Think Out Loud

 The third annual PNW Survival Games kick off this Friday at a campground in Molalla. Fifty people, organized into teams of two, will compete in a series of weekend-long challenges designed to test their outdoor survival skills, from building a fire and shelter to purifying water and building a raft from saplings and other foraged materials.    Participants who register for the $495...

A recent paper published in JAMA shows that Idaho has lost approximately 35 percent of doctors specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, leaving many counties without any maternal or reproductive health care providers at all.  That comes after the state passed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Amber Nelson, e...

The Portland-based nonprofit Smashing Barriers works with organizations including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Friendly House to offer free tennis clinics and organizes charity tournaments. Jiya Mehta and Rohan Shah, the co-founders, started the nonprofit while in high school. They aim to bring the organization to each state in the U.S. In addition to Oregon, the nonprofit already has...

The Sunset Empire Transportation District has provided public transportation in Clatsop County for more than 30 years. In 2023, the district had to temporarily stop service and lay off workers after it ran out of money due to financial mismanagement. The district has since gone through several leadership changes — the most recent executive director, Craig Johnston, stepped down late last yea...

After a turbulent year in Deschutes County law enforcement, newly appointed interim Sheriff Ty Rupert says the office is at a turning point. Sworn in Aug. 1, Rupert steps into the role after the resignation of Kent van der Kamp, whose tenure ended after an investigation and a lifetime law enforcement ban. With 15 months to stabilize the department before next year’s election, Rupert inherits...

For the past decade, pension investments made by the state have leaned heavily towards private equity. As reported in the Oregon Journalism Project, this choice has cost the state billions as this form of investments continued to be made despite advice from experts to diversify Oregon’s portfolio. Jim Neff is the managing editor for OJP and reported on this story. He joins us to share why th...

Think Out Loud staff read audience feedback.

A mysterious wasting disease has been decimating sea star populations along the West Coast since 2013. The illness works quickly, causing sea stars to lose limbs and reducing them to a pile of goo in a matter of weeks. Sunflower sea stars have been particularly hard-hit —  roughly 90% of their global population has succumbed to the disease, possibly contributing to the demise of many We...

Drywall is one of the most commonly used materials in construction — and one of the most wasteful. It's estimated that more than 10 percent of drywall from new buildings end up in landfills. The material can release harmful gasses , such as hydrogen sulfide, and act as a potential contaminant for groundwater. But two architecture professors at Washington State University’s School of De...

Earlier this summer, Clackamas Community College President Tim Cook embarked on an unique and physically daunting challenge: running roughly 1,500 miles to visit all 17 community colleges in Oregon. He kicked off his run on June 16 at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario as a way to raise money and awareness of the financial hardships community college students in Oregon face, from food in...

There are nearly 5,000 wild horses grazing throughout Oregon. But according to the Bureau of Land Management , the state can only sustainably provide for just over 2,600 horses on public lands. To help manage herd populations, the agency works to find some wild horses new homes, and it's people like Kimber Teatro who help turn these wild mustangs into domesticated horses. Teatro has been a partici...

When musician Jermaine Malone set out to run an all ages venue in Portland, he wanted it to be a place for musicians and bands to perform and for fans young and old to come see them, sure. But he also wanted so much more. He wanted to provide good food and drinks of all kinds — and a space for open-mic nights, makers markets and even after school programs. The Heights Lounge and Events Space...

Southern Oregon University recently announced plans to cut 15% of its budget over three years. The proposal would eliminate 15 majors and 11 minors, and lead to the elimination of more than 60 positions through a combination of layoffs, voluntary retirements and not filling vacancies. SOU President Rick Bailey attributes the university’s ongoing financial crisis to a number of factors includ...

While still a junior at Grant High School in 2022 Alex Sahli submitted a design for a LEGO set of the Italian Riviera. At 17 years old, he had already submitted five designs for sets to LEGO Ideas . That’s an online platform which allows fans of the iconic toy building blocks to upload a design of their own creation and win enough votes of support from fellow LEGO enthusiasts for the company...

Nearly 50 years ago, a Seattle juvenile court judge came up with the idea of using trained volunteers to appear in court to speak on behalf of abused and neglected children as a way to get more information about their individual cases. Today, nearly a thousand local Court Appointed Special Advocate programs exist in 49 states, including Oregon. CASA volunteers provide the court with regular update...

With the Trump administration’s dismantling of environmental regulations and total reversal on policies to combat climate change , activists have filed lawsuits and requests for injunctions all over the country. The latest development is the Trump-led Environmental Protection Agency reversing the long-standing “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases threatened human health a...

The Oregon Bee Atlas provides comprehensive data about the state’s native bees and the plants they need to thrive. With the help of  volunteers , researchers have gathered information of about 800 different bee species in the state. Andony Melathopoulos is an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. Lincoln Best is a taxonomist for the Oregon Bee...

The warmth and sunshine of summer makes it an especially ideal time  in Oregon to recreate outdoors and experience the state’s bounty of hiking trails, rivers, mountain peaks and other scenic attractions. But that spike in outdoor recreation can also lead to more calls for potentially life-saving search and rescue missions by law enforcement in remote locations. Linn County is one of th...

The Trail Blazers are up for sale for the first time in 37 years. And there’s a real fear among fans — and elected officials —that if Portland doesn’t play its cards right, the new owner could move the team to another city. Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson sent a letter recently to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stating their emphatic support for keeping the te...

The College Assistance for Migrants Program, or CAMP, has supported children of migrant farmworkers for more than 50 years — helping students who often face financial hardship, language barriers, and limited academic preparation navigate their first year of college. But this year, the federal funds that sustain CAMP programs across the country have been frozen, despite being approved by Cong...

Two new laws that passed in the Oregon Legislature are pushing the state toward what other countries have done to address housing: state-level zoning laws. As Sightline Institute reports, HB 2258 and HB 2138 seem to give the state much more authority and the power to override local zoning codes. Oregon has been making changes to zoning laws since 2017, and this new approach follows countries such...

Southern Oregon University is currently facing a financial emergency. The current budget for the institution is roughly $71 million, but cuts need to be made to drop that number to $60 million. President Rick Bailey points to a number of factors contributing to the crisis, including the lack of state support and actions from the Trump administration. Bailey’s new proposal to cut costs includ...

In western Lane County, the unincorporated community of Mapleton has struggled with its water infrastructure. Community leaders had stitched together funding to improve Mapleton’s system. That patchwork included federal funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and FEMA, according to reporting by KLCC.  While it’s been able to claw back s...

Several communities in Oregon have bought portions of their surrounding forests to more directly manage their natural resources. The “community forest” model has been used to manage for wildfire risk , drinking water quality, recreation and more. The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board recently awarded grants to six cities to protect forests around their drinking water sources. The fund...

A group of Native American youth recently completed the first full descent of the Klamath River since the four largest dams on the river were removed last fall. Kayakers traveled more than 300 miles over 30 days on the source-to-sea trip, which was organized by the Paddle Tribal Waters program. Julian Rogers and Kiahna Allen both participated in the trip . They join us to share more about their ex...