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Good morning, Northwest.

The Urban League of Portland recently published a report detailing the successes of and challenges facing Black Oregonians.

OPB reporter Riley Martinez unpacks statistics on voting, education, healthcare and more from the report to start today’s newsletter.

Also this morning, we’re dropping a new video outlining the major issues at stake for the Pacific Northwest in this fall’s midterm election.

Here’s your First Look at Wednesday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

Urban League of Portland highlights the ‘State of Black Oregon’

A new report examining how Black Oregonians have fared in recent years found significant gains in measures of civic engagement, such as voting and political representation, but almost no progress in education metrics, such as the number of Black teachers in Oregon classrooms.

The full report by the Urban League of Portland compares statistics going back at least 16 years and will be released next month. But researchers released top-line findings last week during a panel event at Portland State University’s Urban Center Building.

Jazzmine Waugh, who led the study for the League, walked students, academics, nonprofit leaders and community members through the 2026 State of Black Oregon.

“It’s been a long, hard road,” Waugh said after the presentation. “How do you advocate for and represent Black people from all throughout Oregon?” (Riley Martinez)

Learn More

3 things to know

• Portland Public Schools Board Chair Eddie Wang appeared on OPB’s “Think Out Loud” yesterday to hear from listeners about the district’s proposal to close schools and make boundary and program changes in response to declining enrollment. (Elizabeth Miller)
• For a period last year, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley was considering retiring from Congress, spurring rumors that Oregon could see its first open Senate seat in 30 years. But the longtime Democrat says President Trump’s decisions — courting billionaires, appointing loyalists and federalizing the National Guard among them — prevented him from walking away. (Bryce Dole)
• State regulators have found dangerous levels of arsenic, a naturally occurring element, in well water supplied to several mobile home parks in Eastern Oregon’s Malheur County. Mobile home parks across rural Oregon are susceptible to drinking water contamination. (Monica Carrillo-Casas)

Northwest headlines

• Election 2026: What you need to know about Oregon and Southwest Washington’s biggest races (OPB staff)
• Kotek, Drazan square off in final debate of governor’s race (Dirk VanderHart)
• Gov. Kotek expands Oregon data center moratorium (April Ehrlich)
• $49 million settlement reached in wrongful death of Vancouver teen (OPB staff)
• Oregon settles lawsuit over sexual abuse at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility (Joni Auden Land)
• Ferguson calls for salary survey after Washington ferry sickout (Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard)
• More residents facing eviction filings in southwest Oregon (Jane Vaughan, JPR)
• Damian Lillard is back on the court for the Trail Blazers with something to prove (Anne M. Peterson, AP)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Algal blooms are happening more often in Oregon and around the West

One more look

Mining seawater? Northwest researchers see a motherlode of critical minerals in the waves

Anyone who’s swam in seawater knows how salty it is, but those same waves are also a gold mine for dozens of elements and compounds.

“Just 0.1 percent of seawater contains enough critical minerals like magnesium and lithium … to meet humanity’s needs for the next 50,000 years or more,” chemical oceanographer Jessica Cross said in a recent press release.

Cross is part of a team of scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory working to extract those “critical minerals” considered essential for the U.S. economy or national security.

The team has already created a system to extract magnesium and plans to test it at their lab on the Washington Coast. (Jes Burns)

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/14/black-oregonians-report-urban-league-first-look/