Think Out Loud

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is helping shut down streets in residential neighborhoods. The reason isn’t for road repairs or filling in potholes, but to allow kids to safely play and create community. The Play Streets program is a current pilot that allows nonprofits in Portland to create community centered pop-up events. PBOT provides a trailer at no cost that is filled with furnit...

A study released by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory explored groundwater extraction and how growing demand will affect remaining resources. Scientists focused on when and where groundwater levels could peak, meaning the water becomes so inaccessible that deeper wells or costly equipment are needed to meet demand.   As it becomes more difficult to access groundwater, international ag...

Portland musician Rose Gerber combines country, folk and alt-rock into her sound. Gerber released a new EP, "Untraveled Highway," earlier this year.  She will be headlining a country music fest at the Kenton Club on Saturday and joins us with an in-studio performance.

Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, but as vaccination rates have fallen, the disease has popped back up. Oregon is experiencing the worst outbreak in the state since the early 1990s. With kids returning to school and measles being one of the most infectious of diseases, public health concerns are running high. Joining us to talk about all of this and update us on the latest COVID...

Wildfires have burned more than a million and a half acres in Oregon so far, with the season still not over. Eastern Oregon has been especially hard hit by massive fires this summer, including the Durkee Fire which ignited last month and has burned nearly 300,000 acres. Ranchers in Eastern and Central Oregon face growing uncertainty and mounting economic losses to their livelihoods. The Oregon Cat...

Earlier this year, the Portland band Blitzen Trapper released its 10th studio album, “100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions.” The band found success in 2008 with the release of their album “Furr.” Founding members Eric Earley and Brian Adrian Koch join us in the studio, along with fellow band member Nathan Vanderpool, to play some songs and talk about the new al...

As summer draws to a close, teachers across Oregon are readying lesson plans for the start of a new school year. But for school districts in rural parts of the state, budgetary constraints may mean that arts literacy and the benefits it offers students aren’t included in the curriculum.  Since 2020, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the central Oregon coast has been helping fill t...

Students at Umpqua Community College in Southern Oregon may soon have some new options for housing. The college is converting three historic buildings in downtown Roseburg into student dorms and apartments. College leaders hope that providing housing will help attract students from around the region and that bringing students downtown will add vibrancy to the city’s core. UCC President Rache...

Bill Sumio Naito, who died at age 70 in 1996, was a Portland-born son of Japanese immigrants who became one of the city's most significant business and civic leaders. Erica Naito-Campbell, his granddaughter, grew up next door to him and has written a new biography of the man who lends his name to the road thousands of people drive and bike on every day. The book, “Portland's Audacious Champi...

On Monday, a judge at the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland will hear arguments to temporarily block the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains. The nearly $25 billion deal, which was announced nearly two years ago, would create the largest supermarket chain in U.S. history, with roughly 5,000 stores and 700,000 employees across 48 states. Kroger owns Fred Meyer and QFC gr...

Al Ward is a 65-year-old musician who is hiding out from the wreck of his life in an abandoned mine in the high Nevada desert. Ward spends his days drinking and writing songs until he encounters a half-blind horse, and is forced to reckon with his life. Portland author Willy Vlautin joined host Geoff Norcross at the Pickathon Experiential Music Festival to talk about the compulsion to create art,...

Two-sport athlete Bryce Boettcher may have joined the University of Oregon as a baseball player, but football was also important to him.  In June, the outfielder was named a Rawlings Gold Glove recipient by the company and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Now, he’ll finish out his time as a Duck playing football as UO officially joins the Big Ten conference. And in the spring,...

Trans, non-binary and gender diverse (TNGD) youth often experience harm in child welfare programs, the justice system and homeless services. That’s according to a new national report by Lambda Legal that the Portland-based Unicorn Solutions helped inform. The report focuses on how these youth fare in government-involved systems, and the policies that are needed to help them thrive. We talk w...

The birth of a baby is often celebrated as a joyful and natural process, but it can also be physically and emotionally traumatic. The Perinatal Trauma Clinic at Oregon Health & Science University is one of only a handful nationwide that aims to support parents who have experienced trauma around birth or pregnancy. Patients work with both mental and physical health care providers at the Center...

Starting in September, HB 4002 will go into effect and will recriminalize possession of small amounts of controlled substances. Portland’s public transportation agency TriMet is hopeful this could bring changes to the system that has faced a number of challenges in recent years, including a historic driver shortage, increased assaults on operators and more. Since 2021, TriMet has been steppi...

Classes at Portland Public Schools begin next week and the district also welcomes a new superintendent. Kimberlee Armstrong began her career as a teacher in the Puyallup School District in Washington and most recently served as deputy superintendent of Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver. Armstrong joins to share what she’s looking forward to in her first year overseeing the district and g...

Nearly 20 years ago, researchers at Oregon State University began leading an effort to collect information about the structure and evolution of the North American continent using electromagnetic energy. That effort is finally complete. The new map can be used to protect the electrical grid during extreme solar storms and identify geohazards. It can also help target locations for tapping natural re...

Central Oregon poet, teacher and author Ellen Waterston began her role this month as the state’s official Poet Laureate. Waterston has won many literary awards, including two WILLA awards and the Obsidian prize for poetry. This year she received both the Holbrook and Soapstone award in recognition of her contributions to Oregon’s literary landscape. She began her own Writing Ranch in 2...

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has made it clear, shared electric scooters are here to stay. Two new multiyear contracts with Lime and Lyft have recently been announced that would bring the citywide fleet to upward of 3,500 scooters. Millicent Williams is the director of PBOT. She joins us to share more on this expansion and micromobility in Portland.

A big shift took place over the weekend in the way people buy and sell homes in the U.S. The National Association of Realtors settled a lawsuit earlier this year that changed the way real estate agents get paid. Previously, a home seller would pay for both their own real estate agent and the agent representing the buyer. The two agents would split the commission, which was typically around 5-6% of...

On Monday, the Oregon Department of Forestry confirmed that the emerald ash borer has been discovered in three new counties in the Willamette Valley. In the past month, the invasive pest was caught in traps set in Marion and Yamhill counties, and is also suspected of being in neighboring Clackamas County, pending confirmation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The highly destructive beetle, wh...

On Monday, the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago. It comes four weeks after President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic party nominee. Harris quickly ramped up her campaign and won a majority of delegate votes to secure the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this month, and shortly there...

Georgia Cloepfil spent six years playing soccer professionally in six different countries after she graduated from college. It was a lonely, physically demanding life that was also incredibly rewarding. Cloepfil’s new memoir, “The Striker and the Clock,” details that time, and the beauty and complexity of the game she still loves.

On August 24, 1949, work crews and bulldozers cleared out a neighborhood just outside of Eugene known as Ferry Street Village. The Lane County Board of Commissioners had voted to demolish the neighborhood just a month before, and some residents who hadn't gotten the news ran from their homes with as much as they could carry. The neighborhood was one of the only places near Eugene where Black peopl...

The Portland Votes 2024 Grant Program has awarded $210,000 to 11 different organizations to support education efforts about ranked choice voting. The adoption of a new city charter has changed multiple aspects of city government. One of the most prolific is that in November, voters will participate in a ranked choice voting process to choose city council members, which is different from how many p...