Thanks, Angelica!! :,)) So exciting

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Behind Portland’s homelessness data, a familiar political fight emerges Mayor Keith Wilson says estimates of homelessness increasing in Portland don’t match his reality.

2/2: His hiring also comes as the city and county wage an increasingly public battle over the best way to fight homelessness.
www.opb.org/article/2026...

Multnomah County faces an $87 million drop in homeless services funding Jobs could be cut, shelters could lose funding, and rent assistance could shrink as the county faces major homeless services budget reductions.

Background 1/2: VerGow will take over one of the most important jobs in the county at a time when homelessness is increasing, the department faces an $87 million budget shortfall and the Portland area has seen a wave of recent shelter closures.
www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

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

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...

5/5 Holler with story tips, revealing documents and thoughts on my stories!
Signal: henry.3210 and email: henry@streetroots.org. I will protect your confidentiality.

4/5 Stay tuned for:
🖊️ Explainers on the policies shaping life around our region
🖊️ Profiles of the people crafting those policies
🖊️ Investigations into the causes of growing regional misery 🖊️ Dispatches from the front lines of communities’ struggles to build a better world themselves.

3/5 ... report airtight stories that reveal serious problems without stripping sources of their agency and dignity. I owe my career to Street Roots, and I’m THRILLED to get to repay that now.

2/5 They taught me how to file FOIA requests, cover court hearings, report with fairness, work with data, chase down leads, use anecdotes to illustrate patterns and, most importantly, ...

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...

🖊️ This story about how the feds approved a project to drill a nearly 30' wide and 2000'+ deep tunnel into a Yakama Nation sacred site — and the harm the nation says it will cause.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/ja...

🖊️ A look at how powerful interests on opposing sides of the decades-old legal battle over Columbia River salmon recovery came together to convince Congress to undo funding cuts pushed by President Trump.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/fe...

🖊️ An inside look at an $85m technicality and the Columbia River shipping industry’s effort to fight it.

The story is about the future of dredge disposal, which, as it turns out, is far from dry and has some eye-popping price tags.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

The story^ includes previously unreported details, including the fact that about two dozen vessels experience engine failure on the river each year.

@opb.org's Think Out Loud brought me on to talk about the issue: www.opb.org/article/2026...

🖊️ This look at the growing risk a ship will hit Longview's Lewis and Clark Bridge, collapsing the "single point of failure" structure.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

Here are parts 2 and 3 of the series^. The whole saga includes talk of arson, bulletproof vests, Europe's richest, and the unthinkable: new timber taxes in SW Washington.
2: www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...
3: www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

🖊️ This three-part investigation into who is buying up longtime hunting lands in Wahkiakum and Pacific counties, then shutting down public access.

Spoiler: I traced $100m+ in purchases back to a web of companies tied to a 21st century German prince.
Part 1: www.columbian.com/news/2026/ma...

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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/...

The type of take you have when you’ve never tried an al pastor taco 😐😒

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

Re that last bit: I get the top 10% of earners + corporate AI spending are what's holding the economy up right now but I don't see how so much unemployment couldn't harm the economy... and the country's stability more broadly.

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?

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.

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...