Oregon’s cities can now apply to control speed limits on their own streets

Federal money coming to Oregon to tackle risky traffic areas. Oregon will be getting seven grants, worth a total of about $24 million, to help reduce traffic fatalities in high-crash areas. The Biden administration announced the grants Wednesday morning as part of the $800 million “Safe Streets and Roads for All” program. The majority of Oregon’s funding will go toward projects on 122nd Avenue in Portland. A 5-mile stretch of that road is among the most dangerous traffic areas in the metro area. The money will be used for more street lighting, protected bike lanes, new crosswalks and several more traffic improvements. Planning grants will also go to Oregon Metro, as well as Lane, Douglas and Jefferson counties, and the cities of Hermiston and Ontario. (OPB Staff)

One of the largest groups of Indigenous tribes in Oregon has asked for a seat at the table in discussing the controversial Thornburgh Resort planned in Central Oregon. The request came as the Deschutes County Commission on Wednesday mulled an appeal from Thornburgh’s developers, after a county hearings officer rejected the resort’s new Fish and Wildlife Management Plan in December, saying the developers had shown little evidence they could mitigate the loss of wildlife and water.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Earlier this month, Oregon City officials penned an open letter, published by the Portland Tribune, to the Oregon Department of Transportation. The letter states that the city commission is “adamantly opposed to any application of tolling in the region.”. It also...

More than 600 Portland city workers have walked off the job. Workers represented by the union Laborers Local 483 officially went on strike early Thursday after nearly a year of negotiations. The workers have been without a contract since June 2022, and negotiations over a new four-year deal broke down in December over wages.

More than 600 Portland city employees are prepared to strike Thursday after nearly a year of contract negotiations ground to a halt. The strike could broadly impact city operations, as Laborers Local 483 includes workers in the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the Bureau of Environmental Services, and Portland Parks and Recreation. Those employees are responsible for addressing sewage leaks, removing debris from city streets, cleaning biohazard waste dumped at city parks, and clearing streets of ice and snow, among other tasks.

The final two stretches of Oregon’s coast will open for commercial Dungeness crab fishing this week. But there may be some restrictions. The coastline to the north from Cape Falcon to the Washington border opens for commercial crabbing Wednesday, Feb. 1. The south coast from Cape Arago to the California border is set to open this Saturday, Feb. 4.

Two years ago, the Oregon legislature approved the sale of $15 million in lottery bonds to help pay for a community center in Woodburn. Last year, the Department of Administrative Services decided against selling the bonds. The city of Woodburn filed suit. We talk to Woodburn mayor Frank Lonergan about what the community center would mean for the city, how much it will cost and what the lawsuit means for the future of the project.

Umatilla tribes vote to align cannabis policy with Oregon law. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have legalized cannabis possession on their land. The East Oregonian reports the tribes’ Board of Trustees approved the change Monday night. Changing the policy brings the tribes in line with Oregon law. Anyone 21 or older can now possess and consume cannabis on the reservation. The change does not immediately legalize business operations for marijuana, however. The trustees said they are reviewing policies currently and will decide in the future if they want to approve businesses. (OPB Staff)

Is Oregon’s tax credit to help house farm workers actually working?. Oregon lawmakers created the agricultural workforce housing credit in 1989 to help offset the cost of building housing for agricultural workers. Today, lawmakers are debating whether to extend the credit, allowing housing developers to claim credit for projects completed before January 2030. Outside Salem, advocates and providers of agricultural workforce housing disagree on a fundamental premise: whether the tax credit even works. Agricultural employers who provide housing say the credit does not work for them because it requires up-front money that farms may not have. Community-based housing developers say it works just fine. (Shannon Sollitt/Salem Statesman Journal)

In Portland Public Schools’ adopted budget for this school year, continuing the Online Learning Academy was highlighted as one of the district’s efforts to “increase learning opportunities for every student.”. The state’s largest district opened the Online Learning Academy, or OLA, in 2021 to serve students in...

New Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek wants to spend $1 billion in the next two years to preserve and build more affordable housing, funnel more than $9 billion to public schools and devote millions to increase staffing at the Oregon State Hospital, under a $116.5 billion proposed spending plan released on Tuesday.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Robert Hammer is the special agent in charge for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations division – also known as HSI – in the Pacific Northwest. He sat down with Jefferson Public Radio’s Roman Battaglia to discuss the state of illegal cannabis in Southern Oregon, and how law enforcement is helping victims of human trafficking.

Portland Public Schools is closing its online program, the Online Learning Academy, at the end of the school year. Staff was notified Tuesday during a meeting. Families found out from an email they received Tuesday evening. In the message to families, district officials cited future budget concerns as a reason for closing the school.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Last week, the first ever tri-county point-in-time count began, which was largely coordinated by Portland State University. Volunteers, service providers and outreach workers from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas County surveyed people without adequate shelter to formulate updated data on what homelessness looks like in the region. The count finished yesterday. We’ll hear from two Portlanders who volunteered for this count for the first time. Marianne Nelson and Richard Gibson share why they chose to participate and what they heard from people they surveyed.

Portland International Airport has implemented new technology to help people navigate its terminal. The smartphone app GoodMaps Explore was specifically designed to assist travelers with disabilities. The free navigation app enables travelers with different needs, including people who are blind or have low vision, or those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Your browser does not support the audio element. Oregon launched a hotline this month to help callers understand the state’s reproductive health laws following the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year. Abortion remains legal in Oregon and the Supreme Court’s decision did not change abortion laws in the state. We hear more about the hotline from Anna Sortun, a partner with Tonkon Torp and one of the lawyers taking calls.

In each of the last few years, supporters of afterschool and summer learning programs have seen a familiar pattern: they show up in Salem to push for money; legislators listen and eventually agree to put money into summer programs. It leaves school and community leaders grateful for the money but scrambling to put classes and activities together before school lets out in June.

With two weeks left before voters in Vancouver decide the fate of a proposed 10-year, $100 million affordable housing levy, its backers are feeling optimistic. The city, as much of the Northwest, has grown so much in recent years that its housing stock has not kept pace. The levy’s backers say people in the community are viewing the proposal as a necessity.