Beat Check with The Oregonian

In this week’s episode, Politics and Education Editor Betsy Hammond breaks down the key finding of a survey of 600 metro area voters by DHM Research, commissioned by The Oregonian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With wildfire season approaching and southern California still reeling from the January wildfires, Portland leaders are making sure the city can withstand a major urban wildfire. Forest Park, the city’s crown jewel and one of the largest urban forests in the U.S., has been identified as one of the areas most at-risk for wildfire in the city. Kim Kosmas, a senior public education officer with Portl...

First-class airfare to Hawaii. Five-star hotel stays. Lots and lots of food. All of it footed — directly or indirectly — by customers of a large Portland-area utility. A recent Oregonian/OregonLive investigation found that executives with Clean Water Services, Washington County’s sewer agency, have spent years enjoying fancy business trips to Hawaii and meals on ratepayers’ dime. None of the lavis...

A series of headlines has brought bad news about the management of Oregon’s Department of Corrections and Oregon Youth Authority to public attention. Numerous leadership changes have also resulted at the two departments. The agencies are separate divisions in Oregon’s state government but share the responsibility to care for people incarcerated for criminal convictions. The Oregon Youth Authority...

When the Mt. Bachelor ski resort abruptly went up for sale in August, a couple of Central Oregon mountain enthusiasts had an audacious thought: Maybe we should buy it. Before they knew it, the me — who had not met beforehand — put in motion a plan to purchase one of Oregon’s most cherished landmarks. They organized a GoFundMe and formed a company. They hobnobbed with Oregon politicians. They sough...

But will it be a home run? The Portland Diamond Project has so far struck out on its years-long efforts to bring Major League Baseball to Portland. But now they’ve got a new site on the South Waterfront, fresh energy from city leaders and a pitch to the Oregon Legislature, not to mention swoon-y renderings of a new stadium along the Willamette. Sports columnist Bill Oram and ECONorthwest economist...

Preliminary results from a new state survey on wood combustion show more people are using fireplaces and woodstoves in urban areas in Oregon, despite efforts by state and local governments to decrease their use. Why the increase? And just how dangerous are wood stoves and wood-burning fireplaces to our health and the health of the planet? John Wasiutynski, the director for Multnomah County’s Offic...

It’s undeniably good news that deadly violence in Portland continued to tick downward last year. The city recorded 71 homicides in 2024. That’s six fewer than the year prior and a 30% drop from the record-shattering 101 killings Oregon’s most populous city saw in 2022. Reported shootings, meanwhile, fell below 1,000 for the first time since 2020. Despite these positive trends, annual Portland homi...

The second Trump administration has barely begun, but an avalanche of policy changes and executive orders have already had repercussions in Oregon. Editor Therese Bottomly is joined by politics co-editor Jamie Goldberg and watchdog editor Brad Schmidt to discuss local coverage of the Trump effect in Oregon. They discuss the many lawsuits already filed by Oregon and other states over Trump’s orders...

When Oregon became the third state in the United States to legalize recreational marijuana use, proponents envisioned a double dose of green. Residents were given a chance to light up legally, finally bringing the state’s underground cannabis culture out of the shadows. Nowadays, Oregon boasts twice as many cannabis shops as Starbucks coffeehouses. But a decade into Oregon’s grand, green experimen...

It’s no secret that Oregon has an affordable housing problem. Gov. Tina Kotek has set an ambitious goal of building 36,000 units of housing a year, but so far, the state is nowhere close to hitting that target. Housing and real estate reporter Jonathan Bach recently went to Bend to spotlight a small but meaningful piece of the affordable housing puzzle: Community land trusts. He dissects them on t...

Oregon’s residential electricity rates have gone up nearly 50% in the Portland area in just the past four years. Those increases have primarily been driven by the rising costs to buy power from the open energy market. But there’s growing concern that the rapid expansion of power-hungry data centers could significantly drive up residential power bills in the coming years. Already, data centers cons...

A housing, homelessness and behavioral health crisis. Flagging student test scores. Billions of dollars needed for road and bridge repairs. Oregon legislative leaders will kick off their 2025 session this week at the Capitol with no shortage of significant challenges to tackle and tame. And while Democrats and Republicans say right now that they share a focus on other key areas of concern — such a...

Business reporter Matthew Kish just completed a three-part series on one of Oregon’s signature companies, Nike. He took a deep dive into the so-called “Starfish” surveys, a clandestine effort to document problems employees had with harassment and discrimination. The surveys are at the heart of a court case set to be argued this winter at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Kish join...

Large solar farms are on the rise in Oregon, in a push to fulfill the state’s ambitious clean energy mandates. But their rapid rise is leading to worries about how they could reshape the state’s agricultural economy and rural vistas. In November, the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council, a board that oversees the siting of large energy facilities, approved the state’s largest solar farm – and one...

Schools may be closed for the holiday break, but there’s a lot ahead for Oregon’s public education system in 2025. We asked three of the superintendents of Oregon’s largest public school districts — Kimberlee Armstrong of Portland Public Schools, Gustavo Balderas from the Beaverton School District and Andrea Castaneda from Salem-Keizer Public Schools — to join Beat Check this week for a roundtable...

On the evening of Saturday, Dec. 7, a series of curious and unusual red lights illuminated the Oregon night sky. They moved around dramatically, zooming up and down at speeds so extreme, so uncharacteristic, nearby pilots were left in awe as they watched it all unfold from 30,000 feet. “I don’t even know how to describe it,” one pilot said. “It’s pretty crazy,” added another. In the middle of the...

Last week, plans for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history imploded in spectacular fashion. First, an Oregon federal judge blocked the $24.6 billion bid by Kroger to take over Albertson’s, its next largest rival. Less than 24 hours later, Albertsons, which also owns Safeway, pulled out of the deal entirely — and then filed a massive lawsuit against Kroger, the parent company of Fred Meyer...

For decades, The Oregonian has sponsored an annual fundraising drive, featuring local nonprofits making a difference in our community. Its part of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s mission to strengthen and empower the communities we serve. This year, we are featuring 13 nonprofits. Once the board chooses a nonprofit, reporters and photographers find an example of how the agency has helped individuals. E...

Roger A. Pearce Jr. spent three decades as a successful attorney in the Northwest, representing prominent people and high-profile businesses in Oregon and Washington. He dedicated his free time to nonprofit boards and planning commissions. He spent countless hours doing pro bono legal work. He was well-liked in social circles and part of a happy marriage. By all measures, the name Roger Pearce was...

For more than a decade, Oregon forecasters have underestimated the strength of the state’s economy — and the amount of money it collects each year. That’s led to tax rebate windfalls for Oregon residents, who receive a portion of excess revenue under the state’s unique “kicker” law. It’s also left state lawmakers with less money to spend on schools, health care, transportation and other budget pri...

A new investigation published in The Oregonian/OregonLive focuses on the life of an Oregon girl who was repeatedly trafficked for sex and on how the foster care system had failed to protect her. On the latest Beat Check, investigative reporter Hillary Borrud talked about the story, including how sex trafficking of children can happen in a city like Portland and why our state is failing those most...

We’re a few days out from Election Day 2024, and reporters at The Oregonian/OregonLive have been hard at work trying to decode all the results and what they mean for our region. Portland’s got a new mayor, and the new City Council is coming into focus too. Voters chose two new progressive Multnomah County Commissioner candidates over their more moderate opponents, while the Clackamas County Commis...

In one of the most contentious and consequential elections in recent memory, Oregon has become ground zero for one of the most intriguing and potentially important races in the United States. District 5, a wide swath of Oregon that stretches from SE Portland to Albany to Bend, is home to a heated and hotly-contested political showdown between Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democratic...

The Oregonian/OregonLive's Maxine Bernstein reported on the two-week trial in federal court that brought to light a pattern of crimes by defendant Negasi Zuberi. A final twist as the case was headed to the jury threatened to hold up the final verdict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices