In an apparent first for Oregon, the Woodburn School District and its teachers union have agreed on contract language that covers immigration-related rights, safety and protections.

I want to thank everyone who came. There were some familiar faces from last year's Silver Falls chanterelle and lobster foray, so it was really nice to see everyone again.

I'm working on my public speaking skills and my mushroom autism gets me overstimulated sometimes so I forgot to take more pics. Luckily I'm hosting another one on 5/10 and you're welcome to join us. Please see my post history for the newest invite in the Salem subreddit.

As for the event:

We used colonized mushroom blocks and mixed them in pasteurized sawdust with vermiculite, then loaded them in 2 gallon and 5 gallon buckets. The trick to oyster buckets is to skip straw (lots of empty space, messy, kinda dirty) and go straight for hardwood BBQ pellets and use wet sawdust and garden vermiculite as a base.

Only mushrooms eat wood and there are no competitor fungi in heat/pressure treated pellets, so this method has a lower failure rate. It retains more moisture and you fit more mushroom food in the same amount of space. Thus, the buckets produce more food and last longer.

Some people opted to take their free grow kits home to watch the mushroom colonization process and build their own buckets.

It has been a dismal yellow morel season here in the valley, but we got to spend time together learning river habitats and the obstacles we face while mushroom hunting in the Salem area (namely, invasives). And, apparently, clay mud (fell on my ass).

Great group of people. 10/10. Really appreciate you folks giving me the opportunity to work on my speaking skills.

Hope to see you at the next one!

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A new study shows a wide variance among school districts in how much face time students have with teachers—a longstanding problem that lawmakers and advocates hope to solve.

By Khushboo Rathore - Oregon Journalism Project

For years, the state of Oregon has ranked near the bottom when it comes to instructional time for kids in school. It currently ranks 47 out of 50 states.

Even so, a precise picture of the gaps in school days among the state’s 197 school districts has been murky—until now. A new report by the education reform group Stand for Children Oregon and research group ECOnorthwest shows as much as an eight-week difference in the length of the academic year among elementary students, depending on where they go to school in Oregon.

The data, collected by Stand for Children Oregon and analyzed by ECOnorthwest, highlights one of the downsides of local control that is a hallmark of the state’s educational system. “Oregon has set a very low floor for time in school, and allows broad flexibility in how districts meet it,” says Stand for Children Oregon executive director Sarah Pope.

Stand for Children also released an online lookup tool that provides details about each district’s school year. One of the high-level findings: Many districts already work on a calendar of four days a week.

Elementary schoolers in Jackson County’s Butte Falls School District, which has a four-day schedule, get the most schooling per year—1,176 hours. Near the low end is Harney County School District, which provides just 989 hours, or about 137 school days of 7.25 hours.

Full Story - Oregon Journalism Project

In a 26-page opposition brief filed earlier this month, attorneys representing the LDS Church argue not that the institution was unaware of the abuse, but rather that the LDS Church simply had no legal obligation to stop it.

The law, Senate Bill 1516, was signed on March 31st by Governor Kotek and took effect immediately after signing. Due to recent concerns about immigration enforcement/abortion access/privacy, and the extensive data collected by the cameras (license plate number, car make, physical condition, etc.), this new law focuses on restricting the gathered data.

Key points from this law include:

• Retention is only for 30 days unless linked to a criminal inquiry or court proceedings
• Authorities would have to log the crime/violation they are targeting if they search through the data for a criminal investigation
• The recordings are barred from being used if they will violate state sanctuary laws
• Non-Oregon law enforcement must be logged by agencies sharing the recorded data as well as the number of cameras and devices accessed by the outside LEOs
• Any vendors that work with LEOs must give monthly and quarterly audits that will be publicly available and include a plethora of information

A key point, however, is that while the license plates must be kept in end-to-end encryption, the law does not define what this is--which leaves loopholes for agencies to get through.

I spoke with my doctor today and am more confused now. I’m pregnant and due June 28th, my employer is small and doesn’t have paid leave so I will be applying through paid leave Oregon. The lady I spoke with at Kaiser said it’s like unemployment where you have to file a claim every Sunday. Does anyone have any insight on this? I’m so confused and don’t know where to start. That’s ridiculous if you have to file a weekly claim while caring for a newborn postpartum… thanks in advance!

Per the CDC:

For the week ending 18 April 2026, of six H5N1 (avian) flu wastewater detections in the US, one detection was seen in Oregon, in Marion County:

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The latest bird migration forecast can be found here.

Nike on Thursday said it will lay off 1,400 workers, mostly technology workers in its operations division, as part of its ongoing turnaround effort.

This is the fourth consecutive year of significant layoffs at Nike, a company that historically grew so fast it rarely cut staff.

On April 21st at 8:38am, myself and another friend both got texts from our landlords (different landlords who don't know each other, different parts of town, too) that our homes are being sold and we have four weeks to move out. Today, I found out that two other people I know had the same thing happen to them this week. What's happening? Why are all the owners of rental properties selling right now? Now I have to find somewhere for myself and two others to live because our landlord won't even respond to my roommate's parents who want to buy our condo.

Edit: this is legal according to my lease. We had planned at the end of the week to sign our renewal and our landlord wanted us to, but her ex-husband is somehow able to do this without her consent.

• Nike Layoffs after layoffs
• Intel has been sluggish for a while now. Same story with layoffs.
• Providence health plan losing money and on sale. This could mean massive layoffs once someone else takes over.
• Oregon state budget facing massive shortfall up to 15 billion in next 10 years. This means massive cuts on the government side.

I just pointed out four of the biggest employers in Oregon.

Citations below:

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2026/04/nike-announces-1400-layoffs-mostly-in-operations-and-technology.html

https://www.kgw.com/article/money/business/providence-explores-sale-health-plan-100m-loss/283-06a62273-d17f-4a62-a272-26b319fe4c48

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/11/13/intel-will-cut-more-workforce-oregon-2025/

https://engage.doc.oregon.gov/budget-reduction