For renaming offensively titled locations, it's a slow march to progress

Happy Saturday, and happy Labor Day weekend, Oregon!

Campaigning for the general election traditionally kicks off in earnest after Labor Day, but current legislators and our reporters will be a bit distracted by legislative days next week. Our crew will all be in and around the Capitol Tuesday and Wednesday for committee hearings, rallies and press conferences about everything from data center rules to Medicaid cuts to how Oregon’s all-mail elections can proceed.

Our D.C. Bureau’s Jacob Fischler, a fellow Oregonian, reported this week on a U.S. Postal Service whistleblower warning that the agency’s efforts to implement an executive order that would restrict mail voting would have a “catastrophic” effect on November’s elections and on why the rushed attempt is causing panic in states. Washington, which also votes entirely by mail and held its primary last month, saw a record number of ballots arrive late and unable to be counted. Oregon election officials are seeking more money for ballot drop boxes to help ensure Postal Service delays don’t disenfranchise voters.

Mia Maldonado continues to cover immigration on large and small scales. This week, she reported that federal immigration agents have made at least 700 arrests in Oregon this year, down from the heights of October-December of 2025 but trending upwards. Immigration agents have arrested eight times more people in Oregon during the first year and a half of the Trump administration than they did in the last two years of the Biden administration.

A person with a family and community is at the center of each of those arrests, and on Thursday Mia traveled to Newberg to hear from family and immigrant rights advocates about Juan Miguel Aldape, a 50-year-old father and grandfather who immigration agents arrested in August. Aldape, a devout Catholic who has lived in Newberg for 22 years and is a caregiver for his autistic teenage son, was buying construction materials at a Lowe’s in nearby McMinnville when agents arrested him without a warrant. Now, he’s being held in Louisiana, thousands of miles from his home and family.

The Trump administration’s immigration policy is also affecting university enrollment, Alex Baumhardt reported. The number of international students enrolled at Oregon universities has been falling for a decade, and the decline steepened after Trump returned to office and enforced policy changes that made it harder for students to obtain visas. At Portland State University alone, more than 130 students were unable to study at the school because of travel bans affecting countries in the Middle East and Asia.

Oregon and the nation have seen a steep drop in U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff, with thousands fewer employees, Alex reported. That includes nearly 2,000 fewer scientists.

A tax fight in Independence resulted in the small city southwest of Salem temporarily shutting down several parks. Now, Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, wants a state fund that can bail out cities to keep community spaces open. Mia has the details on Evans’ proposal, while columnist Tim Nesbitt writes on the broader implications for Oregon’s cities.

And a new study found that Oregon had the second highest number of legislators leave office before the end of their terms in recent years, behind only Arizona. It’s purely a coincidence that Arizona is the other state I reported on this decade, I swear.

As Mia reported, legislators leaving their jobs early has proven to be an entryway for women and people of color who can win appointments and then election to their own full terms.

Enjoy the long weekend! We’ll have an abbreviated newsletter Monday with the team off and be back to regular business Tuesday. Your Saturday story, via Underscore, is about slow progress toward renaming lakes, hills and other geographic features with offensive names.