Think Out Loud

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek convened a task force in August to make concrete and actionable policy recommendations to revitalize downtown Portland. The task force issued its recommendations on Monday,including increasing  police presence in downtown Portland, outlawing public drug consumption, removing protective plywood from buildings, and increasing social services for those living on the street...

English holly certainly looks festive this time of year, with its dark, spiky leaves and bright red berries. But as recently reported in High Country News, the invasive plant poses a significant threat to Pacific Northwest forests. Much like English ivy, English holly is shade-tolerant, meaning it can thrive in the dense forests of western Washington and Oregon. It forms a dense undergrowth that c...

If you’re looking to check out some great new place the next time you go out for a meal, look no further than Eater Portland. It’s set the table with 2023 awards for the best new restaurant, bar, pop-up and food cart. Editor Brooke Jackson-Glidden joins us in studio to tell us about Xiao Ye, Astral at Duality Brewing, The Houston Blacklight, Frybaby and more. 

According to U.S. Census data, the average age of foreign-born workers is 41 years old. Earning roughly $15 an hour, on average, many cannot afford to retire, and Social Security benefits are unavailable for those who are undocumented. Miriam Jordan is the national immigration correspondent for the New York Times. She joins us to talk about her recent reporting on aging members of this workforce a...

Roz Chast's first New Yorker cartoon was published in 1978, and she has since published more than one thousand. Chast is the author of the graphic memoirs “Going Into Town” and “Can’t we Talk About Something More Pleasant.” Chast spoke about latest book, “I Must be Dreaming” with Dave Miller at the 2023 Portland Book Festival.

‘May December’ showcases riveting performances in film based on Northwest teacher convicted of child rape LONG SYNOPSIS: “May December,” by Portland director Todd Haynes, may be the most unsettling movie you’ll see all year. It’s set in Savannah, Georgia, with fictional characters, but the real-life scandal that it’s more than loosely based on unfolded nea...

During the pandemic, alcohol consumption increased more than it has in the last 50 years. Alcohol related deaths have also been increasing, according to the National Institute of Health.  In Oregon, six people die each day on average from alcohol related causes, according to the Oregon Health Authority. As the holiday season approaches, the state agency wants Oregonians to talk to their loved...

Charity Woodrum grew up in Oregon. While she first explored a career in nursing, she realized that she was meant to gaze at the stars. The University of Oregon alum has interned with NASA and is now working on obtaining a doctoral degree in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Arizona. She’s also a member of the James Webb space telescope team and is researching galaxy evolution...

In a recent survey of Oregon parents, 40% responded that they or their partner had to quit, turn down or “greatly change” their job in the last year due to difficulty finding child care. It also found that families of color and those who speak a language other than English were more likely to be impacted. The findings reflect similar surveys from 2020 and 2019 which showed that the hig...

 Thousands of Oregonians are dealing with having to pay back some unemployment benefits the state now says they shouldn't have received. The Oregon Law Center filed a lawsuit in 2022 arguing that the Oregon Employment Department is violating the due process clause of the constitution. The case is ongoing and represents the confusion around paying back benefits. Meanwhile the agency says it wa...

Last week, a state report showed that 38% of all Oregon students are chronically absent, meaning they miss at least 10% of school days. Charan Cline is the superintendent of the Redmond School District in Central Oregon. He joins us to share more on what this issue looks like in his district. Stacy Parish is the leader of Oregon Department of Education’s Tribal Attendance Promising Practices...

Last month,  Multnomah County fined ambulance service provider AMR  more than $500,000 for slow response times to emergency 911 calls. According to its  exclusive contract service  with the county, AMR is required to respond to 90% of life-threatening calls within 8 minutes in urban areas. But in August, AMR ambulances were delayed in responding to 14% of emergency calls. The c...

Every Thursday night for nine years THE THESIS brings artists and audiences who love hip-hop to celebrate together at Kelly’s Olympian in downtown Portland. The event is Portland’s longest-running hip hop showcase. We talk to Mac Smiff and Grant Stolle, two of the founders of THE THESIS, about creating a safe space to uplift local hip hop artists. 

A coalition of environmental groups and tribes who are suing the federal government over the condition of salmon on the Snake River have been in talks with the government for over a month. Those talks are tentatively scheduled to reach an agreement by December 15, but last week, a leaked draft agreement showed that the federal government may agree to take down the four lower Snake River dams. The...

A team of scientists at Oregon State University has recently received more than $4 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lead a study to understand a disease threatening honey bees. The bacterial disease targets the larvae within a honeybee colony, killing them within a few days before they can emerge from their cocoons as adults. Although the disease is not new, it appears to have go...

When we talked with Chas Hundley in 2017, it was after he’d been running his first paper, the Gales Creek Journal for about 4 years and was about to take it — along with a second news site, The Banks Post — to print. To do that he had to leave his job in tech, and devote himself full time to local journalism. Now, 10 years and one global pandemic later, he’s still at it, la...

By 2029, the Knott Landfill outside of Bend is expected to reach capacity and will no longer accept any more solid waste. Now, Deschutes County officials are looking at two potential locations for a new landfill. Tim Brownell is the director of solid waste for the county. He joins us to share more on how to plan and build a landfill, as well as the timeline for opening.

Though data about clients at Oregon’s new legal psilocybin clinics is protected by privacy rules, it appears that many are coming from outside the state. Freelance journalist Grant Stringer talked to multiple clinic owners and clients in a story for The Oregon Capital Chronicle. We talk to him about what he learned.

A new study from Oregon Health & Science University used TikTok to survey teens and young adults about their understanding of menstrual health. It found that although the vast majority of respondents would prefer to control or stop their period using hormonal medications, nearly two-thirds were unsure whether it would be safe to do so. Researchers also found that health literacy was lowest amo...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed shooting over 400,000 barred owls over the next 30 years in order to save endangered spotted owls. Barred owls have migrated here from the Eastern U.S. and adapted well to the environment — they can survive in more habitats and eat more species than the spotted owls. USFWS has experimented with shooting barred owls in the past, and now proposes...

Yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that wolverines will now be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling was hailed by conservation groups which have been advocating to protect wolverines in the contiguous U.S. for more than 20 years, including suing the agency twice. There are roughly 300 wolverines spread across Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and W...

If you’re an avid gardener who pursues your passion all year round, you may be familiar with a handy guide commonly found at nurseries that tells you if the azaleas, rhododendrons, or other perennials you’re thinking of planting in your garden are likely to survive the winter. The Plant Hardiness Zone Map is divided into 13 temperature zones and half-zones, stretching from frigid Alask...

Naloxone can be used to reverse an opioid overdose in an emergency situation. It’s available over the counter at a pharmacy, but some advocates say that’s not enough to get it into the hands of people who need it most. Project Red offers overdose prevention supplies like naloxone to restaurants, bars and other establishments. The Naloxone Project is an organization with chapters in sev...

Last Monday, the Salem City Council convened a meeting with the Marion County Board of Commissioners and Salem-Keizer school district leaders to discuss the findings from a recent report looking at the sharp rise in the city’s gun violence. Shootings in the Salem city limits have doubled in the past five years, according to the report, which did not include police shootings or those that wer...

The University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History hits the road in the summers. It offers hands-on learning through its Oregon Rocks! program, which teaches kids and families about geology. The organization travels throughout the state, reaching places like Portland, Pendleton and Paisley to bring science discovery to Oregon communities of all sizes. We listen back to a conversation...