When President Trump raised tariffs against China and other countries earlier this month, stock markets plunged, chaos rippled through the global economy and anxiety hit business owners across the United States.

The specifics of the tariffs — which soared as high as 145% on China and affected virtually every country on earth — have been changing weekly, if not daily.

And the helter-skelter nature of it all has sent businesses scrambling to adapt to Trump’s trade war.

In Oregon’s trade-dependent economy, the tariffs are particularly tough on the footwear and apparel industry, which uses factories in Asia. And while business giants like Nike and Columbia are plotting to stay afloat, the dramatic shift in policy is potentially crippling for thousands of small businesses in the state, which don’t have as much financial flexibility and muscle.

What’s the mood among Oregon’s small business owners? How are they coping? And what does the future look like?

On the latest episode of Beat Check, reporter Matthew Kish, who covers business for The Oregonian/OregonLive, breaks down the impact of Trump’s tariffs on Oregon small businesses.

Related reading:

• How Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have rattled Oregon small businesses

• ‘Tariff tantrum’ will squeeze Oregon’s sneaker business

• Oregon food industry facing extreme uncertainty again, this time from Trump tariffs

• As trade war heats up, here are Oregon’s largest trading partners

• Trump puts 90-day pause on most new tariffs but an increase on Chinese imports

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In this week’s episode, Politics and Education Editor Betsy Hammond breaks down the key finding of a survey of 600 metro area voters by DHM Research, commissioned by The Oregonian.

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With wildfire season approaching and southern California still reeling from the January wildfires, Portland leaders are making sure the city can withstand a major urban wildfire.

Forest Park, the city’s crown jewel and one of the largest urban forests in the U.S., has been identified as one of the areas most at-risk for wildfire in the city.

Kim Kosmas, a senior public education officer with Portland Fire & Rescue who also manages the wildfire preparedness program, talks on Beat Check about what the city is doing to prevent large fires in Forest Park and what homeowners can do to protect their homes.

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First-class airfare to Hawaii. Five-star hotel stays. Lots and lots of food.

All of it footed — directly or indirectly — by customers of a large Portland-area utility.

A recent Oregonian/OregonLive investigation found that executives with Clean Water Services, Washington County’s sewer agency, have spent years enjoying fancy business trips to Hawaii and meals on ratepayers’ dime.

None of the lavish travel spending is accounted for in the agency’s annual budgets. And, despite months of probing questions and public records requests, officials have not yet disclosed the total cost of four Hawaiian trips or provided the receipts on hundreds of thousands of dollars in food spending.

On the latest Beat Check, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh talks to Jamie Goldberg about her rigorous watchdog reporting led to this month’s series on Clean Water Services.

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A series of headlines has brought bad news about the management of Oregon’s Department of Corrections and Oregon Youth Authority to public attention. Numerous leadership changes have also resulted at the two departments.

The agencies are separate divisions in Oregon’s state government but share the responsibility to care for people incarcerated for criminal convictions. The Oregon Youth Authority takes offenders who committed crimes before age 18 (from 12 to 24) and the Corrections Department houses adults.

Senior reporter Noelle Crombie, who specializes in criminal justice journalism, wrote about problems of medical neglect in Oregon’s prisons.

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When the Mt. Bachelor ski resort abruptly went up for sale in August, a couple of Central Oregon mountain enthusiasts had an audacious thought:

Maybe we should buy it.

Before they knew it, the me — who had not met beforehand — put in motion a plan to purchase one of Oregon’s most cherished landmarks. They organized a GoFundMe and formed a company. They hobnobbed with Oregon politicians. They sought out big-pocket investors.

They knew the challenge would be daunting.

Bachelor is a coveted property, after all. So the corporate titans of the ski industry would be swarming, likely offering bids in the neighborhood of $200 million.

But the movement was quickly celebrated as a potential win for the underdog, drawing national attention for its effort to keep the United States’ seventh-largest ski resort out of the hands of corporate America — and in the hands of local ski bums.

The group made a major announcement last week regarding their quest to buy Bachelor. Where do things stand? And how did we get to this point?

On the latest episode of Beat Check, Jonathan Bach, who covers housing and real estate for The Oregonian/OregonLive, discusses the backstory — and the latest news — surrounding the bid to buy Mt. Bachelor.

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But will it be a home run?

The Portland Diamond Project has so far struck out on its years-long efforts to bring Major League Baseball to Portland.

But now they’ve got a new site on the South Waterfront, fresh energy from city leaders and a pitch to the Oregon Legislature, not to mention swoon-y renderings of a new stadium along the Willamette.

Sports columnist Bill Oram and ECONorthwest economist Mike Wilkerson join Beat Check with The Oregonian to make sense of the numbers behind the proposal, the unknowns (who is behind that ownership group?) and what comes next. Wilkerson, a consultant to the Portland Diamond Project, says building a new stadium downtown could be a game-changer for Portland, the city that he recently and regretfully said was on the verge of a “doom loop” thanks to downward trends in population growth, the commercial real estate market and more.

Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear Oram and Wilkerson make it very clear where their own personal baseball allegiances land.

Related coverage:

Is a picture worth almost a billion dollars?OHSU responds to South Waterfront ballpark proposalEconomist warns of Portland ‘doom loop’

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Preliminary results from a new state survey on wood combustion show more people are using fireplaces and woodstoves in urban areas in Oregon, despite efforts by state and local governments to decrease their use.

Why the increase? And just how dangerous are wood stoves and wood-burning fireplaces to our health and the health of the planet?

John Wasiutynski, the director for Multnomah County’s Office of Sustainability, talked on the Beat Check podcast about the pollution impacts of wood combustion and about why it’s so difficult to get people to stop using wood burning devices. 

READ MORE:

Budget cuts jeopardize program providing heat pumps for low-income Oregonians

Oregon attorney general’s office joins lawsuit against the EPA over wood-burning stove standards

Limiting winter fires helps Portland’s toxic air, and it’s the law

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It’s undeniably good news that deadly violence in Portland continued to tick downward last year.

The city recorded 71 homicides in 2024. That’s six fewer than the year prior and a 30% drop from the record-shattering 101 killings Oregon’s most populous city saw in 2022.

Reported shootings, meanwhile, fell below 1,000 for the first time since 2020.

Despite these positive trends, annual Portland homicides are still more than double what they were pre-pandemic. And other large, more populous west coast cities like Seattle and San Francisco continue to see far fewer killings than here.

So what gives?

On The latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Zaeem Shaikh discuss Portland’s stubbornly high homicide numbers — and why there are signs of continued of improvement.

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The second Trump administration has barely begun, but an avalanche of policy changes and executive orders have already had repercussions in Oregon.

Editor Therese Bottomly is joined by politics co-editor Jamie Goldberg and watchdog editor Brad Schmidt to discuss local coverage of the Trump effect in Oregon.

They discuss the many lawsuits already filed by Oregon and other states over Trump’s orders. 

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