Why are fewer women working?

By Julia Shumway | Editor

“Women are leaving the labor force in alarming numbers, and many who remain employed are underemployed. This administration cannot celebrate an economy that is failing so many women.” — Jasmine Tucker, vice president of research at the National Women’s Law Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group supporting women’s legal rights. In Oregon and nationally, women’s participation in the workforce is on a downward trend after increasing for years. Economists and labor experts point to chronic issues with child care affordability and availability, gender norms that place more of the child-rearing burden on women in heterosexual relationships, companies that allowed remote work during and after the COVID pandemic requiring workers to spend more time in offices and narrowing but still present gaps between average earnings for men and women.

Also in today's edition:

Democrats nationwide proposed 250 bills opposing federal immigration efforts. Oregon passed eight of them.
Crews building a transmission line connecting Boardman to Hagerman, Idaho, help with border wildfire
Farm will pay $6.2 million to settle pollution lawsuit in Eastern Oregon

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Downward trend in employment for women nationwide, in Oregon, raising questions

By Alex Baumhardt

Women train to be firefighters. A slight decline in women participating in the U.S. labor force during the last year is being driven by a number of possible factors, economists and researchers said. (Photo courtesy of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue)

The number of women participating in Oregon’s workforce has been on a slight decline during the last year, along with the number of women working across the country.

Crews building transmission line use equipment to help fight wildfires near Oregon-Idaho order

By Clark Corbin | Idaho Capital Sun

Quanta Services crews building the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line repositioned their equipment to help crews fight wildfires along the Oregon-Idaho border. (Photo courtesy of Quanta Services)

Crews building the Boardman to Hagerman transmission line recently repositioned their crews and heavy equipment to help the effort to fight wildfires along the Oregon-Idaho border, company officials said.

Democrats push nearly 250 state bills opposing federal immigration efforts

By Kevin Hardy | Stateline

Colorado state Sen. Mike Weissman, a Democrat, speaks at a February news conference about immigration enforcement-related bills at the Colorado Capitol. Democratic lawmakers nationwide proposed nearly 250 bills this year in statehouses seeking to limit federal immigration enforcement efforts. (Photo by Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)

Democratic lawmakers proposed nearly 250 bills in state capitols this year seeking to limit federal immigration efforts as they sought to push back against what they view as federal government overreach.

Oregon farm to pay $6.2 million in settlement over Lower Umatilla Basin nitrate pollution

By Alejandro Figueroa | OPB

Central pivot irrigation waters a crop at an unnamed farm south of Boardman, Oregon, on July 24, 2026. (Photo by Antonio Sierra/OPB)

An Oregon farm reached a $6.2 million settlement agreement with a group of residents living in Morrow and Umatilla counties this week, in a federal lawsuit accusing the farm and several other businesses of polluting the groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin.