This year, 2024, is a big political and election year, and Oregon faces many serious and complex issues. The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board meets regularly to talk about significant issues where the newspaper as a local institution might weigh in.

Editorials are written by Opinion Editor Helen Jung and appear on the Opinion pages. The opinions of the editorial board are independent of the news operation and the reporters in the newsroom work independently from the board.

Editor Therese Bottomly speaks with Jung and Managing Editor Laura Gunderson, who oversees areas such as politics and business, about the goal of editorials. The conversation pulls back the curtain on the board’s process.

Among the topics:

--How the candidate endorsement process works. The board now videotapes endorsement interviews, which are held jointly, for publication on OregonLive.

--What Jung looks for in local op-eds, commentary articles written by community members.

--What is on the board’s radar for 2024, as laid out in this agenda-setting editorial.

Guidelines for submitting Letters to the Editor or op-eds can be found here.

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A terrifying mid-flight emergency forced an Alaska Airlines plane back to Portland Jan. 5 and launched an investigation that temporarily grounded fleets of Boeing 737 Max 9 passenger jets nationwide.

Miraculously, nobody on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 was critically hurt when a “door plug” — a wall panel that’s used as an emergency exit on some planes but just a window on others — suddenly blew off, leaving a hole. The cabin depressurized, and passengers put on oxygen masks while the plane dropped to a lower altitude before making an emergency landing at PDX.

Reporters Zane Sparling and Maxine Bernstein were among the team of journalists who spoke to investigators and shaken passengers. On this episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, they talk about their experiences working on the story.

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In December, Portland leaders announced that the city’s clean energy fund is expected to raise an unanticipated $540 million over the next five years. This staggering surplus comes at a time when city agencies are facing major budget shortfalls.

Commissioner Carmen Rubio, who oversees the fund, has proposed funneling half of the excess money to cash-strapped bureaus to help pay for a wide plethora of climate-related projects.

They include walking and bicycle routes, LED street lighting, electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the city’s fleet, electric-powered leaf blowers to replace city-owned gas-powered ones and tree planting and natural areas restoration, among others.

The other half of the excess revenue would go towards creating energy efficient affordable housing, maintaining trees across Portland and subsidizing a new “climate resilient” Keller Auditorium and new infrastructure for the city’s Fire Bureau.

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Portland City Hall reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive, talked about the surplus, Rubio’s spending proposal and how the fund has continued to evolve ever since it was approved by voters via ballot measure in 2018.

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During the final weeks of 2023, Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Aimee Green crisscrossed Portland to ask strangers from all walks of life what they wished for themselves — and for their city — in the coming year.

One hundred people shared their hopes, both big and small.

On the latest Beat Check, Green and I discuss her project, the joys of striking up conversations on the street and the optimism that many people have for the Portland area despite its ongoing struggles and challenges.

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Merry Christmas! This time of year, The Oregonian/OregonLive features nonprofits from Oregon and southwest Washington to highlight their good works for our longstanding Season of Sharing campaign.

Longtime features editor Grant Butler talks with Editor Therese Bottomly about the annual campaign, which runs roughly from Thanksgiving to the end of the year. The campaign was started by the Oregon Journal, an afternoon newspaper that served Portland until it merged with The Oregonian in 1982. At that time, The Oregonian took over the campaign and the tradition continues today.

Many readers donate by check but there are also online options, listed below. All proceeds benefit the nonprofits; The Oregonian/OregonLive bears any administrative costs.

If you want to give, you can choose one of the charities or give to the general fund, which will be evenly distributed among them.

Online: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/oregonian-publishing-company-public-benefits-inc/season-of-sharing

By check: Oregonian Season of Sharing, c/o Oregonians Credit Union, 336 N.E. 20th Ave., Portland, OR 97232.

By text: You can also text the code SHARE2023 to 44-321.

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In late October, two dozen Oregon policymakers, advocates, police and prosecutors landed in Lisbon, Portugal, to learn about that nation’s two-decade-old drug decriminalization law.

They arrived a few days after reporter Noelle Crombie, who traveled to the country independently to do much the same.

The fact-finding missions come as the voting public has soured on Oregon’s Measure 110, a decriminalization law approved by voters two years ago. Now, as as the potent and addictive drug fentanyl has proliferated and overdoses have skyrocketed, polls suggest a majority favor a full or partial repeal.

Some of Crombie’s stories from Portugal, and back in Oregon:

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Heat pumps, electrical work and insulation projects are very expensive – and many families in Oregon can’t afford them, despite their potential for reducing carbon emissions, saving energy and slashing utility bills.

The federal government has promised financial help: generous rebates and tax credits to defray the costs of home energy efficiency upgrade projects for low- and moderate-income families. The tax credits are already available, while the rebates will be rolled out in Oregon by mid-2024.

But, according to the state’s Department of Energy, only about 13,000 Oregon households will qualify for those rebates. That’s less than 1 percent of Oregon’s 1.7 million households. Will your family be one of them?

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In 2019, Portland’s lone drop-off center for people experiencing severe intoxication from drugs or alcohol abruptly shuttered.

The closure left a massive gap in how Oregon’s largest city could respond to those in the throes of visible — and often dangerous — bouts of crisis, just as drug use and overdose deaths began to soar.

Dozens of local leaders began immediately working on a plan to replace Portland’s decades-old Sobering Station.

After four years, the effort largely collapsed this fall. The fate of a new — and desperately needed — sobering center in Portland remains uncertain, even as other communities throughout the state successfully create their own.

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Five years ago, The Oregonian/OregonLive published the award-winning five-part series, “Ghosts of Highway 20,” accompanied by a full video series along with the articles that chronicled the victims of an Oregon serial killer.

Lead reporter Noelle Crombie, a senior criminal justice reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive, joined Editor Therese Bottomly for a conversation about the original series, which is seeing renewed interest because of the debut this month of a new docuseries available on Max.

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A bunch of well-known Northwest brands – like Bamboo Sushi, Sizzle Pie, Water Avenue Coffee and Rudy’s Barbershops – were bought up during the pandemic by Sortis Holdings, a company that positioned itself as a savior for businesses that were struggling.

But now, Sortis Holdings has had to call off a big transaction, disputes over unpaid bills have spilled into courts, and it’s laying off staff.

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