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Good morning, Northwest.

As Oregonians cast their ballots ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, some ranchers outside the metro areas say that despite the economic hardships they’ve been experiencing under the current administration’s tariff policies, they’ll stick with the GOP. Anna King of Northwest Public Broadcasting spoke with some of these ranchers.

And don’t forget that clocks will fall back an hour at 2 a.m. tomorrow. (If you’re planning trips to British Columbia next week or later, clocks there won’t change, and the province will be one hour ahead of Oregon and Washington.) In the meantime, let’s see how OPB’s Prakruti Bhatt talked with the owners of a Sisters clock company about all things related to timepieces.

Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news. Happy Halloween, and enjoy trick-or-treating tonight!

— Winston Szeto

Top story

Northwest cattle ranchers move on with Republicans despite hits to their industry under Trump

In August, the Trump administration announced a deal to import reduced-tariff beef from Argentina and other countries. The hope was to lower the costs of beef for consumers, but it also dropped the value of U.S. beef by nearly a dollar.

Katie Baltzor hitches up into a side-by-side to check her cattle out in her 160-acre homeplace field outside of Hines, Oregon. Drought, wildfire and high diesel prices have been challenging for their operation this year. She lost a $5,000 Angus bull in a fire this summer.

But, even with beef imports and high diesel, Baltzor said she’ll still vote Republican come November.

“I don’t like how liberal some of the candidates are becoming in the Democrat party,” Baltzor said. “I think the Democrat party has really shifted from the way it used to be, I don’t think it’s like Bill Clinton or Obama.” (Anna King, Northwest Public Broadcasting)

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3 things to know

1. As Daylight Saving Time ends tomorrow, let’s talk about all things clocks with the owners of Beacham’s Clock Co., in Sisters. (Prakruti Bhatt)
2. Cassidy Schutz, the teacher credited with preventing more deaths during a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary, has released her first public statement since wrestling with the school’s attacker earlier this month. She described the heartbreak she felt for everyone impacted on that day and her wish for community healing. (Amanda Linares)
3. Portland City Council sent a letter yesterday to the Portland Public Schools district, asking it to “pause and revise its timeline for final school closure decisions” until it has shared more specifics about the proposed changes and heard from community members. All 12 councilors signed the letter. (Elizabeth Miller)

Northwest headlines

• How some big companies in Oregon are faring heading into the the midterm election (Kyra Buckley)
• Facing political headwinds, Oregon Republicans lean into ‘ballot harvesting’ (Dirk VanderHart)
• Term limits debate roils race for Union County commissioner (Antonio Sierra)
• Fir Grove closure could save Roseburg schools $1.3 million a year (Jane Vaughan)
• Eugene adopts home energy score requirements for houses up for sale (Nathan Wilk, KLCC)
• 1,400 people died by suicide in Washington state last year, a record (Ellis O’Neill, KUOW)
• Ja Morant could miss a month after straining left hamstring in Blazers’ loss to Grizzlies (Associated Press)

One more look

New photo book shows life on the streets of Portland through the lens of a photographer who experienced homelessness

The cover of the book (above) is an arresting image. A young Black woman looks off into the distance, cigarette in her right hand as she holds a pear in the other. Behind Yvonne, in the distance, a Rapid Response Bio-Clean truck collects trash bags as workers clear the sidewalk of people experiencing homelessness.

“Outside” is Keith Zimmerman’s self-published debut depicting the lives of dozens of people sheltering on the streets of Portland — an experience that he is personally familiar with.

“Portland’s homeless community is a community that I come from,” said Keith, 52, who goes by his artist name, Keith Z. “I was five years into recovery when I first picked up a camera.”

This month Keith celebrated eight years of sobriety. It was his lived experiences that informed his artistic project chronicling the lives of homeless people when he started taking photos for the first time in his life in 2023 at age 49. (Jireh Deng)

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/31/ranchers-weigh-votes-opb-first-look/