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Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Unsustainable': Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek urges Preschool for All changes
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The deadline for parents to accept placement offers just passed. Now, Gov. Kotek is urging county chair Jessica Vega Pederson to consider restructuring how the program is funded. In a letter to the chair, Kotek calls the current direction of the program 'unsustainable.' Currently, Preschool for All is funded by a personal income tax on Multnomah County's highest earners — individuals with a taxable income over $125,000 — and joint filers with an income over $200,000. Kotek says the tax seems to be discouraging top earners from calling Portland home. 'There should have been a statewide tax for preschool. Not a Multnomah County tax that penalizes Multnomah County. We have seen 1,700 higher-income people in the past two years,' said Portland-based businessman Jordan Schnitzer. Schnitzer will be discussing this topic further on the next episode of Eye on Northwest Politics, which airs Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on Portland's CW and at 6 p.m. on KOIN 6. Kotek suggests easing the tax burden on people living and working in Multnomah County through a number of ways, including pausing the Preschool for All tax collection for three years or reducing the tax rate. As it stands now, single filers are taxed 1.5% on taxable income exceeding $125,000. The same rate applies to joint filers with income exceeding $200,000. She also recommends the county figure out what is financially necessary to achieve the original goals of the program, which includes reaching universal access by 2030. Vega Pederson responded to the governor's letter with one of her own, saying in part, 'Our community made a commitment to children, families, preschool providers. Our childcare and early education workforce, as well as our future, when 64% of voters said yes to Preschool for All in 2020.' She goes on to say she will be finalizing a plan to revise the Preschool for All tax in the coming weeks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
11-06-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's massive dam removal hit a key milestone. Now, there's a problem
Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed upstream into the long-blocked waters along the California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows considered crucial to the fish's future. The return of salmon to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal and a measure of the project's success. However, a problem emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam, the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a fish ladder that's supposed to help with fish passage, but it didn't prove to work. While many proponents of dam removal say they're thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn't reach before the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable. This stands to keep the fish from spreading and reproducing in the high numbers anticipated with the project. Other migratory fish, including steelhead trout and Pacific lamprey, may face similar straits. The shortcoming has opened a new chapter in the decades-long effort to liberate the Klamath River, this one focused on Keno Dam. It has also left some people frustrated that the dam wasn't addressed sooner, when the other dams were dealt with. 'It's too bad that there wasn't enough forethought,' said William Ray Jr., chairman for the Klamath Tribes, who represents the native communities in the upper section of the Klamath Basin where salmon haven't been able to get to. 'The fish could have gone a lot farther, and that was the whole point. … The job just wasn't done, far from it.' The $500 million dam-removal project, considered the largest in U.S. history, was overseen by the states of California and Oregon in partnership with tribes and environmental groups, which initiated the effort to restore the 250-mile Klamath River to its natural conditions. The former owner of the power-generating dams, PacifiCorp, agreed to dam removal to rid itself of the river's aging and increasingly costly hydroelectric operations. The Portland-based utility and state of California paid for the work. PacifiCorp also owned Keno Dam, but because the dam provides flood control, unlike the others, it was transferred to the federal government's Bureau of Reclamation for continued operation, as part of the dam-removal agreement. In recent months, federal, state and tribal officials have been evaluating Keno Dam to see what might be done to make sure it's passable for salmon. The possibilities range from rebuilding the old fish ladder to removing the dam. Making changes, though, will be complicated by the facility's role in regulating river flows, and it could be years, if not decades, before there's a permanent fix. 'Restoration is not a flip-of-the-switch and everything-is-fine endeavor,' said Philip Milburn, district manager at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which has been contracted by the federal government to evaluate options for Keno Dam. 'It took hundreds of years for the basin to get to the way it is now, and it's going to take time to modify it to suit fish.' Above Keno Dam, where migratory fish haven't been for more than a century because of the dams, 350 miles of rivers, lakes and creeks are believed to be key for the struggling salmon population. Salmon spend most of their short lives at sea but they need freshwater to spawn. With the warming climate, the cold-water springs, higher elevations and nutrient-rich waters of the upper Klamath Basin are particularly important for reproduction, scientists say. The revival of the basin's salmon would be a boon for the commercial fishing industry and culinary world as well as for the many tribes that see the fish as a spiritual force in their communities. 'We haven't had the fish for a long time,' said Ray Jr. 'It harms the culture and the health of our people. We're becoming impatient.' New fish, but an old dam The apparent problem at Keno Dam became clear late last year, following what many federal, state and tribal officials considered an immediate success with the dam-removal project. The number of salmon swimming in the newly opened-up waters of the Klamath River, downstream of Keno Dam, was generally more than what was anticipated so soon. Roughly 2,000 chinook salmon were counted after the last of the dams was razed in August in surveys recently released by a multi-jurisdictional team of scientists. Sonar reports suggest the number could have been thousands more. The fish were part of the river's fall run, its most populous run. The salmon journeyed from the mouth of the Klamath River in California's redwood-filled north to the sunny rolling hills of Siskiyou County – a total of 190 miles to the first of the former dam sites. Beyond going the distance, the ability of the salmon to enter a new stretch of river hinged on navigating cloudy waters whipped up temporarily with the dam demolition as well as resisting the urge to stay in familiar territory. Salmon are built to return to their place of birth, though they sometimes 'stray' when it's in their interest. 'A lot of people expected it would take years for the fish to show up in these numbers,' said Mike Belchik, senior fisheries biologist for Northern California's Yurok Tribe, one of the primary tribes supporting the dam removal. 'That was wrong.' Coho salmon, steelhead trout and Pacific lamprey also have been documented in the footprint of the old dams. The fall-run chinook, once they got above the former dam sites, spawned either in the Klamath's main stem or in a tributary, such as Jenny or Shovel creeks, according to the surveys. This spring, newly born salmon began migrating to sea. (The adults die after spawning.) 'I don't know if the fish ran out of room or not,' Belchik said. 'Some of the habitats seemed fully occupied. But we're pretty stoked that so many went up there.' More than 500 adults were estimated to have gone as far as Oregon, with an unknown number making it to Keno Dam. At least a few were observed in the dam's fish ladder, which is a series of more than 20 step pools designed to help fish bypass the dam, but none were documented to have reached the top. While a lack of monitoring could explain the complete absence of fish above the dam, the challenges at the dam are unmistakable. One issue is believed to be a component called the trash racks. The vertical bars at the intakes of the fish ladder, which keep logs from clogging the passageway, were too narrow for salmon, an obstruction that federal officials at the Bureau of Reclamation have since worked on. But the larger problem, according to Oregon wildlife officials, is that the fish ladder at Keno Dam dates to when the dam was built in 1967 and simply doesn't work well. The openings between the pools where fish pass are too small. The gates controlling the flow of water are faulty. The ladder is located too far from where fish approach. 'To provide fish passage that meets current state of Oregon and federal fish passage criteria, a new passage facility would be required,' wildlife officials wrote in an evaluation of the dam in 2023. The Bureau of Reclamation confirmed in a statement to the Chronicle that it was working on 'fish passage solutions' at the dam. The agency, however, declined a request for an interview about the details of the work and the timing. Fixing the dam for fish While the Bureau of Reclamation's acquisition of Keno Dam last summer meant that the agency wasn't able to address fish passage until recently, at least directly, state and tribal officials say there were other reasons the issue wasn't taken up sooner. One was uncertainty about whether the dam-removal project downriver would ever get done after years of delays. Another was skepticism that salmon would make it to Keno Dam even if the dams below came down. Furthermore, the focus on the removal of the four dams left little time and resources to figure out what to do with potential hurdles upstream. 'There just wasn't the capacity to do everything at once,' said Milburn, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'Now we're tackling the things that were sidelined during the initial project.' With two new grants from the federal government, Oregon wildlife officials have been tasked with identifying both short-term and long-term fixes for Keno Dam. The state recently received the first $100,000 of a $4.5 million grant for immediate repairs, such as making sure the trash racks on the fish ladder don't block salmon. State officials have also convened a group of experts to study and recommend a permanent solution over the next three years, with the second $1.9 million grant. The recommendation will be forwarded to the Bureau of Reclamation for consideration. According to the terms of the grant, the state-convened experts will evaluate such possibilities as constructing a more effective fish ladder at Keno Dam as well as dismantling the dam entirely, which could prove even more effective for fish passage. Oregon officials say any proposal that involves dam removal must include dam replacement, presumably with one that's more fish friendly, or building a similarly purposed structure, possibly an artificial reef to replicate what was on the river historically, as has been informally discussed. Maintaining the flood-control features of the 723-foot-wide Keno Dam is necessary to protect the area's farms, communities and infrastructure. The dam is located 12 miles southwest of the city of Klamath Falls, Ore. 'There are so many benefits from having that dam in place right now that I can't see removing it unless there is a very, very deliberate effort to make sure we're not causing harm to the economy and local folks,' said Gene Souza, executive director of the Klamath Irrigation District, a water agency that delivers supplies to growers in the basin on both sides of the state line. Souza and others have also pointed to the potentially huge expense of demolishing the dam and building another. A new fish ladder could be pricey, too, requiring a specialized, durable and high-maintenance facility, though no cost estimates have been worked up yet for any of the options. While Keno Dam appears to be the biggest hang-up on the river, the challenges for salmon are not likely to end there. Upstream is one more dam, Link River Dam in Klamath Falls. This facility, long owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, regulates giant Upper Klamath Lake, where the Klamath River begins, and provides water supplies for the agriculturally vital Klamath Project. The dam has a fish ladder that has been upgraded, unlike the one at Keno Dam, but salmon passage is not assured. Beyond Link River Dam, Upper Klamath Lake has been experiencing bouts of algae and poor water quality in recent years that could make fish navigation difficult. Above the lake, the Williamson, Sprague, and Wood rivers offer ideal habitat, but in the century that salmon have been absent, unknown obstacles may have emerged with human development. Restoration work in many of the basin's waterways, including reviving wetlands and reconnecting creeks, has been ongoing to help existing fish and improve water conditions as well as to prepare for the anticipated salmon. 'The last thing we want is a bottleneck in the upper watershed,' said Rob Lusardi, assistant professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology at UC Davis, who has studied salmon reintroduction strategies in the Klamath Basin. 'I'm not saying that's the case… (but) anywhere we can improve fish passage is a goal worth pursuing.'
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Environment, social justice groups withdraw support for governor's key groundwater protection bill
Gov. Tina Kotek on May 3, 2023 at the home of Ana Maria Rodriguez, a Boardman resident and Oregon Rural Action organizer, whose well water has nearly four times the safe drinking water limit for nitrate. Kotek was visiting with residents in Boardman, who are concerned that progress on the nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin has been slow. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Groups that helped champion one of Gov. Tina Kotek's key groundwater protection bills this session are withdrawing their support and asking the Legislature to let it die for now, following a last-minute amendment they say effectively neutralizes the intent of the legislation. Senate Bill 1154 as first proposed in February would provide long overdue updates to the state's Groundwater Quality Protection Act first passed in 1989, giving state agencies more authority to coordinate and to intervene early in Oregon's contaminated groundwater areas. Since 1989, three critical groundwater management areas have been identified in Oregon. They are all still considered to be in critical condition due to nitrate contamination, almost entirely from agricultural fertilizers and animal manure, and none have seen vast improvement in the last two to three decades. Groups heavily involved in addressing water contamination issues in northeast Oregon — including the nonprofits Oregon Rural Action, Center for Food Safety, Food & Water Watch of Oregon, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Friends of Family Farmers — consulted with Kotek's environmental advisers on the bill and offered testimony supporting it in recent months. But in advance of a public hearing and vote on Monday in the Senate Committee on Rules, the groups released a statement saying they could no longer support it. They wrote that a proposed 39-page amendment posted late Friday at the request of state Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland and committee chair, 'revealed the extent to which the Governor's office had allowed powerful industrial lobbies to influence the bill late in the session.' Lawmakers have to wrap up voting on all bills by June 29. At a news conference Monday Kotek said she was not aware of the proposed amendment. 'I think the bill is in good shape, and I know some folks would like it to be stronger, but I think it significantly strengthens what we do in the state, and I support the bill in its current state,' she said. Several environmental and social justice groups that have supported the bill continue to do so with the amendment, according to Anca Matica, a Kotek spokesperson. They include the Portland-based nonprofit Verde, Oregon Environmental Council and Beyond Toxics. The amendment strikes earlier provisions in the bill that would have required state agencies to provide regular reports to the Environmental Quality Commission, the governor and the Legislature in order to receive funding to execute their local voluntary implementation plan. It also strikes part of the original bill that would have allowed the state to modify existing permits for wastewater reuse and confined animal feed operations if doing so could curb pollution. One big change the amendment brings to the original bill, according to Kaleb Lay, policy director at Oregon Rural Action, is eliminating the requirement that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon Water Resources Department work together to figure out whether new requests for groundwater permits, or requests for new uses of groundwater, might contribute to pollution. Representatives from the Oregon Farm Bureau and Water for Eastern Oregon, a nonprofit industry group representing northeast Oregon food processors and agricultural industries, said the amendment makes improvements to the bill, specifically ones that require third-party analysis of state hydrogeology and well-testing data. 'The bill has come a long way. And again, the problem is identified,' Oregon Farm Bureau Executive Director Greg Addington told lawmakers on the Senate Rules Committee. 'We want to avoid groundwater contamination. We can all understand that, and we can all get behind it.' Kristin Anderson Ostrom, executive director of Oregon Rural Action, said in the multi-group statement it would be better to abstain from voting on the bill now and to work on it for the next Legislative short session in 2026. 'Governor Kotek showed great initiative in putting this bill forward to learn the lessons of the LUBGWMA (Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area) in eastern Oregon, but this legislation doesn't go far enough to put those lessons into practice,' she wrote. 'Polluters continue to get whatever they want, while the communities directly impacted by pollution are denied what they need and have been asking for – to enforce the law and stop the Pollution.' The Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, designated as critically impaired in 1990, has gotten worse under state supervision. A volunteer committee established in 1997 to tackle problems has had little to no impact. Thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties — mostly Latino and low-income — have been drinking from contaminated wells, which is dangerous because nitrates consumed over long periods can increase risks for cancer and birth defects. In September, Kotek and state agency officials released a comprehensive plan for curbing nitrate pollution in northeast Oregon that 'will take decades' to achieve. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Rallygoers protest against ‘appalling' ICE arrest of asylum seeker
PORTLAND, Ore. () — A rally was held in Vancouver Wednesday evening in protest against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest that happened in Portland earlier this week. A woman was seeking asylum at a Portland immigration courthouse on Monday when . Budget cuts threaten Oregon Outdoor School program OJM, a pseudonym she uses for safety reasons, is a 24-year-old transgender woman from Mexico, where she was abducted and raped because of her gender identity and sexual orientation 'at the hands of a dangerous cartel,' said the Portland-based Innnovation Law Lab, representing her. They said she fled to the United States for safety. The law group said she was processed into Tacoma on Monday night. However, they haven't been granted access to her since her transfer. The Innovation Law Lab argued ICE used 'deceptive and unethical practices' to detain OJM and strip her of her due process rights. They said a federal judge has approved their petition to find out why ICE arrested her and they hope to learn those details soon. A small group of protesters gathered in downtown Vancouver to show their support, chanting, 'Immigrants are welcome here.' 'It's so appalling because when we heard about the ICE detention of the young trans woman from Mexico who was just following the rules,' said Rebecca Ketih, who helped organize the rally. The Department of Homeland Security told KOIN 6 News in a statement on Tuesday that they're doing what they've been told to do. DHS said in part, 'ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.' 'It's anyone with brown skin. And this young lady was innocent,' said Carolyn Fu, another rallygoer at the Vancouver demonstration. Fu said she is originally from Hawaii and knows what it's like for her people to be discriminated against. Even still, she said the arrest has sent shockwaves through the community and that people are ready to fight. 'Today's rally is going to wrap up, but it's not going to stop. We're continuing. We're going to continue to fight and, and make sure that our representatives are going to look for her and stand up for her, no matter what it takes,' Fu said. Suspect identified in Battle Ground double homicide U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) commented on the woman's ICE arrest, saying on Tuesday that he is 'appalled' at what happened. 'As the son of parents who fled Nazi Germany for refuge in America, I'm appalled by Donald Trump's goons arresting a woman in Portland just when she sought refuge in our country from sexual abuse by drug traffickers in Mexico,' in a post on X. KOIN 6 reached out to other Pacific Northwest lawmakers for comment about the arrest and we will post updates if we hear back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-06-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's largest ‘land-back' deal returns 47,000 acres to tribe
Blue Creek once stood as a hub in the Indigenous world. And it will again. Spilling from the Siskiyou Mountains in California's far north, the tributary of the Klamath River inhabits a hardy landscape of elk and bear, redwood forest and even-to-this-day plentiful salmon. The Yurok people historically lived, gathered and worshiped there. Last week, in what appears to be the largest 'land back' deal in state history, the Yurok Tribe completed acquisition of 47,000 acres around the Blue Creek watershed, finalizing the return of this vast ancestral stretch to Native American oversight. The property was conveyed in phases by Portland-based Western Rivers Conservancy. The final transfer last week, about 15,000 acres, follows a two-decade push by the tribe and the conservation group to secure protection of the cherished land in the lower Klamath Basin. The campaign raised $56 million, from a variety of public and private sources, to purchase properties previously owned and heavily logged by the Green Diamond Resource Company. 'To have this land back, it's a beautiful day and a beautiful milestone in the lives of the Yurok people,' Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, told the Chronicle. 'This is a place of beauty. It's a place of well-being. It's a place of balance. It's who we are.' The Yurok is California's largest tribe. It counts more than 5,000 members who reside largely on or near the Yurok reservation, which is based in the community of Klamath (Del Norte County) near Redwood National and State Parks. The tribe operates a small casino, restaurant and hotel. At one time, the Yurok people lived in villages across much of northwestern California. Unlike most Native Americans who were ousted by European settlers, the Yurok have always remained on a portion of their historical lands. With the 47,000-acre acquisition, which abuts their reservation and includes miles and miles of waterfront along both Blue Creek and the Klamath River, the tribe's holdings in modern times have doubled. 'The drainage is not just important to the natural resource, but it's a place of high prayer for us,' James said. The tribal chairman, who grew up in a small community along the Klamath River just a 20-minute boat ride from Blue Creek, said he and other tribal members would float to the creek's sometimes turquoise waters to seek spiritual clarity and give thanks. 'I like to say, 'There's no such thing as a bad day traveling on the river,'' he said. 'It opens you up in a good way.' The Yurok Tribe is already managing most of the recently acquired property as a 'community forest.' There, it does sustainable logging and forest restoration. After a century of industrial timber harvests on the land, tribal members are trying to create a healthier environment by removing old logging roads and nursing back redwoods, mixed conifer forests and native grasslands. Most of the roughly 15,000 acres that was acquired last week will be managed as a protected 'salmon sanctuary.' Located at the lower reaches of Blue Creek, the area is a key cold-water refuge for anadromous fish starting their journeys up the Klamath River. The creek is about 16 miles upriver from the Pacific. With last year's completion of a major dam-removal project on the Klamath River, nearly 200 miles upstream, Blue Creek has taken on heightened significance. Migrating salmon and steelhead will benefit from any extra rest and nourishment they might get at the creek to sustain them for the potentially longer trek to the newly un-dammed river habitat. 'Dam removal is inspiring and great and exceptionally important,' said Nelson Mathews, president of Western Rivers Conservancy. 'To get up past the dams, the fish need cold water. That's why this (protection of Blue Creek) is critical.' Western Rivers Conservancy, alongside the Yurok Tribe, began discussing a potential land deal with Green Diamond Resource Company in the 2000s. Between 2009 and 2017, the organization bought pieces of the company's property, all of which were ultimately transferred to the tribe. In addition to direct funding from the state and private donors, Western Rivers Conservancy raised money from carbon credits, in which companies pay to offset their pollution, and the federal New Markets Tax Credit program, in which corporations get tax breaks for making community investments. 'Our core mission is conservation: It's protecting the rivers and streams,' Matthews said. 'Tribes have been a natural partner for us. … The Yurok Tribe has the resources and the deep cultural connections that sustained this land for millennia, and now they can continue to do so.'
