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Democrats have used President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to expand the midterm map, and analysts project the party carries momentum heading into the final two weeks of the election cycle, even as Democrats are expected to flip fewer U.S. House seats than wave elections this century. The Cook Political Report with Amy…
Bears are having a very bad year. Across much of the United States, a warm winter and persistent drought have decimated the natural foods that black and brown bears rely on. With nearly every station at the buffet in short supply, the adaptable eaters are turning to human food. From California to Connecticut…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing a Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health. The new division is set to work with the agency’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health, which was established in 1990 and “has served as the focal point for…
Oregon famously allows people to place their completed ballots in the mail for dispatch to the county elections office. It’s safe and it works. If you want to be really super-rigorous about security, the platinum standard a small but determined group of Oregonians hold to is to take your completed ballot to the county…
The three Democratic incumbents representing former congressional swing districts in Oregon far outraised their Republican challengers in the third financial quarter of the year, according to federal campaign finance records. With less than three weeks before the general election, congressional candidates Thursday…
With the November election looming less than three weeks away, Oregonians took to the streets Saturday in the nation’s first vote-by-mail state to encourage their fellow citizens to cast their ballots.
The sheer size of investment in data centers is drawing concern as it surpasses all other historical booms and crowds out other more job-creating ventures. Until now, no industry had driven the U.S. economy with such force since the railroad expansion of the late 1800s, when titans battled one another to lay the…
Federal officials intercepted a “suspicious package” addressed to Oregon’s election office before it arrived in the state, Secretary of State Tobias Read said Friday. “We are not aware of any additional suspicious packages heading to Oregon, but our office and our federal partners remain vigilant, and we are asking…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has a flurry of travel on deck in the final frantic weeks leading up to the end of the midterm elections, in which the GOP is vying to maintain its control of both the U.S. House and Senate. But that outlook looks increasingly less favorable for Republicans, as analysts say
Oregonians can keep track of their ballot’s whereabouts and know when election officials accept it for counting with a new statewide digital tool.
A third-party candidate has the potential to siphon votes from both the Democrat and Republican candidate running in Senate District 3.
Three children and a teacher are dead in Bend after a 16-year-old with a long gun shot them at Silver Rail Elementary School, police said Thursday. The suspected shooter, who has not been identified, is also dead. Police said a community member shot the alleged assailant after seeing him enter the school. Another…
Three Oregon City residents are all in the race to seize control of the Clackamas County-area swing seat held by state Rep. Annessa Hartman, the outgoing Democratic lawmaker who declined to run for reelection while battling cancer. Independent Party of Oregon member and pharmacy owner Pat Hubbell, Republican former…
A federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling blocking the Trump administration from moving the U.S. Forest Service’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City while the rest of the lawsuit over the relocation plays out in court. In the order signed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, in…
WASHINGTON —Suddenly there’s hope for cutting the reams of red tape that can make getting new energy projects a seemingly endless slog. Top Republican and Democratic senators have unveiled a 417-page bill to overhaul the approval process, a pathway for what’s known as “permitting reform.” A debate is likely when…
Big corporate and party money has pored into the race between Republican Scott Hege, 64, and Democrat Hank Sanders, 25, for Oregon’s 52nd House District.
WASHINGTON — Democrats are touting an ambitious legislative agenda centered on affordability and accountability if they take back the U.S. House or Senate — or both — in November. A slew of pressing policy debates are on tap for Democrats, including healthcare, immigration, voting rights, the war in Iran, oversight…
A business law attorney and an occupational safety professional with vastly different levels of political experience are vying for control of one of Oregon’s few swing districts.
The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding California not count ballots from voters it says are suspected noncitizens, a move by the Trump administration to apply last-minute pressure as voting begins in the midterm elections. The Justice Department on Tuesday gave California election officials 48 hours to remove…
WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration announced on Wednesday that recipients will receive a 3.6% increase in benefits in 2027. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will begin for 72 million Social Security beneficiaries in January. It will apply for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, recipients…
AUSTIN, Texas — It was a good day for the defense. Standing in front of a judge in Austin’s Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center, attorney Matthew Shrum secured a ruling that spared his client from serious punishment on a shoplifting charge. In the hallway immediately afterward, the defendant thanked Shrum with…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and state Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, spent their final televised debate for the 2026 Oregon gubernatorial race tussling over who could best spur economic growth, housing and development in the state with a focus on Oregonians outside of Portland.
Gov. Tina Kotek ordered the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to pause air and water pollution permits until July 1, 2027.
In a county-by-county mail delivery test, Oregon’s secretary of state found rural areas received slow USPS service and urged voters to send mail ballots by Oct. 27 or find a ballot box.
Three weeks before Election Day, the Trump administration’s sprawling project to send sensitive personal information on millions of voters to the Department of Homeland Security has been declared illegal by a federal judge. The blistering court decision comes after the Department of Justice pressured or sued states…
Oregonians want a word with their leaders about data centers. That reminds me of what another state’s residents and their elected leaders succeeded in doing when another deep-pocketed industry came for their resources. In the 1970s, when Alaskans faced the challenges and opportunities that arose from the onset of oil…
Urban hospitals are closing at roughly the same rate as rural ones, and the shuttered hospitals are more likely to have served communities with high poverty rates and fewer transportation options, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal JAMA. Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public…
Josiah Dean, a small business adviser and former hotel owner backed by the Pacific Green Party is hoping to unseat Oregon’s longest-serving state representative.
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the U.S. House condemned a “deeply disturbing” raid early Monday at the District of Columbia home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who has long been a target of verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and Republicans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic…
The Trump administration’s order to allow import of Russian diesel violates a 2022 law banning Russian energy imports while the country’s war with Ukraine is ongoing, according to a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. Following an Oct. 9 call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S…
One of Oregon’s newest Democratic state lawmakers is under investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for failing to disclose income.
Household water bills are increasing faster than inflation and income, according to a new analysis. The environmental advocacy nonprofit Food and Water Watch analyzed water bill data among the nation’s 500 largest community water providers. Those systems serve a collective 155 million people — nearly half the nation’s…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump this week will journey out West in an effort to galvanize support for Republican candidates three weeks before the midterm elections and convince voters to support his party amid low presidential approval ratings. As the deeply unpopular war in Iran enters month eight, resulting in…
Time is fast running out for Oregonians to ensure they can vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election. Eligible voters are U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old by Election Day. Most eligible people who’ve obtained or renewed an Oregon driver’s license since 2016 were automatically registered, but all voters should confirm…
No state is closer to the goal of a single-payer, universal healthcare system than Oregon, which could vote as early as 2027.
Regulators cited fears that the Trump administration would use state data to target providers or patients.
The race to take over the seat of outgoing state Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, who is barred from seeking reelection under Oregon law, is pitting a former Republican House lawmaker against a former Salem city councilor who both lost their previous legislative races in 2024. Thatcher has been in the Senate since 2015…
Measles cases for the calendar year surpassed 4,000 for the first time in decades, with as many as five deaths in Pennsylvania, as the federal government steps in with financial help for states but also fans vaccination fears and skepticism. A weekly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed…
On less than an acre of farmland in Hopkinton, rows of hemp plants were nearing harvest. Most of their “colas” — dense clusters of buds prized for smokable flower — had already been cut ahead of a nor’easter bound for southern New England on the last weekend of September. The rest will be harvested in
It’s the first time publicly released polling has shown the Democratic incumbent leading GOP challenger Christine Drazan.
President Donald Trump has formed a White House committee to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, escalating even further a lengthy feud with the Federal Reserve Board member. The three-member committee will seek evidence that Cook made false statements in obtaining a mortgage and will hold a closed-door…
A former appointed state senator and a Clatsop County commissioner will compete against each other in November to represent Oregon’s politically split North Coast in the state Senate. The seat stretches between the coastal towns of Neskowin and Astoria and east into parts of Washington and Columbia counties. Sen…
Freight-to-rail centers in the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon continue to sit mostly idle, failing to fulfill promises of agricultural, emissions benefits.
As Senate Democrats begin to weigh who should lead their caucus heading into next year’s long legislative session, their current leader has taken his name out of the running. Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, made history as Senate majority leader and the first former refugee and Muslim American to serve in the Oregon…
When I sat down for a recent supper in a restaurant in Yamhill, the TV set on the side wall was showing Portland-area news. Campaign ads dominated the commercial breaks, as is normal for October of an election year. But with the exception of one ad apiece for Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan and…
WASHINGTON — A federal judge will rule in the coming days on whether the Trump administration can legally rescind White House press passes for journalists at three news organizations, or if those reporters will be able to continue accessing the grounds while the case continues. U.S. District Judge for the District of…
A coalition of powerful Oregon advocacy groups announced Thursday that they will launch a signature-gathering campaign for the November 2028 election to approve a wealth tax on some of the state’s richest households while cutting taxes for low-income residents.
WASHINGTON — Rebecca Myers lives in one of the nation’s most hotly contested congressional districts, and tariffs were on her mind as she voted early and in-person in Suffolk, Virginia in late September. The 44-year-old trained social worker said she and her husband, who recently retired after 25 years in the U.S…
ASTORIA — Marcus Estes was the first person to answer Rep. Cyrus Javadi’s door knock Tuesday evening as the lawmaker made his usual rounds canvassing registered voters in his district. Estes, a software business owner who lives in a Victorian-style home in the town’s hillside neighborhood overlooking the Columbia…
WASHINGTON — Leading immigration advocates and experts sounded the alarm Wednesday on the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to undo state laws allowing some immigrants to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they reside. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued 24 states, Washington, D.C., and the…
Merkley introduced the bipartisan bill to give wildland firefighters’ families the same $100,000 death benefit given to fallen U.S. military members’ families.
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — More than four hundred Washingtonians across 19 locations took to the streets Sunday to demand a statewide moratorium on data centers. In Walla Walla, where a $4.8 billion Amazon data center project is planned, the tension among opponents and local officials was palpable. “Some of you standing…
Oregon Democrats are banking on voters’ frustration with President Trump, while Republicans are counting on voters’ dissatisfaction with Democratic lawmakers in Salem.
One of Oregon state government’s most experienced law enforcement professionals will permanently lead the state’s top research and funding agency for criminal justice issues, Gov. Tina Kotek said.
As the political prospects for Republicans worsen ahead of November’s midterm elections, the GOP is increasingly playing defense over its yearslong grip on state governments. That’s particularly true for gubernatorial elections, as Democrats could win a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010…
WASHINGTON — The number of women in the U.S. Senate is unlikely to increase and may decline following the November midterm elections, though there are still opportunities for candidates to make history in the upper chamber. Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics, said on a…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority Monday appeared broadly sympathetic to fossil fuel companies’ argument that allowing two Colorado local governments to sue them over climate change in state court would be a “recipe for chaos.” Attorneys for both sides in Suncor v. Boulder, along with the Trump…
WASHINGTON — Democrats are more motivated to vote in November’s midterm elections than Republicans, potentially giving the party an advantage to flip at least one chamber of Congress, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF. Democratic candidates also held an edge with voter…
Environmental advocates are seeking volunteers to help collect research on how Oregon’s roads are impacting wildlife. Environment Oregon, a conservation nonprofit with affiliates across 29 other states, is recruiting volunteers for its 2026 Roadside Wildlife Count Oct. 17 to 25 to help track any wildlife dead or alive…
President Donald Trump wants to sharply curtail mail ballots. He’s called them “inherently corrupt” and baselessly condemned them as a major source of fraud. But with Republicans falling behind in the polls, the president is now urging his supporters to vote in the midterm elections any way they can, including by…
State Rep. Paul Evans was arrested this weekend and is accused of driving drunk and damaging a stop sign in Independence, Polk County Circuit Court records show.
The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that an attorney representing a Multnomah County man whom jurors saw shackled outside of a courtroom during his criminal trial should have sought a mistrial, expanding defendants’ right to not be seen with restraints before conviction. In a 68-page decision last week with one justice…
WASHINGTON — Democrats expect they’ll gain a majority of seats in the U.S. House following November’s midterm elections, giving the party a platform to serve as a check on the president’s power. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said during an interview Monday that curbing the war in Iran…
A court battle that began when conservative-led states sued to block protections for transgender people has ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities — a result disability advocates have feared for months. At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined the handful…
Michelle Caswell still recalls the nights when her boss prayed beside her bed, kneeling so close she could feel his warm breath on her face and she worried he’d try to kiss her. Caswell was 31, working and living at 5Rock Ranch, a Christian ministry that promises refuge and spiritual guidance for single mothers, “the
The result of the quick back-and-forth and rebuttals during the hour-long debate left multiple misleading or untrue claims unchallenged on live television.
A city councilor and a wealth adviser both concerned about the cost of living in their district will compete against each other in November to represent the Springfield area in the Oregon House of Representatives. After more than 13 years in office, Democratic incumbent Rep. John Lively announced his retirement from…
When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin declared in September that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could serve warrants on individuals at polling places this fall, officials in Denver, a liberal city where roughly 14% of residents are foreign-born, quickly sued. “Every day we find new things to be…
WASHINGTON — This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office. An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers through collaborations known as 287(g) agreements helped…
Editor’s note: This story is part of Gen Z at the Ballot Box, a collaboration between States Newsroom and The 19th. Brenna Vandergeest was a teenager when her grandmother told her about Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that ended the federal right to an abortion. She said it lit a…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and her repeat challenger state Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, exchanged their fiercest swipes yet at one another on Thursday in their first televised debate.
A political action committee focused on electing Oregon Republicans to the statehouse is spending hundreds of thousands on a controversial canvassing company Elon Musk hired two years ago to target voters in swing districts. The Bring Balance Back to Salem PAC, whose largest contributors include Nike cofounder Phil…
One question people inside and outside Oregon ask about this year’s governor’s race is: Has incumbent Tina Kotek, who won four years ago, lost any of her then-successful coalition of voters and interests? The basic answer has been no, but it has to come with an asterisk, which is the Oregon Education Association…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek led a group of four other governors in calling on the federal government to delay new Medicaid rules set to go into effect Jan. 1.
County and local district attorneys oversaw higher state prison admissions during election years than in other years during the height of the nation’s “tough on crime” era, according to a new study from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. State prison admissions were about 3% higher in years when…
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators departed Capitol Hill on Wednesday night for their campaign break, leaving numerous policy disputes unresolved. The chamber won’t return until Nov. 9 for the five-week lame-duck session, when party leaders will have to decide which bills they want to negotiate during what could be the final…
Computer chip company Nvidia paused its AI ambassador program that, in an agreement with Oregon, was meant to promote AI lessons in schools, college campuses.
The poll shows Republican state Sen. Christine Drazan with a slim lead over Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, though it was within the survey’s margin of error.
As more polls and strategists indicate Democrats could take over congressional majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in January, some anti-abortion advocates fear such a change could be the most serious threat to Hyde’s future since the party nearly repealed the amendment in 2022.
A federal grand jury indicted 10 noncitizens for unlawfully voting in Minnesota, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday, highlighting the administration’s effort to keep election security a top issue, in line with President Donald Trump’s longstanding unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. The indictments…
President Donald Trump is tapping $20 million in Homeland Security funding to pay for TV ads that heavily feature him ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats said Tuesday as the promos critics call propaganda come under bipartisan attack. The Trump administration recently moved the funds into a U.S. Customs and…
A committee of Democratic and Republican lawmakers is meeting to discuss the costs and benefits of Oregon joining a West Coast carbon market.
Oregonians ranked maintaining and preserving highways and bridges and improving safety as the top priorities they think the Oregon Department of Transportation should focus on as it looks to resolve a $200 million budget gap in the 2027-29 budget cycle. Between August and September, the group Gov. Tina Kotek tasked…
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration must spend the $810 million that it said last week it planned to cancel, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The congressional watchdog’s decision contends the White House budget office doesn’t hold the ability to claw back…
Oregonians should be cautious before purchasing health insurance coverage through misleading “self-funded” or “limited partner” plans that can result in high out-of-pocket costs and unexpected medical bills, state insurance regulators said.
WASHINGTON — The three news organizations that President Donald Trump barred from entering the White House grounds earlier this month have asked a federal judge to ensure their reporters continue to have access after a temporary restraining order expires in early October. Attorneys for CNN, MS Now and Politico filed…
ALBANY — Pet tinctures and topicals are the most popular products sold at Oregon CBD Company, a small business located at the junction of the Willamette Valley town’s busiest roads. Pet owners use them to treat their pets’ anxiety or pain — and in some cases they use similar products to treat their own. Those
Five weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s sprawling effort to identify and remove noncitizen voters hasn’t produced the kind of large purges that could meaningfully affect the midterm elections. Even a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states access to a supercharged Department of Homeland…
A data center proposed on 100 acres of BLM land near Hermiston would be the first on federal public land in Oregon and one of a dozen proposed in six western states.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has, once again, infuriated lawmakers from both political parties by using a controversial maneuver to cancel funding previously approved by Congress. The $810 million in the “pocket rescission” would have gone to refugee assistance programs at the Department of Health and Human…
To ensure they do not lose any of their federal food assistance benefits, Oregonians should respond today to mailed notices from state officials seeking more information to verify their income, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
The U.S. Department of Education’s suspension this year of a comprehensive monitoring process puts billions of K-12 dollars at heightened risk of undetected waste, fraud and abuse, according to a new report by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office. The congressional watchdog’s report also raised…
The Oregon Department of Transportation, which maintains the St. Johns, Fremont and Marquam bridges, has studied suicide prevention efforts but says they are too expensive to implement.
Oregon made history this summer, and not the celebratory kind. It’s a wakeup call: The system is broken and fixing it requires new thinking. Over 2.5 million acres burned — more than any in recorded history, and 92% are on public lands. In the last decade, almost all catastrophic wildfire originated on public lands…
An appeals panel Friday seemed inclined to agree that more than 100 Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador are entitled to due process hearings to challenge their removal, which was made under an archaic 18th-century wartime law.
A Republican county commissioner who ushered in Google data center development in The Dalles is accusing his opponent of being a champion of data center tax breaks.
Political analysts don’t expect any of Oregon’s six congressional seats to change hands in the November election. The Cook Political Report, which analyzes congressional elections and campaigns, marked all but Eastern Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District as solid Democratic districts. The 2nd Congressional District…
If you’re a candidate complaining about an opponent’s stance on an issue, it helps to have a firm and visible position on it yourself. The subject of artificial intelligence is bedeviling congressional candidates on that basis across the country, and the best example might be in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District…
A popular 92-foot waterfall formerly at risk of being closed to the public is closer to becoming a new state recreation area after the Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission signed off on buying two Marion County properties. Visitors have been able to visit the privately owned Abiqua Falls, about 40 minutes southeast…
Oregon lawmakers took action earlier this year to regulate the use of an increasingly bipartisan focus of anti-surveillance advocates nationwide: Flock cameras. Now, they could be on the verge of outlawing the technology altogether. The push for more legislation in 2027 comes as reports of the technology’s misuse have…