Across the West, states spent the winter waiting for snow that rarely arrived. Ski resorts lost millions of visitors as they struggled to stay open. Then in March, a record-breaking heat wave settled across the region, shrinking the already paltry snowpack. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/11/r...

Legal experts say an Oregon judge who sided with PacifiCorp in a multi-billion dollar wildfire-damages lawsuit should have recused herself from the case because she represented the utility for years as a private attorney: www.oregonjournalismproject.org/appeals-judg...

My latest @nytimes.com oped shows that the White House is dramatically understating the cost of the war in Iran. By my calculations—and I show my work—this war will cost the typical American family thousands, and it could cost them tens of thousands. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/o...

Universities that run the National Center for Atmospheric Research want to keep it from being dismantled

It was a political hire. We know this because Bari Weiss has almost no qualifications as a broadcast news executive— and her work so far shows that. Now that action is drawing scrutiny from press freedom groups who are also shareholders. @status.news reports: www.status.news/p/paramount-...

Tennessee's legislature just purposefully ended a black majority district to target Democrats because the Supreme Court gave the green light, meanwhile Virginia's voters vote for redistricting and a court just tosses it.

Trump said he would deport "the worst of the worst" but my @us.theguardian.com colleagues @maanvisingh.bsky.social and @wcraft.bsky.social found that his immigration police arrested parents of up to 32,000 children, more than one-third of them US citizens www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Two big stories today, the first on voting rights: Alito claims that black voters in Louisiana had higher turnout than white voters in two of the last five elections. But that's really only true if you use a measure of voter turnout that no expert would ever use

NEW: The Trump administration has granted more than 180 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year pause on compliance with Clean Air Act rules. All they had to do was send an email.

The Trump administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 kids in seven months. We analyzed ICE records from January-August 2025 and found thousands of parents in the data. Families that have been broken up by the administration's mass deportation machine

The federal workforce continues to suffer down another 9,000 jobs in April. Federal employment has shrunk an alarming 345k jobs since Jan 2025. The vital services federal employees provide cannot be done without these essential workers. Note: Federal employees on furlough are counted as employed.

The Guardian analyzed ICE records from January-August 2025, as advocates say the family-separation crisis will lead to generational trauma

ABOUT STATES NEWSROOM DC: For those just finding us, we're a small but dedicated bureau in DC producing high quality public affairs journalism aimed at the nation & states. No paywalls or ads, like all of @statesnewsroom.com. Bios and background here: www.newsfromthestates.com/dc-bureau-team

Photo by @nicolehester.bsky.social for The Tennesseean www.tennessean.com/picture-gall...

Voters in a third of Oregon’s 36 counties will vote during the May primary on whether to raise local property taxes to fund struggling fire districts and departments: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/07/n...

Oregon State Police must halt agreements that violate the state’s longstanding sanctuary protections by sharing data with federal authorities conducting immigration enforcement, a new lawsuit argues.

Oregon’s congressional Democrats on Wednesday warned that federal agencies tasked with helping prevent and fight fires in the Northwest could be understaffed and underprepared going into the 2026 fire season.

The day after the U.S. Supreme Court crippled the federal Voting Rights Act, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson addressed a virtual gathering for the group’s members and supporters where he ranked the landmark decision alongside the court’s most infamous cases.

BIG SCOOP: Energy industry reps tell me the Trump administration is now extrajudicially blocking all new wind projects in the United States Apparently the Pentagon is refusing to sign off on once routine FAA airspace clearances even when military assets aren’t around My latest for @heatmap.news

This semester I taught a course on the History of the Far Right in the US. We were lucky to have one of the Pacific Northwest's best contemporary chroniclers and interpreters of the far right, @leahsottile.bsky.social, visit the class. This piece by Leah was inspired by what she heard students say.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais altered the Voting Rights Act. What does that mean for future elections? Tomorrow, we will address this with reporter @jonshorman.bsky.social and @law.ucla.edu professor @rickhasen.bsky.social. www.newsfromthestates.com/podcast/stor...

Four Chicago-area protesters are suing the federal government over DNA samples taken after they were arrested while protesting outside the Broadview ICE facility.

It is hard to overstate how much respect I have for @npr.org’s Anas Baba. His on-the-ground coverage of Gaza has been searing, revelatory and humane. His latest - a punch straight to the heart: Gaza family recovers relatives killed in one of Israel's deadliest strikes www.npr.org/2026/05/06/n...

Big news: States Newsroom is launching Daybreak, a new morning newsletter written by Madyson Fitzgerald featuring news from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Daybreak will replace Stateline Daily starting tomorrow morning. Sign up here: https://www.newsfromthestates.com/newsletter/daybreak

ICE won’t release a Minnesota woman facing deportation on humanitarian parole for surgery to remove a tennis-ball-size ovarian cyst causing severe medical issues. The 23-year-old native of Guatemala was detained en route to work days before a scheduled surgery: minnesotareformer.com/briefs/ice-d...

Tech companies are rushing to lock in tax breaks before a moratorium on data center incentives takes effect next month.

As extreme politics have normalized, young people have grown up not knowing any other way. For months, I've spent time getting to know 10 college students who literally do not recall a time in America without Trump. My latest for @thewesternedge.bsky.social www.thewesternedge.media/p/the-age-of...

Berkshire CEO says company will sell its utilities in states requiring more electricity powered by renewables, as it did in Feb. with $1.9 billion sale of PacifiCorp's Washington assets to Portland General Electric. Maybe good for expansion of PUDS, munis and co-ops? www.eenews.net/articles/ber...

"The survey results appear to be another sign that overseas travelers are not planning to come to the U.S. in the numbers once expected as a result of a slew of factors including tighter immigration policies by the U.S. administration."

NEW AP INVESTIGATION: With license plate readers and local law enforcement partnerships, Border Patrol is monitoring American drivers and detaining those exhibiting ‘suspicious’ travel patterns in the U.S. interior. w/ @garanceburke.bsky.social. apnews.com/article/immi...

"Trump, who had the East Wing of the White House bulldozed to make way for his $300 or $400 million ballroom project, had said it would be funded by private donors and not taxpayers." oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/05/r...

Oregon’s wildfire season started early this year and is expected to last into October. The season is made more difficult by historic heat, drought and a potentially early El Niño weather pattern that could further stir up temperatures and lightning storms: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/05/o...

An Oregon program lets people volunteer in exchange for the dollar value of their SNAP benefits. But there are only 27 slots in the program. Nearly 14,000 Oregonians lost SNAP in March because of new work requirements @miamaldonado.bsky.social reports: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/04/t...

Latino-owned brewery says Oregon GOP candidate scheduled campaign event without permission oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2026/05/05/l...

U.S. Senate Republicans released a roughly $70 billion spending package Monday night that will keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operating for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term without any of the new constraints Democrats demanded.

My latest for @columbiainsight.bsky.social: A Skamania County commissioner wants mile-wide fuel breaks in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The breaks are being proposed not just for fire safety, but to funnel timber revenue into the county's struggling budget.

Tennessee Democrats are disputing Republican claims that a move to redraw Memphis’ majority-minority congressional district is a political effort void of discrimination and say a legal challenge is certain. Sam Stockard reports.

DeSantis’ new congressional map faces first legal challenge floridaphoenix.com/2026/05/04/d...

Last month, the Bend–La Pine school board passed a resolution directing the school district to reframe its relationship to technology in the classroom. The district is not alone. Many public school systems across the state and country are having the same conversation.

Developers hoping to build the 40,000-acre Box Elder data center campus in Utah say they need to build a natural gas power plant capable of producing double the electricity the entire state consumes in a year, increasing annual greenhouse gas pollution 50%: www.newsfromthestates.com/article/mass...

The councilors met with Dundon as the Moda Center renovation may hinge on council’s approval of funding.

A political action committee affiliated with the Portland Metro Chamber of Commerce paid for surveys testing negative messages against progressive candidates in Lake Oswego and Washington County.

New data show carbon emissions declined slightly in Washington in recent years. But the state will need to make more progress to reach its 2030 target for reducing emissions. washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/04/29/w...

A review of the contracts host cities signed with FIFA shows that almost all of the costs for organizing the tournament fall on the cities. The hosts won’t see a slice of game-day revenues from ticket sales, concessions and merchandise, or parking. www.propublica.org/article/worl...

Politicians who behave like this shouldn't be trusted, frankly. If you're too afraid of answering a question or if you assume reporters with a long professional career are bad faith actors, you're probably projecting your own shortcomings more than anything.

We at @oregoncapitalchronicle.com have for weeks sought an interview w/ Republican gov. hopeful Drazan, who has declined, opted out of most public debates and given access selectively to reporters and outlets, seemingly based on her comfort level with them. www.opb.org/article/2026...

Hold on. We the taxpayers are going to pay companies $900 million, which is more than 6x what we spend on wind power R&D, to NOT build wind power at a time when electricity prices are spiking and we need more clean power?

Some pretty crazy stuff that somehow didn’t make it on the air.

The $1.28 million settlement is rare victory for state regulators and workers over the pervasive problems of wage theft and misclassification in the construction industry. minnesotareformer.com/2026/04/27/c...

FT Exclusive: The UK's ambassador to Washington criticised America's political system for failing to hold associates of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to account, saying it was 'extraordinary' that the scandal 'hasn't touched anybody' in the US. ft.trib.al/ZT18ybg