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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunn looking back on 2025 it's easy to forget the sheer number of impactful, bizarre and emotional news stories that came at us at remarkable speed, led by an executive branch that seemed to revel in destroying norms, sometimes even laws. This past year seemed to imbibe the movie title everything everywhere, all at once. Today on the show, you'll hear from the KLCC news team about the big stories that really impacted our community and sparked a great deal of conversation and sometimes consternation among our listeners. And we'll also check in with the editor of the state's main political paper to remember the biggest stories impacting Oregon as a whole. KLC C's dynamic duo, Rebecca Hansen-White and Nathan Wilk, are in studio talking about the big stories of 2025 thank you both for coming in and talking with us.
BOTH: Thank you so much for having us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Rebecca, I'm going to start with you, because you have been on the Flock camera beat for quite some time. Talk about that story and then tell us where we are as we finish out the year.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Yeah, well, it's not finished yet, but I'll go back to the beginning a little bit. I first, I think my first story for KLCC at least, came out on that in in June, when Eugene had quietly started using them. And then I think once people found out that these cameras which their license plate readers, that this one company, but several companies provide this service that this company, flock safety, which is based in Georgia, had made a contract with. Actually, it turns out Eugene, Springfield and Lane County to provide this searching and surveillance technology. And this our community, many people really did not love it and felt like their privacy was being violated and their constitutional rights. And then there was the concern that, you know that federal agents, which a lot of people no longer trust, and potentially immigration enforcement, could be getting access to this data. So you know this, this has been an ongoing story where there, there's been a lot of community meetings and community conversations, and where we're at right now, at least, is Eugene, as of before, just before Christmas, said that they had taken all of their cameras down, or I think they just had two left. And I think maybe Christmas week they took those last two down, so there's no cameras up right now. And I think what's next for that is lawmakers are probably going to take a look at this company and companies like it, and maybe set some ground rules for how they can operate in our state.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah. I mean, if you were to look at the comments on our Facebook page and what not, that was certainly one of the biggest stories and a lot of reader feedback and listener feedback that we got, and also another big story happening here and then throughout the state, and this is something you've been covering for a while now, Nathan, and that is the ICE raids that have happened in our community talk about that story.
NATHAN WILK: Absolutely. I mean, with the Trump administration coming in and some of the changes and their mass deportation efforts, we've seen both a huge increase in uproar, in protests in this community against the Trump administration and against ICE raids, and we've also seen more activity by federal immigration enforcement here in Cottage Grove in Eugene. You know, I've spoken to those who have seen these raids happen, firsthand, these detainments and as well, the Eugene Federal Building, which is home to an ice field office, has become a site of regular protests, action and tension between federal law enforcement and Eugene protesters. We saw that back in September with a night protest that led to protesters being pepper sprayed and detained, and we've also seen it in some of the tension and the lawsuit now around these noise rules that essentially make it so some disruptive noise around federal facilities is illegal, which of course, protesters have challenged, saying that that could be used to. Target them for exercising their free speech rights. Currently, that rule is blocked temporarily as this lawsuit proceeds, and so in the new year, we're going to look at what the future of protesting at that Eugene federal building around ice looks like in 2026 and beyond.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, yeah. You know, not so much a challenge on the streets, but a challenge in the ledger and the P and L statement. Rebecca, you covered a lot of budget challenges that seem to permeate so many levels of government talk about that.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: So, a lot of governments in our area, I think, you know, it feels like every other story I worked on was about funding issues and budget issues. And, you know, it feels like a long time ago, but, you know, I feel like over the summer, what the big uproar in Eugene was, was the fire fee, if we can all recall that, because Eugene, for the last several years, has been struggling to balance its budget as it's faced some declining revenues and some big, big costs. And had looked at the fire fee, which was, if we all can recall, it would have taxed based on square footage, and businesses really, hated it, and there was an effort to send it to the ballot. And so they had hoped that this fire fee was going to be a way to fix their budget, and they ended up going with utility bills that they asked EWEB to charge on utility bills instead. And so I feel like that was a story that dominated my summer was fiscal challenges at a lot of our local governments as they're really struggling with kind of a decades old problem coming to fruition in the midst of also federal funding uncertainty and kind of a rough economic situation and so kind of where I am right now, whose budget I'm looking at is Eugene for j because they've got all those forces, but they also have the declining enrollment problem, because Oregon's birth rate is a lot of places are, but Oregon's is particularly declining, and that, paired with really high housing price has put them in a situation and other schools where they're having to make some big cutbacks. So that's really dominated. I think my 2025 and doesn't really look much better for 2026.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Nathan, you know the 800-pound gorilla in our community tends to be the University of Oregon. You covered a lot of strife and strike there at the U of O talk about that.
NATHAN WILK: So, the U of O shared some of those budgetary issues that are affecting a lot of local governments and institutions or in our community. You know, one of the real fuels behind that was some issues that U of O is having, attracting out of state students and so, you know, we saw a some very large-scale budget cuts this year, more than 170 positions were or going to be eliminated at the UO and, you know, at the same time, we also saw, in the spring, U of O faculty almost went on strike. They went right up to the line, which would have had massive impacts on how U of O as term would have functioned in the spring, and they reached a deal, basically, you know, right before that was going to take effect. And they weren't really happy with it, saying that U of O hadn't planned well in in their financial future to allow them to get a better deal, and at the same time, you owe student workers. They went on strike for over a week. So, we've seen a lot of tension between, you know, U of O’s graduate students, it's student workers, it's faculty and the administration over the future of the university, and given some of the financial issues, what they should be prioritizing in terms of in terms of budget and revenue.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Rebecca, you also covered another important part of our community, which is Sanipac. Talk about the issue there.
REBECCA HANSEN-WHITE: Yeah. So to get to, I guess, the beginning of all of that. So, when you say Santa pack, it's a company that hauls Springfield's garbage, and it has been very mad at Lane County for this project, which is kind of I keep, I keep having to write about it, this project to divert food waste and to divert recycling out of the landfill. So, the county approved that last year. It's been in front of, you know, hearing examiners for the last year, because all these garbage companies as well as neighbors, have been fighting it. And one of the tactics that Santa pack or its parent company actually Waste Connections. Has been using to potentially fight this, and you know, potentially vertically integrate is it has its own landfill, and for a little bit, it's been hauling the entire city of Springfield's garbage out of Springfield to its own landfill outside of Medford, and so that has cost the county quite a bit of money. I had a story come out about that a couple weeks ago, because I think one of the big questions is, if Springfield residents are still being charged fees for county services, but the money isn't going into our community, and so that's kind of been a controversy. I've, I've, I've covered several times this year that project, as well as some of the, I guess, you know, cracking out issues related to it. And, you know, there was just an update last week, even though it was Christmas, I think on Christmas Eve, or maybe just the day before that, the county's efforts to get that facility cited.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Nathan, a story you covered, which you know, it seems like Cahoots has gone from this poster child of a wonderful organization that was this national model to having all sorts of trouble. Remind us about what has gone on with Cahoots.
NATHAN WILK: It's hard to remember that it was just this year that Cahoots shut down services completely in Eugene, of course, the mobile crisis intervention program. And you know, after that, I spoke to a lot of community members who were grieving the loss of this service and afraid for what it would mean for vulnerable people in our city. You know, since then, we've seen that action has been taken to try to form a Cahoots replacement by some former Cahoots workers that being Willamette Valley crisis care and in addition, you know, the city leadership, Eugene police and Eugene Springfield fire have said that they're looking to fund some sort of pure navigation service that slides into some of the roles that Cahoots was providing that it no longer is, and There is a gap in the city in their estimation. But at the same time, you know it has been difficult, and you know we've reported on white bird some of the realizations about some of their financial issues. Payout that was reportedly $600,000 according to the plaintiff's lawyer, around harassment and retaliation and now White Bird and this new program, Willamette Valley crisis care, they're in the midst of a lawsuit over theft of trade secrets. So, as we look forward, we're going to see you know what that pretend potential request for a proposal looks like what funding looks like for a service like this moving forward, and also the outcome of some of the some of those legal battles that that we've spoken about.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, I know you both covered so many more stories, it's always hard to pick a few, but we really appreciate because those were such important stories to our community. Rebecca Hansen-White and Nathan Wilk. KLCC’s intrepid reporters, thank you both for coming in and thanks for all that you've done for us for 2025.
BOTH: Thanks so much. Happy New Year.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now we're going to check in with the editor of the Oregon Capitol chronicle to get a statewide perspective on the news that happened around the Beaver State in 2025 Julia Shumway, the editor of the Oregon Capitol Chronicle, always appreciate talking to you. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I think we were saying off mics, we both are going to be happy when this year is in the rear-view mirror. But let's go ahead and look back. I mean, there was a lot of very interesting, very, very unprecedented actions happening in Oregon, especially in the political landscape. Boy, let's just take it from the top, the special session necessitated by the issue with the transportation funding bill. Talk about that one.
JULIA SHUMWAY: I don't think anyone would have expected going into this year just how difficult it would be to pass any sort of transportation funding plan. We knew heading out of the elections last year, Democrats had secured a super majority in both the House and the Senate. That means that they are able to pass revenue raising or tax raising bills without any Republican support, and yet they still managed to make it through the entire six-month legislative session without coming to an agreement even among their own caucus on how to pay for transportation needs. They. Ended up ending that regular legislative session without a vote on this $11.3 billion package to fix our roads, add money for bikes and transit and shift the way that that transportation costs are paid. They ended the legislative session without a bill. They came back in September for what was supposed to be a really short few days right around Labor Day to pass, a much-pared down version of that, and somehow ended up staying there for another month because they had one member who was sick, unable to make it to the Capitol, no way to convince Republicans to vote for anything past that, Republicans immediately started gathering signatures to repeal the measure to the ballot. They succeeded, a few days ago, in delivering 200,000 signatures by horse drawn carriage to the Oregon Secretary of State's office, and now, heading into this winter season, we are once again, looking at ways to come up with desperately needed funding for transportation, for people to plow roads and keep trains and busses running, and there's no sign of when that might get better.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, if the if the legislature was quite busy this year, the Attorney General's office was extremely busy. Talk about just the sheer volume of lawsuits against the federal government.
JULIA SHUMWAY: We are at 50, more than 50 now and counting. We'll have to see by the end of the year, if Attorney General Rayfield manages to get up to a whole 52 which comes out to more than one per week. Since President Trump took office, he's been relatively successful in most of these lawsuits the Attorney General's Office is that he's brought up, brought back about $4.5 billion for Oregon. Managed to stop a number of a number of funding cuts of mass layoffs, and of course, managed to stop federal troops from being sent to Oregon's biggest city.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So, kind of a traditional more a more traditional issue, and more traditional politics around something that obviously impacts so much of us, and wildfires due to climate change. And, you know, this map was put together about wildfire risk and so on, so forth. But it was repealed. Talk about that issue too.
JULIA SHUMWAY: Yeah, so this wildfire map came together a couple years ago. It was the effort was led by Senator Jeff golden. He's a Democrat from Ashland, which was of course, that his his district was hammered by the 2020, Labor Day fires, and his proposal was that we should have a map of high-risk areas, and in those areas where you would expect to see especially devastating wildfires, try to come up with more defensible building space or stricter building codes make it less likely that things are going to go up in these big infernos. In actuality, after the state introduced this map, people who lived in those areas started seeing that their insurance companies were using the Maps existence and the designation of their homes and their properties as a reason to deny insurance or raise premiums, and it just became a lightning rod for criticism. Senator Golden says he's still dedicated to the idea of trying to harden part of these parts of the state against fire, but in the interim, the legislature decided to just get rid of the maps entirely, not put, not put people's houses on any kind of map like this.
MICHAEL DUNNE: We're used to the National Guard being sent out oftentimes when there's terrible wildfires going on, probably not used to it so much coming to the streets of Portland for immigration and other types of issues. Talk about that because you teed it up earlier that AG, Rayfield successfully kept it out, but that was such a big issue this year.
JULIA SHUMWAY: It really was, and that one did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere. I think Portland had been preparing earlier in the year for some kind of clash with the federal government. Because, of course, the city had experienced that during a lot of the protests over police conduct in 2020 but the way this happened, it was a random Saturday, beautiful Saturday in October or late September, and the President started his morning by posting on his social media platform. He was going to send troops to war ravaged Portland, which was not war ravaged. He started attempting to do this. He ordered troops to come to the city and the state, the state and the city promptly sued. Sued. He tried to get troops from other locations to come to the city. They sued again, and as of now, with the exception of a roughly 24-hour period right in the right in early October, where troops were briefly deployed to the city, we have not had National Guard troops on the ground in Portland.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, kind of in tandem with that, though, has been real clashes with Immigration and Customs Enforcement ice in Portland and certainly, you know the rumor swirling about an ICE detention facility in in the Newport area, talk about that other big headline grabbing story in Oregon in 2025
JULIA SHUMWAY: Yeah, this really started to pick up right after the Trump administration was handed a setback in its efforts to send the National Guard to Portland. We started hearing a lot of rumors in from Newport that people there were afraid that they were going to have an ICE detention facility built at their airport. And at first it seemed like these rumors were coming out of nowhere. It's an it is not the kind of place you would typically think of to put any kind of detention facility. You're in a tsunami zone, you're pretty far away, you're unreachable from a lot of the state. But there were signs that maybe this effort was in place. The Coast Guard relocated a rescue helicopter that had been stationed at the airport to North Bend. It has since been ordered to be returned, and there were a number of job postings for private contractors who would help with immigration detention at a facility in the area. As of right now, everything is still on hold. There are still ongoing legal battles, and a lot of people in Newport and within the state, and even those of us in the press trying to figure out from the federal government what exactly its plans are.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah. Care to guess what 2026 is going to be like Julia?
JULIA SHUMWAY: That is difficult. I imagine we'll see a lot of the same chaos that we felt this year, and probably a bit more of that, given that we do have elections coming up in 2026.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, the midterms are going to be something Julia really always appreciate you coming on and giving us the statewide view and the political view of what's happening in Salem and other places. Julia Shumway, the editor of the Oregon Capital Chronicle, thank you so much.
JULIA SHUMWAY: Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear from both sides of a contentious effort to recall a sitting member of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On The Record. Thanks for listening.
