Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who led the Oregon House when it passed some of the nation’s strongest laws to protect access to transgender health care, is suing the federal government over efforts to bar gender-affirming care for minors by stripping federal funding.

DHS response: “The Department of Homeland Security reserves the right to use its own property to support its own operations in the mission given to it by the American people to uphold the laws they passed through Congress. No lawsuit is going to stop us from fulfilling that mission.”

An eastern Oregon group is considering rehiring an influential state lawmaker, 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. buff.ly/iQLjK3n

A landmark 2017 Oregon law that limited how much hospitals can bill state employees’ health care plans has saved the state around $50 million annually without harming providers’ ability to operate, according to a new report.

If you missed @davidmcswane.bsky.social's investigation two years ago, there's no better time than to read it now. Stunning reporting. Stunning writing. It's a story you won't soon forget. @propublica.org

The ruling represented the first time the high court has weighed in on Trump’s use of the guard in several cities, including Portland, though other legal fights continue @fischler.bsky.social reports: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/23/r...

LONG THREAD: My reporting on the insurance crisis has forced me to rethink some of my assumptions about where the most serious risk lies when it comes to wildfires that result in home loss. Like many, I assumed the phenomenon was most heavily concentrated in or near wooded areas. Think Paradise, CA

Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat were just granted entry to inspect the ICE holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC for the first time, following multiple attempts. That's after a judge on Wed ordered ICE to allow Congress members to inspect ICE field offices.

What I learned from 2025: mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...

Immigration lawyers tell judge ICE is deliberately keeping them from their clients in Oregon @zane.bsky.social www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

TikTok will now be owned by the Ellisons, Jared Kushner's firm, and Abu Dhabi's state investment fund.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said the Trump administration seeks to "demonize and ultimately erase trans Americans."

Over the course of an hour, more than a dozen people stood up to ask the same question: What can the state do to hold federal immigration agents accountable for violating due process laws, using excessive force and to require agents to wear identification? oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/18/c...

NEWS: White House suggested to me that they’re dismantling the nation’s most important weather research institute bc Trump is mad at CO Gov. Jared Polis “If Colorado had a governor who actually wanted to work with President Trump, his constituents would be better served.”

Despite years of data showing Oregon kids are struggling to learn how to read, university teacher prep programs in the state claim they're not the problem. But those Us are responsible for training most Oregon teachers to teach reading. Graduates say change needed. www.oregonlive.com/education/20...

NEW: House Democrats' discharge petition to force a vote on a three-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies just reached 218 signatures — the threshold needed to force that vote — following the signatures of Mike Lawler, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie, and Brian Fitzpatrick.

I've got a few issues with this piece scrutinizing Oregon's estate tax (AKA wealth tax) but the big one is labeling it a "story produced by the Oregon Journalism Project," an investigative nonprofit, when it's clearly a submitted commentary/opinion piece: www.wweek.com/news/state/2...

I've tried and failed a couple times to write a post explaining how serious this would be. NCAR is globally essential to our climate change response. This can't just be replaced. Every scientist in the world will be doing climate research with one hand tied behind their back for at least a decade

Nearly 1,800 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees have left the agency in the last year, data obtained by conservation advocates find, as pressure mounted from President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies meant to cut the federal workforce: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/briefs/u-s-f...

Taken together, August through November of this year was the record warmest on average across the Northwest in more than 130 years of record keeping, federal and regional scientists report: oregoncapitalchronicle.com?p=19404

Without health care, private-sector job growth would be near zero.

Charts! Starting with the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.6 percent, its highest level in more than four years.

The unemployment rate for Black workers soared to 8.3% in November. That's more than double the rate for white workers.

For those in upstate New York, this has a horrible local connection: he’s being held in the Broome County (Binghamton) jail, under a 287(g) agreement our sheriff made with ICE.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Denver City Council voted against a resolution Monday that would have allowed Key Lime Air to lease ground space at Denver International Airport over concerns about the airline’s immigration enforcement flights in recent months. By @sarawilson.bsky.social

The life of fossil fuels is being pushed out in the United States--thanks to Trump and oil executives like Hamm. Yes, part of it is AI demand for more electricity. But it is also industry execs like Hamm who gave millions to get Trump back to the White House and now are cashing in on that win.

Oregon’s largest electrical utility is proposing to make residential customers pay at least part of the long-term cost of supplying large data centers, despite a new law requiring it to charge the centers’ developers, not other customers. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/15/u...

Private equity has found a new source of profit: volunteer fire departments. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/u...

Stephen Miller shares worth $50,000 to $100,000 in the mining company MP Materials following a lucrative deal between the company and the Trump admin. The sale came just one month after the admin announced measures to support MP Materials. The deal led MP Materials' share price to skyrocket.

Here is a bit of my resignation speech from last night

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites. He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission unanimously found the state’s longest-serving representative violated ethics laws, used his role as a public official to secure a higher salary for work on a local development authority @shaanthx.bsky.social reports: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/12/o...

Oregon's year-over-year unemployment rate increase was the highest in the nation in September.

Though unintentional, Oregon's Capitol now has the largest set of gender-neutral bathrooms of any state legislature. It was a practical move during building upgrades to ensure enough bathrooms for anyone visiting @shaanthx.bsky.social reports: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/12/o...

NW Natural partners Modern Hydrogen have laid off almost all employees, and Tyson closed factory where NW natural made “renewable natural gas.” Oregon’s largest gas utility facing headwinds in decarbonizing energy supply since collaborators falter: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/11/n...

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The old bribe your way out of a corruption case play.

Three Democrats are running for an open state House seat that is among the most competitive and unpredictable in Oregon.

Oregon, where more than half of the state consists of federal land, has experienced the biggest loss of any state since the Secure Rural Schools funding lapsed in 2023: nearly $48.7 million meant to pay for rural roads, public services and schools: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/09/a...

Hundreds of students across Washington County, Oregon walkout to protest ICE: www.opb.org/article/2025...

A proposed data center complex in southeastern New Mexico would need to generate as much electricity as the state’s largest utility, and would emit more greenhouse gases than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined via @sourcenm.com sourcenm.com/2025/12/05/d...

Trump hung up on a ProPublica reporter after being asked whether his Florida mortgages were similar to those of others he had accused of fraud. 🤔

Reporters spoke with 61 young field workers, some 12 years old, about working in California’s farm fields, exposed to chemical fertilizers, paid below minimum wage, provided no water, shade or bathrooms. Most work to support parents who toil under the same conditions. www.latimes.com/california/s...

U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday the chamber will vote next week to extend enhanced tax credits for three years for people who purchase their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

On Friday morning, just 12 hours after Oregon's U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and a bipartisan group of 80+ lawmakers urged the House in a letter to do something, House leaders announced they would fast-track a vote on the Secure Rural Schools act. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/12/05/f...

Oregon’s largest teachers’ union will host several statewide trainings meant to teach school staff, families and community members how to keep students and families safe under increasingly aggressive federal immigration enforcement actions taking place near schools.

The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991. From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...

Some rare good news: Journalists at the PEN Guild won their arbitration case against Politico, which deployed two separate faulty AI products (a "report builder" and a headline and summary generator on the homepage) without their knowledge or input. That violated their contract, the arbiter found.

Woman detained by ICE in Woodburn felt a little hope when an officer brought her to a room to talk to lawyers. But after just 10 minutes with the lawyers, the ICE officer interrupted and loaded her onto a bus in chains, shackles to Tacoma detention center she said. www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...