The judges ruled in favor of local officials who sought to force the federal government to keep the SNAP program running in November.
Volunteers, many of whom use the food bank, hand out food to clients at the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Northeast Emergency Food Program in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
Eli Imadali / OPB
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Two federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to use emergency reserve money to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program amid the ongoing federal shutdown. But Oregon and Washington SNAP recipients expecting to get benefits the first week of November could still see a delay.
Judges order the Trump administration to use contingency funds for SNAP payments during the shutdown
Judge John J. McConnell of Rhode Island directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use contingency funding appropriated by Congress to fund the food stamp program, which helps more than 757,000 Oregonians and more than 905,000 Washington residents buy groceries.
McConnell ordered the federal government to “ distribute the contingency money timely or as soon as possible for the Nov. 1 payments to be made,” as reported by the New York Times.
In a second ruling from Boston, a judge said the federal government would have to use an equitable approach to reducing benefits if it did not have the funds to fully pay for SNAP.
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A spokesperson for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek did not have an immediate comment and referred questions to the Oregon Department of Human Services, which helps administer the program. A spokesperson for that agency did not immediately respond to a text message.
Oregon contracts with a third-party processor to make benefits payments, and in interviews before Friday’s court rulings, state officials told OPB that means quick changes to SNAP payment plans could overwhelm its systems.
“Due to the unprecedented and complex nature of this situation, ODHS’ EBT vendor that distributes federal SNAP money has not been able to give us a concrete timeline regarding the post-shutdown November SNAP issuance,” an Oregon Department of Human Services spokesperson said.
The Rhode Island federal court order to continue payments came one day before federal funding for the SNAP program was set to run out.
That would have left millions of Americans without the benefits they rely on to put food on their tables. Congress has yet to pass a short-term spending bill to fund programs like SNAP, and the Trump administration said it would not use contingency funds to pay for food assistance.
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In Oregon, more than half of SNAP recipients are seniors, children and people with disabilities.
This is a breaking story. Watch for updates.
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Trinity Rodman signs record deal with Washington Spirit
USWNT forward Trinity Rodman signed a three-year deal with the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. The deal makes Rodman the highest-paid female footballer in the world.
unbranded – Sport
Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.
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The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.
Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.
Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.
Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.
Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).
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The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.
The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.
Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.
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The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.
The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.
The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.
The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.
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The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.
Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.
Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.
That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.
And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.
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“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”
The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.
But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.
He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”
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Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.
At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.
Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.
It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.
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So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?
“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”
“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”
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Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.
That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.
