With the 2024-25 college football season over following Ohio State’s 34-23 win over Notre Dame in the national championship Monday night, sportsbooks are already looking ahead and released favorites for the national title next season.

Oregon is among those teams following a historic first season in the Big Ten that resulted in a conference title but a disappointing loss in the Rose Bowl to the Buckeyes.

What are Oregon football’s odds to win national championship next season?

The Ducks opened with the fourth-best odds to win a national title next season, per BetMGM at +700. Only Ohio State (+450), Texas (+650) and Georgia (+650) had better odds.

Fellow Big Ten rival Penn State had the fifth-best odds at +850 and national runner-up Notre Dame was sixth at +1,200.

Oregon opens its 2025 schedule against Montana State on Aug. 30 at Autzen Stadium.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.

OHA’s Healthy Homes Grant Program seeks improved housing conditions, health outcomes for low-income residents to prevent displacement

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon Health Authority has awarded $23 million to repair and rehabilitate homes of low-income residents to eliminate risks to residents’ health to the Nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon and 34 local organizations.

The funds are from the Healthy Homes Grant Program, established to improve health by rehabilitating living environments in Oregon.

In Central Oregon, NeighborImpact is receiving $750,000 in leveraged funding to expand the scope and capacity of its existing weatherization program to provide home repair services to households across the region.

Housing Works, meanwhile, will get about $583,000 to make health, accessibility, safety and preservation improvements to three properties it owns, totaling 33 units that serve disabled and very low-income people.

“Research has shown there is an inextricable link between a person’s health and housing status, and that quality of housing is a social determinant of health,” said Oregon Public Health Division Director Naomi Adeline-Biggs, MBBS, MPH. “With the Healthy Homes grants, Oregon is helping to prevent and reduce short- and long-term negative health outcomes by addressing the quality of housing as a public health issue.”

People living in poverty are more likely to live in substandard housing that is not healthy or safe and are at higher risk of losing homes that are not well-maintained or repaired. Older and substandard housing is more likely to contain hazards such as peeling or deteriorated lead-based paint. Delaying maintenance can lead to leaking roofs or pipes, which can cause mold. Uninsulated homes can be drafty and uncomfortable for residents and result in higher energy bills.

Homes that are not well-maintained or repaired can also lead to lead poisoning, asthma and other respiratory diseases, cancer, unintended injures, increased stress, poor school attendance for children and missed workdays for parents. Improved housing conditions for low-income families can prevent illness and reduce their health care costs, improve safety, conserve natural resources and reduce energy costs for occupants.

The organizations—nonprofits, local housing authorities, community action agencies and local governments serving communities in all areas of the state—are each receiving between $199,980 to $750,000 to use over a three-year period. The grants are intended to help homeowners and landlords repair and rehabilitate homes inhabited by low-income residents, including renters, to improve their environmental health and safety.

The Oregon Legislature established the HHGP in 2021. It directs OHA to provide grants to local organizations serving low-income residents to repair and rehabilitate homes, including rental properties, throughout the state.

Funding recipients

OHA is awarding nearly $20.4 million in HHGP funds to 34 organizations through a competitive grant process and were selected from a pool of 75 applicants.

The grantees with the strongest proposals for meeting the priorities set in state law include organizations experienced in improving the health or safety of occupants of residences, maximizing energy efficiency or extending the usable life of homes which serves eligible households in Oregon; and organizations serving historically unrepresented and underserved communities, including people of color, those who are low-income, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

In addition, OHA has set aside $3 million in HHGP funds for the Nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon, honoring government-to-government relationships. OHA is working with each Tribe to award this funding.

For a video highlighting this work and to hear from recipients, visit this link.

A full list of competitive grant recipients is available on the HHGP website, www.oregon.gov/healthyhomes.

Project examples

Examples of funded projects include home assessments to identify priority structural, health and safety repair needs; energy efficiency updates to protect against extreme temperatures; roof replacements; making homes less susceptible to wildfire damage; and abatement of radon, mold, mildew, and lead-based paint.

The projects will use HHGP funds to fill gaps and leverage other state and federal funding, such as Community Development Block Grants, Weatherization Assistance Program funding and the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund.

Grant funding schedule

OHA sent letters of intent to successful grant applicants in August and has been working with individual organizations to finalize grant agreements. The agency hopes to finish executing the grant agreements by the end of January. Grant recipients will have up to three years to complete their projects.

An Oregon State University scientist has predicted a volcanic eruption in 2025. But at about one mile under the ocean, the volcano isn’t considered a threat.

Bill Chadwick is a Research Associate at OSU and studies Axial Seamount, which is 300 miles west of Astoria. He said while it is the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest, it isn’t explosive, poses no tsunami risk and has no impact on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

For decades, Axial has had patterns of inflation and lava-flow eruption, most recently in 2015.

Chadwick said a network of sensors give scientists real-time data about seismic activity and seafloor movement, which are now at levels similar to the last eruption.

He told KLCC that researchers can learn a lot from an eruption in progress, such as, “where the magma’s accumulating, what depth, what kind of shape is the reservoir.… Does magma move around before it erupts? Are there telltale signs that happen before an eruption occurs that we can use for better forecasting?”

Chadwick said Axial is an ideal test case to answer questions about land-based volcanoes.

You can watch a short, summary video of the most recent expedition to the seamount here.