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US Supreme Court could end Oregon’s practice of accepting ballots post Election Day
OPB | By Dirk VanderHart
Elections officials say it wouldn’t be difficult to transition back to a hard Election Day deadline, which was in place until 2022.
Cannabis can blur, reshape your memory, Washington State University study finds
KOIN 6 | By Michaela Bourgeois
A new study from Washington State University found that smoking cannabis can not only blur memories but reshape them.
The study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, is “one of the most comprehensive looks yet at how cannabis affects memory,” WSU said.
Oregon News
POLITICS
Oregon lawmakers left out as Gov. Tina Kotek forms new transportation advisory group
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
That package could include billions of dollars in new taxes and money for megaprojects and other spending priorities.
Last week, the governor’s office announced the new workgroup would be led by a transportation expert and a former Republican lawmaker and would meet for the first time in April, and then again monthly through November. Susan Peithman, director of the climate office at the state transportation agency, will be the agency’s lead representative on the group, Kotek’s office said.
But the governor’s office hasn’t said who else will participate in the group, how Kotek’s office is selecting members or when the membership will be made public. In addition, key lawmakers of both parties, who will negotiate any package that stems from the group’s work, say they don’t know if or to what extent they will be included.
“I wasn’t surprised she brought forward a group that doesn’t include us,” House Republican Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I think this is setting itself up to be something of a spectacle.”
In convening the group, Kotek is setting out to do what lawmakers failed to do during last year’s five-month session: find a bipartisan solution to ensure the Oregon Department of Transportation can continue to plow roads, pave highways and complete projects.
This May, voters are set to decide whether to approve or shoot down a series of transportation tax hikes that Democrats passed last fall in a special session in an attempt to close the funding gap at the state transportation department. Regardless of the outcome, lawmakers say they must find a long-term solution to take care of Oregon’s roads and bridges.
The Oregonian/OregonLive interviewed more than a dozen lobbyists and people in the Legislature who have been involved in recent transportation discussions. All of them said they are waiting for the governor’s office to provide more specifics, and several expressed concern about the lack of clarity.
“The governor decided not to include lawmakers on the workgroup because there will be other opportunities for them to be briefed on progress and engage in the final outcomes of the group’s work,” Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for Kotek, said in an email.
Although lawmakers of both parties raised concerns about the group, only Republicans shared those concerns on the record.
“Putting together another workgroup just shows they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, a Republican from Albany. “Puke. Spare me.”
Leadership questions
Some close observers and lawmakers of both parties have privately questioned Kotek’s choices to lead the workgroup, but for different reasons.
The group will be co-chaired by former Republican lawmaker Bruce Hanna of Roseburg and longtime transportation policy administrator Grace Crunican, who once led Oregon’s transportation agency and has held top leadership positions at transportation and transit agencies in Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and at the federal level.
This is the second time this year that Kotek, a Democrat, has tapped a Republican to lead a group she convened. Former Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp is serving as Kotek’s chief prosperity officer and working with her new “Prosperity Council.”
Multiple people who worked with Hanna in the Legislature said he was well-respected but doesn’t have significant experience in transportation policy. He left the Legislature in 2015 after serving in elected office for 10 years, including two years as co-Speaker when the House was evenly split between both parties.
Hanna is the president of a business that delivers Coca-Cola products throughout Northern California and southern Oregon. He did not immediately respond to a voicemail left at his company phone Wednesday morning.
Crunican, meanwhile, has directly benefited from the Oregon Department of Transportation’s reliance on private consultants.
State agencies disagree on Oregon emissions plan
AXIOS | By Kale Williams
Oregon is far behind its goals of cutting carbon emissions to slow climate change, and the state's departments can't seem to agree on how to narrow the gap.
Why it matters: Oregon is pushing to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2035, and a draft plan to help do so is exposing tensions between state agencies over policy priorities.
State of play: The Oregon Department of Energy released the draft for public comment last week, OPB reported.
The recommendations included things like reducing food waste, installing heat pumps in more homes and increasing access to solar panels.
The intrigue: The proposal also called on residents to "reduce beef and pork consumption 50% by 2050" as well as cutting down on poultry and eggs.
That didn't sit well with the Department of Agriculture, where the board of directors said they had not been included in the process.
What they're saying: That particular recommendation appears to run contrary to work the state has done to fund more local meat processing facilities.
Processing meat locally "is not only more efficient, less expensive, but greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating unnecessary animal and meat transport all over the country," Board of Agriculture chair Elin Miller told OPB.
Oregon works to get emergency funding to immigrants losing SNAP benefits
KGW | By Libby Dowsett
Thousands of refugees and immigrants in Oregon are expected to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits as federal cuts take effect, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
State lawmakers have approved $2 million in new funding aimed at helping fill that gap, with money expected to go directly to community organizations working to ensure families continue to have access to food and Medicaid.
Before the cuts, SNAP benefits were available to legally supported refugees and immigrants, though undocumented immigrants were not eligible.
Oregon whistleblowers say culture of silence creates 'risk of another death' at state psychiatric hospital
The Oregonian | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
State officials, including Diegel and the governor, maintain that culture problems at the hospital have been largely addressed by changes to its top leadership.
“(Kotek) has confidence in the current (Oregon State Hospital) leadership and is closely monitoring the changes and improvements to patient safety and care,” the governor’s spokesperson, Lucas Bezerra, wrote in a February email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Asked if the governor had any concerns about Hathi’s leadership of the health authority, which directly oversees the hospital, Bezerra wrote that Kotek “acknowledges the work that Dr. Hathi has done to facilitate the reaccreditation of the Oregon State Hospital.”
The governor’s spokesperson then listed several areas of concern the governor was paying close attention to, including staff safety risks and absenteeism rates, both of which continue to be high according to health authority data.
One of the managers who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said that while some things have improved with increased scrutiny, the root of the leadership and culture problems had not been addressed. The manager thought it was only a matter of time before tragedy struck again.
Oregon DAs urge governor to oppose limits on state hospital admissions
The Oregonian | By Maxine Bernstein
The Oregon District Attorneys Association is urging Gov. Tina Kotek to push back against attempts to limit entry to the state psychiatric hospital to certain categories of criminal defendants.
“The real answer is to increase capacity for inpatient treatment,” said Clackamas County District Attorney John D. Wentworth, president of the association. “If we’re not trying to take action to make things better for people presenting to us with mental illness, we’re failing the community.”
The state prosecutors’ letter Tuesday follows a motion filed last week in federal court by Disability Rights Oregon and Metropolitan Public Defender, a nonprofit law firm in Portland, in the long-running lawsuit over delayed admissions to the Oregon State Hospital for defendants who need treatment to reach competency to participate in their cases.
The two plaintiffs asked a judge to restrict defendants facing misdemeanors from being sent to the state hospital for mental health treatment due to the overwhelming need for psychiatric care at the hospital.
One PCC Union Reaches Tentative Agreement as College Delays Most Spring Classes
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Portland Community College announced Wednesday it will delay the start of most of its spring term classes to April 6, as labor negotiations with its faculty union drag on.
The college reached a tentative agreement with its Federation of Classified Employees on Wednesday afternoon. It has yet to reach an agreement with its Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals. The two unions represent about 700 and 1,600 employees, respectively. Many of those employees are in student facing positions.
Oregon state grant program providing millions for child care infrastructure projects winds down
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Child Care Infrastructure Fund since 2024 has supported $50 million in construction costs on more than 180 child care facility projects.
$9,200 desk comes up as county commissioner faces reelection campaign
The Oregonian | By Noelle Crombie
Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West, currently seeking reelection, had the county buy him a $9,200 custom desk after he took office in 2023 — a price tag far higher than any of his fellow commissioners’ office furniture expenditures.
He declined to answer questions about the purchase when reached this week by text. He referred questions to his campaign spokesperson, Ross Hemminger, who said the “sudden focus” on a purchase more than three years old appears “clearly political.”
Appeals court temporarily lifts ban on tear gas use outside Portland's ICE facility
KATU | By Steve Benham
A panel of three judges sided 2-1 with the Trump administration on Wednesday, temporarily putting on hold two court rulings earlier this month that prohibited federal agents from using tear gas and other crowd-control methods during protests outside the ICE facility in South Portland.
Wednesday’s rulings by the judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit are not final decisions on the cases.
New director of Multnomah County's Preschool for All program aims to rebuild public trust
KGW | By Blair Best
Despite continued growth, Preschool for All was undeniably on the rocks last year. The program's new director wants to put it on better footing.
HOUSING
Portland might bail out affordable housing landlords, but would that lower rents?
The Oregonian | By Jonathan Bach
The Portland City Council next month will consider a proposal to spend millions of dollars to pay off mortgages held by landlords of low-income housing, a move backers say will lower rents in those income-restricted apartments.
City officials say bailing out the landlords is relatively uncharted territory for the local government, but it turns out they have a map to follow. Oregon Housing and Community Services, the state housing-finance agency, has since last year been administering a similar program to the tune of $38 million.
The difference: State housing officials don’t require landlords to lower rents.
Instead, under the state agency’s new Property Stabilization Investment fund, landlords are prohibited from raising rents by more than 5% per year for five years.
The question, then, is whether City Hall will follow the state’s lead or impose more stringent, tenant-friendly requirements in exchange for paying off the property owners’ debts.
Home Forward Officials Brief Board on Agency’s Struggles
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
Home Forward, the city’s housing authority, divulged more information last week to its board of commissioners about its high vacancy rates, tenants’ nonpayment of rent and cash flow woes.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Readers respond: PBOT should reprioritize existing dollars
The Oregonian | Letter to the Editor
Regarding your recent article, "Portland could charge you a monthly fee to help fix its ‘deplorable’ streets,” (March 8).
The Portland Bureau of Transportation is citing budget problems for its inability to pay for basic repairs. Yet it continues to fully fund projects such as the North Ainsworth Street Neighborhood Greenway which is not a critical need. Your report notes that much of PBOT’s funding is restricted to specific projects and other expenses. The bureau also has a discretionary fund. How much funding is not available for critical services by sequestering dollars in these accounts? PBOT should cancel non-essential projects, curtail restrictions of funding and put the money to use for needed repairs. Do that before seeking new taxes (out of our pockets) to fund PBOT.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Task force seizes 3 guns, $100K, 3,500 plants in Clackamas Co. illegal grow investigation
KPTV
More than 3,000 marijuana plants were seized earlier this month as a result of an investigation into an illegal grow operation, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Chinook salmon found naturally hatching in Upper Klamath River for first time in a century
OPB / Jefferson Public Radio | By Justin Higginbottom
The Klamath Tribes’ Ambodat Department documented the first naturally hatched Chinook salmon within the Upper Klamath Lake in more than a century, as observers witness promising signs of the species’ return following dam removal.
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