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Oregon School for the Deaf student advances to national poetry contest

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Oregon School for the Deaf student advances to national poetry contest


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This is part of a weekly series introducing readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.

Emma Keen wants people to know she’s not really a sad person, at least not completely.

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Keen, a high school junior at Oregon School for the Deaf in Salem, was recently crowned the state’s 2026 Poetry Out Loud champion.

She chose to recite “Low-Tide,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “From One Who Stays” by Amy Lowell and “I am Like a Leaf” by Yone Noguchi.

“I picked the poems for one reason, which was that they’re mainly sad, and for some reason it’s just easier for me to perform sad poems,” she said. “Sadness is a part of me and Poetry Out Loud helps me express that in my way and in my deaf culture type of way.”

Keen, 16, received the top score at the competition, held March 7 in Salem, and now will represent Oregon at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals, April 27-29, in Washington, D.C.

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“I definitely did not expect to be going to nationals,” she said. “I’ve never ever done something like this before, but I’m so glad I am able to.”

One of Keen’s teachers, Gayle Robertson, encouraged her to participate in Poetry Out Loud.

Keen was told she didn’t have to perform in-person for the school-level contest, she said.

“So, I thought why not, I’ll join just for fun,” she said. “I became more invested into poetry because I’m able to perform sad poems. I think it’s an interesting experience for me to practice with.”

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During Poetry Out Loud, students recite works in a dynamic competition and performance.

They select poems from an anthology, memorize them and are judged on criteria such as physical presence, voice and articulation and dramatic appropriateness.

Deaf students translate the poems they’ve chosen from English into American Sign Language, which uses hands and facial expressions to communicate. During their performance, the audience receives a written version.

“I would say for me, it’s obviously more visual and I think if the judges can understand what I’m doing or signing about then that’s a good thing for me because it means I’m clear enough,” Keen said.

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“For hearing people, they change their tone to match their story but for deaf people we change our face expressions to match our story,” she said. “I like being able to sign and stay silent and just let my hands and face do the work for me, you know?”

During the competition, Keen said, “I genuinely thought I was going to be focused on the audience and who was watching but all of that went away when I went on stage. After saying the title and I started signing, all that mattered to me in the moment was the poem and getting the right message out there and not forgetting my lines, which I almost did a few times, but we don’t need to talk about that.”

Keen is a lifelong Salem resident and has two brothers.

When she’s not practicing poetry, Keen participates in drama club and is the school’s student body president.

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“I also take pictures for my yearbook class, and stay after school in the dorms to hang out with my lovely friends,” she said. “I always enjoy it.”

Keen plans to attend college after graduation, and hopes to become a photographer.

“I think that would be a nice job for me because I can be on the sidelines and seeing other people live their best lives and I get to take pictures of it,” she said.

Since 2005, more than 4.5 million high school students across the nation have participated in Poetry Out Loud. The program in Oregon is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission and jurisdictional arts agencies.

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The Oregon School for the Deaf has had multiple state champions in recent years, including Kari Morgan in 2023, Trayshun Holmes-Gournaris in 2022 and Tiffany Hinano Hill in 2009.

If you have an idea for someone we should profile for this series, please email Statesman Journal editor Jonathan Williams at jwilliams@statesmanjournal.com.

Tracy Loew covers education 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 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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