By NW Spotlight,

Independent journalist and homeless advocate Kevin Dahlgren shows a video of a stolen ATM.  View the post below, then follow Dahlgren and financially support him.

I found a stolen ATM pic.twitter.com/cIGwmoRNVa

— Kevin Dahlgren (@kevinvdahlgren) September 7, 2026

The post Finding an ATM at homeless camp first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Emergency Board Approves Funding Requests to Support Agencies During Unprecedented 2026 Fire Season

SALEM, Ore. — As of August 20, reported 2026 fire season costs totaled approximately $236.2 million. With federal assistance grants, contributions, and cost recoveries, anticipated net costs are roughly $157.4 million. Current estimates put total emergency fire costs at about $350 million.

“As Eastern and Central Oregon had the worst twenty-one-plus days of fire on the landscape, it is with gratitude to all those who sacrificed to keep our communities safe. This includes, but is not limited to, the Rural Fire Protection Agencies, Rural Fire Districts, Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Forestry, our federal partners, and our local community members who put their lives and businesses on hold to serve their communities and our state. We have a responsibility to ensure they have the resources and support they need to protect Oregon communities,” said Representative Mark Owens (R-Crane).

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) originally requested $77.9 million from the General Fund for 2026, with two Emergency Board special-purpose appropriations to cover a portion of projected costs. The agency must pay gross fire costs before receiving expected federal revenue, which can take years to process.

ODF intends to take out three loans, totaling $150 million, from the Oregon State Treasury — a means established in HB 3940 (2025) — to ensure solvency and settle vendor payments through December 2026.

Today, ODF received $77,872,644 from the General Fund via the two special-purpose allocations made to the E-Board, with an additional $30 million from the Emergency Fund. The E-Board also raised ODF’s expenditure limit for Other Funds by $250,000,000 for processing payments related to the 2026 fire season.

ODF says the additional funding will “help with the agency’s cash flow through December 2026, cover additional net costs beyond projections, and potentially lessen the need for the anticipated Treasury borrowing.”

Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance and Wallowa Resources both received federal grants — $630,349 and $100,000, respectively — through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant Program that ODF has agreed to facilitate. These grants are accounted for through the increased expenditure limit for Other Funds.

The E-Board also allocated $15 million from the General Fund via a special-purpose allocation to the Department of the State Fire Marshal, and increased the agency’s Other Funds expenditure limit by $13 million for 2026 fire season costs.

“We are currently experiencing the worst fire season in Oregon’s history, and the men and women who fought it — ODF, the State Fire Marshal, our Rangeland Fire Protection Associations, our contractors — deserve to be paid, on time and in full. I’m proud to make sure that happens.

I’m not proud that we’re here again. We keep paying for fire on the back end because we refuse to invest on the front end. Thin the overgrown forests. Legalize the ponds that put water on a fire fast. Bring back grazing and reseeding. Prevention is cheaper than catastrophe, and rural Oregon pays the difference,” said Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville).

The post Emergency Board approves funding first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Lars Larson

The Northwest Nonsense

Trump’s right about a lot of things, but I promised you a decade ago I’d tell you when he got it wrong.

Last night, at the GOP midterm convention, the President rolled out a doozy…the “Trump Dividend”…a 5-thousand-dollar check for every adult citizen in the 50 states (58 if you’re an Obama voter).

The only catch: republicans must keep control of the House and the Senate after the November elections.

If that sounds like a voter bribe to you, it does to me as well.

Not only that, but a little simple math tells you it would cost 1.3 trillion, or not quite one quarter of the already bloated federal government budget.

Throw in the fact that the government has already piled up 40-trillion in debt and is running 2-trillion simoleons short of a balanced budget.

This crazy idea has already drawn comparisons, and not in a good way, to “Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho”, the fictional President in the movie “Idiocracy”.

President Camacho promised to print enough money to make all Americans into millionaires.

Only in that movie, it took 500 years for America to get this dumb.

We already have far too many Americans who depend on government for food, housing, and medicine.

The last thing we need now is last-minute, pre-election stimmie checks.

The post Lars Larson: Trump’s dividend problems first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Top headlines for the week of 9/11

1 6-figure trans inmate services amid $$ shortfalls
2 Oregon: 2nd highest lawmakers leaving rate
3 Fan wearing XX-XY shirt ‘ejected’ from Portland game
4 Wyden: Google, Meta, TikTok on privacy laws
5 Portland’s DSA incumbents reach 1K Donors

Bonus

Prosperty Council co-chair’s Rule42: $50K to Kotek
Lawmakers tough choices: Prosperity Council plans
How to survive Portland’s 5-week I-5 closure

The post Top headlines for the week of 9/11 first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon,
OregonWatchdog.com

Today we were sent two photos from Oregon.  One from the Inn at Spanish Head decorated their lobby flags.  Also Newport, firefighters put up a flag at half-mast.

The post (2 photos) Oregon remembers 9/11 first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Senator David Brock Smith Commemorates the 25th Anniversary of the September 11 Attacks

SALEM, OR – Senator David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) today issued the following statement in solemn remembrance of the 25th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, honoring the victims, the heroes, and the enduring strength of the American people.

“Twenty‑five years ago, our nation was struck by an act of barbaric terrorism intended to shake the foundations of our Constitutional Republic. Nearly 3,000 innocent Americans were murdered in a single morning. Mothers, fathers, children, and patriots lives were taken simply because they lived in a free nation. In the face of unimaginable horror, Americans responded with courage, unity, and resolve. First responders ran toward danger, service members stepped forward to defend our nation, and communities across the country came together in a shared commitment to liberty.”

“As we mark this solemn anniversary, we honor the victims and their families, and we pay tribute to the firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and everyday citizens who became heroes on that day. We also recognize the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who have spent the last quarter‑century confronting terrorism abroad and protecting our homeland from those who wish us harm.”

“The lessons of 9/11 remain clear: America must remain strong, vigilant, and unapologetic in defending our values. We must secure our borders, support our military and law enforcement, and confront threats with clarity and conviction. Our national security cannot be compromised, and our commitment to American exceptionalism must never waver.”

“Today, we recommit ourselves to the principles that define us: freedom, resilience, and unity. May God bless the families who continue to carry the weight of that tragic day, may God bless our first responders and service members, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.”

###

Senator David Brock Smith represents Senate District 1, which includes Curry, Coos and Douglas Counties, Southwest Oregon’s Fish, Farm & Forestry District. This press release and an archive of previous press releases issued by Senator David Brock Smith’s office are available on the web at: www.oregonlegislature.gov/smithd

The post Sen. Brock-Smith honors 9/11 25th anniversary first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon,
OregonWatchdog.com

Here are three ballot measures that have been submitted or rumored to be readying for the 2028 election.

•  Allowing liquor sales in stores: The Oregonian is reporting that leaders are considering another try for an initiative petition allowing grocery stores to sell liquor just like nearly two dozen other states.

•  Banning business donations from being involved in politics:  The measure is called “Stomp out dark money in politics” and would block corporate donations.

•  Putting right to fish, farm and hunt in the Constitution. It is called the Oregon Freedom Amendment and is a response to the petition IP#28 threat, which almost made the ballot this year and would have outlawed most hunting, ranching and fishing in Oregon.

The post 3 ballot measures: Liquor, Business $$, Hunt-fish rights first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Have you been reading Randal O’Toole’s report for the Cascade Policy Institute on Portland’s anti-auto planning? I have. Actually, I’ve read just about everything O’Toole has published in the past twenty years, from his 2007 book The Best-Laid Plans to his still-going Antiplanner blog, and many Cato Institute reports in between.

As you can see from the photo above, “road diets” are not just a Portland thing. That’s a picture of a massive traffic jam at the mouth of Silverton Road in Salem this week just before Weird Al was scheduled to play at the State Fair. With construction mostly finished, that’s the place where the two lanes that turn from Portland Road now have to merge into a single lane.

I live just a couple of miles north of where Silverton Road intersects Portland Road in Northeast Salem. Actually, I live just outside the municipal jurisdiction. My address says “Salem,” but I really live in an unincorporated community to the capital city’s north. Unincorporated land just outside a municipal jurisdiction – that’s a life hack I’ve learned to live by. I can’t vote for the city council or mayor, and they can’t tax me.

Silverton Road has been a convenient corridor for me since 2016 when I moved down here. It cuts an angled path rather than taking Portland Road all the way up to Ward Street. Earlier this year, I got stuck in some nasty traffic caused by construction on Silverton Road. I then avoided that route for a week, waiting for whatever they were doing to be completed. Yet, a week, a couple weeks, a month, a couple months passed, and Silverton Road remained under construction, limiting traffic to one lane.

Wondering what they were doing that was taking so long, I looked it up. Called the Silverton Road NE Pavement Rehabilitation Project, the scope of the work includes eliminating the second lane to create bike lanes, a road diet. Oh the irony, I was just looking for an expected completion time for when I could resume using my conveniently angled passageway to Haysville, and, sadly, when complete, when construction stops blocking the second lane, there will be no second lane. By design, Silverton Road will be permanently as congested upon project completion as it has been during construction.

Just to test things out, I’ve tried turning off Portland Road onto Silverton a few times to figure out if there are some times that I can get through. The picture above marks the last time. What was I thinking getting into that mess? Well, since I took my kids to the first day of the State Fair on August 28th, which seemed so long ago, I forgot the fair was still going this week. In the past ten years, this has not mattered. One lane always gets backed up as people enter the parking field. Yet, the second lane allowed local traffic to pass through. No longer! Fair entry traffic now makes Silverton Road completely impassable.

Didn’t the local planners study this? Maybe they did and considered the congestion a feature, not a bug. While in Portland, policymakers proudly admit that “congestion is our friend,” the politics here are less supportive of that kind of ideology. Salem city government is less open about trying to force you out of your automobile. Yet an anti-automobile worldview appears present in the municipal bureaucracy.

What happened next? After thirty minutes of no movement, that SUV to my left gave up, did a U-turn, and got back onto Portland Road.

Ten minutes later I followed him. Do those planners smugly think to themselves I should have ridden a bike? If so, the reality is that biking with my kids from my daughter’s south Salem dance studio to home would have taken longer than driving through Silverton Road that night, but I didn’t wait much longer than the SUV. Ten minutes after he split, I cut the same U-turn and got out of there. Hopefully, they don’t do this to Portland Road.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.

The post A New Road Diet in Salem first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

Welles Remy Crowther worked on the 102nd floor when the plane hit, destroying the only stairs anyone knew existed. Crowther searched through the fire and thick smoke and found a new undiscovered staircase. He alerted his fellow workers and led them down. After descending 17 flights of stairs with a woman on his back, he left her to arriving firefighters and then proceeded to go back up to a different floor to alert new people to the unknown staircase. He led them down, and then went back up a third time.

Almost no one survived above the plane crashed floors of both towers, except for the 18 people Crowther rescued.

He died helping others.

As per family tradition, he always carried a red handkerchief in his pocket.  When 9/11 happened, he used the red handkerchief as a face mask to help him search through the smoke.  Someone made a book about him.  Others put 10,000 handkerchiefs together to honor him.  An annual marathon is carrie din his name.

The post (9/11) The Moses of the 102nd Floor first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Guest Submission Meme,

More memes below,

The post (6 memes) This is why your prices are so high first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon,
OregonWatchdog.com

September 10th is the anniversary of Charlie Kirk.

At the time, 1000 people rallied in Eugene to honor him.

There were spontaneous candle light vigils in various towns across Oregon.

People who attended, shared at how warm, unifying and intimate the gatherings were.   These vigils were special because Charlie Kirk was special, and he represented our shared voice during heavy opposition.

The post Don’t forget how Oregonians rallied after Charlie Kirk first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.