OPB Audio

The shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend has resurfaced a long simmering debate on how to prevent gun tragedies. But those working in the special needs community say it also underscores broader failures, and many wonder if the tragedy could have been prevented.

Oregon and Washington are asking the public to weigh on future rail plans.

A million people in the Portland area get their water from the Bull Run watershed, about 25 miles east of the city. The city council voted in 2017 to build the water filtration plant to protect against cryptosporidium to comply with Environmental Protection Agency standards. The project was originally estimated at $500 million, but since then it’s risen to $2.58 billion. The water bureau says a nu...

Oregon’s 2026-27 Teacher of the Year is Nate Jackson, a social studies teacher at Willamette High School in Eugene. He also advises the school’s Black Student Union, helping to organize student trips and the first Black Summit for students across the district. Before becoming a teacher, Jackson had a career as an entertainment journalist and emcee for college sporting events. He joins us to talk a...

Some families living in mobile home parks in Malheur County have been dealing with arsenic in their drinking water supply for years. And water tested recently at one location where unsafe levels of arsenic have been found since 2004, recently found levels six times higher than federal standards for safe drinking water. We’re joined by OPB Eastern Oregon reporter Monica Carrillo-Casas, who’s been f...

In an exclusive interview with OPB, Kaylub Giamanco, the man who fatally shot the teenage school shooter at Silver Rail Elementary, shares what he wants people to know about his experience.

Father who killed Silver Rail school shooter grapples with the aftermath

Cyrus Javadi switched parties -- will his Oregon district reelect him anyway

Whoever wins the race in November will oversee elections in a purple Washington county with consequential state and federal races.

In 2022, Portland musician and storyteller Joe Kye created Tiger Tiger, a festival in Portland celebrating the region’s diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The festival was also a way to bring joy and healing to those communities after a surge of anti-Asian bias and hate crimes during the pandemic. After Tiger Tiger, Kye decided he needed to focus on his own healing with a jou...

The Portland Trail Blazers kicked off their new NBA season Wednesday night at the Moda Center with a resounding 41-point victory over the Phoenix Suns. It marked the return of 9-time NBA All-Star Damian Lillard to the Blazers and his first regular season game since an Achilles injury he suffered in April 2025 while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks. Lillard scored 25 points, including six 3-pointers...

Monarch butterflies in the Pacific Northwest are currently making their annual migration south for the winter. Around 200 of them are carrying innovative digital trackers that will allow researchers — and the public — to follow their path for the first time. David James, an associate professor in Washington State University’s entomology department, is overseeing the project. He joins us to talk ab...

Investigators probe Bend school shooter's ties to online extremist groups

A candidate for Clark County auditor casts doubt on the office she hopes to win

Silver Rail Elementary remains closed indefinitely after a former student shot and killed four people in a special education classroom last week.

Ayad Akhtar is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and the author of the novels “Homeland Elegies” and “American Dervish.” His works explore themes that span religion and identity, cultural assimilation and immigrant aspiration drawn from his upbringing as a Pakistani American in the Midwest. His latest book is “The Radiance.” It’s written in a style that fuses the autobiographical with the fictio...

Portland community solar project shines new light on former 82nd Avenue dumpsite

With a chill in the air and Halloween around the corner, there is no denying that the scariest time of the year is here for Oregon. While some will be celebrating the season by shopping for costumes, decorating their homes and stocking up on candy, others will be trying to experience the scares first hand. Broadly, so-called dark tourism is a $32 billion industry and includes many ghost tour compa...

Ballots are hitting Oregon mailboxes and for voters in Multnomah County, there’s a lot more to choose than in previous elections.

A dance recital for Saylor Graham was among many weekend efforts as people in Bend searched for ways to help and grieve.

Voters in Multnomah County will see three familiar names on their ballots running for county chair. It’s the first time ranked-choice voting will be used for this position. Julia Brim-Edwards is a current county commissioner who previously served on the Portland Public Schools Board of Education. She was also a senior director for Nike. Sharon Meieran is an emergency department medical. She previo...

Big changes are coming to the individual health insurance marketplace in Central Oregon. PacificSource, Moda and Providence are all pulling out of the region, leaving just two options for people shopping for their own health insurance: BridgeSpan Health and Regence BlueCross BlueShield. Both carriers are raising their rates by roughly 20% next year. Erik Wood is an enterprise market president at P...

Portland fee waiver program hasn’t spurred massive increase in new construction

Bend-LaPine schools prepare to resume after tragic mass shooting

Hundreds of people gathered to share songs and prayer at a vigil in Drake Park hours after Thursday’s shooting.