Beat Check with The Oregonian

"Life on the planet is imperiled," "we’re on the brink of collapse" and there’s "little progress on combating climate change." That’s according to a new climate study published at the end of October by a group of renowned U.S. and global scientists, including several researchers from Oregon. On this episode of Beat Check, The Oregonian's environmental reporter Gosia Wozniacka interviews Dr. Jillia...

While true crime tales have become mainstays of media and pop culture, the disturbing stories told in The Oregonian/OregonLive’s 2018 prize-winning project, “Ghosts of Highway 20″ had a particular impact on Octavia Spencer, the Oscar-winning actor, who help produce the new “Lost Women of Highway 20” documentary series for Investigation Discovery. You can watch “Lost Women of Highway 20″ on Investi...

The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police set off social justice protests across the nation and in Portland. For some members of the city’s small Black community, Floyd’s death was a reminder of Portland’s painful history. In this podcast episode, reporter Fedor Zarkhin joins Editor Therese Bottomly to talk about his recent four-part series, “The Forgotten Four,” which told of the unpreced...

We'll be back with another episode of Beat Check next week. In the meantime, don't miss the episode we published Thursday, answering your questions about the potential Portland Public Schools teachers' strike. Given the dynamic nature of that story, we wanted to bring it to you as soon as possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a special edition of The Oregonian’s Beat Check podcast, education reporter Julia Silverman and City Hall reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh answer your questions about the potential Portland Public Schools teacher strike. Read our previous strike coverage here: Portland Teachers Vote to Authorize a Strike Final Offers, Plenty of Acrimony and Little Movement Portland Families Brace for Strike Fallo...

Jayati Ramakrishnan and Nicole Hayden, both staff reporters for The Oregonian/OregonLive, produced the first two parts of the newsroom’s in-depth examination of Oregon’s mental health system and its failures. Editor Therese Bottomly leads a discussion of what their findings have been so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of September, students from 50 school districts across the country launched a new campaign to spur climate action in classrooms, school buildings and in the job market. In this episode of Beat Check, The Oregonian/OregonLive's environmental justice reporter Gosia Wozniacka interviews Adah Crandall, a 17-year-old youth climate organizer and recent graduate of Portland’s Grant High School...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss the etiquette surrounding taking your shoes off in someone else's home, what they're into and not into this week and whether you can keep someone from smoking cigarettes near your house. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, whic...

Four years after Portland officials passed what they hailed to be some of the strongest rules governing short-term rentals in the country, Portland’s regulation of Airbnb rentals remains fundamentally broken, a recent investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Ted Sickinger found. On the latest Beat Check, I speak with Sickinger about how the city’s big promise to crack down on illicit Airbnbs we...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss what you can do when people are making unnecessary noise in your general area. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast! More: Read the mos...

Ambitious plans for the Lloyd Center shopping mall were unveiled recently. What can we expect to see on the 26-acre site in the future? How will the development change the existing mall and the surrounding neighborhood? Editor Therese Bottomly talks with business reporter Kristine de Leon about the new proposal for the historic mall in inner Northeast Portland. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss how you can still maintain friendships when you don't have a kid but your friends do! For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast! More: Read...

Scores from the standardized tests Oregon students take each year are out, and the 2023 results are dispiriting, to say the least, for anyone who hoped to see a rebound from a pandemic drop. Education reporter Julia Silverman analyzed the results for The Oregonian/OregonLive and discussed them on this week’s episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian. She describes a growing emergency in schools, wh...

This week on Why Tho? the Podcast, advice columnist Lizzy Acker and social media producer Destiny Johnson talk about the magic word. How magic is it? Can an adult tell another adult that they need to say “please.” For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast! More: Read the most recent W...

Earlier this month, a federal advisor committee met in Portland to come up with recommendations for updates to the Northwest Forest Plan, a blueprint that will guide forest management in the region through the next century. Ryan Reed, the 23-year-old representative on the committee who is also an Indigenous firefighter, talked with Beat Check about why we all should care about trees, how fire can...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss Zoom etiquette in the year 2023. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast! More: Read the most recent Why Tho (and columns past): https://w...

Less than three years ago, Oregon became the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize minor possession of street drugs through an initiative that also promised to expand addiction-treatment services to people experiencing substance use disorder. Yet voters who overwhelmingly approved Measure 110 are already souring on the law amid a disastrous rollout and an explosion of fentanyl that’s fueled ove...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss the child abuse allegations against a Utah mom, Ruby Franke, who used to run a successful YouTube family channel called "8 Passengers." For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday...

The city of Portland has been grappling with homelessness for decades. Longtime residents remember then-Mayor Bud Clark’s plan to solve the problem in the 1980s. But the plight of unsheltered residents has continued and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated efforts to help the unhoused. Now, governments are poised to spend millions to deal with the issue that residents consistently place at high impor...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss whether you can do anything about someone's troublesome social media posts that are bringing down the vibe of a whole group. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following...

Intel appears to be doubling down on its key research and development sites in Oregon, with plans to spend billions of dollars to expand its computer chip factories in Washington County. Mike Rogoway, who covers the tech industry for The Oregonian/OregonLive, broke the news of Intel’s plans earlier this month. He joined business editor Elliot Njus on the Beat Check with The Oregonian podcast to ta...

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss whether you should confront your neighbor about their screaming children when you work from home. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast!...

A proposed $24.6 billion merger could bring together Kroger, the parent company of Fred Meyer and QFC, and Albertsons, which has also owned Safeway since 2015. The Pacific Northwest is one of the regions where the two companies compete directly, so the combination could leave Oregonians with fewer choices for grocery shopping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join The Oregonian's Lizzy Acker and Destiny Johnson as they discuss your conundrums for Lizzy's advice column "Why Tho?" This week they discuss whether it's appropriate to ask someone not to hang out with someone you mutually know. For a more distilled version of this, check out Lizzy's column, which will publish at Oregonlive.com/whytho the Tuesday following the airing of this podcast! More: Rea...

Gov. Tina Kotek is convening a panel of local elected officials, business executives and civic leaders to focus on how to best bolster downtown Portland’s economic future. The move comes as Portland’s urban core remains among the nation’s slowest to recover in the aftermath of the pandemic amid blocks of empty offices and storefronts as well as pervasive homelessness, open drug use and public safe...