Think Out Loud

After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, millions of Americans participated in protests for racial justice. Much of corporate America promised to address racial equity. Now, many of those companies are retreating from diversity initiatives. “Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work” identifies how to create a more equitable workplace. Through research and anecdotes...

A study led by researchers at the University of Oregon explores water injustice across the U.S. The analysis focuses on vulnerable communities facing systemic barriers to clean water and also investigates water privatization in America. “We found that violations and risks of water injustice tend to cluster in specific areas or hot spots across the country,” said Alex Segrè Cohen...

Long before the four dams along the Klamath River were removed, the habitat restoration process began. RES, a company that specializes in ecological restoration, has been involved in the process since 2019. It’s charged with working on habitat restoration and will continue to maintain the project for about 5 years. We check in on the effort with Dave Coffman, the director of Northern Califor...

Less than 24 hours after a lower court ruling on Wednesday found that President Trump had illegally used an emergency powers law to enact global tariffs, a federal appeals court paused that decision and allowed the tariffs to continue – for now, that is. The legal topsy-turvy added a fresh round of uncertainty for business owners like Leslie Jordan, who started a company in Portland nearly 4...

With the warm weather over the Memorial Day weekend you might have been tempted to cool off in one of the region’s many beautiful rivers. If you headed to Glen Otto park or High Rocks park in the Portland area you might have seen Emergency Medical Technicians from the American Medical Response (AMR) River Rescue Program on hand to help out in case of an emergency in the water. The EMTs are g...

A  bill in the U.S. Senate  would put more responsibility on social media companies to design their platforms to better protect children from online dangers. The Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA,  appeared set  to pass Congress last year, only to  stall in the House . It was  reintroduced  earlier this month. Advocates say KOSA is necessary to keep kids from being...

It’s been 50 years since legendary Oregon track and field athlete Steve Prefontaine died in a car crash on May 30, 1975. He was only 24 years old. At the time, the Coos Bay runner held every U.S. distance record from the two-kilometer race to the 10K and was training for the 1976 Olympics. His athleticism and charisma made him one of the best-known runners to come out of the University of Or...

The Head Start program provides free early childhood education and support for low-income families. The federal government funds the program through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Project 2025 proposed eliminating the program.  While Head Start still exists, regional offices have closed and programs have run into issues receiving their funding. We’ll learn more about...

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Arizona AG Kris Mayes have prevailed in their challenge to a set of tariffs Pres. Trump had imposed on most countries on April 2. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of  International Trade in April. The coalition of Attorneys General included Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont. The...

A foster care bill in the Oregon legislature is controversial, but unlike other hotly contested issues, it’s not one that breaks along party lines. House Bill 3835 would allow kids in the child welfare system to be sent out of state to receive services —  a practice Oregon stopped several years ago after documented incidents of abuse. Democratic governor Tina Kotek has publicly sp...

Renée Watson has topped bestseller lists and won multiple awards for her children’s and young adult literature. But the author, who splits her time between Portland and New York City, recently released “skin & bones,” her first book for adults. The story follows 40-year-old Lena Baker as she navigates dating, fat-shaming, friendship and motherhood while also working to...

Portland comedian Susan Rice has performed on stages across the country since the 1980s. But it was only last year, at the age of 72, that she received wider acclaim after her appearance at a Don’t Tell Comedy showcase went viral. The 10-minute set has now been viewed more than 1.4 million times on Youtube. Following that success, Rice dropped her first stand-up album, “Silver Alert,&r...

Katherine Paul is an Indigenous musician who performs as Black Belt Eagle Scout. The band’s most recent album, “The Land, Water, The Sky,” draws inspiration from the landscape of the Pacific Northwest and Paul’s return to her home on the Swinomish Reservation in Washington after many years in Portland. Paul recently created a 45-minute “soundwalk” in partnership...

Chad Draizin of Portland’s 50 Licks sold his first scoop of ice cream in 2009 at a street fair. After several years of pop-up events and selling to local grocery stores, he opened his first brick-and-mortar shop in 2013 in the Clinton Street neighborhood, but it was in 2017 that Draizin says his business transformed with the opening of the E. Burnside & 28th location - on a busy corner n...

Last week, Oregon State Police, joined by multiple state and local agencies, completed a search of a roadside zoo in Bandon on the Southern Oregon Coast. More than 300 animals were seized and relocated to animal sanctuaries or rescue facilities. Three animals, including a camel, were euthanized because they were determined to be in such poor health they could not be transported or treated, accordi...

By the early 1900s, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group founded by former Confederate soldiers after the Civil War, had all but faded from existence in the U.S. Then, in 1915, a second Klan was founded in Georgia, and soon spread across the country. By the mid-1920s, it had as many as eight million members across the U.S., including many chapters in the Pacific Northwest, and a strong base...

The new solo play “Precipice” was conceived by actor and self-described “memory activist” Damaris Webb. It’s part of the offerings of the Vanport Mosaic Festival she co-founded 10 years ago. The play, like the festival itself, centers on remembering and reclaiming history and telling the stories of people who have been marginalized or forgotten. We talk with Webb and...

Toni Pimble moved to Oregon from her home in England more than 46 years ago and co-founded the Eugene Ballet. As the company’s artistic director, she has choreographed over 60 pieces and collaborated with composers, artists and other organizations, from the Eugene Opera to the Oregon Bach Festival to the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. Her award-winning work has also been per...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature keeps what it calls a Red List of species that are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss or exploitation such as overfishing. But a new study led by researchers at Oregon State University suggests another reason some wildlife might be at risk: climate change.  The scientists analyzed nearly 71,000 wild animal species – from cor...

The Trump administration is proposing changes to the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act. The proposed changes would prohibit actions that only directly relate to hurting or killing an animal. Historically, the word “harm” has been defined broadly to include habitat loss, which is a leading cause of extinction for endangered species. Noah Greenwald is the...

While the biggest school bond on the ballot seems to be passing in Tuesday’s special election, Oregonians appear to be split in their support of education-related bond measures that would fund school building construction, maintenance and other improvements. OPB editor Rob Manning joins us to give us a picture of how many of the education-related votes fared in this week’s election.

On Wednesday, Portland’s 12 city councilors stayed late considering a number of amendments to the city’s budget - both large and small. OPB's Portland city politics reporter Alex Zielinski was there and tells us what it all means.

Oregon journalist and OPB’s “Hush” Podcast Host  Leah Sottile  has made a name for herself investigating extremism and fringe movements in the West. Her latest book, “Blazing Eye Sees All,” explores New Age religion, including the Love Has Won movement. Beyond that, the book is a history of spirituality in the U.S. and looks at the ways fascism and metaphysi...

Thistle & Nest, an affordable housing provider in Bend, says the city’s new tree code isn’t flexible enough and is raising the cost of building new housing in Central Oregon. At one of the affordable housing developments Thistle & Nest is currently building, the code will mean fewer homes get built, according to the organization, which is refusing to submit a tree preservation...

The West Coast seafood industry is caught in the crosshairs of  tariff uncertainty . International orders have been canceled, which impacts Oregon workers. Industry leaders and Oregon’s Democratic Congressional delegation have asked the US Department of Agriculture  to step in . Lori Steele is the executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association. She joins us wit...