How the new federal housing law is trying to boost building, and the week's news

Happy Saturday!

We’ll start with a Friday evening news dump: The sweeping animal cruelty initiative that would have banned hunting, fishing, ranching, livestock farming, animal research and almost any actions that harm or kill animals won’t be on November’s ballot. Petition backers submitted what they thought were more signatures than needed, but two rounds of signature verification confirmed they didn’t have enough valid signatures from Oregon voters. It was the only citizen-led initiative to submit signatures and lawmakers didn’t make any ballot referrals this cycle, so for the first time in decades Oregonians won’t vote on any laws in the November general election.

We’re looking forward to cooler weather after high temperatures and a broken office HVAC system kept our staff working from home this week, but people in custody don’t have the option to go someplace cooler. As Shaanth Nanguneri reports, prisoner rights advocates are pushing the state to do more to keep incarcerated people cool in older prisons that lack air conditioning, while the state corrections department is turning to fans and opening some doors and windows.

It comes as a scathing state audit released this week found the prison system has a $900 million maintenance backlog, too few staffers and uses outdated tech — including a 1989 software built to track prisoners and based on a programming language no longer taught in American colleges.

Mia Maldonado has spent weeks picking away at a story about the human impact of a bureaucratic decision to stop refugees and other immigrants without permanent legal status from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses. Abdul Saboor Hassan, a green card holder from Afghanistan who worked as a commercial truck driver and now runs a commercial driving school in Portland, saw the share of students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds at his school plummet from 70% to 25% after the Trump administration closed the door on a key career path for new Americans.

Alex Baumhardt reported this week on two instances of Oregon going its own way on environmental policies as the federal government shifts course. A new conservation plan for state-owned forests in Western Oregon calls for less logging and more habitat conservation, while the state’s climate commission urged legislators to limit development in natural areas to ensure forests and wetlands act as carbon sinks to absorb greenhouse gases.

Mia also profiled two Oregonians who were able to buy homes with help from a Portland-based nonprofit and state tax incentives. And as the Akawa Butte Fire, which reached more than 27,000 acres with 5% containment as of Friday evening, blazes near Sisters, Shaanth reported on a new study that found rural Oregonians use emergency alert systems more than their urban counterparts.

One more note before our Saturday story on the new federal housing law: I’m headed over the pass next week for the Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism’s annual conference and looking forward to meeting or re-meeting folks from some of Oregon’s rural and small-town news outlets. If you’ll be there too, say hi!