InvestigateWest

09/24/2025

Portland State University researchers say nearly half of federal funds allocated to Northwest tribes in 2024 is at risk under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Read more:

Portland State University researchers say nearly half of federal funds allocated to Northwest tribes in 2024 is at risk under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

09/18/2025

NEW: After the maternity ward in Baker City, Oregon closed in 2023, Teela Banister and her husband had to drive nearly an hour to get to a hospital with an obstetrics unit. She ended up giving birth in this car, about halfway to the hospital.

Read: https://www.investigatewest.org/rural-oregon-town-lost-maternity-ward-medicaid-cuts/

09/18/2025

Oregon parents, what resources and support did you receive — or wished you had — during your pregnancy?

InvestigateWest is examining the support networks available and what resources are difficult to access. Share your story with us at bit.ly/OregonMaternalHealth.

Your experience can help shine a light on what is needed to keep more moms, parents and babies healthy in Oregon. 

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09/17/2025

Maksym Bedenko, who runs barbershop in Spokane, Washington, is one of the 240,000 Ukrainian immigrants in the United States through a humanitarian parole program called Uniting for Ukraine. But after the Trump administration froze the program earlier this year, many in his community have lost their work authorization. 

That includes immigrants like Denys, who relocated his family to Spokane from the city of Kharkiv -close to the Russian border - to escape the chaos and Russian missile strikes. He's been learning English and working at a local company welding construction beams. But Denys lost his job in June after the government failed to renew his right to work. 

“I’m very worried about my family,” Denys said. “I need to buy food. I have three kids.”

At the mercy of a rapidly changing and dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, many of Washington's Ukrainian immigrants are now they're left with a choice of waiting for a government response, working illegally, surviving on charity, or leaving America entirely.

This is happening as the administration has also withdrawn protections for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and over 9,000 from Afghanistan.    

Click the link in our bio to read more from corps member Daniel Walters. Photo by .

09/17/2025

It was the middle of the night when Teela Banister went into labor. 

Just a year prior, Banister would have been able to drive 15 minutes to a labor and delivery unit near her rural Oregon home. But after the hospital shuttered its program, her next best option was to get to a hospital more than an hour away.

But they didn't make it. Just twenty minutes into the drive, her water broke. With her husband still barreling down the highway, Banister soon had her daughter in her arms. 

Banister’s newborn did not make any sounds  — she had fluid in her lungs. She frantically tried to see see if there was anything blocking her baby's airway.

Her baby - now 18 months old - was ultimately fine after quick work by ER staff. But the experience left Banister shaken, worried about what could have happened if she or her child had more pressing complications. 

Her experience offers a sobering glimpse into what could come as drastic cuts to federal Medicaid spending come into effect. President Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts and spending package is expected to slash Medicaid programs nationwide, including more than $11 billion from the Oregon Health Plan through 2031, according to one state estimate. 

With roughly half of all Oregon births covered by Medicaid, hospital administrators say it is likely that more hospitals — already operating on thin margins — may follow Baker City's lead. The result: More dangerous pregnancies and higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. 

Click the link in our bio to read the story by corps member Danielle Dawson. Photos by

09/17/2025

NEW: Denys and his family made a new life in Washington state away from the war in Ukraine. But he and other Ukrainian immigrants are now stuck in limbo after the Trump admin froze a program giving them temporary legal status.

Stuck in a “no-man’s land” of uncertainty, many who’ve fled the Ukrainian war have lost the right to work in America

09/11/2025

Washington state is spending millions to transition its fleet of ferries away from diesel to hybrid-electric. But getting rid of the old ones raises some thorny environmental and legal questions. 

The Olympic, a retired ferry shown above, has been abandoned off Ketron Island in the Puget Sound for 15 years. State officials can't remove the vessel due to its large size and location on private property.

As reporter Aspen Ford has found, putting ships up for public auction has often resulted in abandonment of large vessels -- and leaks of harmful chemicals into the ocean. It could cost nearly $1 million to send the old ferries to a facility in Texas that destroys ships safely (the nearest one). And transporting the old ferries to another facility without proper cleanup could violate federal law. 

Click on the link in our bio to read more. 

Reporting and photos by Aspen Ford.

09/10/2025

NEW: Two years into Seattle's updated tree protection ordinance, the number of trees toppled for development escalated markedly in 2025, an analysis of city data shows.

Mayor Harrell promised law would get Seattle “back on track,” but new street-tree planting data raises doubts

09/09/2025

IMPACT: The seven-figure penalty comes days after InvestigateWest found regulators investigating the pollution didn’t take steps to immediately stop it.

The penalty comes days after InvestigateWest found regulators investigating the pollution didn’t take steps to immediately stop it

09/08/2025

The editorial board of Yamhill County, Oregon's News-Register called for reform and dismissed state officials who claimed to be keeping the public aware of ongoing pollution issues around a water treatment facility. The paper writes:

“Considering the fact it took a major investigation by Kaylee Tornay and Aspen Ford of the nonprofit InvestigateWest to document the sorry record laid out here, we beg to differ. It sounds more like the fewest possible number of people were kept informed, probably to the least extent possible.”

Late last month, one of North America’s largest treated-wood producers pleaded guilty in Yamhill County Circuit Court to 10 misdemeanor counts of unlawful water ...

08/28/2025

NEW: InvestigateWest reporting shows how Oregon regulators kept potential contamination of a town's water supply hidden from the public while failing to take measures to stop a treatment facility from releasing more contaminated water.

Nearby tribe calls on state, federal agencies to end a “decade-long pattern of reckless violations”