Beat Check with The Oregonian

Watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger joined Editor Therese Bottomly on this episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about his extraordinary reporting into Skyline CDL School, which operated in Oregon and Washington.

On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:

--How the alleged bribery scheme operated, according to regulators

--How the newsroom got onto the story

--How regulators in Washington went on stakeouts to make their case

What role the Higher Education Coordinating Commission has

--How the school seemed to make efforts to appeal to Russian and Ukrainian immigrants

--What the impact of the reporting has been

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For this week’s episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, education reporter Julia Silverman tackles a series of burning questions from readers and listeners who are weighing how to vote on the $1.83 billion bond.

Have a listen, and don’t forget to turn in your ballot.

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It is a bleak time for mass transit all throughout the U.S. The challenges here in the Portland metro area are many and pronounced.TriMet is providing about 30 million fewer rides each year than it did in 2019 — and the recovery appears to be slowing way down.

Rider safety has been a persistent concern since the pandemic. Fare evasion is rampant.

Meanwhile, TriMet’s subsidy per ride has soared by more than 400% in the last decade. And the regional transit agency is now raising the prospect of staggering service cuts over the next few years.

On the latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Mike Rogoway examine this perilous moment for public transit in the Portland region.

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In recent months, climate and environmental work have been under threat in the U.S., with the Trump administration dismantling climate legislation, freezing funds and intimidating universities, states and nonprofits.

Despite the chaos, there’s still a place for hope, says award-winning environmental journalist Alan Weisman, author of the new book Hope Dies Last. The book profiles scientists, engineers, activists and environmentalists in the U.S. and around the world who are doing extraordinary work to repair our planet’s most devastated ecosystems and prevent climate disaster.

Weisman spoke on the Beat Check podcast about how we can persevere despite all odds, how to pass on hope to our children and which four world emergencies need visionary ideas.

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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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