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OPB

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Connecting people across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest through the power of a shared story. Share your tips: 🔗 https://www.opb.org/submit-idea/

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For the past 14 months, Bryan Vance has tracked the prices of 20 common grocery staples, aggregating them into a newsletter called Stumptown Savings. Spurred by rising costs and his own layoff, the Google sheet where he tracks items is now 5,500 lines long. Every month he adds 400 points of data.

opb.orgAmid rising food costs, a free newsletter helps Portlanders save moneyFor over a year, Vance has been methodically tracking the cost of everyday grocery items, taking note of everything from sandwich bread to ground beef and cooking oil.

Kaylub Giamanco, the man who fatally shot the teenage shooter at Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15, exclusively spoke with OPB about his experience that day. This is the full interview with Giamanco, edited for clarity.

opb.orgFull OPB interview: Bend father who fatally shot Silver Rail Elementary school shooterOPB conducted a 45-minute exclusive interview with Kaylub Giamanco, the man who fatally shot the teenage shooter at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, on Oct. 15.

The high diesel prices are adding to pain for cattle ranchers in western states, who were already struggling with persistent drought. And in Harney County, where bovines outnumber the people – by a lot - there’s many mouths to feed.

opb.orgDrought, fire and high diesel prices 'addin' up tough' for Oregon ranchersRecord diesel prices are kicking Western ranchers while they're down. Drought means they have to buy extra hay, and pay truckers extra to deliver it because of fuel price hikes.

Oregon’s draft State Rail Plan identifies a dozen projects intended to improve passenger rail service, including upgrades to help Amtrak Cascades avoid freight traffic, which is a common source of delays.

opb.org The possible future of passenger rail in the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest has several proposals to expand and improve passenger rail, from making Amtrak Cascades more reliable to building a high-speed rail line between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Oregon’s 2026 wildfire season burned a record amount of land and cost more to fight than any season before it, even as the state saw fewer fires than usual. More than 2.1 million acres burned across the state this year, surpassing the previous record set in 2024.

opb.orgFewer fires, record damage: Oregon’s 2026 wildfire season by the numbersA record-low snowpack and summer lightning storms fueled a season that destroyed dozens of homes, killed two men working the fires and pushed firefighting costs past $235 million.

Surviving family members, lawyers representing workers and state officials interviewed for this story all pointed to a pattern: The DOE systematically challenges and then drags out workers’ compensation claims for years with recommended denials and subsequent legal appeals.

opb.orgNuclear weapons waste made workers sick. Despite a law meant to help, the DOE keeps fighting their claimsA 2018 Washington state law was supposed to help workers who got sick cleaning up Hanford, a former federal nuclear weapons site. Eight years later, the DOE has spent nearly $12 million fighting to deny them benefits.

Since 2019, Green Empowerment had been helping communities in Uganda provide power and clean water to health clinics. But when federal aid started drying up last year, the organization made a rare move and merged with another nonprofit. With funds growing scarce, more mergers could be coming.

opb.orgNonprofits with Oregon roots form alliance to overcome tough funding landscape Amid dwindling federal aid, some nonprofits are sharing resources and in some cases merging altogether, like renewable energy groups Green Empowerment and blueEnergy US.

Correction: The initial caption of this post misspelled the name of Silver Rail Elementary School. OPB regrets the error. Becky Drury was injured in the attack at Silver Rail Elementary School last week. On Wednesday, a family friend of Drury released a statement in her words about her experience.

opb.orgTeacher who survived Bend school attack says she had no chance to protect childrenA teacher wounded in last week’s attack on a special education classroom at a Bend elementary school says she never had a chance to try to shelter any of the children inside.

If voters approve the ballot measure — which some polling suggests is plausible — Washington would become the 30th state with laws or regulations banning transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

opb.orgIn final weeks of 3rd District campaign, Braun champions ban on transgender girls in girls’ sportsUntil recently, the Republican challenger for the competitive Southwest Washington Congressional seat mostly focused his campaign on economic issues.