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Oregon News
POLITICS
Three Oregon High School Athletes file lawsuit over state's transgender athlete policy
KATU | By Jeff Kirsch
Three Oregon high school athletes filed a lawsuit over the state's transgender athlete policy.
Gov. Tina Kotek, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), the Oregon Department of Education, and three school districts are named as defendants in the lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Portland on Monday. Forest Grove School District, Newberg School District, and Portland School District are the three districts named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Hundreds of Oregon transportation department employees get lay-off notices
OPB | By Dirk VanderHart
ODOT says 10 percent of state road workers will be out of a job by August.
Nearly 500 state transportation employees received layoff notices Monday, as the Oregon Department of Transportation warned that lawmakers’ recent failure to boost its budget would result in diminished services.
All told, state transportation leaders informed 483 workers – roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce – that their jobs will go away at the end of July. Gov. Tina Kotek said Monday that more layoffs are expected early next year unless lawmakers act to find more money.
“This is not business as usual,” Kotek said in a statement. “These layoffs constitute an emergency in Oregon’s transportation system that will hurt every part of Oregon.”
As it sheds workers, ODOT is also planning to close 12 road maintenance outposts around the state. Agency leaders say they plan to scale back pothole repairs, road striping, litter pickup, snow plowing and other services as they work to close a $354 million funding gap.
“ODOT is forced to make service reduction decisions because funding won’t be available,” the agency said in an FAQ document. “All of these impacts are severe and there are no good choices.”
The announcement of steep cuts comes a little more than a week after Oregon lawmakers failed to agree on a road-funding proposal designed in part to avoid layoffs.
And they prompted Kotek to, once again, hint at what many suspect: A special legislative session to blunt the impact of the funding hole may be in the works.
“This emergency was preventable, and we still have time to intervene,” Kotek said. “I have not and will not stop fighting for Oregonians who rely on us to keep our roads safe and people and products moving.”
But a special session would require Democrats to first come up with a workable funding plan. And the logistics will prove tricky in a busy summer season when many lawmakers have vacations planned.
Even the Capitol building has a scheduling conflict. It’s completely shuttered until Aug. 10 as part of a years-long renovation project. That means lawmakers couldn’t convene there until more than a week after hundreds of employees will be let go.
While elected officials figure out whether they can avert layoffs, ODOT offered its most specific look at cuts to date in its Monday FAQ.
Alongside shrinking the number of people available to do road maintenance, the agency said it is eliminating positions in support positions like IT and facilities. It’s also cutting “project delivery” positions that allow bridge and paving projects to move forward.
Among the specific services the agency warned will be cut or reduced:
- maintenance on state park roads and rest areas
- 120 miles of “chip seal” projects that increase the lifespan of roads
- homeless camp cleanups on ODOT property in Portland.
- new edge striping on low-traffic roads
- pothole repairs
- guardrail replacement along portions of U.S. 30 damaged by fires in the Columbia River Gorge earlier this year, which may mean keeping the road closed through the summer.
ODOT leaders have said for years that the revenue the state agency takes in from gas taxes, licensing and titling fees and other sources was flattening out, even as costs were rising steeply. They’ve been warning about looming cuts since last year.
Oregon Democrats offered up a number of road-funding proposals this year that would have filled the budget gap – and then some.
An initial version of House Bill 2025 would have raised around $14.6 billion over a decade via higher gas taxes, a new tax on car sales, an increase in registration fees and more. Much of the money would have been shared with city and county road departments that are also warning of dire shortfalls. The City of Portland said Monday that 50 transportation workers might lose their jobs because lawmakers didn’t act.
But Republicans and a handful of key Democrats said the proposal was too expensive. When it became clear a major road-funding package didn’t have support, legislative leaders and Kotek scrambled in the final day of session to pass a stop-gap bill to avoid cuts at ODOT.
When House Republicans refused to allow Democrats to fast-track that bill to a vote, the Legislature adjourned two days earlier than necessary, and ODOT started executing layoff plans.
Oregon to lay off 11% of ODOT staff and close nearly 14% of maintenance stations
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
Gov. Tina Kotek announced layoffs on July 7 of 483 Oregon Department of Transportation employees and said the remainder of an anticipated 600 to 700 layoffs would come in early 2026 after lawmakers failed to pass a transportation package during the session that ended June 27.
"These layoffs constitute an emergency in Oregon’s transportation system that will hurt every part of Oregon," Kotek said in a statement. "There will not be enough workers to provide the level of response Oregonians rely on, whether it’s filling a pothole or clearing safe passage for evacuation when a fire strikes."
ODOT said 12 maintenance stations will be closed and road maintenance projects in Grant, Union and Benton counties scheduled for July 7 were canceled "due to ongoing funding challenges."
Road maintenance, snow removal and pavement patching are some of the service areas that will be reduced due to the cuts, according to ODOT.
The agency said in a news release that it would "do everything possible to prioritize safety and minimize disruptions, but we ask for your understanding and patience as we work through these unprecedented constraints."
ODOT also said it was eliminating 449 out of some 580 vacant positions, many of which were open for savings.
Oregon Department of Transportation lays off nearly 500 workers
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
"This emergency was preventable, and we still have time to intervene,” Kotek said. “Come winter, without a shared commitment to solve this crisis from partners and lawmakers, Oregonians will be left out in the cold – literally.”
If lawmakers don’t take action in the next few months to cobble together a transportation funding package, Kotek said the state will be forced to lay off more workers early next year, though she did not specify how many employees would be included in a second round of layoffs.
Lawmakers spent about a year preparing to pass a transportation package this session, but they could not get any funding proposal across the finish line. While top Democrats had planned to pass a package that included an array of tax and fee hikes, they could not convince every member of their party or enough Republicans to support a comprehensive bill that included those revenue-raising measures.
In the final day of the session, Democrats attempted to pass a minimalistic package that would have raised just enough revenue to avoid layoffs at the state transportation agency, but Republicans declined to let them waive a procedural hurdle to allow a same-day vote, leaving Democrats with no viable path to pass any funding bill.
On June 28, Kotek hinted that she might call for a special legislative session in the next six months to secure more funding for the state’s transportation needs. But her office has declined to confirm that plan, and it’s unclear if Democrats could convince enough lawmakers to return to Salem to vote on such a package, or what it would look like.
Oregon has improved automatic voter registration system, but some risks remain, audit finds
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
Oregon’s program that automatically registers eligible citizens to vote is generally safe and effective, but remains susceptible to potential errors or faulty data handling, according to an external audit released this week.
The review, which was conducted by international consulting firm Baker Tilly between November and June, found that the state has proper guardrails in place to “ensure the accuracy of voter registration data” and to keep that information safe.
The audit said the biggest risk is the state’s reliance on outdated citizenship records. Because these old records are difficult to update, errors could go undetected even under the new safeguards, including cases where a non-citizen remains registered to vote.
The audit also flagged seven moderate risks in the motor voter program. Those included a lack of regular program evaluations; inadequate processes to track federal legislation that might affect the program; insufficient records of training for DMV workers handling or inputting motor voter data; and a lack of oversight from the Secretary of State’s Office.
In a statement, Secretary of State Tobias Read said his office is “committed to running fair, secure, accessible elections” and is working to address the audit’s findings.
“This independent audit is one of many things we are doing to lock down and root out errors in the Motor Voter system and earn back Oregonians’ trust,” said Read, who entered office in January. “My team is already acting on these recommendations, and I’m glad to hear that what we’ve done so far is effective.”
Permit requirements expanded on watercrafts in Oregon
KPTV
If you like to go out on the water in Oregon, get ready for some big changes for permits.
Starting next year, you’ll need a Water Access Permit to use any boat in Oregon waterways including kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, even two inner tubes tied together will be affected.
Previously, any watercraft 10 feet or shorter was exempt.
The new law, passed by Oregon lawmakers and signed by Governor Tina Kotek, is to raise money to stop invasive mussels from taking over the state’s lakes and rivers.
The cost of permits will also be going up by around $3 per permit.
The total cost depends on the type and size of the boat. It’ll cost $6 for a week-long permit, $20 for a year-long permit, and $35 for two years.
You can get your permits through the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.
Oregon matches Washington’s $125M to replace Hood River-White Salmon Bridge
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Emily Fitzgerald
The Oregon Legislature approved matching funds last week for Washington’s $125 million commitment to replacing the 100-year-old Hood River-White Salmon Bridge.
Combined, the state funding covers about a quarter of the project’s estimated $1.12 billion cost.
Immigration Arrests in Oregon Have Tripled Since Trump Took Office
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
The number of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Oregon has grown to at least 180 this year, a 320% increase from 2024.
That finding comes from the latest batch of data released by the Deportation Data Project at Berkeley Law, which collects and posts immigration enforcement datasets. Using that data, The New York Times last week found arrests have trended sharply upward in most states. Oregon is among more than 15 states that saw immigration arrests triple this year.
EDUCATION
Why University of Oregon is disappointed by increased state funding
Eugene Register-Guard | By Miranda Cyr
University of Oregon and other institutions have been left feeling under-resourced despite Oregon's legislature passing a budget with increased funding for higher education.
Oregon has seven public universities. The institutions requested $1.275 billion for the 2025-27 biennium, a $276.1 million increase compared to the previous biennium. The budget essentially kept funding levels even, based on the state's existing share of the institutions' operational funding.
HEALTH CARE
Federal appeals court upholds Oregon’s hospital merger oversight law
The Oregonian | By Kristine de Leon
A federal court has backed Oregon’s efforts to keep a closer eye on major health care business deals, rejecting a legal challenge brought by the state’s hospital lobby group.
In a decision issued Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling, finding that a state law that gives the Oregon Health Authority the power to review — and even block — hospital mergers and other major health care transactions is not unconstitutionally vague.
ECONOMY
Intel to lay off nearly 530 workers in Oregon starting in July
KGW | By Alex Jensen
Intel Corp. will begin laying off approximately 529 people at four Oregon campuses starting next Tuesday, July 15, according to a WARN notice filed Tuesday.
The layoffs are set to occur at Intel's Aloha campus along with the Ronler Acres, Hawthorne Farms and Intel Jones campuses in Hillsboro.
Take a look inside Dutch Bros new Arizona headquarters
Statesman Journal | By Whitney Woodworth, Lauren De Young
Dutch Bros, the ubiquitous coffee chain founded in Grants Pass in 1992, has moved its headquarters from Grants Pass, Oregon to Tempe, Arizona.
Company officials announced Dutch Bros was expanding its footprint in the Phoenix area by relocating its headquarters.
National & World News
Trump sets new tariffs on good from Japan, South Korea, 12 other nations
Associated Press
President Donald Trump on Monday set a 25% tax on goods imported from Japan and South Korea, as well as new tariff rates on a dozen other nations that would go into effect on Aug. 1.
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