 25, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read followed up on a 2022 systemic risk report by his predecessor, Shemia Fagan. The report presented five key risks that “could undermine K–12 system improvement,” and came as the state was in the process of implementing the 2019 Student Success Act, a corporate activities tax that boosted state education funding. In his letter, Read asked the department for an update on how it’s addressed those five risks.
Read’s foray into the debate could also signal greater political ambitions. That a secretary of state would send a proactive follow-up to a report is not all that common. A former five-term lawmaker and two-term state treasurer, Read ran for governor and lost to Kotek in the primary in 2022. It also comes as U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s reelection plans are not yet clear.
PPS Board Members Draft Resolution to Prioritize Seismic Safety in Schools Bond
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
A new resolution drafted by three Portland School Board members would outline a process for how money from the district’s proposed $1.83 billion bond would be spent on seismic upgrades for schools.
The draft comes five weeks after WW reported that 19 of the district’s schools, at all grade levels, are built with unreinforced masonry and could collapse on kids during a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. Since then, seismic safety has become an increased concern for some families as they debate whether to cast their vote for the bond, which does not specify how much money would go to seismic upgrades.
In its current form, the bond has $190 million allocated for deferred maintenance projects across the district, though there is no specific breakdown for how much of that money would go toward seismic retrofits. District leaders have indicated there could be an additional $176 million to $208 million committed to elementary and middle school projects if there is spillover from three planned high school modernizations.
HOUSING
How Portland, OR made housing more affordable
NBC News
In a word: density. New zoning rules in Portland, OR led to an increase in duplexes, tri-plexes, and quad-plexes on lots previously designated for single family homes. The new units typically sell for $300,000 less than traditional houses and that’s helped more people become homeowners. The change has been so effective, Oregon’s governor wants to bring the housing model to the rest of the state.
Editorial peak: A proposal to jolt Portland’s housing market
The Oregonian Editorial Board
High interest rates and President Donald Trump’s tariff theatrics are chilling home building nationally, even as a housing shortage stretches from coast to coast. New home construction in Portland – never an easy task – has slowed to a trickle.
In a press conference last week, the two proposed that the city temporarily waive the development fees it charges home builders for adding new roads, sewer pipes and parks – of which the city already has an extensive network. The proposal would expire after three years or the addition of 5,000 more apartments and homes. More of this kind of thinking, please.
Oregon bill would stop bans on mobile homes
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
A bill making its way through the Oregon Legislature would prevent new planned communities from banning manufactured and modular homes.
House Bill 3144 would not impact existing communities, only new communities moving forward. Manufactured units would still be subject to the same design requirements of other homes in a community.
“While successfully addressing the crisis will take many types of creative solutions, frankly, this bill is an easy one,” bill sponsor Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, told the Senate Committee on Housing and Development on Monday afternoon.
The fires destroyed 18 mobile home parks in the Rogue Valley, wiping out more than 1,500 manufactured homes in Marsh’s district. Before the fires, Marsh’s district had the highest number of manufactured homes of any House district.
There are more than 140,000 manufactured homes in Oregon, according to Bill Van Vliet, the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing executive director.
The number of new apartments is at a 50-year high, but states expect a slowdown
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Tim Henderson
More new apartments were built in 2024 than in any other year since 1974, but the Trump administration’s tariffs and deportations of potential construction workers, plus higher interest rates, could be a wet blanket on the boom.
A U.S. Census Bureau survey found almost 592,000 new apartments were finished last year, the most since the 1970s, when baby boomers sparked a construction surge as they moved out of their childhood homes. There were 693,000 new apartments built in 1974, when the country had about half as many households.
But there has been a steep slowdown in construction starts, as the newly completed apartments come online. The increased supply has lowered rents and increased vacancy rates, making new development less profitable. Some experts also say tariffs on construction materials and labor shortages caused by dips in immigration will create headwinds for new construction.
Apartment starts were down 27% in 2024 compared with 2023, and down 37% from a recent peak of 531,000 in 2022, despite the historic rate of completions. Apartment starts were at their lowest ebb since 2013.
Trump budget would slash rental aid by 40% — and let states fill the gap if they want
OPB | By Jennifer Ludden
President Trump has repeatedly promised to “make America affordable again.” But for those Americans most in need, his administration’s latest budget plan would dramatically shrink the federal rental aid that helps keep millions of people housed.
In its request for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the White House called the current system of federal rental assistance “dysfunctional” and proposed essentially ending Section 8 and other housing voucher programs. Its plan calls for cutting rental aid by about 40% and sending that money to states “to design their own rental assistance programs based on their unique needs and preferences.”
It would also impose a two-year cap on rental assistance for able-bodied adults, which it said would ensure most federal subsidies went to the elderly and disabled.
NATURAL RESOURCES & WILDFIRE
Oregon and Washington could be in for another destructive wildfire season
OPB | By Jeff Thompson
Fire officials say the 2025 wildfire season in Oregon and Washington could look a lot like last year’s expensive and destructive wildfire season. The region is at an elevated risk for large and costly fires, according to a forecast out this week.
Last year, Oregon saw its most destructive fire season in modern times, in terms of acres burned. By late July 2024, the state had become the nation’s top firefighting priority.
At one point in August, there were more than 13,000 firefighters working throughout the state to knock down the wildfires.
By the time fire season ended, more than 1,000 wildfires had burned through 1.9 million acres across Oregon. That included six “megafires” that, at their peaks, had fire perimeters larger than 100,000 acres each.
It was Oregon’s most expensive wildfire season, with an estimated cost of $350 million. The Oregon Legislature held a special session late last year to figure out how to pay for it.
Oregon State Fire Marshal urges residents to create defensible space amid wildfire risk
KATU | By Sana Aljobory
As Oregon braces for another potentially challenging wildfire season, the Oregon State Fire Marshal is urging residents to take proactive measures to protect their homes and communities.
Last year, the state experienced one of its most destructive wildfire seasons, with 1.9 million acres burned. However, some homes remained unscathed due to the creation of defensible space.
State partners with insurance industry to help Oregon homeowners with wildfire prevention
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhart
Oregon’s State Fire Marshal is collaborating with a nonprofit backed by the insurance industry to help Oregonians protect their homes from burning and keep their premiums from rising.
State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple signed a memorandum of agreement Friday with Roy Wright, CEO of the South Carolina-based Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, which oversees the “Wildfire Prepared” certification program. The program offers homeowners in California, and now Oregon, certificates for undertaking specific wildfire prevention work around their homes.
In turn, insurers could incorporate certification into their calculus for rates and premiums, helping to curb the rising cost of property insurance, which has grown 30% since 2020, according to the state’s Department of Consumer and Business Services. For Gov. Tina Kotek, the memorandum is about making sure Oregonians can keep getting property insurance, period.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
National Institutes of Health Cuts Back on Animal Experiments in Plan Likely to Hurt OHSU
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
The National Institutes of Health said this week it planned to curb the use of animals in medical testing, a move that could hurt Oregon Health & Science University, which collects about $56 million a year from the NIH to run the Oregon National Primate Research Center, a 200-acre facility in Hillsboro.
Animal rights advocates who have long struggled to gain traction in their battle against the primate center have now found a powerful ally in the Trump White House. Like Kennedy, who says that cod liver oil can cure measles, NIH head Bhattacharya is a controversial figure in medicine. He was a lead author of the Great Barrington Declaration, a 2020 report that recommended letting COVID-19 spread among young people who likely wouldn’t be killed and could therefore develop immunity.
Oregon prepares to reopen popular EV rebate program
OPB | By Monica Samayoa
Oregon’s popular electric vehicle rebate program is back.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Oregon Clean Vehicle Rebate program is set to reopen on May 22, with a focus on helping low to moderate-income households purchase or lease new or used EVs.
For the past two years, the program has had to halt rebates after running out of state funding, reflecting the increased popularity of EVs. Now, the agency will use a boost of federal dollars to bring rebates back.
Governor turns ‘lessons’ from Eastern Oregon nitrate crisis into a reform bill
OPB | BY Antonio Sierra
When Morrow County declared a state of emergency in 2022 over the high levels of nitrates found in the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater, the long-term response to the crisis was a jumble of local committees and state agencies that had made no discernible progress on lowering nitrate levels in more than 30 years. Nearly three years later, the governor is behind a bill that would put the state firmly in charge of groundwater quality across the state.
Senate Bill 1154 is an attempt to rework the 36-year-old Oregon Groundwater Quality Protection Act so that the state relies more on regulation and less on good intentions to fix groundwater pollution. This includes giving state agencies the authority to take action against agricultural polluters, a departure from the current policy that mostly promotes voluntary measures.
Despite being sponsored by Gov. Tina Kotek, the bill does not face a glide path to passage. The agricultural industry is mostly opposed to the bill as it’s written. Hundreds of well owners across the state also have lined up to stop the bill, which they view as an existential threat to rural life.
This Oregon program seeks to unlock opportunities for Latino farmers and gardeners
OPB | By Alejandro Figueroa
Tecum now lives in a region of Oregon with some of the most rich, productive soils in the country – the Willamette Valley. It’s also a region with a large percentage of Latinos. He leads a program in Washington County, where only about 7% of farms are Latino or Hispanic owned, that seeks to help aspiring farmers or home gardeners successfully grow their own food or market their own produce.
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