As housing costs rise, older adults are experiencing homelessness more often. The National Alliance to End Homelessness found that nearly one in four people experiencing homelessness were over the age of 55, based on data from 2023’s Point-in-Time count. In Oregon, advocates recognize that the problem is growing. Laura Golino de Lovato is the executive director of the Northwest Pilot Project, a nonprofit that advocates for low income people over the age of 55. The organization helps them find an...
Mar 19, 2024•17 min
Even in the midst of great suffering, humans continue to live and love. Two new books from Louis Alberto Urrea and Alice Winn focus on the human relationships that take place in the midst of War. Winn’s novel, “In Memoriam,” tells the story of two gay British soldiers coming to terms with their relationship during the brutal trench warfare of WWI. Urrea’s book, “Goodnight, Irene,” chronicles the life of a woman serving on the front lines of WWII as a “Donut Dolly.” These heroic Red Cross volunte...
Mar 18, 2024•53 min
Singer-songwriter James Dean Kindle was born and raised in Pendleton. He’s been making music for decades and says he likes to blur the boundaries between country, folk, jazz, and Latin genres. He may be best known for his work with the Eastern Oregon Playboys, but he’s about to release his first solo album, and his first in six years. “Trailmix” was inspired by his time hiking in the Umatilla River Canyon. He’s also immersed in music on an entirely different level as well, as the executive direc...
Mar 15, 2024•24 min
SB 1537, which Gov. Tina Kotek asked lawmakers to introduce, will make advances for more housing by allowing cities to expand their urban growth boundaries. An earlier version of this bill that failed last year would have given developers automatic exceptions for various zoning rules, including things like parking requirements for apartment complexes. Michael Andersen, the director of cities and towns at the Sightline Institute, wrote about this “missing piece” of the current bill. He joins us w...
Mar 15, 2024•17 min
Eastern filbert blight, a fungal pathogen that kills hazelnut trees, first made its way to the Northwest in the 1960s. Since then, farmers have managed the fungus by pruning infected trees and spraying orchards with fungicide. But the most successful intervention has been a disease-resistant cultivar that’s been bred into newer hazelnut varieties. A new strain of the blight has overcome that disease resistance, however. As reported in the Capital Press, the strain originated in an Oregon orchard...
Mar 15, 2024•12 min
An area that’s nearly half the size of New Jersey in southern Oregon was recently named the world’s largest Dark Sky Sanctuary by DarkSky International. The nonprofit works to combat light pollution through advocacy and conservation, including a program that has certified more than 200 places around the world to protect the night sky. The Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary spans 2.5 million acres of mostly public land in eastern Lake County, and could eventually grow to more than fo...
Mar 14, 2024•21 min
You may have heard that various kinds of invasive plants and animals create problems for the species that are native to an area. In the case of the quagga mussel, which only grows to the size of a thumbnail, its effects extend beyond the natural ecology and into the built environment. Not only can it take food away from juvenile salmon and other fish, but the mussels can clog all sorts of water systems, from municipal water to irrigation and hydropower. The quagga and the related zebra mussel ca...
Mar 14, 2024•16 min
Linn County will soon dispatch a mobile mental health care clinic for residents. The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team will be able to work with residents throughout the county and assist in a crisis situation. Workers have traditionally met with residents in emergency rooms but the mobile clinic, a modified van with a workspace and onboard generator, will provide more flexibility. We hear more from Todd Noble, the county’s health administrator, about the need for more accessible care and how a st...
Mar 14, 2024•16 min
Grants Pass has been working on a sustainability plan that will help the city be more resilient in the case of a natural disaster. The plan includes projects like installing electric vehicle charging stations downtown and adding solar panels at city-owned landfills. But the city is struggling to find funding for the projects and has limited resources to work on grants that could help. Claire Carlson is a reporter for The Daily Yonder, a nonprofit newsroom that reports on rural America. She has r...
Mar 13, 2024•18 min
The United States Department of Agriculture issued two natural disaster designations, and they affect several counties in Oregon. Wasco, Hood River, Clackamas, Multnomah, Clackamas, Gilliam, Jefferson, Marion, Sherman and Wheeler counties were listed in the designations. This means that farmers in the affected counties are eligible to apply for emergency assistance. Extreme weather events in recent years have affected Oregon growers and spurred agency action. Farmers have faced unseasonably hot ...
Mar 13, 2024•11 min
On Monday, Gov. Kotek announced that a proposed tolling project on Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 would not commence. The project was meant to reduce congestion and fund future transportation projects, but rising costs and uncertain toll revenues led the governor to bring the projects to a halt. Anessa Hartman is a Democrat who represents district 40 in the Oregon House, which covers Oregon City, Gladstone and parts of Clackamas County. She joins us to share more on why she opposed this project...
Mar 13, 2024•23 min
Animal rescue organizations across Oregon could soon be paying thousands of extra dollars in license fees. That’s according to a proposal from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which oversees the organizations. The new fee structure would charge rescues and shelters based on the number of animals they take in per year. Nearly 200 people testified against the changes at a hearing last month, saying the tiered structure would disproportionately impact smaller organizations. ODA is accepting pu...
Mar 12, 2024•13 min
Ecological restoration projects often require thousands of seeds or seedlings. But there's another approach that's gaining momentum, especially on Tribal lands: introducing water or fire to a landscape and then letting long-buried seeds come back to life. Portland-based freelance journalist Josephine Woolington wrote about this recently for High Country News and joins us with more details.
Mar 12, 2024•19 min
The Grants Pass City Council recently passed an ordinance limiting the amount of time homeless service organizations can spend helping unhoused people in city parks and on other public property. Service providers would have to register with the city and provide data on the number of people they serve. The ordinance still needs the mayor’s signature to become law. Sara Bristol is the mayor of Grants Pass, and Cassy Leach is the executive director of MINT, a homeless services provider that serves ...
Mar 12, 2024•21 min
Portland General Electric residential customers saw an 18% increase in the cost of their electricity bills since the beginning of January, the highest rate increase within the past two decades. Now, a new proposal from the utility aims to raise those rates again. If approved, electricity bills could be 7% higher than they are now starting at the beginning of 2025. Bob Jenks is the executive director of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, an advocacy group that represents consumer interests in ut...
Mar 11, 2024•27 min
In Washington, school districts are working on how they interact with truant students. The state has laws in place that allow for school districts to work with kids and understand why they’re missing school so often. Rules include referring students to community engagement boards and working with juvenile court. But district success with current policies vary widely from county to county, and some kids are falling through the cracks. Kelsey Turner has covered this issue as an investigative repor...
Mar 11, 2024•13 min
In just 31 days, Oregon lawmakers ended the 2024 legislative session. They passed bills with bipartisan support that targeted affordable housing, homelessness, campaign finance and the fentanyl crisis. They also delivered on Governor Tina Kotek’s top legislative priority with a $376 million housing package to boost affordable housing construction, help counties acquire land to develop properties and expand emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness. The governor has already announce...
Mar 11, 2024•13 min
A recent study shows that chronic exposure to discrimination and stigma can negatively impact the health of trans and nonbinary people. But it also shows that a strong sense of community can help alleviate those impacts. The findings are part of the broader Trans Resilience and Health Study, co-led by Jae Puckett, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, and Zachary DuBois, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oregon. DuBois joins us to talk about the recent fi...
Mar 08, 2024•20 min
Jenn McPoland has been homebrewing beer for about 20 years. It’s become her main hobby and something she loves to share. She likes to tell people, “If you can cook, you can brew.” McPoland says while the industry remains pretty male dominated, more women than ever are getting into the craft all the time. When she first got into SheBrew, a one day festival celebrating women in the industry, there were just two women-owned breweries in the state. Now there are a dozen or more. SheBrew is in its ni...
Mar 08, 2024•16 min
City councilors in Ashland voted 5 - 1 this week to close its 24/7 emergency homeless shelter. The city opened the shelter last November. Oregon state officials had offered Ashland $1.8 million for renovations and $800,000 for operational funds for the facility. But the councilors voted to decline the funding and shut the shelter down when the current state funding ends March 31. Meanwhile, the council is currently working on a master plan for addressing homelessness. Jefferson Public Radio repo...
Mar 08, 2024•12 min
The Eugene School District 4J board voted Wednesday night not to renew the contract of Superintendent Andy Dey. The departure comes a month after Eugene Weekly broke the news that Dey was under investigation following complaints of discrimination and retaliation. Since then, the paper has reported on the board’s formal reprimand of Dey and a new allegation that Dey kissed a teacher without her consent. Eugene Weekly Editor Camilla Mortensen joins us for an update on the board’s decision and what...
Mar 08, 2024•6 min
Hannah Glavor’s music used to lean toward singer-songwriter folk. But her newly released single, Otherside, shows an indie rock side to the Portland musician. She writes about loss and hope, and about darkness and the light on the other side. Hannah Glavor joins us in the studio to perform songs from her new album.
Mar 07, 2024•34 min
Oregon is on the verge of reshaping how political campaigns are financed. HB 4024 would limit contributions for individuals and for organizations. If passed, limits would not begin until January 2027. Jason Kafoury is the co-chair of Honest Elections Oregon. He joins us to share more details of the bill.
Mar 07, 2024•19 min
Astoria author Kama O’Connor thinks a lot about romance and love. Writing under the pen name Kristine Lynn, her seventh romance novel - “Accidentally Dating His Boss” - was published last month by Harlequin. In addition to being a romance novelist, O’Connor is also a writing and English instructor at Clatsop Community College in Astoria. Next month, those two passions will converge in a new humanities course called “Modern Love.” From Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” to Taylor Swift’s “Love S...
Mar 06, 2024•19 min
It’s been just over three months since the only hospital in Eugene closed, leaving Oregon’s second-largest city without a dedicated emergency department. PeaceHealth announced the closure of its University District hospital last August and ceased most operations at the facility in December. Since then, emergency patients have been transported to the McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center or PeaceHealth’s RiverBend hospital, both located in Springfield. Deputy Chief Chris Heppel oversees emergency me...
Mar 06, 2024•22 min
Washington’s Department of Natural Resources manages over 100,000 acres inside the border of the Yakama Nation. The lands are held in trust and managed to provide revenue for the state’s K-12 schools and prisons. A new investigation from High Country News and Grist found that nearly 2 million acres of state trust lands lie within the borders of 83 federally recognized Indian reservations. Anna V. Smith, associate editor of High Country News, joins us with more on the investigation.
Mar 06, 2024•12 min
The Deschutes Basin Water Collaborative draws together water users In Central Oregon who are often put in the position of competing for water. Irrigators, fish and wildlife advocates and managers, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, cities and county residents using groundwater from private wells have been working together for more than 20 years with notable successes. Those include funding and implementing programs that have both preserved water for agriculture and provided for drinking wa...
Mar 05, 2024•52 min
Certain foods are often marketed in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes. Think, for example, of the deep, masculine voice who proclaims “We have the meats!” as the tagline from a popular fast food chain, or advertisements aimed at women that tout the low-calorie appeal of a brand of yogurt. A new study from researchers at University of Oregon suggests that these gender stereotypes around food can also influence kids and the kinds of foods they choose to eat. Nichole Kelly is the Evergreen ass...
Mar 04, 2024•31 min
Voters in the Portland metro region passed a tax in 2020 to fund homeless services. But Multnomah County is far behind in spending the hundreds of millions of dollars that tax has generated. Clackamas and Washington counties also have unspent tax money. Now, the Metro regional government wants to divert some of those dollars to build more affordable housing. We'll talk with Willamette Week reporter Nigel Jaquiss who’s been following the developments.
Mar 04, 2024•11 min
On Friday, the Oregon Senate passed House Bill 4002, which now heads to Governor Tina Kotek. Under the proposal, people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs like fentanyl could face jail time. HB 4002 also creates new addiction service facilities. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart joins us with details.
Mar 04, 2024•12 min
