President Trump has finally nominated someone to lead the National Park Service, and it's an executive at a parks concessionaire that was previously involved in a nasty legal dispute involving Yosemite: www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2026/02/conc...

rough day to be a teacher in battle ground, where they're 0 for 3 in school funding levies “In the meantime, we will plan as though we need to cut $20 million from our budget and get some input on how to do that.”

If you plan to contribute during OPB’s membership drive, we appreciate your support (it helps keep our reporting free & accessible for all) & would love for you to let OPB know that as a member you support livable wages & a fair contract for the people who make OPB & KMHD possible

Southwest Washington voter PSA: There's a special election on Tuesday and it's a good time to participate in democracy! Details in thread below for each community (at least in OPB's coverage area) with an election...

Here's a project to watch from Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas

A story that's about more than the Clark County dog handler whose pup won the Westminster Dog Show this week

Two big questions at Abiqua Falls: 1. Who’s actually going to buy it? 2. Will they continue to grant public access?

a rare bright spot in local washington state journalism

Been in this industry long enough to remember when people said billionaires buying up media outlets would provide new jobs, long-term funding, and financial stability 🤡

Light rail for the Interstate Bridge got a $100 million boost in the spending package Congress passed today

Despite a pretty strange library board meeting last night, the many many public comments were heartening “Equity demands that we be proactive,” Clark said. “It is the difference between simply keeping the doors open and actively building a bridge to communities that cannot reach the library.”

Newsmax fabricated a quote from me about my father Richard Zimmer today. They never contacted me. It's not just outrageous but funny. He was talented in many ways, but most definitely not at golf or cooking or craftsmanship. www.newsmax.com/john-gizzi/z...

Second-grader Diana Crespo likes to paint and play with friends. She and her parents were detained last week as they tried to see a doctor. She's now being held at the same Texas detention center as 5-year-old Liam Ramos from Minnesota. www.opb.org/article/2026...

School funding is the big item for the upcoming special election in SW WA. The last February special election in Clark County had a voter turnout of about 30%. clark.wa.gov/sites/defaul... Go vote people!

Lots of Report for America journalism jobs just opened around the country, including one at my old shop @jpradio.bsky.social. It's a great place to work!

I talked to several judges and legal experts about Monday's arrest of a defendant in Clark County court by ICE agents to see how unusual it is: “It’s rare enough that I personally have never observed that, and I’ve spent a lot of time in courthouses”

Oregon and Washington could pay four companies on the Columbia River millions to keep them whole when a new Interstate Bridge is built. The $140 million in mitigation payments is the money-saving option. New details -->

It's day one of Washington state's legislative session. I talked to three SW WA lawmakers about their bills, which include new rules about federal immigration agents, nuclear energy studies, and tax cuts

"Beyond the immediate medical crisis, the family fears deportation could be a death sentence for Nikita Svinchukov ... Svinchukov has strong ties to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a Russian organization established by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny."

are you a reporter with a story about psychedelics? deadline for this one is coming up

At a time when can be hard to believe what we see online, OPB visual journalists look back at pictures that define the past year – and that are rooted in accuracy and truth.

A Vancouver man arrested by ICE was transferred from Tacoma to El Paso, Texas and now Brazil, Indiana, each time making it harder for his family to find him a lawyer

The price tag for the Interstate Bridge Replacement between Oregon and Washington is expected to jump on Monday. Here's why:

Good news for schools and rural counties across the Pacific Northwest. Today's reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools act replaces money from lost timber revenue

The Vancouver man whose foot ICE agents allegedly drove over while arresting him spoke in a video call on Monday

The Crime Writers On crew listens to approximately 1 billion podcasts every year. I would trust their opinion more than almost anyone on what's good and what's not. Appreciate their support and kind words.

After an incident over the summer where an excavator bucket fell on a construction worker, Rotschy Inc. has been fined $170K by Washington's L&I department

Headed out for Black Friday? One Vancouver small businesses owner said sales were like “a second COVID” from months of construction downtown

Interested in getting started in public media? OPB has a few paid internship opportunities open now

Willapa Bay in Southwest Washington is know around the world for its oysters, but every summer it also turns into a shark superhighway. Northwest researchers have been trying to figure out why, and they have some turned up some clues.

Sad news today about a community leader in Southwest Washington

The bi-state effort to build a new bridge spanning the Columbia River reached a deal to pay four companies a combined $140 million, the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program announced Tuesday.

In lighter news to start to your week, I spent some time recently with athletes at the Washington State School for the Blind learning about goalball, a sport based around sound

The ruling last week from U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, followed a three-day trial in which both sides argued over whether protests at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building met the conditions for using the military domestically under federal law.

A truly amazing work by OPB's @lmiller12.bsky.social and Rob Manning is out today. They followed Oregon students FOR 13 YEARS!!! to document their lives from kindergarten through high school to track the goal of 100% graduation rates

Anne McEnerny-Ogle won a third term as mayor of Vancouver on Tuesday night, beating her opponent Justin Forsman by a wide margin. Voters in Vancouver also appeared to be approving Proposition 5, based on early results.

A lot has been said about Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez's wins in Southwest Washington. Some are now trying to copy that success to flip the U.S. House in 2026

Crosscut is dead. Long live Crosscut. Today’s the official last day for me and my Cascade PBS newsroom colleagues. We did good work over the decades and it is supremely sad to see it shut down.

“We’ll talk later about whether that’s contempt,” the judge responded"

On top of cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, some families are now contending with closures of low-income child care www.opb.org/article/2025...

Remember to vote! There are some important and contested races in Southwest Washington. Here are a few that stand out

A controversial billboard on I-5 between Seattle and Portland has a new owner, the Chehalis Tribe, and a simple message: “Native land.”

Hard to explain the significance of salmon being recorded in Upper Klamath Lake, beyond all the river’s dams. Another example of the success of the largest dam removal in U.S. history

An ethics complaint was filed against a Vancouver city councilor. The allegations have mostly been dismissed but it was filed curiously close to her re-election bid on Nov. 4.

The small protests at Portland's ICE building are filled with a whole variety of social media influencers and online streamers. As one researcher described it to me: "they start out with an ideological vision of the world and then narrate what they see in a way that fits that vision."

Loved this snapshot of life in rural California from @romanbattaglia.com. A much-needed break from the news

Lots of federal workers are going without pay right now. Washington and Oregon want you to know stopgap benefits are available

President Donald Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon after a judge blocked the administration from deploying that state’s guard to Portland, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. apnews.com/article/nati...

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach,” Immergut wrote in her opinion, “especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs.” Immergut was appointed by President Trump in 2019.

Apropos of nothing -- Portland police arrested and shot munitions at dozens of journalists in 2020. I don't remember a DOJ investigation then.