a good read and a cautionary tale for many PNW towns

Our Southwest regional bureau is HIRING job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...

I've been trying to piece together what's happening in a small Southwest Washington town where businesses have been bought up and some residents are worried about a possible religious vision for their community. Here's what I found out

Spinning off Jefferson Public Radio from SOU to save $300k per year seems like a shortsighted plan. That station (where I used to work) brings a lot to the university

I talked with the Battle Ground teacher who has been on leave for the past eight months after she was accused of making light of Charlie Kirk's death. Now, other teachers in the district worry something similar could happen to them

Big news for OPB and KMHD today!

"If you abdicate the search for satisfaction now, you will put it further out of reach. Resist the urge to arm yourself with uninformed cynicism masking as oh-so-wise pragmatism that’s really just good old fear of rejection."

Great news, but it will be interesting to see if this trickles down the the small, rural stations that were hardest hit by Congress' funding cut

Sen. Braun has Trump's endorsement. Will he embrace MAGA politics?

Vancouver city councilors are pushing back against a proposal to scale back light rail stops from two, ending at a station in downtown, to just one that would end 90 feet above the city's waterfront

I have said it before and I'll say it again: Oregon's news climate has been absolutely decimated. This leaves Douglas County with no newspaper in an area of the state that already had very few reporters. www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

We just declared drought for the fourth year in a row. And this year, it’s statewide.

Seattle millionaire seeks repeal of millionaires’ tax

A U.S. District Court judge found that President Trump's executive ordering the defunding of NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment. n.pr/3PUBm6t

More positive fish news on the Klamath River

A Clark County lawsuit that has come to represent how much of a voice smaller cities should get on issues like light rail on the new Interstate Bridge was dismissed this week

Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced its plans to quadruple the amount of logging that could happen in the forests it manages. Specifically, the agency aims to revise management plans for areas designated as O&C Lands.

Local elections official on what would be needed for the SAVE Act to work in Thurston County, WA: "It would require around the clock work, seven days a week ... currently we don't have all the resources as a county to hire all those staff right now" 18:00 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFc-...

OPB is increasing its coverage of Southwest Washington, Eastern Oregon and Portland!

According to new official estimates released Tuesday morning, the price to build the Interstate Bridge will increase approximately 140% from a 2022 estimate of $6 billion to a new target of $14.4 billion.

this is a notable split

Definitely one of the best articles I’ve read lately

A federal judge in Oregon said he would continue to block federal law enforcement from using tear gas and other chemical crowd control devices on protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.

VPS reaches $4.8 million settlement, and thanks to its insurance "paid an out-of-pocket deductible of $2,500 that covers both cases."

In this first episode of the documentary series “The Crackdown," OPB takes a look at the protests in Portland, where nightly demonstrations on a single city block escalated into a test of presidential power.

Vancouver City Council has approved financial support for struggling businesses in the city's Fourth Plain corridor, known for its many immigrant- and BIPOC-owned businesses.

There aren't a ton of bright spots in the predatory world of mobile home parks, but Habitat for Humanity chapters buying them to build affordable housing is one

Tonight the Clark County council will discuss whether to extend protections on manufactured home parks from redevelopment

Large swaths of Oregon’s public and private lands are chopped into a checkerboard pattern. Senate Bill 1545 would secure the right of people to “corner cross” the checkerboard, without fear of trespass.

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.