Think Out Loud

Last week, the Portland school board unanimously passed a resolution allowing for the sale of its North Portland district headquarters to the Albina Vision Trust. The local nonprofit has been working to restore the historically Black Albina neighborhood through redevelopment efforts such as the construction of 94 affordable housing units it recently broke ground on. The idea for AVT’s acquis...

The National Parks Service is planning to terminate its contract with Aramark, the company that manages lodging, food and other services at Crater Lake under the name Crater Lake Hospitality. The announcement comes after the company received the lowest possible annual rating from the park service last year. Since Aramark took over in 2018, annual reports have documented fuel leaks, sewer overflows...

Oregon Democrats and Republicans appear to have reached agreement to enact jail sentences of up to 180 days for people caught with small amounts of drugs like fentanyl, meth and heroin. House Bill 4002 also weakens a provision that would have required police to offer to connect people caught with drugs to treatment rather than bringing them to jail. That “mandatory deflection” was desi...

Last month, trees throughout Western Oregon fell as strong winds and snow battered the region. In Portland alone, there are more than a million trees in its parks and nearly 3 million trees on private property. January’s storm affected branches, dead and dying trees, but also healthy trees. What can the city learn about its urban forest following the storm? How should we think about the coni...

In 2015, Portland created a groundbreaking policy to give preference for affordable housing and housing loans in historically Black neighborhoods to those who have been displaced from the area. In 2018, a report found that just 4 households had been able to purchase homes using city loans. After a major overhaul, part of the contract for the city’s housing preference policy was handed to the...

The Portland Police recently announced it had made 13 arrests and recovered two stolen vehicles during a mission targeting thefts of large amounts of retail goods in the Hollywood and LLoyd districts. About two dozen retail theft missions have taken place since last March, mainly at locations in North Portland like the Cascade Station shopping mall, according to North Precinct Portland Police Comm...

After the All-Star Break, the Portland Blazers have just 28 games left in their season. With new faces on the court, the loss of beloved point guard Damian Lillard and TV viewership reportedly dropping by almost 50%, what is the future of the team? To give us a sense on how the season has played out so far and what is to come, we’re joined by Host of the “Locked on Blazers” podca...

A new report from a coalition of service providers for queer communities in the Portland area found that the region lacks support and resources for LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness. The report comes from the LGBTQAI2S+ Housing Collaborative, which is composed of several groups including Basic Rights Oregon, Pride Northwest, the Equi Institute, PDX Trans Housing Coalition, the Q Center, Blac...

Earlier this month, the Albina Music Trust launched a digital archive containing thousands of photographs, audio recordings and film and video clips documenting the culture and history of the Albina neighborhood. Black Portlanders built a thriving community in the Albina until redevelopment projects such as the construction of the I-5 freeway more than 60 years ago destroyed the neighborhood, shut...

Cycling was up 5% last year compared to 2022 numbers, according to the latest bike count from the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The 2022 report showed that from 2019 to 2022, ridership fell almost 35%. Jonathan Maus is the editor and publisher of Bike Portland. He joins us to share more on what these numbers say about the current bike trends in Portland.

A new study by researchers at Oregon State University found that fish embryos that were exposed to tiny amounts of pesticides for four days experienced lasting behavioral changes. It also found that the offspring of those fish also experienced changes in behavior and had altered development and gene expression even though they were not exposed to the commonly used pesticides. Joining us to talk ab...

Oregon’s short legislative session is more than halfway over, and Monday marked the first major deadline that legislation needs to clear in order to have a chance to pass this year. A bill that would have bolstered the state’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in coming years isn’t moving forward, along with a bill that would have blocked teachers from striking. Legisla...

Affordable housing options that prioritize people with disabilities are limited and waitlists are long. Community Vision, an advocacy organization for Oregonians with disabilities, develops accessible units for residents in the Portland metro area. We hear more about the effort from Jennifer Knapp, executive director of Community Vision. We'll also hear from Christin and KeJon Carter, recipients o...

Until recently, doctors didn’t think it made a difference which arm patients got their COVID-19 vaccine in. But a new study from Oregon Health & Science University shows that switching arms between doses could lead to as much as a fourfold increase in immune response. Though further studies are necessary, researchers suspect the improvement has to do with how the body learns to protect i...

In Oregon, large commercial dairies follow rules by the Oregon Department of Agriculture that help regulate animal waste. Confined animal feeding operations can house hundreds or thousands of animals. Rules governing large commercial dairies didn’t always apply to small, mom and pop operations. But a reinterpreted regulation from the Oregon agency might affect smaller farms, and now several...

Even though the Roman empire came to an end thousands of years ago, we still tell stories about the emperors who ruled during that time. From Caligula, who threatened to make his horse a senator, to Nero, who killed his own mother and set fire to the city to make room for his palace, classicist Mary Beard argues that the stories we tell about the Roman emperors might say more about us than they do...

The mission of Portland’s August Wilson Red Door Project is to “use the power of narrative art to bridge divides.” Its show "Evolve" does that by presenting scenes and monologues based on the real life experiences of Black Americans, police officers and others in the justice system. But it’s not just powerful stories on stage. The performances are interspersed with pauses t...

College-bound students in Oregon and around the nation would typically be receiving their financial aid packages from colleges and universities right about now to help them decide where to enroll in the fall. But many students may now have to wait until April because of the U.S. Department of Education’s delay in sharing financial aid information to colleges and universities.  The delay...

After years of pressure from climate activists and others, Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read has put forth a plan to divest state investments from fossil fuel interests. He presented a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emission impacts of pension funds to net zero by 2050 to the Oregon Investment Council this week. The plan includes a target of an interim 60% reduction by 2035. Oregon and other states have...

For the 10th consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report has named Oregon State University one of the top 10 places in the nation to obtain an undergraduate degree online. OSU is ranked fourth, along with Arizona State University and North Carolina State University, for best online bachelor’s programs which were evaluated on factors such as faculty credentials and graduation rates.   O...

If a patient or a coworker makes a racist comment to a Black person working as a nurse in Oregon, that nurse may have no one who looks like them to turn to for commiseration and understanding. Nurses of color in Oregon work in predominantly white spaces, which can be very isolating on top of a job that is already emotionally and physically draining. A new podcast, Black Care Matters, focuses on th...

It’s been over a year since residents of Morrow County recalled two of their commissioners. Now residents are considering recall petitions again. For months, the county and its ambulance service, Morrow County Health District, have been in deliberations over a new service contract. Some residents feel that there has been a lack of transparency in the commissioners’ handling of negotiat...

What happens when you ask an AI image generator for a regular photo of a person? Research from the University of Washington suggests that the result might be influenced by gender and racial stereotypes. A study found that the image generator Stable Diffusion overrepresented light-skinned men, underrepresented Indigenous people and even sexualized certain women of color when asked to create an imag...

Senate Bill 1583 would prevent school boards and district personnel from banning textbooks and library books on the basis of content related to race, LGBTQ+ identities, religion, disability or other protected group. The bill was introduced by Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, and has drawn more than 500 testimonies. Yesterday a hearing was held for the bill. Julia Shumway is the deputy editor for th...

 Every 10 years, as populations change, lawmakers in most states draw up new district boundaries so that voters will have proportional and equitable opportunities for representation. But they don't always achieve that goal. Redistricting fights are often extremely political, and can end up disenfranchising voters of color. Assigning the redistricting decisions to independent commissions, rath...