Oregon’s homeless population is 8th largest in the nation, 2024 federal count shows

January 1, 2025

By ANTHONY EFFINGER/Willamette Week Oregon finds itself near the top of another tragic list as the year ended. Oregon had the eighth-largest population of homeless people on a given night in January 2024, according to a “point-in-time” count released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week. HUD counted 22,875 people experiencing homelessness in Oregon in January, up 13.6% from

Efforts to ban books in Oregon libraries on the rise; library patrons and supporters are pushing back

January 1, 2025

By AMANDA WALDROUPE/Oregon ArtsWatch In December the Grants Pass School District approved removing two books from the Grants Pass High School Library: All Boys Aren’t Blue – George M. Johnson’s memoir about the author’s black and queer identity, which is among the most frequently challenged and banned books in the country – and Lucky, Alice Sebold’s 1999 memoir about being sexually assaulted. The residents

New report projects number of Oregon high school graduates will decline almost 20% by 2041

January 1, 2025

By ELIZABETH MILLER/Oregon Public Broadcasting The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education has published an edition of “Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates,” every four years since 1979. The 2024 edition of the report brings a bit of good news: Almost four million students will graduate from high school in 2025, the highest number recorded “since data have