Finished an entire woodworking project only using my gigantic scrap pile. My sickness is entirely justified for another year.

It has been a crazy week, but I just want to say that the amount of support @leahsottile.bsky.social and I have received is extremely motivating and heartening. Everyone who has checked us out or subscribed rules. (And even most of the critics are coming from a caring place, imo.) Thank you 🙏

“Though Eugene is known as a largely accepting city for LGBTQ folks, there's a difference between being accepted and being welcomed. And this space is really to be welcoming to the LGBTQ community, specifically designed for meeting their needs,” said Yandel.

The Oregonian (probably through its parent company) seems really bent on using AI to produce more and more of its product in recent years. Looks like AI is now narrating some stories for them.

The fox is in the henhouse.

PubliCola confirmed this morning that the city settled with Jaahnavi Kandula's family for $29,011,000. The added $11,000, which the family requested in their lawsuit, is a reference to then-police guild vice president Daniel Auderer's "joke" that Kandula's life was only worth that much.

Worth a read from @leahsottile.bsky.social, who frames journalism pay/industry issues well (and who Spokanites have to thank for helping launch Volume Music Festival). ⬇️

Many of you know the work @leahsottile.bsky.social and @ryanjhaas.bsky.social do here in the Northwest, but ahead of the launch of our first reported story next week, we wanted to share a recap of some of our past work. You may be new to us or you may have missed some; either way, let's catch up.

Utah being the state to repeatedly take on Big Tech and its harms is something I wouldn't have predicted, but I am here for it.

Having worked a bit on the first version of this bill that failed in the previous legislative session, I do think this would be a win for journalism in Oregon. Big Tech made billions off the backs of people who produce information while giving little back. Write your reps!

Oh hey, look at that! @leahsottile.bsky.social was nominated for an Oregon Book Award for her absolute fever dream of incredible reporting, Blazing Eye Sees All. Go get a copy if you haven't checked it out already! (And give me your fav recs from this list of incredible books.)

This is extraordinary! The Trump administration’s push for mass deportations has resulted in more cases, known as habeas petitions, filed in federal court in the last year than under ***the last three administrations combined***, including Trump’s first term. w/ @texastribune.org

Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family. “He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.

If you want to understand how far-reaching the corporate rot in media is, read this gutting piece about the fall of Oregon Public Broadcasting. (And follow @ryanjhaas.bsky.social and @leahsottile.bsky.social’s new publication @thewesternedge.bsky.social which will be amazing bc they’re amazing)

Legacy Emanuel nurses say ICE agents violate hospital policy while administrators prevent them from doing anything about it.

HUGE news for @thetyee.ca. Our founding editor, Dave Beers, is retiring. Who will fill these big shoes? thetyee.ca/Tyeenews/202...

Oregon Public Broadcasting is one of the crown jewels of public media in the US. This is a shot across its bow.

This is easily the hardest thing I've ever had to write.

This chart. Wow. reportearth.substack.com/p/the-washin... via @chriscmooney.bsky.social

We are 100% subscriber supported, so please consider joining us. Journalism should be sustainable for the people doing the reporting and editing. That's why we want a direct relationship with you, our readers. Please consider signing up so we can keep reporting on what matters to our region.

That means we aren't trying to be in your inbox everyday. We're not chasing likes and clout. We're not "optimizing" with AI or worrying about hearts on Instagram. We are picking up the damn phone, filing records requests and holding the powerful accountable through journalism.

The Western Edge is a new type of journalism from @leahsottile.bsky.social and @ryanjhaas.bsky.social that aims to cover the places and stories left out of traditional media. We're not beholden to algorithms and moneyed interests. We only make high quality journalism PNW residents deserve.

Are you tired of journalism by parachuting east coasters? Sick of stories with clickbait headlines that lack context and reporting to explain what's really happening? Want stories that illuminate the Northwest without bombarding you constantly for your attention? Welcome to the Western Edge.

“We care about kids, and we care about our youth, and it's all going to be peaches and cream,’ because you're going to be making more money and your profit lines are going to be better, because we're cutting the wages of kids.” nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news...

Huh, they actually deleted it.

Looking forward to the wave of heterodox pundits straining to come up with non-racist explanations for this.

Trump is what you’d get if you distilled the worst impulses of Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon; poured them into a sausage casing; and then put a suit and tie on it.

Salem Mayor Julie Hoy, who late last year voted against declaring a local state of emergency over increasingly intense immigration enforcement in Oregon’s second-largest city, was not among the mayors who signed onto the letter.

Every time I see city officials who want to raid the climate fund for XYZ project, I wonder to myself what could get done if the ultra wealthy paid their fair share. (Also, taking taxes on large retailers to pay a billionaire for a sports stadium is humorous.)

Cool cool cool

New from me - Epstein continued attending dinners alongside the likes of Musk, Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin after his sentence for child sex offenses www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Oregon has never had such a small amount of snow, on this date, as it has now statewide. But that could change in a big way beginning this coming weekend, as a forecasted pattern shift brings cooler and wetter conditions: tinyurl.com/4y5bc36v

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has put out a statement regarding the actions of federal law enforcement at Portland's ICE building after those agents deployed tear gas and other crowd control weapons, including against children, over the weekend. (1/X)

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

More deets on where that stands here: www.opb.org/article/2026...

The difference in response is because many of us were out there with our fellow Portlanders getting teargassed in 2020. We saw what federal occupation looks like. We also saw some of our elected leaders fail to rise to the moment. We’re not going to make the same mistake.

I'm so old, I remember January 2025 when this racist letter circulated in Lincoln County, OR encouraging people to report on their neighbors who are undocumented. The letter ended by saying this would bring houses prices down. What was condemned as racist vigilantism last year is now gov't policy.

Among the batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein: Epstein telling Peter Thiel he would “gladly share…expenses for the Gawker suit.” This was sent the day after @rmac.bsky.social and @mattdrange.bsky.social reported in Forbes that Thiel was behind the lawsuit that would bankrupt Gawker

Over 3,400 journalists were laid off in 2025

Portland's council has passed an ordinance that could levy fines for how the ICE facility in the city operates, but as this poster points out, navigating the legal landscape to make that stick is still underway. (Ordinance link) www.portland.gov/council/docu...

Portland elected leaders are responding quickly to the scenes out of the large and peaceful protest last night that was indiscriminately gassed and attacked by federal officers. Councilor Green seeks reports of gassed children. (1/x)

Alex Pretti memorial ride in Bend, Oregon. Huge turnout!

I recorded this today, in Portland, Oregon, at a huge march to the ICE facility in SW. The crowd was full of cyclists who had ridden there in memory of Alex Pretti; members of several labor unions; and ordinary citizens of every age, including this little girl. So of course ICE deployed tear gas.

Xbox LIVE was willing to do in 2013 what the entire US establishment was not.

I wrote about how the people who mourn Vicki Weaver and Lavoy Finicum are not, for the most part, mourning Renee Good or Alex Pretti. open.substack.com/pub/leahsott...

TIL learned that Jad Abumrad mixes podcasts in Ableton and that kinda rules.

Can’t believe Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson/corporal gets paid $210,000 to ignore my requests for comment