Think Out Loud

Since 1971, the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) program at the University of Washington School of Medicine has been working to bolster the rural physician workforce, both by recruiting medical students from these communities and providing them financial support to return to their communities as family physicians. The program also provides specialized education that prepares...

A Washington State University study found that rates of food insecurity in the U.S. vary among members of different racial and ethnic groups. It found, for example, that only 10% of Asian American adults who live in severe poverty are food insecure, compared to 40% of American Indian and Alaska Native adults living in severe poverty. It also found that low-income white adults had similar levels of...

Gina Jacobsen and Leslie Warren are both financial advisors based in Portland who specialize in helping women navigate financial confidence and life changes such as divorce or death of a partner. They say they notice patterns in the women they work with — oftentimes, they have their first interactions with money management later in life, and Jacobsen and Warren often take on the role of buil...

Last week, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration to end protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants. The Temporary Protected Status program was signed into law by George H. W. Bush in 1990 and allows citizens of other countries to stay in the U.S. when it is deemed unsafe for them to return to their home countries.    The 6-3 vote only ends prot...

For the first time in nearly 50 years, Portland is hosting the USA Fencing National Championships . The ten-day tournament kicks off this Sunday, with thousands of fencing athletes from around the world competing for national titles.   Michael McTigue served as the executive director of the non-profit Northwest Fencing for 5 years and now volunteers as a coach. He’s been fencing, compet...

The Portland Art Museum’s rental gallery has been operating on the same business model since its inception in 1959. In the 1950s, the Portland Art Museum was the city’s art school as well as a gallery. They opened the rental gallery to showcase local artists’ works, and they’ve been offering rentals and sales ever since. Mark Tindle has been the head of the rental sales gal...

For nearly 40 years, Store to Door has helped homebound seniors and adults with disabilities in the Portland metro area by taking orders for groceries and delivering them each week with a team of mostly volunteers. These “Kindness Couriers”, as the nonprofit calls them, will enter clients’ homes - if requested -  to unpack the groceries and stay for a brief chat. Those inter...

Katherine Lee Bates' greatest hope in life was to write a poem that people would remember after she died. One hundred and thirty three years later millions of people across the United States will sing “America the Beautiful,” commemorating the nations’ 250th anniversary. However, some of the same problems America faced at the time Bates wrote her poem are still relevant today. &n...

 Next month, the Food and Drug Administration committee will consider easing restrictions on some peptides. Some influencers have claimed these injectables improve muscle growth, create better immune function and slow aging, among other things. However, there is very little evidence to support the benefits of many of these drugs in humans. At the same time, prescription peptides that are alre...

This week, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington sided with the Center for Food Safety and the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat in a suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The ruling means that nine industrial shellfish operations that were approved by the Army Corps of Engineers off of Washington’s coast are unlawful. The plaintiffs argue that the US...

Four times a week, you’ll find Camas resident  Martins Licis working out in his home garage. Like many people, he will lift repetitions of weights to build strength. But most people don’t do 600 to 900-pound deadlifts or 500 to 700-pound squats.     Licis is a professional strongman who is currently training to compete in the Giants Live Strongman Classic in London...

The Menopunks movement started as a documentary. The goal was to debunk claims about hormone replacement therapy through interviews with doctors and hear the stories of Portland musicians who have benefited from HRT. But it’s now grown into a broader effort to advocate for more comprehensive and accessible menopause care.    A benefit concert series this weekend aims to raise money...

High Country News recently reported on how residents within the city limits of White Salmon, Wash. have lacked free mail delivery from the U.S. Postal Service for years now. The agency also does not provide free Post Office Boxes for those residents. High Country News’ reporting also revealed that at least 10 other towns in Washington, Oregon and Idaho also lack both free home mail delivery...

Art takes many forms, but at the 7th annual Skate Deck Show, the only form allowed is the shape of a skateboard. Put together by Art Design Xchange in Portland, the Skate Deck Show is an open call to artists of all mediums and ages to put their work on display, and potentially be sold to the public.   This year’s show brought together more than 230 artists submitting a combined total of...

The men’s soccer team from Jordan lost to Algeria  2-1 to on Monday, meaning they won’t go on to the next round of the World Cup. The team has been using the University of Portland’s Merlo Field as its home base for practice and training sessions between games.    UP men’s soccer head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt says the school boasts one of the best all-grass so...

According to the Oregon Department of Human Services, more than 60,000 Oregonians have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since the passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" last July that cut spending on SNAP, Medicare and other programs to offset tax cuts championed by President Trump and Republicans in Congress.   The law made changes to SNAP, including eligibi...

Last week the US Men’s National Team defeated Australia in Seattle as part of the opening round of the FIFA World Cup. The Pacific Northwest is hosting several of the many games being played across North America in this year’s championship. Pacific University political science professor and former footballer Jules Boykoff points out that while soccer is a beautiful game, the high ticke...

In 1951, a group of parents decided to start a school for their children with developmental disabilities rather than having them institutionalized. As those children grew into young adults, the school evolved into a workforce training organization. That organization — now known as Relay Resources — is still creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities more than 75 yea...

The city of North Plains has a population that hovers around 3,500. Like so many small communities in Oregon it has a strong sense of identity and a closeness among residents that other bigger cities just don’t have.  As part of our effort to cover both urban and rural communities all over the state, we sent out a community survey to find out what people in this Washington county town v...

  ”Words Will Come,” a new work by Portland-based playwright Melody Erfani , focuses on a young Iranian-American girl’s experience with learning, language and identity while navigating dyslexia.  The production takes a multi-sensory approach, using movement, projections, stage setting and fractured language to immerse the audience in the mind of someone experiencing dys...

Portland was well represented at this year’s James Beard Awards . Cocktail bar Scotch Lodge took home the award for Outstanding Bar, while Japanese restaurant Nodoguro’s Ryan Roadhouse won Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific.    Writer Erica Berry also won a Media Award for her personal essay published in Orion Magazine. In it, she explores the balance between risk and reward in...

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team will face off against Australia in Seattle tomorrow for its second match of the World Cup. Excitement and expectations abound for Team USA after its thrilling 4-1 victory over Paraguay in its opener last Friday.    While this isn’t the first time the U.S. has hosted the World Cup, it’s the first time our nation is co-hosting it with v...

 More than a decade ago, Willie Levenson had his heart set on swimming in the Willamette River. In his own words, he got carried away. He is the founder, executive director and ringleader of the Human Access Project, an advocacy group that dedicated its efforts to change Portlanders’ relationship with the Willamette. Over the years they have pushed for city beaches and swimming docks, h...

Sunshine Division , a Portland food relief organization, has opened a new food pantry that takes the form of a free grocery store. People in need can sign up for a time slot to come to the market and choose the groceries that best fit their household’s needs. It’s a model that Sunshine Division says was most requested by the people they serve. Kyle Camberg, Executive Director of Sunshi...

Lewis and Clark are often thought of as some of the earliest explorers of the western U.S. But more than a century before, Moncacht-Ape , a Yazoo explorer, reached the Pacific Ocean mainly by foot. The Indigenous explorer’s accounts were documented by French colonists, but were often dismissed as being untrue. But as featured in an article in Outside Magazine , historians and explorers may h...