|
Oregon News
Portland Trail Blazers to be sold to Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon
The Oregonian | By Bill Oram
The Portland Trail Blazers will have a new owner — and he intends to keep the team in the city that has been its home since its founding in 1970.
Sources confirmed to The Oregonian/OregonLive that Paul Allen’s estate has agreed to sell the team to Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. Dundon heads a group to buy the team that includes the co-president of Blue Owl Capital, Marc Zahr, as well as Portland-based Sheel Tyle.
A negotiated sales price was not disclosed, although most speculated the team would sell for upwards of $4 billion.
Tyle is the founder and co-CEO of Collective Global and a past CEO of global venture capital firm, Amplo. He has a law degree from Harvard and, according to one biography, graduated from Stanford in three years. His wife, Sejal Hathi, became the director of the Oregon Health Authority in 2023.
A source familiar with the proceedings said the group “is passionate about basketball and intends to keep the team in Portland, where it belongs.”
2026 ELECTION
Drazan Tests Waters for 2026 Run
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
House Minority Leader Christine Drazan (R-Canby) disclosed a $55,000 expenditure to the Virginia polling firm Public Opinion Strategies on Aug. 10. That’s the clearest sign yet that Drazan is considering a rematch against Gov. Tina Kotek next year.
Former Gervais lawmaker announces campaign for Oregon Senate
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Tracy Cramer announced Monday that she’s running for the 11th Senate District, which includes northeast Salem, Keizer, Woodburn and other rural parts of Marion County.
The life-long Gervais resident worked as a dental assistant before being elected in 2022 to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives for two years. She lost the November 2024 general election to Rep. Lesly Muñoz, D-Woodburn, by just 161 votes.
She’s running to replace Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, who is barred from running for reelection because of a voter-approved constitutional amendment that blocks lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences from seeking another term. Thatcher, one of 10 Republican senators who walked out for six weeks in 2023 to protest Democratic bills on abortion, transgender health care and guns, endorsed Cramer.
“From when I first met her, I have never doubted Tracy’s unwavering commitment to her constituents and core principles while still finding ways to work effectively with colleagues across the aisle,” Thatcher said. “Her deep roots in our community, combined with her legislative experience and dedication to public service, make her uniquely qualified to be our next state senator.”
Mysterious Ballot Measure to Privatize Liquor Sales Crosses Another Threshold
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
Backers of Initiative Petition 43, which would allow grocery stores to sell hard liquor, got a certified ballot title from the Oregon Department of Justice this week.
High prices and health care costs may turn Latino voters away from Republicans in 2026
OPB | By Ashley Lopez
Support for President Trump and his party is starting to wane among Latino voters.
According to Equis Research, a Latino polling organization, about a third of Latinos who supported Trump last year “are not set on voting for a Republican” during next year’s midterms.
With midterms more than a year away, a record number of lawmakers are eyeing the exits
OPB | By Stephen Fowler
Since President Trump returned to the White House this year, a record number of members are eyeing the exits as the Republican-led Congress has largely ceded its power to Trump’s vision of the country.
With just under 15 months to go until the 2026 midterms, nine senators and 21 House members have announced they don’t plan to run for reelection, each a modern record for this point before the election, according to an NPR analysis of congressional campaign data since 2017.
POLITICS
OHSU Invites Oregon Legislators to Tour Primate Center Amid Pressure to Close
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
Oregon Health & Science University has invited state legislators and staff to tour the Oregon National Primate Research Center. The facility is under threat from federal budget cuts and local efforts to shutter it backed by Gov. Tina Kotek and Salem lawmakers.
Aaron Fiedler, OHSU’s director of state relations, sent an invitation via email to state legislators and their staffs on July 31, according to a copy obtained by WW. Invitees may pick from two dates, Sept. 17 or Oct. 9, the invitation says.
The tour is a charm offensive of sorts for a facility that has drawn scorn from animal rights activists for decades. ONPRC’s opponents amped up their efforts this year with a radio and television ad campaign describing infant macaques being torn from their mothers for “fear experiments” and monkeys being scalded to death by a cage-cleaning system. Video showed monkeys pacing and rocking in cages.
Fiedler sent the invitation to one of the Legislature’s staunchest critics of the primate center: Rep. David Gomberg (D-Otis). Gomberg sponsored a bill in 2023 that required OHSU to disclose how many primates were used in experiments and for breeding, how many it bought and sold, and how many were injured or killed by accident.
‘An exciting time’: Court ruling, expert report chart next steps for Oregon foster child reforms
The Oregonian | By Sami Edge
A new report from a child welfare expert and a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have set the stage for how Oregon must improve its foster care system in the wake of a massive lawsuit settled last year.
Oregon will have to cut down on the number of kids who are abused in foster care, make sure children in its care get quick referrals to medical and mental health care and reduce the number of kids who come back to foster care after being reunited with relatives, among other improvements.
$35 MILLION INVESTMENT HONORS VETERANS FOR NEW ROSEBURG FACILITY
KQEN
A major step forward for Oregon’s veterans has been announced with the approval of $35 million in funding for the construction of a new veteran’s home in Roseburg.
A joint release from state representatives Virgle Osborne, Court Boice, and Alek Skarlatos along with State Senator David Brock Smith said the funding, secured through HB 5006, represents a significant investment in long-term care and support for those who have served the country. First secured in 2024, this is the required 35 percent state match for the estimated $100 million facility, which would be the 3rd veteran’s home, to be built in Oregon.
Mosier Center hits funding squeeze
Columbia Gorge News
Funding for Mosier’s Joint Use facility hit a roadblock this July, but the project is still alive. Oregon State Sen. Daniel Bonham and Rep. Jeff Helfrich visited Mosier Senior Center on July 15 to discuss next steps with the Joint Use Facility Committee.
The Union County Fairgrounds Sewerline Project is Officially Funded
Elkhorn Media
In a moment that many thought would never come, The Union County Fairgrounds has finally, and definitively, secured state funding for its wastewater project.
Senator Todd Nash was also a key legislative advocate for the fairground funding.
Oregon unions secure pay raises, more remote work flexibility for state workers
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
Most state employees in Oregon will see bigger paychecks and expanded benefits next February under tentative labor agreements reached between the state and its two largest unions.
After months of negotiations, state officials agreed to give 6.5% cost-of-living raises over the next two years to members of the Oregon chapters of SEIU and AFSCME, which represent the bulk of the state’s 45,000 full-time workers.
The state also agreed to add an additional salary classification for longtime workers who have already maxed out their pay. Employees who have worked for the state for at least 10 years will automatically enter the new classification and receive additional pay increases.
Oregon DMV brings in millions of dollars selling your information. Here's how.
KATU | By Wright Gazaway
Oregon’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) brings in millions of dollars a year selling drivers’ personal information to qualified buyers, ranging from insurance companies to private investigators.
State law outlines 19 exceptions for qualified entities to buy the personal information from the state or so-called “bulk buyers” who buy it from the DMV.
“The majority of DMV records are considered a public record and are available by making a request and paying a fee,” said Robert Craig Daniels, the DMV Records Section Manager and Privacy Officer.
Daniels and his team process the requests for personal information. Records show the DMV has processed nearly seven million requests for this information since 2020, charging those buyers more than $60 million across the same time period. A DMV spokesperson said the money is split between the DMV, ODOT, and the state agency that maintains the data.
As Hearings Occurred, the City Council’s Progressive Caucus Texted Bluntly About Colleagues and Police
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
The messages also make clear that Peacock councilors see themselves as necessary disruptors of a system that once primarily served Portland’s wealthiest citizens.
Small Oregon county reckons with fallout from data center scandal
The Oregonian | By Mike Rogoway
When Morrow County Commissioner Melissa Lindsay raised questions three years ago about whether local officials were using their positions to profit from Amazon’s local data centers, she says the blowback was swift and severe.
“People just didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to see it, didn’t believe it,” Lindsay said.
On social media and around town, Lindsay said she felt she was being shamed and shut down by people she had considered friends. She and another commissioner critical of officials’ dealings with Amazon lost a recall election and were kicked out of office.
A measure of redemption came last month, when the Oregon Department of Justice filed a civil complaint alleging that several officials in the eastern Oregon county “abused their authority and breached the public trust for their personal financial gain.”
Gov. Kotek, Oregonians react to Trump's deployment of National Guard to Washington, DC
KGW | By Katherine Cook
In Washington, D.C., National Guard troops arrived Tuesday on the president's orders to respond to what he called a "crime emergency" in the nation's capitol. They'll back up local law enforcement and possibly help to break up homeless encampments throughout the city.
"As the Commander-in-Chief of the Oregon National Guard, I remain committed to only deploying the Guard when our mission is clear, purposeful, and supports the primary mission to protect Oregonians," Kotek said.
Oregon faces $15 billion funding loss from Medicaid, SNAP due to Trump budget cuts
KATU | By Tanvi Varma
Oregon is projected to lose $15 billion in funding from Medicaid, food benefits like SNAP, and other programs due to budget cuts imposed by the Trump administration, according to preliminary analysis by Oregon’s chief financial officer.
Specifically, the CFO says SNAP could lose $540 million, and that Medicaid could lose $490 million in the next couple of years.
The cuts are a result of President Donald Trump’s budget bill, that passed Congress in July. The analysis is still pending detailed federal guidelines to implement the bill, according to Gov. Tina Kotek’s office.
“The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have betrayed American children and families, who will become sicker, hungrier, and less prosperous because of President Trump’s budget bill,” Kotek said in a news release Monday.
State Rep. Travis Nelson, D- District 44, says Republicans need to speak up for their constituents, who he says, will impacted the most.
"We know from the data that the folks that will be impacted the hardest by losing their food assistance, by losing their Medicaid health care, are going to be folks in rural Oregon, folks in red communities. I just think it's atrocious that Republicans aren't speaking up and saying more, because I think people are going to die unnecessarily as a result of the Big Beautiful Bill passing," he said.
Oregon to install ‘executive’ SNAP error watchdogs after new federal aid restrictions
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
Oregon’s Department of Human Services is reining in how often the state miscalculates the amount of food stamps enrollees should receive, aiming to comply with new federal restrictions and avert what could be the worst financial strain on the state’s largest agency.
DRUGS & HOMELESSNESS
Research finds crime, COVID-19 led to spike in Oregon drug deaths
KATU
Researchers at Portland State University have just released the findings of a three-year study looking at how Oregon's drug policies have impacted the state.
Associate Professors Kelsey Henderson, Christopher Campbell, and Professor Brian Renauer conducted the study. Their research found little evidence that Measure 110, the law that decriminalized hard drugs in the state, was to blame for rising crime or deadly overdoses.
“In the lead-up to HB 4002, many claimed that Measure 110 was responsible for rising crime and overdose deaths. However, our findings offer little to no support for those claims,” Campbell said.
The study found that drug deaths and crime were actually driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically fentanyl.
Other studies had conflicting conclusions, but public perception is different.
Portland City Councilors begin to raise concerns about Mayor Wilson’s homelessness plan
OPB | By Alex Zielinski
Since Mayor Keith Wilson entered office in January with an ambitious plan to address the city’s homelessness crisis, Portland city councilors have generally allowed Wilson to begin rolling out his strategy without interference.
But now, with Wilson’s self-imposed deadline to open hundreds of new shelter beds fast approaching, they’re beginning to raise concerns. These worries bubbled over at a Tuesday meeting of the council’s Homelessness and Housing Committee.
CHILD CARE
Access to child care is expanding in Oregon, researchers found. Still, there’s not enough
The Oregonian | By Sami Edge
Access to child care in Oregon has slowly expanded, according to a new study from Oregon State University, but it remains far from adequate to serve even half the state’s children.
A child care spot was available for 33% of Oregon children ages 5 or younger in 2024, the researchers found.
ECONOMY
Businesses in Goose Hollow concerned about future as crime, drug issues linger
KPTV | By Dylan Scott
In the past year, several businesses have moved out of the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Southwest Portland. Many citing crime, drug use and inconsistent foot traffic as the common factors.
‘Uphill battle’: Downtown Portland gay bar to close after 46 years
The Oregonian | By Veronica Nocera
One of Portland’s oldest operating gay bars is closing its doors downtown after nearly half a century.
This initial post did not give a reason for Scandals’ closure, but the bar elaborated in an Instagram post Monday. Attempting to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic has been an “uphill battle,” Scandals wrote.
“Now, with the rising costs of goods and services and the changing landscape of the downtown area,” the post continued, “the owner has made the difficult decision to not renew the lease.”
Restaurant Owners Say Red Tape Is Strangling Outdoor Dining
Willamette Week | By Seychelle Marks-Bienen
One of the few good things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic was more outdoor dining. Overnight, Portland restaurateurs erected wooden “dining sheds” on sidewalks and streets, equipping them with heaters, string lights and carpeting.
Now, some of these beloved structures are vanishing, and not by choice. After encouraging their construction with easy permits and cash from the American Rescue Plan, the city of Portland wants a number of elaborate sheds gone because they block sidewalks and pose fire hazards. The federal money ran out at the end of last year, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation, which oversees public right of way, started issuing fines for noncompliance.
The move has given affected restaurant owners whiplash.
EDUCATION
Portland Public Schools Cellphone Ban Rollout Hits Some Snags
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Some School Board members are concerned the district’s too vague on discipline.
| 
