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US gas prices are the highest they've been since 2023
KGW | By Chris McCrory
As of Monday, the average national retail price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is around $3.72, inching ever closer to $4.
Oregon News
‘Use at your own risk’: The wild, treacherous hike to one of Oregon’s most beautiful waterfalls
The Oregonian | By Jamie Hale
When and if a state public lands agency takes over the land, there may be changes to Abiqua Falls. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, which would be responsible for making the purchase, has already outlined a list of necessary renovations and new construction that could cost upwards of $8.2 million. But until that time comes, hikers will continue to face the dangerous conditions necessary to reach the falls.
Beef, younger generations and nutrition drive record meat sales
Capital Press | By Kyle Odegard
Beef, younger generations and a focus on nutrition helped increase meat sales by value and volume in 2025, according to the latest edition of “The Power of Meat” report.
Meat sales at grocery stores and retailers hit a record $112 billion, up 6.8% over 2024.
Shoppers purchased 23.3 billion pounds of meat in 2025, up 2%.
POLITICS
Unprepared: The Broken Pipeline Teaching Oregon’s Teachers
Willamette Week | By James Neff
Jim Green says one solution for Oregon’s worst-in-the-nation reading scores is a governor’s executive order away.
Green should know. For 25 years, he worked the halls of the Capitol, first as a lobbyist and then as executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association, which represents 1,400 elected members across the state’s 197 school districts. A lawyer, Green also served two terms on the Salem-Keizer School Board.
Now retired, Green has regrets. In particular, he rues some of the victories his group (alongside the teachers union and the Council of School Administrators) achieved over the past two decades. Among them: undercutting state reading assessments by helping pass perhaps the nation’s strongest testing opt-out law and beating back efforts to require phonics-based reading instruction in elementary schools.
“We went too far in saying, ‘Don’t mandate anything,’” Green says.
Today, only 40.3% of Oregon third graders are proficient in reading, as measured by state tests. Green says his group’s success contributed to what he concedes is a statewide disgrace.
The governor could spark a turnaround, Green insists, if she did one thing: issue an executive order that every new Oregon elementary teacher must pass a standalone exam in the science of reading. Nearly 20 states require such a test for teachers, including Colorado, Louisiana, California, and Mississippi—and all of them have higher reading scores than Oregon.
Kotek told OJP in a statement that she is “open to future requirements from the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission,” but would not commit to an executive order.
Republican gov hopefuls among Oregon lawmakers who missed more than one-third of session votes
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt, Shaanth Nanguneri
With the exception of two Democratic lawmakers who missed almost the whole session — Rep. Annessa Hartman of Gladstone who is undergoing treatment for cervical cancer, and Rep. Andrea Valderrama of Portland, who is on post-partum leave — five lawmakers, all of them Republicans, missed more than one-third of those votes.
Editorial: Bill torching public meetings law deserves a vet
The Oregonian Editorial Board
Unfortunately, despite warnings from the ethics commission and news organizations that the bill takes a sledgehammer to the public meetings statute, few lawmakers were willing to vote “no” on HB 4177. Gov. Tina Kotek must step into the breach, prove her commitment to transparency and veto this legislation.
NBA commissioner came to Portland but ducked accountability
The Oregonian | By Bill Oram
On Friday, the NBA commissioner flew 3,000 miles to attend a game in Portland for the first time in years.
Adam Silver hobnobbed with several dozen business leaders and elected officials in a swanky lounge on the Moda Center’s club level. Salmon was served with asparagus. There was a carving station and fried tofu on wooden skewers. Beer. Wine.
Then, sitting with Sen. Ron Wyden and Nike CEO Elliott Hill in section 112, Silver watched the Blazers beat the Utah Jazz 124-114.
He was hiding in plain sight.
Before Silver’s visit, I suggested that there was one question the commissioner needed to answer when he alit in the Rose City. With the officials at the state, county and city levels moving heaven and earth to generate $600 million in public funds to renovate Moda Center, Oregonians deserve some kind of assurance that this effort will be enough to ensure the Trail Blazers stay here.
If we do this, Mr. Silver, will the question of relocation officially be a nonstarter?
But Silver didn’t answer that question because he didn’t answer any questions, at least not from independent local media. Through NBA spokesman Mike Bass, he declined multiple requests to meet with local journalists.
His only public comments during last week’s visit came in a fluffy eight-minute interview with Trail Blazers’ sideline reporter Brooke Olzendam on the team’s pregame show.
“It’s a great first step,” Silver said of the work done in the recent legislative session to provide $365 million in tax dollars to the project. “There are some additional steps along the way. It’s part of why I’m here in town today meeting with elected officials.”
Olzendam is an absolute pro, but that carefully orchestrated interview was not the same as Silver answering questions from independent journalists who do not have direct skin in the game with the NBA. An interview with in-house media is not journalism, it’s PR.
Readers Respond to State Subsidy for Moda Center
Willamette Week
“If any of them worked at a company they would be fired for making a deal as bad and one-sided as this.”
Controversial Bill to Fix Oregon’s Cash-Strapped Public Universities Awaits Gov. Kotek’s Signature
Willamette Week | By Khushboo Rathore
As enrollment declines and costs rise, universities may be pushed to restructure and combine programs and services.
Portland Community College strike continues as staff unions conduct all-day mediation
OPB | By Elizabeth Miller
The state’s largest higher education institution is running classes remotely, while talks to end Oregon’s first-ever community college strike continue.
Rep. Maxine Dexter on impact of the war in Iran, immigration and more
KOIN 6 | By Ken Boddie
U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) has been an active opponent of many of President Trump’s actions in Washington, D.C. – from immigration, to the war in Iran, to the Epstein files.
The congresswoman returned to Eye on Northwest Politics to talk about the impact of the Iran war, Congress’s current role, immigration and more.
Portland protesters shut down Hawthorne Blvd, call for end to US involvement in Iran
KPTV | By Julia Lopez
Dozens of protesters shut down Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard for nearly an hour Sunday as part of an ongoing campaign organized by Portland for Palestine against the war in Iran and US involvement in the region.
Can Portland eliminate traffic deaths? An East Coast city could be a model
OPB | By Riley Martinez
A transportation planner in Portland says traffic safety improvements are within reach — but it’s a matter of funds and political will.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Fees, fines worry Salem vacation, short-term rental owners
Statesman Journal | By Whitney Woodworth
Owners of short-term rentals in Salem are accusing the city of hurting small businesses and damaging tourism through burdensome fees, taxes and fines.
Oregon has lost thousands of taxpaying commuters from Clark County
The Oregonian | By Mike Rogoway
Each year, Oregon collects more than $250 million in income taxes paid by people from Clark County who commute to jobs across the Columbia River.
Portland condo prices are sinking. What it means for owners, first-time homebuyers
The Oregonian | By Jonathan Bach, Mark Friesen
A culmination of factors is depressing condo prices nationally and locally, real estate insiders say: softening demand, rising insurance costs, particularly in the wake of the Surfside condo collapse in Florida, increasing homeowners association fees, and, in Portland, the morose state of downtown.
Jet fuel has nearly doubled in price. Plane tickets will soon follow
Associated Press
Jet fuel prices are rising as the war in the Middle East disrupts global oil supplies, putting cost pressure on airlines as the busy summer travel season approaches.
Demolition of last Northwest aluminum smelter signals end of an industrial era
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By tom Banse
The Alcoa Intalco smelter was the last one standing of what were once 10 thrumming, energy-gobbling aluminum factories spread across the region.
EDUCATION
How many hours is your child in school? It depends on your ZIP code
The Oregonian | By Julia Silverman, David Cansler
Oregon’s ignominious status as a state that offers one of the shortest school years in the country is an open secret. Most states mandate that schools offer student instruction for at least 180 days a year; Oregon is one of just 10 states that instead requires a minimum number of hours. That typically translates to school years that average about 165 days.
But Oregon’s vast disparities from school district to school district are far less well known and understood.
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