Think Out Loud

Nationwide polling suggests that about half of Americans oppose the deployment of National guard troops to American cities. But the poll also suggests a significant number - 38% - do support deployment. Dan Mason is a National Committeeman for the Oregon Republican Party and former member of the Oregon Ethics Commission. He says while those are national poll numbers, he suspects they reflect Orego...

In June, President Trump deployed thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of active duty Marines to Los Angeles to respond to largely peaceful protests over the administration’s immigration sweeps . A judge recently ruled that the use of federal troops in LA was illegal since they performed law enforcement duties the military are constitutionally prohibited from doing.   Now, T...

For the first time since 2019, the federal government has shut down after Congress failed to pass a funding bill before a midnight deadline. A vote called by Senate Republicans on a stopgap funding bill that was passed previously by Republicans in the House failed on Tuesday evening. That bill would have kept the government funded at current levels until Nov. 21.    Deep divisions remain...

President Trump’s authorization of the deployment of Oregon National Guard troops to Portland brought swift opposition from civic and business leaders across the state. AG Dan Rayfield has filed a lawsuit and an emergency motion aimed at stopping the deployment.  Lewis & Clark Law professor Tung Yin , author of “ National Security Lies ,” joins us to share the legal issu...

President Trump has ordered 200 Oregon National Guard members into Portland, citing protests outside immigration facilities. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield has filed both a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order to block the deployment. The State of Oregon and the City of Portland will appear in federal court at 10 a.m. on Friday for a hearing on their motion for a temporary restraining o...

Progressive city councilor Mitch Green, who represents Portland’s District 4 and is himself a veteran, called on local members of the military to protest the deployment of National Guard troops to the city. He joins us with more on the deployment.

Several hundred people gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland on Sunday to protest the Trump administration’s decision to send 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to the city. Although the protest was mostly peaceful, more than a dozen counterprotesters verbally clashed with protesters and several protesters were hit with pepper balls as ICE a...

The Beaverton Sobriety Opportunity for Beginning Recovery treatment court is open to Beaverton or Washington County residents who have at least one prior Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants conviction and who agree to the program’s strict requirements. About 200 people have graduated from B-SOBR since its launch in 2011.    Participants must agree to wear an ankle monitor an...

On Sunday, the Trump administration sent a memo to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek authorizing the deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard members in Portland immediately for 60 days. The memo says the troops will be deployed to protect federal property and personnel in Portland, which President Trump has called a “war-ravaged city.” Portland and state officials responded by filing a lawsuit an...

Earlier this month, Brett Hollins embarked on a road trip to Oregon from his parents’ home in San Antonio. He didn’t come to experience the high desert splendor of Central Oregon or to snap selfies at Multnomah Falls. He came to present workshops and play basketball with inmates at six prisons across the state, including Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario and Warner Creek...

The Hanford nuclear reservation in Southeastern Washington was the epicenter of plutonium enrichment during the WW II and through the cold war. For more than 20 years, an effort to safely dispose and store 56 million gallons of radioactive waste stored at the site has been in the works. The vitrification plant would turn some of that waste into glass logs. The opening of that waste processing faci...

In September 2024, we packed up our vans and drove about four and a half hours from Portland to Richland, WA, to set up a mobile broadcast studio on the campus of Washington State University Tri-Cities. We broadcast a week of shows that included conversations about the WW II and Manhattan Project history that created the radioactive waste from war-time plutonium enrichment at Hanford. Our coverage...

Have you ever heard a color, or seen a piece of music? Maybe you’ve tasted a sunset, or felt a particular smell? If so, you might have synesthesia. It’s a phenomenon in which one or more sensory pathways blend in the brain to create a new experience. Researchers aren’t sure how many people have synesthesia, but estimates range from 1 in 200 to 1 in 20 people.   Elizabeth Sch...

After someone survives a disaster like a wildfire or hurricane, they often face daunting decisions while trying to rebuild. A growing number of scammers are targeting people seeking contractors, especially as events like flooding, hurricanes and wildfires happen more often.  Naveena Sadasivam is a senior staff writer for Grist . She’s covered disaster scams for the outlet and joins us w...

White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that grows on hibernating bats, causing them to wake up in the winter. The bats then burn up their fat stores while searching for food and die as a result. The disease was first detected in the northeastern U.S. in 2006 and has since spread to 40 U.S. states.   The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recently announced that the fungus that causes the...

Orientation and mobility specialists help people who are blind or low-vision learn to safely navigate their environments. Portland State University is one of a handful of schools nationwide that train these specialists, and the only school in the Northwest. Research suggests that demand for orientation and mobility specialists will increase as more adults experience age-related vision impairments...

Last month, President Trump announced that the federal government had obtained a 10% stake in Intel, Oregon’s largest private employer. Nvidia, one of Intel’s biggest competitors, announced last week that it would invest $5 billion in Intel. The company also got a $2 billion investment from SoftBank. Mike Wilkerson, director of Economic Research at ECOnorthwest, joins us to talk about...

As recently reported in The Columbian , a housing hotline provided by Council for the Homeless in Clark County gets on average 130 to 180 calls a day. A small team with lived experiences that include homelessness and housing insecurity answer callers’ requests for help seven days a week. They share resources such as shelters with available space for the night or the  locations of warmin...

Portland City Councilor Mitch Green is introducing a proposal that would make it easier for sidewalk food vendors to operate in the city. The ordinance would remove city requirements that prevent vendors from operating outside similar businesses, such as restaurants, and without getting consent from adjacent property owners to operate on the sidewalk.   Green says easing the regulations could...

Nine years ago, Union County voters overwhelmingly voted to pass Measure 31-89, which limited county commissioners to two terms, or eight years, in office. A whopping 68% of voters supported the change, which came from Union County Citizens for Good Government. Now, more than eight years after the measure took effect, Union County Commissioners will no longer be limited by term limits. In January,...

During the pandemic, schools from elementary to college took classes online by necessity. But 5 years later, a number of college students are still taking at least some of their classes remotely, even when they have an in-person choice. Online learning can take many forms, and include both synchronous and asynchronous formats. Some Oregon universities offer some degrees entirely online. At communi...

The Pacific Northwest had a thriving punk rock scene in the 90s with bands like The Wipers, Dead Moon and Bikini Kill. One of the pioneering bands of that time is Team Dresch, which had its roots in the queercore movement. This year the band has been on a 30 year anniversary tour. Band members Donna Dresch, Kaia Wilson, Jody Bleyle and Marcéo Martinez join us to play some songs and talk abo...

More than 100 Oregon students with both vision and hearing impairments are anticipating a decline in services in schools, as the federal government has suddenly cut a five-year grant for the Oregon DeafBlind Project . The program serves DeafBlind Oregonians from birth up until the age of 21 at no cost to families or school districts. The goal of the program is to provide training to local teachers...

As first reported by Oregon ArtsWatch , a new education pavilion is opening on Sep. 20 at Tryon Creek State Natural Area located in Southwest Portland, near Lake Oswego. The new education center allows the nonprofit Friends of Tryon Creek to hold community events and educational programming year-round for students to gather for classes, day camps and field trips inside the roughly 660-acre day-use...

Earlier this month, the governors of Oregon, Washington and California announced they are forming a partnership called the West Coast Health Alliance. The goal of this new partnership is aimed at preserving access to vaccines and will also develop its own immunization guidelines. This comes after the the Trump administration fired the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...