Oregon
Homeless camp in Oregon national forest to be cleared
BEND, Ore. — The U.S. Forest Service on Thursday is set to evict dozens of homeless people living in an encampment in a federal forest in central Oregon.
The federal agency has been working for years on plans to close part of the Deschutes National Forest near Bend for forest restoration and wildfire mitigation. But the number of people living in that part of the forest has grown, with many losing homes during the coronavirus pandemic due to job losses and high housing costs, said Jesse Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center.
People who refuse to leave could face one year in jail, $5,000 in fines or both, Rabinowitz said.
He said it will be the Trump administration’s first significant homeless encampment eviction. It also comes on May Day, which commemorates the struggles of the working class for fair wages and better working conditions around the globe.
Four people living in the encampment, along with two homeless advocates, filed for a restraining order to stop the closure earlier this month. The claim argued it would cause irreparable harm to more than 100 people who were living there, many of whom have disabilities.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane has yet to issue a written opinion, but the federal court posted on its docket Tuesday that the restraining order was denied, The Bulletin reported.
Up to 200 people were living in the forest several months ago when they were told that the forest area would be closed May 1, Rabinowitz said.
Local homeless advocate and retired attorney Chuck Hemingway, who filed the claims, told the newspaper he estimated 80 people remained there as of Friday, and at least 40 would likely still be there on May 1.
Chris Daggett, who lives in the forest, told KTVZ-TV this week that his family has been in Bend for several generations and that living in the forest doesn’t make him or anyone else a bad person.
“It’s incredibly difficult to get back on your feet once you’ve been knocked down,” Daggett said. “If they force us out on May 1, we still won’t have anywhere else to go. It’ll just make it even tougher for us to rebuild our lives.”
The Cabin Butte Vegetation Management Project, a wildfire mitigation treatment on some 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of the forest, is prompting the closure. The goal of the work is to reduce wildfire risk and restore damaged habitats where development encroaches on natural areas near Bend, Deschutes National Forest officials said in a statement. Recreation sites and trails in that area will be closed through April next year.
Deschutes National Forest spokesperson Kaitlyn Webb told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the government’s goal is “voluntary compliance,” but Forest Service officers and staff will patrol and “enforce the closure and ensure public safety.”
Oregon
Oregon Lottery Pick 4 results for June 25
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
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.
Oregon
Marion County may join 6 other counties to control garbage, recycling
What to know about the Coffin Butte Landfill expansion proposal
Republic Services has asked Benton County for a conditional use permit to expand the 178-acre landfill.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Oregon
Oregon Announces $49 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.
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.”
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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