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AmeriCorps the latest federal program pitting Northwest states against Trump administration

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AmeriCorps the latest federal program pitting Northwest states against Trump administration


The attorneys general from Oregon and Washington are joining a coalition of states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s recent attempts to dismantle AmeriCorps.

Moves to gut the 32-year-old federal volunteer agency have come quickly over the past two weeks, according to court documents.

AmeriCorps leaders have placed members in its landmark national volunteer program, as well as the vast majority of its staff, on administrative leave. Pink slips were issued last week. And late Friday, the agency began notifying states that nearly $400 million in grants for AmeriCorps projects had been terminated.

The cuts appear to be a response to an executive order, signed in February, directing federal agencies to reduce their workforce.

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The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, alleges these actions were illegal, unconstitutional and violate the Administrative Procedures Act. In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said cuts to public programs cannot be made on a whim.

FILE – Hundreds of new volunteers are sworn in for duty at a ceremony, Sept. 12, 2014, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. More than 150 AmeriCorps volunteers in Oregon are in limbo this week, waiting to see if their federally-funded programs will continue to exist.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

“AmeriCorps represents the best of what it means to be an American: service, sacrifice and community,” Rayfield said. “Gutting this critical work doesn’t just eliminate jobs or opportunities – it tears at the fabric of civic engagement and disproportionately harms vulnerable communities.”

Washington’s Attorney General Nick Brown shared a similar view.

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“AmeriCorps provides hope and belonging in American communities nationwide,” Brown said in a statement. “But the president thinks public programs and public dollars are his to do with what he will, snatching them up through the same scheming that federal courts have already said is likely illegal.”

In a statement released Tuesday evening, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said the cuts would affect around 800 service sites “touching virtually every corner of our state.” Ferguson called the AmeriCorps cuts “reckless and unlawful.”

In the 2024-25 award year, Oregon received nearly $4.5 million in federal grants from AmeriCorps, according to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. HECC administers the grants through OregonServes, the state’s service commission.

The grants go toward a variety of service projects throughout the state. Oregon’s AmeriCorps volunteers serve as mentors and tutors to K-12 students, provide support services to people experiencing homelessness and help implement environmental sustainability plans in rural communities.

About half of the state’s AmeriCorps funds, $2.6 million, have yet to be allocated to grant recipients. And with last Friday’s termination notice, those funds have effectively been frozen.

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The notice directed states to “immediately cease all award activities” and to “document that [each] member was exited for compelling personal circumstances due to the agency’s termination of the grant and program closure,” according to documents filed with the lawsuit.

A spokesperson with HECC said the agency is still assessing the notice and potential impacts it could have on Oregon.

For now, the state has not advised AmeriCorps grantees to make changes to their programming.

“HECC has informed grantees that the agency cannot guarantee that the state will be able to reimburse expenses incurred after April 28 should they be disallowed by federal AmeriCorps,” wrote the agency on its website. “Grantees may assess risks internally and make a decision that makes the most sense for their program.”



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Oregon

Oregon Lottery Pick 4 results for June 25

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The Oregon Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at June 25, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Pick 4 numbers from June 25 drawing

1PM: 9-9-6-3

4PM: 5-1-5-7

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7PM: 7-4-0-5

10PM: 9-1-2-4

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Oregon Lottery drawings held?

  • Powerball: 7:59 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Mega Millions: 7:59 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday.
  • Pick 4: 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
  • Win for Life: 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Megabucks: 7:29 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Oregon editor. You can send feedback using this form.



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Marion County may join 6 other counties to control garbage, recycling

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Marion County may join 6 other counties to control garbage, recycling


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Seven Oregon counties could join together to build and manage solid waste infrastructure and services, under a proposal being considered by a legislative task force.

The aim is to lower costs, provide stability, and ensure that one or two counties don’t bear the financial and environmental costs of taking the entire region’s garbage, Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, D-Corvallis, told the 12-member Joint Task Force on Municipal Solid Waste in the Willamette Valley.

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The Oregon Legislature created the task force last year, to identify solutions for solid waste disposal in the valley, after the region’s garbage disposal options were thrown into flux.

The Reworld incinerator in Brooks, where most of Marion County’s garbage was burned for four decades, closed at the end of 2024.

And residents in nearby Benton County are fighting an expansion of Coffin Butte Landfill, which takes much of Marion County’s and the region’s waste. Even with an expansion, the landfill is expected to close in little more than a decade.

The task force has met six times since mid-December 2025. It must submit a report to interim legislative committees related to the environment by Dec. 15. The task force sunsets on Dec. 31.

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Finger McDonald’s proposal, which is the only one yet considered by the task force, would create a voluntary state and local partnership program designed to help counties, cities and regional governments finance and build garbage, recycling, composting and waste-reduction infrastructure.

It would include Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton, Lincoln and Tillamook counties.  

“The cities and counties will come together to make a plan. The cities and the counties in this region know what the problem is,” McDonald Finger said. “Whatever is going to be built is going to be expensive.”

The proposal authorizes local governments and regional authorities to direct waste into approved systems when necessary to support infrastructure financing and long-term system stability.

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Marion County is currently the only county in the state with a law giving it control over waste disposal, although Oregon Metro manages garbage and recycling for the three-county Portland Metro area.

The proposal would allow the state to help local governments with bonding assistance, matching grants, technical assistance and more. Local governments could choose to build transfer stations, recycling facilities, composting systems, methane capture projects or other infrastructure projects.

“And then those cities and counties would build that infrastructure they need, and would have the option of establishing a fee,” she said.

The proposal also could allow public-private partnerships and collaboration with private waste operators, Finger McDonald said.

The earliest the legislature could pass a bill authorizing the plan would be 2027, Finger McDonald said, meaning it would not go into effect until 2028.

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Tracy Loew covers the environment at the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips: tloew@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6779. Follow her on X at @Tracy_Loew





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Oregon Announces $49 Million Payout to Inmates for Handling of Pandemic

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Oregon Announces  Million Payout to Inmates for Handling of Pandemic


In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of prison inmates sued the state of Oregon, arguing it was failing to protect them from the surging public health threat.

On Wednesday, more than six years later, representatives of those inmates—and the estates of inmates who died of the disease—announced they have settled with the state for a massive $49 million.

In a separate news release, Gov. Tina Kotek’s office framed the deal as a way to efficiently resolve a complex and weighty legal dispute: State officials, her office said, determined that the settlement “was in the best financial interest of the state and would minimize the continued distress of those impacted to settle rather than continue with the litigation.”

The case, Maney v. Oregon, includes two class action suits filed during the pandemic. According to the Oregon Justice Resource Center, which represented plaintiffs in the case, the suit covers about 5,000 people who were in Oregon Department of Corrections custody between Feb. 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022.

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One class, which includes those who tested positive for or were diagnosed with COVID-19, would get $15.9 million under the deal. The other, the estates of 38 incarcerated people who died from COVID-19, would receive $33 million.

The settlement awaits approval by a magistrate judge, and most of the payout requires an appropriation by the Oregon Legislature during the coming 2027 session.

The suit emerged out of the dark early days of a still-mysterious pandemic—which posed clear risks in closed spaces like prisons. The OJRC says inmates in Oregon endured prolonged lockdowns, disruptions to prison operations, and suspension of visitation and programming.

They also died of COVID at far greater rates than Oregonians in general. The UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project tallied 52 deaths in Oregon prisons tied to COVID. By June 2021, according to the Marshall Project, the state’s prisons had one of the highest rates of COVID-related deaths in the country.

“We initiated this suit to protect the lives of some of our society’s most vulnerable people, packed into aging facilities with no ability to social distance from each other or [prison] officers,” said Juan Chavez, director of the OJRC’s Civil Rights Project, in a written statement. “The horrors that then came to pass during the pandemic shocked and saddened us. But we also saw, and were inspired by, the resilience and solidarity held amongst incarcerated people.”

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Kotek’s office noted the mitigation measures the Department of Corrections implemented amid the pandemic, and said the agency incorporated lessons from the era into its operations.

“This historical event placed significant demands on our corrections workforce, and I appreciate the dedication DOC employees demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kotek said in her statement, adding that it was important to remember the impact on incarcerated people and their families too, especially those who lost loved ones. This settlement, she said, “is an opportunity for people to heal and find closure after such a challenging chapter in Oregon’s history.”

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