Think Out Loud

After joining the Big Ten Conference, the Oregon Ducks basketball team has traveled more than 27,000 miles. That’s more than the circumference of the Earth. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Oregon players are not alone as dramatic increases were seen for all of the 10 schools that left the Pac-12, ranging from 47% to 222% more miles. Laine Higgins is a sports reporter for the WSJ and...

When public radio reporter Anna King first heard that ranchers in remote areas of rural Oregon were finding the bodies of cows and bulls drained of blood and mutilated, she immediately began to investigate. What she found could have provided the script for an episode of "The X Files." Various arms of law enforcement had investigated this phenomenon, but the mystery remained unsolved. The NPR story...

Earlier this month, Oregon joined nine other states in meeting a goal to get 3.3 million electric vehicles on the road by 2025. That number is set to grow under a rule that requires all new passenger cars, SUVs and pickup trucks sold in Oregon to either be fully electric or plug-in hybrid electric by 2035.  But adopting cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles also means that Oregon and other st...

In Oregon and the rest of the country, Black infants are more likely to be born underweight, and both they and their mothers have a lower chance of surviving that first year of life than white and Hispanic ones. A package of bills in the Oregon legislature seeks to support perinatal health by expanding access to doulas, protecting young families from housing loss and eviction and expanding the Ore...

Oregon lawmakers are crafting a budget for the next two years. They're facing a lot of uncertainty since nearly a third of the state’s funding comes from federal dollars and budget committee members have mapped out several scenarios. Meanwhile, hundreds of bills failed to meet a legislative deadline last week.  But one proposal that narrowly passed the Senate would give public workers w...

Oregon Health & Science University began its Long COVID-19 clinic in 2021, a year into the pandemic as the first vaccines were just becoming widely available. We talked with doctors in the clinic in 2022, and we wanted to check back in to see what clinicians have learned after treating thousands of long COVID patients. Aluko Hope is a pulmonologist, critical care doctor and the medical directo...

 Portland’s own junior ice hockey team, the Winterhawks, commemorate their 50th anniversary playing on the ice this season. With over 15 divisional championships, 13 conference titles and more than 135 alumni now playing in the National Hockey League, the team is the second-oldest professional team in Portland after the Trailblazers - and one of the best teams in the Western Hockey Leag...

A once popular teacher at St. Helens High School pivoted his career to communications, becoming a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Education and the Department of Human Services. In now-public allegations, two former students say he sexually abused them when he was a teacher. OPB reporter Joni Auden Land joins us to lay out the investigation.

Many of Oregon's county health officials are asking for a little extra consideration from lawmakers this year as they decide where to allocate funding. Two counties, Wallowa and Curry, have no public health staff and rely solely on the Oregon Health Authority to meet their needs. With the fifth anniversary of the initial COVID-19 lockdown this week, perhaps nothing is a bigger reminder of the need...

 If you could eliminate a memory from your mind completely, would you do it? And what would that kind of erasure mean at a societal level? These are some of the questions at the heart of Portland writer Karen Russell’s latest novel, “The Antidote.” The book opens on Black Sunday, the dust storm in April 1935 that swept thousands of tons of topsoil into the air over the Midwe...

A new resolution centered around protections for undocumented students passed unanimously by the Evergreen Public Schools board last week. As first reported on by the Columbian, the vote was initially planned for early February, but with testimony from more than 20 students, parents and community members, the vote was postponed. Students within the district provided input and helped shape the new...

A new study led by researchers at Washington State University showed that butterfly populations in the U.S. shrank by more than 20% from 2000 to 2020. More than 100 butterfly species declined by more than 50% during this period, including nearly two dozen that plummeted by more than 90%.The findings are based on more than 12 million observations of hundreds of butterfly species recorded by citizen...

In 2023, Oregon was awarded more than $58 million in federal grants from the Inflation Reduction Act to plant and maintain trees. The availability of much of those funds remains uncertain.  Earlier this month, the Oregon Department of Forestry, city agencies and nonprofits told Inside Climate News that at least $40 million dollars in grant reimbursements to boost urban tree canopies in Oregon...

Indigenous tribes in what is now the northeastern U.S. and Canada have played lacrosse for millennia. Similar stick-and-ball games were played by tribes across the Southeast and Great Lakes region. But according to NCAA data, less than 1% of college lacrosse players are American Indian or Alaskan Native, and more than 80% are white. Pacific Northwest Native Lacrosse is trying to change that. As re...

Liability waivers have been a hot topic in Oregon since a 2014 court ruling made them difficult for places like ski resorts and climbing gyms to enforce. Recreational business owners say their insurance rates have soared as a result, but trial lawyers say the waivers discourage operators from keeping their facilities safe.  House Bill 3140 would allow recreational businesses to require custom...

Todd Prager was a planning commissioner for the city of Lake Oswego in 2011 when he discovered that  the body of water that defined their community was in fact not a private lake, but rather a navigable public waterway. He says no one seemed to want to act on this information. The city went in the opposite direction, passing an ordinance in 2012 that barred the public from “trespassing&...

Since  our last conversation  with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, President Trump has enacted  tariffs  and  mass   layoffs  that could significantly impact Oregon’s federal workforce and economy. The Oregon Legislature has also begun its biennial session, taking up issues around  education ,  transportation  and  housing . Kotek joins us in th...

Oregon archaeologists have found evidence of human occupation in the state that dates back more than 18,000 years. University of Oregon students and faculty working at the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Harney County found stone tools and fragments of camel and bison teeth beneath a 15,000-year-old layer of volcanic ash. Radiocarbon dating of the tooth enamel revealed that the fragments were 18,250 y...

Three of Oregon’s college basketball teams are set to compete in this year’s NCAA Tournaments, including the Oregon State women’s team. After losing some of their best players to the transfer portal during the collapse of the Pac-12 conference, the Beavers came back to win their first conference championship since 2016. They’re now the 14th seed in the women’s bracket...

Last week, two federal judges ordered thousands of federal workers who were on probationary status when they were fired to be rehired at 18 federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Education. The rulings came a day after the Department of Education announced massive staff cuts, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workfo...

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, requires museums, universities and other institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American ancestral remains and cultural items to their original tribes. Though the law passed nearly 35 years ago, many institutions have failed to fulfill its requirements.   Oregon State University recently opened a new fa...

From jams and ice cream to syrups and lotions, huckleberries are a fruit that can be found in all sorts of Pacific Northwest commodities. But these berries are incredibly difficult to grow, preferring high elevations and acidic soil, making them hard to cultivate. The U.S. Forest Service issues permits to commercially pick these berries, selling more than 900 permits last season. For tribes in the...

Before John Kitzhaber became Oregon governor for the first time, he practiced emergency medicine as an ER doctor. He brought that knowledge of the health care system to bear in the late 80s and early 90s, with the enacting of the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. In 2012, he oversaw the expansion of the program and the creation of Coordinated Care Organizations. Today, about...

The rainy gloom of winter will soon give way to the sunshine and flowers of spring. That means hiking trails are sure to get busier in the Columbia Gorge, Willamette Falls and other popular destinations near Portland. But even experienced hikers can lose their way or get stranded as a mild, sunny day turns to a cold, damp night outdoors.  That’s where the Green Hornets can help keep a b...

About 120,000 immigrants lacking permanent legal status live in Oregon, according to a 2022 estimate from the Pew Research Center. The state has sanctuary laws in place, meaning that state and local resources are not used for federal immigration enforcement. Law enforcement officials in places including Marion, Polk and Jackson counties have told local media outlets they will continue to follow st...