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MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Oregon News
POLITICS
Likely pause on new transportation revenue puts ODOT $242M short
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
The Oregon Department of Transportation faces a budget gap of $242 million for the 2025-2027 budget cycle, ODOT leaders told staff Dec. 23.
The budget hole is due to the expected loss of new revenue because of a referendum effort that would pause increases to the gas tax, registration and title fees and payroll tax.
"It’s a smaller gap, and while that’s good news, it’s still big enough to require service level cuts and future layoffs if we have to manage this on our own with existing revenue and within existing spending restrictions," ODOT director Kris Strickler and incoming interim director Lisa Sumption wrote in an email to staff.
Portland Term of the Year: “Doom Loop”
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
Want to roll a grenade into holiday conversations in Portland? Bring up the “doom loop.”
At WW, we’ve decided it’s the term of the year. In the strictest definition, a doom loop starts when remote work frees people from commuting downtown. Office buildings tumble in value, shrinking property tax collection. Restaurants and stores that rely on the lunchtime trade go out of business. Foot traffic suffers.
The decline in government revenue means services get cut—like police and social work—so crime increases along with the number of homeless people per capita downtown. More people opt to work at home, many out of fear, and a kind of tornado spins into being, silent and unseen, but capable of great devastation.
East Oregon board deceived by Rep. Greg Smith’s illegal pay raise considers rehiring him
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
An eastern Oregon group charged with redeveloping a former military depot is considering rehiring an influential state lawmaker and giving him a large raise, despite state ethics watchdogs recently concluding he violated state laws when he inserted a $66,000 raise into a grant contract without his employer’s knowledge.
The five members of the Columbia Development Authority board will decide “sometime before the new year,” whether to keep as executive director state Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, according to Emily Collins, a project coordinator for the organization.
Oregon nursery group honors industry members, advocates
Capital Press
Legislators of the Year went to state Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany) and former state Sen. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles).
Boshart Davis is a four-time winner of the award, while Bonham has been named Legislator of the Year by the OAN three times.
State Sen. Christine Drazan (R-Canby) and Matt Mika, AmericanHort vice president of advocacy and public affairs, were awarded Friends of Nurseries honors.
Drazan is now a three-time Friends of Nurseries award winner.
These new state laws will take effect in Oregon in 2026
KGW
A staggering 282 new state laws will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026. We're taking a look at some of the major ones.
State of Oregon holds nearly $1 billion in unclaimed funds: Are you owed any?
KOIN 6 | By Addy Bink
Could you use some extra funds to offset all your holiday spending? Your state may have some money you’re owed, just waiting to be claimed.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Christmas tree industry challenged, but proving reslient
Capital Press
While Christmas tree sales are down long term, growers said their product is resilient to shorter economic pressures such as inflation.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
A not so beautiful theft ring: Prosecutors allege trio stole nearly 30K from Ulta stores
KATU | By Jeff Korsch
Multnomah County prosecutors allege two women and a man are part of an organized retail theft ring that repeatedly targeted Ulta Beauty products stores.
According to court documents, Christina Elaine Stern, 39, Marissa Aguilera, 44, and Ollie Laroy Brumfield, 29, stole thousands of dollars of beauty products from Ulta stores.
Portland man accused of sex abuse held without bail as new victims, some kids, identified
KATU | By Jeff Kirsch
Multnomah County prosecutors say they have found more victims of a Portland man arrested last year on sex abuse and sodomy charges.
Damani Jazz Anderson, 19, was re-indicted earlier this month on 40 criminal charges and he sexually abused five women and girls, according to court records.
EDUCATION
PPS Fall Assessment Results Show Work Remains
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Portland Public School students saw slight improvements in reading and pronounced growth in mathematics in districtwide fall assessments, according to data officials presented to the School Board on Dec. 16.
HEALTH CARE
First-in-the-nation Oregon law capping state employee hospital payments is working, study says
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
A leader of the state’s top hospital industry group called the research “disconnected from reality and tone deaf.”
TRUMP ADMIN VS. OREGON
Oregon Leads Federal Lawsuit to Preserve Transgender Care for Minors
Willamette Week | By Andrew Schwartz
Oregon hit back in the battle over transgender health care Tuesday, leading a coalition of states suing to block a proposed Trump administration policy that would cut off federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care to minors.
Oregon AG leads states in lawsuit against HHS's youth gender-affirming care declaration
KATU | By Steve Benham
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is leading a coalition of 19 states, including the state of Washington, in suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over its declaration that gender-affirming care for young people is unsafe and ineffective.
Supreme Court’s Illinois National Guard Ruling Bodes Well for Oregon’s Case
Willamette Week | By Andrew Schwartz
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dec. 23 decision to block the National Guard from deploying to Chicago will likely set in motion a separate court’s review of Portland’s own National Guard case.
Underground mutual aid group helps feed Hillsboro’s immigrant families in hiding
OPB | By Holly Bartholomew, Alejandro Figueroa
As neighbors go into hiding, other Hillsboro residents seek to dodge federal surveillance to deliver groceries and other basics.
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