When the Department of Homeland Security was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, some people — particularly on the political right — worried that the new Cabinet-level department had the potential to become an “authoritarian monster.” Now, as Nick Miroff explains in The Atlantic, some DHS veterans are starting to believe that creating the department was a bad idea. Now they tell us.

Also in The Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert writes about how the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good spotlights a rising tide of misogyny — and one that appears to be directed, in particular, at one specific type of AWFUL woman.

The Trump’s administration’s all-out assault on U.S. elections suffered at least a tentative setback this week in a Eugene courtroom. A judge ruled that Oregon did not have to surrender personally identifiable information about some 3 million voters to the federal government. Perhaps the most shameless part of this is that federal attorneys based their case in part on the 1960 Civil Rights Act — one of a series of laws that addressed the disenfranchisement of Black voters. Julia Shumway had the story for the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

The state attorney general’s office is responsible for creating the 15-word “captions” on ballots — this is the language that seeks to summarize ballot measures. Now, critics are ripping into the proposed language Rayfield’s office has created for two proposed ballot measures. The critics say that the proposed language misses the essential point about the measures: They would, in essence, allow nonaffiliated voters to cast ballots in any taxpayer-funded election featuring Republican or Democratic candidates. As Betsy Hammond reports in The Oregonian/OregonLive, the controversy is likely headed to the state Supreme Court.

One more election-themed item, and we’ll move on. Elon Musk claimed this week on X, his personal misinformation platform, that “Oregon has a lot of fake voters.” Perhaps it will astonish you to learn that Musk’s claim is not true. Hammond sets the record straight in The Oregonian/OregonLive.

This was the week when the FBI conducted a 6 a.m. search at the house of a Washington Post reporter. Among the objects taken in the search was the reporter’s Garmin watch. Tom Jones at The Poynter Institute lists a number of the reasons why this is — shall we say — troublesome. (Jones also points out something I hadn’t noticed; the search didn’t rate a mention on the “CBS Evening News,” which is now under new management.)

Also silent on the search, for reasons you possibly can guess: Post owner Jeff Bezos. Jonathan Chait, writing in The Atlantic, argues that Bezos’ silence on this speaks volumes.

And Sophie Culpepper at Nieman Lab pulls together various sources to show how Project 2025 helped lay the groundwork for the search at reporter Hannah Natanson’s home.

Monday night, Indiana meets Miami in the championship game of the College Football Playoff. Are you surprised that an underdog like the Hoosiers has risen so quickly to the pinnacle of the sport? You shouldn’t be, if you’ve been following the money, Keith O’Brien writes in The Atlantic.

The Oregon Legislature’s short session that begins Feb. 2 could be dominated by a sweeping proposal to overhaul how the state funds public schools. Interestingly, much of the debate seems to be focused not so much on determining proper levels of funding but on the benchmarks schools would have to meet to receive the money. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to tackle such a big proposal in the short session — but it is true that people seem to be increasingly concerned about a public school system that is not performing as well as it should. Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle previews what could be a top topic during the session.

Of course, the Legislature also has other unfinished business as lawmakers prepare to convene in Salem: It’s still unclear how the state plans to fund transportation infrastructure. You’ll recall that a slimmed-down proposal to raise some taxes to fund the agency’s $242 million budget gap barely passed in the 2025 session — but then a Republican-led campaign to refer the tax increases to voters easily gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. That prompted Gov. Tina Kotel to wave the white flag, suggesting that the 2025 law should be repealed. In the meantime, as Carlos Fuentes reports in The Oregonian/OregonLive, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has begun meeting to try to iron out solutions — but a long-term fix might not emerge until the 2027 session.

Need a sign of hope? Something to suggest that all is not lost? Here’s what I found today: The Associated Press reports that letter-writing — you know, the act of actually writing words on paper — is enjoying a bit of a comeback.

What I’m Reading: “A Marriage at Sea,” Sophie Elmhirst’s compelling true story about a British couple stranded in the Pacific Ocean for months in 1973 when their sailboat sank after colliding with a whale.

Finally this week: I checked out “A Marriage at Sea” from the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, which is hosting its annual Sip & Spell spelling bee for adults Saturday (that’s tonight) at the Majestic Theatre. The spelling begins at about 7 p.m. I’ll see you there.