Nathaniel VerGow stepped into one of the region’s hardest jobs when he was approved to lead Multnomah County’s homelessness agency in April. Then it kept getting harder. He joined @streetroots.bsky.social last week to talk abt the excess of challenges he faces. www.streetroots.org/housing/2026...

The Portland area’s battle against homelessness is only getting harder. Here’s how the leader of Multnomah County’s homelessness agency is taking on the challenges.

Street Roots spent an hour talking with the new director about his strategy to house people despite the challenges

streetroots.org

NEW: A first-of-its-kind largescale study is now underway looking at how Oregon laws that criminalize consensual sex work are impacting sex workers and survivors of sex trafficking. The grassroots effort kicks off a pathway to decriminalization. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Study will investigate impacts of Oregon laws that criminalize consentual sex work

NOTE: If you are experiencing trafficking, sexual violence or domestic violence, you can get help by contacting Call to Safety’s 24/7 phone line at 503-235-5333 to talk with a confidential and non-jud...

streetroots.org

Between 1991 and 2024, a dozen studies concluded that many more people could benefit if Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funds were spent on rental vouchers, which let consumers, rather than the government, decide which landlords get tax subsidies. www.opb.org/article/2026...

A low-income housing program is pouring big money into housing many Oregonians can’t afford

Nearly 2,000 of Portland’s subsidized units sat vacant and unused at last count. The same situation has repeated from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area to Denver. Economists and other academic res...

opb.org

New: PDX Food Forest is waging war on lawns. But that's just the start. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Portland Food Forest is waging a war on lawns. But that’s only the start.

The scrappy edible landscaping nonprofit has its eyes set on larger public projects to expand access to healthy food and permaculture knowledge

streetroots.org

NEW: The Portland area is headed for a "catastrophic" housing/homelessness funding cliff that could cause thousands of people to lose their housing and would leave the region with billions less to house the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Despite success, homelessness funding could collapse without new voter support

Metro's Supportive Housing Services tax has far exceeded its goals. But records show voters are unlikely to support a new measure.

streetroots.org

Come to learn the findings of a nearly decade-long OSU research project on what is causing the Willamette's harmful bacterial bloom problem. Stay to find out how it all started with a chance encounter and a budding friendship. @streetroots.bsky.social www.streetroots.org/environment/...

Restoring Ross Island is the solution to curbing toxic bacterial blooms in the Willamette, researchers say

The problem is getting worse but researchers have a plan to address it via changes to the Ross Island lagoon

streetroots.org

The Pacific lamprey is about 450 million years old and is an essential part of many Native nations' lives. Last month, about a thousand people gathered to celebrate the eel-like fish and raise awareness of efforts to save it from regional extinction.

Yakama Nation celebrates Pacific lamprey at Willamette Falls event for the 450 million-year-old fish

The 450 million year old fish are a key part of regional native nations’ lives but face regional extinction

streetroots.org

Late last month, about a thousand people gathered in Oregon City for Yakama Nation's Pacific lamprey celebration and feast. @streetroots.bsky.social was there and spent the day before gathering the 450M year old fish with members at Willamette Falls. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Yakama Nation host event to celebrate Pacific lamprey

The 450 million year old fish are a key part of regional native nations’ lives but face regional extinction

streetroots.org

"Oregon’s deep, hidden history of slavery" @streetroots.bsky.social reviewed historical laws and records, and talked to half a dozen historians to highlight the largely unknown history of slavery in the Pacific Northwest, especially Oregon. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Oregon's deep, hidden history of slavery

Oregon’s founding fathers were enslavers, and dozens of people were enslaved in the state.

streetroots.org

NEW: Portland sex worker-led groups are building power and community to overcome the unique mix of challenges they face. The June 2 celebration came as decriminalization efforts have stalled, police harassment has intensified and groups face huge funding cuts. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

International Whores’ Day builds community, fights deadly stigma

The 2nd annual event saw hundreds get together to socialize and strategize around sex workers' rights

streetroots.org

Fun FYI: Sarah Wolf and I won 1st place for "Business & Economics Reporting - Large" from SPJ Region 10 for a series we did on the impacts of Trump tariffs on the SW WA shipping economy! (And reporting I did on a wave of bankruptcies hitting WA apple farmers won 2nd!) docs.google.com/document/d/1...

2025 SPJ awards.docx

SPJ Region 10 2025 EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARDS AT LARGE AUDIO MAGAZINES PHOTO & DESIGN VIDEO WRITING GENERAL EXCELLENCE EVERGREEN STATE A-MARK AWARDS AT LARGE At Large: Column First Pl...

docs.google.com

A massive data center is the planned recipient of green energy generated by a $3.3 billion project long opposed by Yakama Nation.

'It's not built yet': Yakama Nation fights $3.3B energy project and data center development on sacred site

Yakama Nation and its allies have been fighting to stop the project for nearly a decade. New information shows the project is intended to feed the “world's greenest” data center

streetroots.org

Remember that pumped hydro project sited on a Yakama sacred site? The one the developer said would power 500K Oregon and Washington homes?? The one that was supposedly critical to meeting WA's renewable energy goals??? JK it's actually for a data center. Green colonialism has been a scam all along.

Henry Brannan@henrybrannan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEW: Yakama Nation has spent nearly a decade fighting a $3.3B hydro project on a Columbia Gorge sacred site. Now, @streetroots.bsky.social confirmed the landowner intends for the project to pair with "the world’s greenest 1GW+ hyperscale data center" on the site. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

NEW: Yakama Nation has spent nearly a decade fighting a $3.3B hydro project on a Columbia Gorge sacred site. Now, @streetroots.bsky.social confirmed the landowner intends for the project to pair with "the world’s greenest 1GW+ hyperscale data center" on the site. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

'It's not built yet': Yakama Nation fights $3.3B energy project and data center development on sacred site

Yakama Nation and its allies have been fighting to stop the project for nearly a decade. New information shows the project is intended to feed the “world's greenest” data center

streetroots.org

Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez speaking on the house floor yesterday⬇️ about the findings of my investigation into who is buying up $100m+ in land in WA’s 2nd poorest county, then ending public access. “Our local economies and ways of life are at risk.” - MGP www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

German royals control 7.3% of Wahkiakum County

ELOCHOMAN RIVER VALLEY — An investment company co-founded by a 21st-century German prince is joining other timber industry goliaths in buying up and shutting down access to tens of thousands of acres

columbian.com

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez@gluesenkampperez.house.gov · 4mo ago

As foreign investors buy up more of our forest land, our community continues to be boxed out of the woods we had access to for generations. Right now, a German royal family controls 7.3% of the land in Wahkiakum County. I am urging two German Princes to reopen regulated hunting access on this land.

Who is Nathaniel VerGow, Multnomah County's newly appointed leader of its Homeless Services Department? Documents show the former social worker effectively ran homelessness programs in LA, but he's leaving his former employer amid its disarray.

Who is Nathaniel VerGow, the county's new homeless services leader?

Documents show the former social worker effectively ran homelessness programs in LA, but he's leaving his former employer amid its disarray

streetroots.org

Meet Street Roots' new investigative reporter, Henry Brannan. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Henry Brannan joins Street Roots as new investigative reporter

Brannan returns to Street Roots as an investigative reporter after working for PBS, NPR stations and print newspapers.

streetroots.org

EXCLUSIVE: Behind the scenes, the Trump administration has been wielding its vast power to transform the midterm elections. This is the untold story of Trump’s efforts to, as he has called it, “take over” the midterms.

Who is the new head of Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department? I went down the Nathaniel VerGow rabbit hole last week to bring you this early sketch: “Is Nathaniel VerGow ditching a sinking ship, or bringing a much-needed lifeboat?” www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Who is Nathaniel VerGow, the county's new homeless services leader?

Documents show the former social worker effectively ran homelessness programs in LA, but he's leaving his former employer amid its disarray

streetroots.org

1/5 - Job update: I’m now an investigative reporter at Street Roots! I sent my first official pitch to SR about 6 yrs ago. Its editors then spent the next 1.5 yrs schooling me, before sending me off to jobs at PBS NewsHour, NPR stations and beyond. www.streetroots.org/news-stories...

Gonna put links below to some work from my last job that I never got around to sharing but am proud of. A German prince, an $85m technicality, strange bedfellow lobbying campaigns and the project to drill a 2000'+ deep tunnel into a Yakama Nation sacred site ⬇️ www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

Pres. Trump's budget maintains many Columbia salmon recovery programs — despite huge cuts throughout '25. Insiders told me the cuts brought together a wide-ranging group of powerful interests to ask Congress to restore funding. WA's powerful delegation delivered. www.columbian.com/news/2026/fe...

Trump budget maintains many Columbia River salmon, environment programs — despite dramatic proposed cuts

Columbia River salmon recovery programs fared better in the 2026 federal budget than tribes, advocates, bureaucrats and biologists feared.

columbian.com

USFS is weighing whether to extend a temporary 2025 ban on commercial huckleberry harvests in Gifford Pinchot. The ban followed decades of advocacy by Native nations motivated by significant harms to berry habitat, gatherer safety and treaty-reserved rights. www.columbian.com/news/2026/ja...

Forest Service seeks feedback on Gifford Pinchot commercial huckleberry harvest

The U.S. Forest Service announced a new public survey Wednesday to investigate the impacts of its 2025 ban on commercial huckleberry harvests in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

columbian.com

My latest essay for HCN critically interrogates the phrase "time immemorial," which Indigenous affairs reporters like me sometimes overuse. www.hcn.org/issues/58-1/...

What does ‘time immemorial’ really mean? - High Country News

If you’ve seen the phrase time immemorial used repeatedly in Indigenous affairs reporting, there are some compelling reasons why.

hcn.org

NEW: WA's Congressional delegation asked President Trump to approve the state's expedited emergency declaration today. The ask comes as the Cowlitz + other rivers flood. But also amid the politicization of disaster aid. The White House told TDN it hasn't received the request. tdn.com/news/local/g...

Murray, Cantwell, more ask feds to expedite WA emergency declaration, cite Cowlitz River floods

If approved by Trump, the declaration would mean Washington could access federal support.

tdn.com

Officials in timber-dependent counties around SW WA say the state's new rule expanding no-logging zones around some streams amounts to an economic siege waged from Olympia. “They just want us to be able to make their beds and flip their burgers..." www.columbian.com/news/2025/de...

Rural Southwest Washington counties take multimillion-dollar tax hit from policy limiting loggable land by streams

Officials in timber-dependent counties around Southwest Washington say the state Forest Practices Board’s new rule expanding no-logging zones around some streams amounts to an economic siege.

columbian.com

New: Global ag giant Nutrien is looking to build a $500m-$1b Longview fertilizer export plant in 2027, company officials told TDN. The decision had been seen as a test between the U.S. and Canada of who could offer more to woo investment. tdn.com/news/local/b...

Ag giant eyes long-abandoned Longview port Berth 4

Port officials aim to finalize a lease in early 2026 for the $500 million to $1 billion project.

tdn.com

This is truly mind boggling... Amazon is the US' 2nd biggest employer and aims to have robots running 75% of its operations. What will happen to the people they employed? What will happen to the US economy as its consumer spending backbone takes this hit?

Mike Baker@mikebaker.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Amazon's vast and rapid automation goals would result in robots filling hundreds of thousands of jobs within a decade. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...

New: Skamania County has tied its previous search and rescue record with more than 2 months left in 2025. The costly rescues have compounded the county's fiscal crisis and pushed the sheriff to try to fine "reckless or negligent" recreationists who call for rescue. www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

Skamania County eyes penalties as it ties rescues record of 67 so far this year

Skamania County is on pace to set a new record for search and rescues this year. The 67 rescues conducted so far in 2025 already tie the previous record.

columbian.com

The $31b Columbia River shipping industry is feeling the impacts of President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the U.S. economy to be less reliant on imports. The effects have been mixed for SW WA — leaving uneasiness in the place of the outright fear. www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

SW WA shipping industry feels impacts of Trump’s effort to remake U.S. economy

The $31 billion Columbia River shipping industry is feeling the impacts of President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the U.S. economy to be less reliant on imports.

columbian.com