Murmurs: Appeals Court Preserves Research Funds

APPEALS COURT PRESERVES RESEARCH FUNDS: Many Oregon scientists are pleased with a Jan. 5 appeals court ruling that would, for now, preserve hundreds of millions of dollars in annual research funding. The order goes back to a matter that started last February, when, under the guidance of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the National Institutes of Health said it would effectively cap “indirect cost” reimbursement (for things like electricity and administrative salaries) at 15% of the funds allocated directly to scientific work. For context, one major NIH grant recipient, Oregon Health & Science University, had negotiated a 56% rate, and the new cap would have meant a revenue loss on the order of $80 million annually. Between OHSU and other institutions, like the University of Oregon, the state gets about $1 billion from the NIH every year. A range of parties sued to block the guidance, and a few weeks later a U.S. district court blocked it from going into effect. Litigation continued, and the latest ruling out of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the lower court, finding the Trump administration had, among other things, violated congressional guidance for research funding. In a statement, OHSU interim chief research officer Bonnie Nagel said NIH-funded research is a pillar of the university’s work to improve the quality of human life through science, and called the ruling “a victory for scientific inquiry and discovery at OHSU and in the United States.” An NIH spokesperson said the agency cannot comment on ongoing litigation.

TRIMET ANNOUNCES STEEP SERVICE CUTS: On Jan. 5, TriMet unveiled the specifics of a plan to reduce bus and train service in the Portland metro area to help fill a gaping budget hole. The upshot? Twenty bus routes altered, another 15 eliminated, and a light rail line that will stop at its halfway point, requiring a transfer to get from Clackamas Town Center to downtown Portland. TriMet had hoped to get a financial boost from House Bill 3991, the transportation funding package lawmakers passed in a special session in September. That bill included a doubling of a statewide payroll tax that provides funding for TriMet and more than 40 other transit agencies around the state. But the financial picture for TriMet and other transit agencies dimmed considerably in December, when the group No Tax Oregon turned in about 250,000 signatures, well above the threshold needed to qualify a referral of parts of HB 3991 to the 2026 ballot. So the state’s largest transit provider got out its paring knife. Bus routes that could be eliminated include Line 97-Tualatin-Sherwood Road; Line 82-South Gresham; and Line 153-Tualatin-West Linn. Under the proposal, the MAX Green Line would run only from Clackamas Town Center to the Gateway Transit Center and no longer go downtown. The line was completed in 2009 at a cost of $575 million.

USTA COULD TAKE OVER PORTLAND TENNIS CENTER: The Pacific Northwest branch of the United States Tennis Association is working on an agreement with the city of Portland to transfer operations of the Portland Tennis Center to the association, including annual maintenance costs. According to a Dec. 2 memo from the city’s chief financial officer, Jonas Biery, the city spends around $2.2 million annually to operate the Kerns neighborhood facility. Transferring control of the center and its programming to USTA, while a small savings in the grand scheme of what could be a $100 million budget deficit this spring, would free up a bit of money for Portland Parks & Recreation. During a Dec. 16 meeting of the City Council’s Arts and Economy Committee, a USTA representative said it was poised to spend $2.3 million on the center to replace the current dome and roof should the city hand over the reins to USTA. City staff is expected to come back to the council committee this spring with a fully fleshed-out agreement.

MOTHER FORCED TO DIG UP SON’S REMAINS: A long-running dispute over a West Hills burial plot reached a dramatic conclusion over the holidays. On Dec. 12, a Multnomah County circuit judge ruled that although Skyline Memorial Gardens in Northwest Portland had erroneously sold the same burial plot twice, the first purchasers, Martin and Jane Reser, were entitled to sole possession of the disputed plot. As WW first reported in 2024, the Resers buried their recently deceased son, Alexander, at Skyline in 2019—but two years later, the cemetery inadvertently sold the same plot to Paula Tin Nyo (“Grave Dispute,” Aug. 7, 2024). She purchased the plot as a final resting place for her late son, Tyber Harrison. A jury found Dec. 22 that Skyline hadn’t breached its contract with Tin Nyo. The cemetery removed her son’s remains from the burial plot on Dec. 30, which she says caused “irreversible harm.” Attorneys for Skyline and the Resers did not respond to requests for comment.

GIVE!GUIDE RAISES $9.26 MILLION: After 61 donation-filled days, Willamette Week’s annual end-of-year campaign to raise awareness and funds for local nonprofits came to a hard stop at 11:59 pm Dec. 31. The vault closed with $9,259,154 raised for 277 nonprofits that serve Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties. This is the most raised in Give!Guide’s 22-year history and beats an audacious $9 million goal. For those of you checking the stats, Give!Guide has broken the previous record each year since 2019. Give!Guide donors bucked a national trend marked by declining charitable donations from everyday givers. Not here: 17,584 people stepped up to give. We’ll share a deeper look at Give!Guide’s final numbers in the Jan. 14 edition.