Think Out Loud

he Trump administration has created a lot of uncertainty as state lawmakers crafted a budget this year. In the latest economic forecast, Oregon went from a nearly $500 million cushion over the next two years to a roughly projected $373 million deficit. Carl Riccadonna is the state’s economist. Democratic Senator Kate Lieber represents Beaverton and Southwest Portland and is a co-chair of the...

Tory Johnston is an enrolled member of the Quinault Indian Nation and a lecturer in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. He grew up in the Quinault Indian reservation on the Washington coast with a love for music, whether it was the loud guitar riffs of Metallica or the jazz improvisation of Thelonious Monk. In 2023, with no prior experience as a radio DJ, he applied to work on...

Last year, Oregon ended its three-year experiment with drug decriminalization known as Measure 110. This came when Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 4002 to implement new criminal penalties for drug possession and fund efforts at the county level to deflect drug users away from the criminal justice system and into treatment as a way to avoid charges. Those deflection programs look different in ev...

Class is now back in session for students across Oregon. Schools are navigating a new statewide ban on cellphones in the classroom, as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence among both students and educators. Meanwhile, aggressive federal immigration enforcement tactics have raised fears in some communities that schools could become hotspots for arrests. Natalie Pate covers K-12 educat...

This summer, the Oregon Arts Commission is marking the 50th anniversary of the Percent for Art program , which has helped 900 artists create 3,000 pieces of public art. The 1975 law requires that one percent of the cost of new and renovated buildings go toward a piece of art that’s accessible to the public. The arts commission and Travel Oregon launched a “ 50 for 50 ” program in...

A recently published study from the University of Oregon found that the fear of deportation declines with age among immigrants without protected status. The research is based on interviews with Mexican immigrants over the age of 50 in the California communities of Oakland, Fremont and Berkeley. The interviews were mostly conducted in 2019 and some in 2022, before the second Trump presidency. &nbsp...

Last Friday, Oregon lawmakers convened in Salem for a special legislative session called by Gov. Tina Kotek to pass a transportation funding bill. The special session will now likely not end until later this month to allow Democrats to muster the necessary votes to pass the bill in the Oregon Senate. On Monday, the House passed a bill that would raise gas taxes by 6 cents per gallon, hike vehicle...

 Three years ago, Paul Susi launched PDX ID Assistance, a free service to help people replace lost forms of identification, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate. In a recent magazine essay he wrote for Oregon Humanities, Susi says he was motivated to start PDX ID Assistance after working for years as a manager of homeless shelters in Portland where he saw firsthand the frustr...

The No Vacancy Window Gallery is a self-guided art tour through Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood. It launches on September 4 and runs through November 30. The gallery aims to create accessible art in the area by turning boarded-up buildings into exhibition venues. We hear more from curator Lauren Lesueur about the exhibition.

Vaux’s swifts are small, migratory birds that travel from their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest to Central and South American each fall, roosting in chimneys and hollowed-out trees along the way. For a few weeks in September, huge flocks of the birds have spiraled into the chimney of Chapman Elementary in Northwest Portland. The nightly display has entertained crowds for decades, b...

In Washington, the Flannery decision has caused confusion over when people accused of domestic violence need to surrender their firearms. More recently, another court decision has provided more clarity over the issue.  We dig into this story with Kelsey Turner, an investigative reporter with InvestigateWest. 

The 160th annual Oregon State Fair in Salem wraps up on Labor Day. The 10-day event features live music, monster trucks, carnival rides and competitions that showcase excellence in Oregon art, livestock, agriculture and more. From the tallest sunflower grown to blue ribbons awarded for beef and dairy cattle, the fair is also an opportunity to honor the hard work of future farmers, ranchers or hobb...

When the Holiday Farm Fire roared through the McKenzie River corridor five years ago, it destroyed at least 500 homes and most of the community of Blue River.  In the aftermath, many former home owners sold their property rather than rebuilding. Property values went up, and housing - especially affordable or mid-range housing - became very hard to find. In response, some community members fou...

Erica Alexia Ledesma was born in Medford and grew up in nearby Talent and Phoenix. After graduating from the University of Oregon, she moved back to Southern Oregon and, as she put it, “immediately got to community organizing.” She was among the community members who gathered for a strategy and solutions brainstorming meeting a month after the 2020 Almeda Fire destroyed thousands of ho...

Five years ago, the Labor Day Fires killed 11 people and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, becoming the deadliest and destructive wildfire season in the state’s history. Since then, the city of Phoenix has focused on rebuilding, including housing, rebuilding Blue Heron Park and building a new food truck lot known as the Phoodery. Eric Swanson is the city manager of Phoenix. He joins us to sha...

The Flat Fire, which is burning two miles northeast of Sisters in Central Oregon, has grown to more than 23,000 acres and is 13% contained, as of Friday morning. The fire broke out last week, grew rapidly and prompted Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation orders in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. On Thursday, Level 3 orders were downgraded to Level 2 in both counties. According to an update posted Thursda...

President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his first day in office in January. Shortly after, he froze federal funding for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees in the U.S. The decisions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration that’s led to arrests and deportations across the country.  The Immigrant and Refugee C...

Scrabble is more than just a family pastime for Portland resident Nigel Peltier. For him, it’s been a decades-long pursuit. Peltier first entered the tournament scene as a teenager, quickly rising through the ranks to become one of the top-rated players in North America.  This summer, he won his first North American Scrabble Players Association National Championship, dominating the fina...

According to the violent crime survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, there were 17 homicides in Portland in the first half of 2025 compared to 35 for the same period last year. That 51% decline is the largest drop in homicides among the 68 city and county police agencies represented in the survey. Aggravated assaults, rapes and robberies have also declined in Portland and nationwide, acco...

The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of over-the-counter birth control pills two years ago. The decision has dramatically increased access to contraception, according to a new study from Oregon Health & Science University.    Researchers found that more than a quarter of participants who were using the over-the-counter pill had switched from using no birth control at al...

Over the past few decades, Portland has built one of the most extensive green stormwater infrastructure systems in the country. Instead of relying only on pipes and drains, it has created thousands of rain gardens and green streets to help keep sewage out of the Willamette River. Much of that work has not only involved city engineers but also local community members — from volunteers who &ls...

The availability of child care for children ages 3 to 5 in Oregon is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Oregon State University. In 2018, three-quarters of the state’s counties were considered preschool child care deserts, but as of last year, that number dropped to just nine. However, all but two counties are still considered child care deserts for children ages 0 to 2. &nb...

Eight years ago, the military in Myanmar launched a weekslong campaign of genocide against the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim ethnic minority. Investigators from the United Nations documented the scale of the “extreme violence” they found : the killing of thousands of civilians; mass rapes of “hundreds, possibly thousands” of women and girls; nearly 400 villages burned to th...

Nearly five years ago, a combination of dry conditions and heavy winds starting on Labor Day quickly accelerated the spread of multiple wildfires that had broken out in Oregon’s Western Cascades. Eleven people died in the Labor Day fires , which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, from Clackamas county to the California border.    As the fifth anni...

Nearly five years ago, a combination of dry conditions and heavy winds starting on Labor Day quickly accelerated the spread of multiple wildfires that had broken out in Oregon’s Western Cascades. Eleven people died in the Labor Day fires , which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, from Clackamas county to the California border.   As the fifth anniversar...