Washington County Animal Services recently won the 2023 Animal Control Agency of the Year award from the National Animal Care & Control Association. Randy Covey manages the Hillsboro organization and the Bonnie Hays Animal Shelter. He also won a Lifetime Contribution Award from the Oregon Animal Control Council earlier this year. We hear more from Covey about the county’s work and how the animal control industry has changed over the years.
Oct 13, 2023•16 min
Enhanced rock weathering is a method that uses crushed volcanic rock to improve soil health. Ann Leslie Davis is a freelance science writer and recently covered the issue for Modern Farmer. We hear more from Davis about her reporting, how volcanic rock dust can help overworked soil and how farmers feel about using the method.
Oct 13, 2023•14 min
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is updating its rules around how and when visitors may be excluded from state parks. A committee of lawyers, mental health professionals and park staff has been developing the update over the last few months. The updated rules specify that any behavior that endangers the safety of visitors, staff or park resources qualifies for an exclusion. They also lay out how long a visitor may be excluded based on those behaviors and the appeals process for visitor...
Oct 12, 2023•11 min
When a new wildfire starts in the forest, wildland fire dispatchers are the people in charge of getting resources where they need to go. Their early decisions can help to keep a small fire from getting huge. But a 2022 survey of wildland fire dispatchers in Oregon and Washington by the U.S. Forest Service found that “dispatch is experiencing problems that compromise their own health and safety” as well as “the health and safety of other firefighters,” according to a new article in High Country N...
Oct 12, 2023•14 min
Thirty years of international treaties like the Paris Climate Accords have not reduced global carbon emissions. Oregon State University economist William Jaeger says that’s because the majority of those involved in policy making will not support climate policies whose benefits arrive mainly after they die. Jaeger argues that we may need to rely on the courts to set legal standards that will help create solutions to climate change. Jaeger joins us to discuss his findings.
Oct 12, 2023•29 min
Since 2010, Eugene's minor league baseball team have been playing at University of Oregon’s PK Park. But with a MLB decision to upgrade to a more expanded season, conflicting schedules and facility requirements mean the Emerald's can no longer play at the field they’ve known for the past decade. The team has proposed a multi-use facility, but they only have two-thirds of the funds to pay the $90.4 million bill they would need. Allan Benavides, the general manager of the Ems, joins us to share wh...
Oct 11, 2023•12 min
The film “Deafula” tells the story of a man who comes to realize he’s a vampire. But what makes the 1975 movie unique is that it was the first feature-length 35 mm film to be shot entirely in American Sign Language. The film’s star and director was deaf, and the film created a singular experience for deaf and hard-of- hearing audiences at the time. It was shot in Portland and produced by Oregonian Gary Holstrom. For hearing audience members, a soundtrack with a translation of the dialogue is par...
Oct 11, 2023•19 min
Mount Rainier in Washington state is covered with nearly 30 square miles of glaciers and icy patches - more than Mount Hood, Crater Lake and all other volcanic mountains combined, from British Columbia to Northern California. But climate change is taking a toll on Mount Rainier’s glaciers, according to a study published in June. It found a 42% reduction in glacier area from 1896 to 2021, and officially removed Stevens glacier from the park’s inventory. The situation appears worse for the glacier...
Oct 11, 2023•21 min
For the first time in 15 years, passenger flights are once again taking off from the Salem Municipal Airport. Avelo Airlines recently began providing flights to Las Vegas and Hollywood Burbank Airport in Southern California. The ultra low-cost carrier is the first to provide commercial flights in Salem since Delta stopped its service to the city during the 2008 financial crisis. Salem Mayor Chris Hoy recently returned from the inaugural flight to Las Vegas, along with Travel Salem CEO and Presid...
Oct 10, 2023•15 min
Community colleges, which usually see an increase in enrollment during a recession, were hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Nationally, enrollment at community colleges fell more than 10% in the last three years. This fall, that trend seems to be improving. For Central Oregon Community College, enrollment is up over 20%. We talk to Alicia Moore, Vice President of Student Affairs at COCC, about what those numbers mean, and what the future of community college looks like.
Oct 10, 2023•10 min
At 100 years old, the Portland Youth Philharmonic is the country’s oldest youth orchestra, with a rich and storied history. In the early 1920s a young classically trained violinist and teacher, Mary V. Dodge, conceived of what would become the Portland Junior Symphony. It formed in earnest after she convinced a renowned Russian conductor to take on the orchestra composed of students that she was teaching in her attic. The Oregon Historical Society is opening an exhibit on the PYP next month, whi...
Oct 10, 2023•28 min
A few years ago, when Gabe Piechowicz decided to change careers from logging to religious ministry, he didn’t imagine that his work would be almost exclusively focused on helping people get off the streets in Eugene. But shortly into his new career, he was calling local shelters to help find a place for some of his church’s neighbors and Dan Bryant answered his phone.Bryant is the founder and director of Opportunity Village, one of Oregon’s first village-model temporary shelters, informed by Dig...
Oct 09, 2023•55 min
We’re taking a deep dive into people’s work lives. We want to learn what it takes to do different jobs and how these professions change us.On the latest installment of our series, we visit Freeland Spirits in Portland, which is owned and run by women. Master Distiller Molly Troupe creates spirits, like gin and whiskey. She takes us behind the scenes and shares more about her craft and the rye whiskey—grown and distilled in Oregon—that Freeland recently released.
Oct 06, 2023•32 min
It’s been three years since the Labor Day fires burned more than 4,000 homes and about a million acres of land across Oregon. Since then, fire investigators have only publicly released the cause of one of the nine major fires. Zach Urness is the outdoor editor for the Statesman Journal and the host of the “Explore Oregon” podcast. He joins us to share why we still don’t have official answers and what this means for survivors of the catastrophic event.
Oct 06, 2023•13 min
When Tove Danovich began keeping chickens in her backyard in Portland several years ago, she didn’t realize that what she was actually starting was research. That research would become a full-fledged book investigating the role these birds play in the larger culture and economy. Danovich also started sharing her journey on her Instagram, where most of the photos feature her “girls,” Loretta, Emmylou, Peggy and many more. Tove Danovich joins to talk about her book “Under the Henfluence: Inside th...
Oct 05, 2023•44 min
Roughly 13,000 years ago, Ice Age animals such as saber-toothed cats, the American lion and mammoths started going extinct in the Los Angeles basin about a thousand years before their extinction in other parts of North America. To find out why, a team of scientists collaborated on a new study that argues that wildfires due to increased human activity in the region was likely to blame. The scientists made their findings based on fossil specimens extracted from preserved remains at the La Brea Tar...
Oct 04, 2023•18 min
Students at Portland Public Schools are nearly a month into the new school year, but their teachers and the district are at an impasse on contract negotiations. Meanwhile, recent test results from Oregon Statewide Assessments showed steady and improving rates in English language arts and math for grades 3 - 8 in PPS. Sharon Reese, chief of human resources for PPS, and Renard Adams, chief of research, assessment and accountability, join us to talk about what the district thinks students and teach...
Oct 04, 2023•28 min
Fall classes have started at the University of Oregon in Eugene with a new president at the helm: Karl Scholz, an internally respected economist who came most recently from University of Wisconsin-Madison where he served as provost. Meanwhile the university is getting ready to consolidate its Portland presence at a new Northeast campus, the former Concordia University. The property that was purchased in 2022 will house the university’s new Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. UO a...
Oct 03, 2023•30 min
Oregonians voted to decriminalize drugs three years ago. Now, a new study from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine found that M110 did not lead to an increase in drug overdoses. Corey Davis is an adjunct assistant professor at NYU Langone Health’s Department of Population. He joins us to share more on the results and implications of the study.
Oct 03, 2023•17 min
Three-quarters of adults over the age of 50 want to remain in their homes as they age, according to the American Association of Retired Persons. But for some older adults in Portland, current infrastructure presents some serious physical and social challenges. A new draft report from Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability lays out some recommendations to address these issues. The Age and Disability Inclusive Neighborhoods Action Plan advocates for creating age-friendly centers, increas...
Oct 02, 2023•19 min
Oregon’s Measure 110 — which decriminalized drug possession and directed more money into substance use disorder treatment — was modeled after Portugal's drug policy approach. New York Times opinion writer and neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz has studied what’s happened over the last 25 years since the country began decriminalization. She’s written many articles and books on the subject of addiction, most recently “Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addict...
Oct 02, 2023•25 min
Erika Hayasaki’s book “Somewhere Sisters: a story of adoption, identity, and the meaning of family” explores a very complicated multi-family, multinational story. At the heart of the book are sisters: identical twins born in Vietnam. One was adopted by a wealthy family in the U.S., one was raised in rural Vietnam. We spoke to Hayasaki in 2022 in front of an audience at the Portland Book Festival.
Sep 28, 2023•43 min
When you look at a painting in a gallery or museum, you can’t always tell how much of what’s portrayed is accurate or how much artistic license has been taken. But a new study from Oregon State University shows that some 19th-century landscape paintings are accurate enough to aid scientists who are researching historical forest systems. Dana Warren is an associate professor of forestry at OSU. Peter Betjemann is an English professor and the Patricia Valian Reser Executive Director of Arts and Ed...
Sep 28, 2023•20 min
The first Tibetans came to the Pacific Northwest to work in the lumber industry. Then, in the early '90s, more refugees were resettled here. Earlier this month, The Northwest Tibetan Community Association celebrated 30 years of Tibetan language and cultural programming. Jampa Nyendak Lathsang and Dechen Bartso, both volunteers in the community, join us to talk about the Northwest’s Tibetan community.
Sep 28, 2023•24 min
TOL VMs from listeners about favorite memories of Damian Lillard, following announcement of his trade to the Milwaukee Bucks
Sep 28, 2023•5 min
Tanya Barham, the CEO of Community Energy Labs, is featured on the Grist 50 list of leaders in the U.S. who are working on solutions for a sustainable future. Grist states that it reviews thousands of nominees before whittling down the final list. Barham’s company works on helping schools and other public agencies create more energy efficient buildings. Barham joins us with details of the company.
Sep 27, 2023•19 min
The Sunrise Movement and more than 50 high schools from across the country are working on the Green New Deal for Schools Campaign. The proposal has several demands including safe and clean school infrastructure, pathways to green jobs, and climate disaster planning. We learn more about the new deal proposal from Adah Crandall, an organizer with the Sunrise Movement and graduate of Grant High School in Portland.
Sep 27, 2023•11 min
Portland Community Football Club is like a lot of sports organizations for kids. It focuses on soccer, provides coaching, training and opportunities for kids of different ages to play competitively. But the PCFC is unlike many otherwise similar organizations in its mission to serve kids regardless of their gender or their family’s ability to pay. Founder Kaig Lightner says his love of sports began when he was in grade school. He said while he was bullied for not fitting into traditional gender r...
Sep 27, 2023•23 min
Julian Saporiti found a lot of Asian American songs and musicians when he was doing research for his PhD in American History. But the lack of popular understanding of that history was frustrating. In response, Saporiti founded No-No Boy, a Portland-based music and multimedia project that combines vivid narrative storytelling with Asian American history. Saporiti joins us to play songs from his newest album, “Empire Electric.”
Sep 26, 2023•25 min
Earlier this month, Nike told the Soul District Business Association that the company would be closing its store in Northeast Portland permanently. Ron Herndon was one of the people who brought that store to NE Portland in the 1980s. As a leader in the community organization Black United Front, Herndon helped convince Nike to support and invest in the Black community. We talk to Herndon about the legacy of that store, and what the closure means for the neighborhood.
Sep 26, 2023•12 min
