Think Out Loud

Butte Falls is a small town in southern Oregon, about an hour northeast of Medford. The 400 or so residents there are surrounded by a ring of what was until recently privately owned forest. But a decades-long effort to buy and manage the land itself has finally come to fruition, with the help of state, federal and private funding - and too many agencies and elected officials to list. As reported b...

On June 20, four skateboarders gathered together to ride from Virginia to Oregon. They began the journey in Williamsburg, and on Friday, the group arrived in Newport and dipped their boards into the Pacific Ocean. The team set out to break the record for the fastest skateboarding relay across the U.S.  The trip clocked in at 17 days and six hours. Andrew Andras, Rick Stubblefield and Paul Ken...

Last summer, an invasive and highly destructive forest pest was first spotted in Oregon at an elementary school in Forest Grove. Oregon is the first state on the West Coast and the 36th in the nation where the emerald ash borer has been detected. The small, shiny green beetle is native to Asia and has killed over a hundred million ash trees nationwide since its arrival in the U.S. roughly 20 years...

A new investigation from Washington news outlet KNKX has found that allegations of a culture of sexism, racism, and abuse at a premier youth soccer club mirror the behavior alleged at the professional level. The investigation found allegations of racial and sexual harassment, player endangerment and inappropriate touching of underage players at one of Washington’s premiere youth leagues. Rep...

Cooler temperatures have brought some relief to the Willamette Valley and a large swath of Western Oregon which were under heat advisories from the National Weather Service earlier this week. The hot, dry conditions coincided with three straight days of the hottest global temperatures ever recorded. Farmers and ranchers are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change as they contend w...

There’s a lot that researchers still don’t know about volcanoes. But they do expect volcanic eruptions to coincide more often with other natural disasters, like floods and wildfires, as the climate continues to warm. Research from Portland State University shows that the increasing frequency of extreme weather events means they’re more likely to occur at the same time as a volcan...

Last Saturday, news broke that seven-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard wants to be traded from the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard is the all-time leading scorer for the Blazers and has spent his entire professional career playing for the team which chose him as the sixth overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft. Lillard unanimously won the NBA Rookie of the Year award his first season in the lea...

One of the best-known strategies to prevent dune erosion is to introduce plants whose roots will help hold sand in place and stabilize the dune. But experiments conducted at Oregon State University show that may not always be the case. Researchers found that newly planted vegetation can actually accelerate erosion in the face of extreme storms. Meagan Wengrove is an assistant professor of civil an...

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a web designer refusing to make a website for same-sex marriages, despite a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination against gay people. In another case involving a mail carrier who was refusing to work on his Sabbath, the courts unanimously decided to broaden religious protections, creating a new standard for testing religious accommod...

A church in Monmouth was exploring the idea of creating micro shelter housing for people experiencing homelessness. The housing would have been located on a grassy field owned by the church. The idea was scrapped after community backlash against the proposal. We hear more from Bill Poehler,  a Statesman Journal reporter, who has covered the issue.

Military veteran Lauren Grigsby describes the Central Veterans Oregon Ranch in Bend as a place of sanctuary. For nearly a decade, the 19-acre working ranch has opened its gates to veterans searching to talk to someone who understands the feelings of anxiety, isolation and other symptoms of PTSD they carry from tours of duty or other military service. In addition to peer support counseling, the ran...

In Southeast Portland, a woman has constructed what she calls the “giving fence” after a series of code violations and complaints from neighbors and the city. This unusual construction is a series of yellow bins stacked upon each other, filled with blankets, dry goods, clothes and hygiene products that are free for anyone who needs them. Courtney Vaugn, the news editor for the Portland...

In a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled to ban affirmative action at colleges and universities. Justices heard two cases brought forward by the group Students for Fair Admission, who challenged race-based admission practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.  Sabrina Sommer is the equity specialist for the David Douglas School District. Eric Staab is the Vice President...

Brit Bennett’s book The Vanishing Half was on a lot of best-of lists in 2020. Though spanning the second half of the 20th century, the novel speaks to questions about race and identity that have been central to national conversations for the last two years. In that novel and her other writing, Bennett deals with the bonds of family, the importance of storytelling, and nature of identity. We...

Portland journalist Leah Sottile’s book “When The Moon Turns To Blood” centers on the case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell. The couple was on trial in 2023, accused of killing two of Vallow’s children whose bodies were found in Daybell’s backyard. But the book is about much more than just true crime. Sottile digs into the couple’s apocalyptic beliefs and the his...

With fewer sweeps during the pandemic, encampments have become a seemingly permanent fixture in many parts of Portland. And in response, city officials have started taking a more hardline approach. In February, Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency order to ban camping near busy roadways. He has also said he plans to create large outdoor sites for sanctioned camping. On “Think Out Loud&rdquo...

The Ankeny Alley Festival is a series of summer events held in the Ankeny Alley area between SW 2nd and 3rd avenues in downtown Portland. The events have been organized to rally support for businesses in the neighborhood that have faced declines in revenue as visits from Portlanders and tourists alike have diminished in recent years. The next summer festival will be the July 4th Celebration from J...

 Portland Parks & Recreation opened its seven outdoor pools last Wednesday, and announced that it was now offering more swim lessons than in the past two years at its outdoor and indoor pools. Heading into summer, the outlook for staffing at the district’s pools is brighter than last year. Boosting starting pay for lifeguards by nearly $3 an hour, and expanding recruitment efforts h...

Families living at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington have dealt with issues like mold and rodents in their homes. Still, monthslong waitlists exist for housing on base as some families struggle to find somewhere to live nearby. Kaylee Tornay is an investigative reporter with InvestigateWest, a nonprofit news outlet covering the Pacific Northwest. She's covered these issues for the o...

Luke Hogan Laurenson graduated with a straight As from Ashland High School and gave a valedictorian speech at his graduation earlier this month. His high achievements are especially remarkable given the challenges he overcomes every day. Laurenson was born with a form of cerebral palsy that makes speech and movement difficult. Doctors told his mother that he would never be able to walk and would l...

Repeating experiments and replicating results are key parts of successful scientific research. But in the field of robotics, working with different software platforms on different machines means that replication can be difficult. A $5 million National Science Foundation project led by Oregon State University aims to help with this challenge by building and distributing 50 standardized robots throu...

A 2022 National Science Foundation assessment of the U.S. Antarctic Programs found that “sexual harassment, stalking and sexual assault are ongoing, continuing problems.” These issues can be particularly problematic when researchers are isolated on ships or polar research stations. Three female scientists from Oregon State University join us to discuss the barriers they have faced, and...

The Latinx Theatre Commons will host a designer and director Colaboratorio in Portland. The event kicks off on June 28 and ends on July 2. Costume and set designers, directors and other creatives will meet to reimagine the typical director-driven theater model. Artists from across the country were chosen to participate in the gathering. Also participating is Francisco Garcia, a director, actor, ed...

Earlier this month, a 15-year-old boy riding an electric bike died following a collision with a vehicle at an intersection on Highway 20 in Bend. The teen was not wearing a helmet and wasn’t legally allowed to operate the e-bike since he was under 16 years of age. It was the first fatality involving an e-bike in Bend, according to a recent article in the Bend Bulletin, which also described c...

Last year, Portland Street Response expanded from a pilot program to a citywide service and answered more than 7,000 calls that would traditionally be handled by police. That’s according to a new report from Portland State University that also found that PSR aided in reducing the workload for police and hospitals. Despite the success of the program so far, researchers note that systemic issu...