The new Climate Friendly Public Schools program is just beginning. It will provide as much as $10,000 per school for public middle and high school students in seven districts over the next five years. The Portland Clean Energy Fund is providing the program $50 million. Portland Public Schools' share is close to $20 million. The idea is to support public school students to create their own projects and spur innovation in the climate solution space. Joining us to give us more details and discuss w...
Sep 11, 2024•16 min
The November general election is just eight weeks away. In Oregon, the responsibility for local, state and federal races falls to the state’s 36 county clerks. But that job has gotten harder in recent years with budget cuts, staffing shortages, the spread of misinformation, physical threats and intimidation of election workers in Oregon and around the nation. A survey of Oregon county clerks released last autumn by researchers at Reed College revealed the increasing stress they’re under to fulfi...
Sep 11, 2024•23 min
Human Rights Watch and Nurturely released a report last month that shows how pregnant people are affected by wildfires. It also suggests that officials and agencies place an emphasis on reproductive justice when providing support and information around disasters. Additionally, it recommends better education for health workers on environmental determinants of health. We learn more about the report from Skye Wheeler, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and Aver Yakubu, the program directo...
Sep 10, 2024•14 min
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy recently issued an advisory saying stress from parenting is a public health issue. The nation's doctor shared his concerns over the well-being of parents, noting overwhelming stressors affecting parents today – from financial pressures to worries around kids' health and safety. The advisory notes that nearly half of parents say most days their stress is overwhelming and more than 40% say they are so stressed they cannot function. Marlo McIlraith is an ass...
Sep 10, 2024•25 min
month, the National Women’s Soccer League announced it’s getting rid of the draft. This winter, promising college players will instead choose among their favorite teams and negotiate a contract. The NWSL will still have roster limits and a salary cap, but under its new collective-bargaining agreement, no player may be traded without her consent. The League is the first in the U.S. to grant unrestricted free agency to all players. Rachel Bachman, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, tells us how...
Sep 10, 2024•14 min
Since 2017, the Vancouver nonprofit Share has been operating a program that removes roughly 20 tons of trash each month from homeless encampments, parks and other sites in the city. As reported by The Columbian, the Talkin’ Trash program recently received a grant to purchase three large containers and a donated dump truck to improve efficiency and safety for its work crew. But perhaps the biggest impact the program is having is in the lives of the workers it hires, all of whom are either current...
Sep 09, 2024•17 min
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced the creation of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area last month. The area is part of an effort to protect oak and prairie habitat and the species that live there like the monarch butterfly and Western Meadowlark. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published a conservation study in 2017. It found that grasslands, oak woodlands and riparian habitat in the Willamette Valley needed more protection. We hear more details from Damien Miller, the projec...
Sep 09, 2024•20 min
Wilma Acosta, an unenrolled Pascua Yaqui woman living in Portland, went missing in November of last year. Her body was found in the Willamette River in January 2024. The Portland Police Bureau said she was suicidal. Her family insists she was not. Communication between Acosta’s family and the Portland Police Bureau illustrates some of the challenges in Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases. Luna Reyna, Northwest Bureau Chief at Underscore News, wrote about this case and joins us to talk a...
Sep 09, 2024•16 min
The award winning poet, writer and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s genius lies in making connections between the astonishments of the natural world and the particular wonders of her own - and all of our - lives. Nezhukumatathil is the author of four collections of poems, including “Oceanic, and her latest book, a bestselling collection of essays, is called “World of Wonders.” Nezhukumatathil is a professor of English at the University of Mississippi, and joins us in front of an audience of stud...
Sep 06, 2024•52 min
Charles Yu has written a lot about the nature of reality, how we understand what is real, and the assumptions we make about each other and the universe we live in. Yu’s first novel, “How to live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” follows a time machine repairman who is searching for his father who is lost in time and memory. His latest book, National Book Award winning “Interior Chinatown,” takes place in a Chinese restaurant that’s also the set for a police procedural TV show and a sendup...
Sep 05, 2024•52 min
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal shows that movie ticket sales are still lagging behind from prepandemic numbers. At the same time, one in three TikTok users say the app drove them to watch a movie in theaters, according to marketing research from the company. What has pandemic recovery looked like for Oregon theaters? Did Barbenheimer save some cinemas? To answer these questions and more we’ll hear from three different theaters. Loretta Miles is the owner of Salem Cinema in Salem. Ra...
Sep 04, 2024•22 min
The Portland Police Bureau’s annual budget has risen by nearly $90 million - roughly 40% - since 2016. But increased funding doesn't always equate to reduced crime. A recent investigation by Street Roots shows that Portland hasn't been having a crime wave. It found that reported crimes have increased less than 10% over the past four years, according to data from PPB. K. Rambo is the editor-in-chief at Street Roots and has been reporting on this. They join us to share more.
Sep 04, 2024•17 min
Albina Head Start provides free daycare and preschool for nearly 900 low-income children who qualify for the Head Start program at 20 locations across Portland. But the nonprofit is now at risk of losing nearly $50 million in funding after it was found to be “deficient” by the federal agency which administers the program. It must now also recompete for grant funds despite decades of serving thousands of infants and children enrolled in Head Start. AHS has responded by filing a lawsuit against th...
Sep 04, 2024•13 min
Former Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford wrote a “A Proclamation for Peace” poem several years ago. But today it has a new resonance. It’s been published in a new book, along with translations into more than 50 languages and notes from the dozens of translators who were involved. The poem appears in Arabic and Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian, Tibetan and Mandarin, Tamil, Vietnamese, Polish, Yoruba, Yucatec Maya, and a host of other languages. It also includes QR codes that link to recordings of pe...
Sep 03, 2024•21 min
Fences are a key part of managing livestock on rangeland. But physical fencing is expensive, maintenance-heavy and potentially harmful to wildlife. Virtual fencing could solve some of those problems by offering a more flexible way to manage grazing herds. It could also help ranchers and rangeland managers adapt to the effects of climate change, including more frequent and intense wildfires. As recently reported in the Capital Press, a project in Wallowa County is testing the potential benefits o...
Sep 03, 2024•17 min
Church at the Park, the nonprofit that operates Village of Hope homeless micro shelter site in Salem, plans to add 40 additional beds, according to the Salem Reporter. The expansion aims to serve people who are experiencing homelessness and are 55 and older. People 50 or older are the fastest growing group of those experiencing homelessness in the US, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. We learn more about the Salem expansion from DJ Vincent, the founding pastor and CEO of Ch...
Sep 03, 2024•15 min
Gabrielle Zevin is a lifelong devotee of video games, which is obvious to readers of her newest book, the bestseller “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.” The book tells the story of two video game designers who find professional creative and intellectual synergy that doesn’t always match in their personal lives. The book starts from the premise that designing video games is the highest of artistic pursuits. "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" is the Multnomah County Everybody Reads 2024 se...
Sep 02, 2024•52 min
A few years ago, three Oregon musicians and artists started getting together to play and share music, informally calling themselves Diaspora Songs. They are all lovers of country and folk music, as well as writers and scholars. Dao Strom is a poet, musician, and multimedia artist — she’s the author of the book “Instrument.” Julian Saporiti is a musician and creator of No No Boy, a songwriting and multimedia project about Asian American history. And Alicia Jo Rabins is a poet, musician and Jewish...
Aug 30, 2024•52 min
“Women of the Dirt” is designed for all ability levels and creates space for riders who are women. Guides work with riders on closed trails to build skills and camaraderie. Events have been held throughout the summer, and a weekend camp takes place in September. We learn more about the series from Jaclyn Walles, a Mt Bachelor summer athlete and ambassador
Aug 29, 2024•22 min
The Portland Bureau of Transportation is helping shut down streets in residential neighborhoods. The reason isn’t for road repairs or filling in potholes, but to allow kids to safely play and create community. The Play Streets program is a current pilot that allows nonprofits in Portland to create community centered pop-up events. PBOT provides a trailer at no cost that is filled with furniture, canopies, games and other supplies to be used at events, as well a grant to help groups purchase mate...
Aug 29, 2024•19 min
A study released by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory explored groundwater extraction and how growing demand will affect remaining resources. Scientists focused on when and where groundwater levels could peak, meaning the water becomes so inaccessible that deeper wells or costly equipment are needed to meet demand. As it becomes more difficult to access groundwater, international agriculture could be affected and the cost of food could rise. The study illustrates that groundwater has fin...
Aug 29, 2024•12 min
Portland musician Rose Gerber combines country, folk and alt-rock into her sound. Gerber released a new EP, "Untraveled Highway," earlier this year. She will be headlining a country music fest at the Kenton Club on Saturday and joins us with an in-studio performance.
Aug 28, 2024•31 min
Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, but as vaccination rates have fallen, the disease has popped back up. Oregon is experiencing the worst outbreak in the state since the early 1990s. With kids returning to school and measles being one of the most infectious of diseases, public health concerns are running high. Joining us to talk about all of this and update us on the latest COVID-19 news, is Paul Cieslak, medical director for the Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Sectio...
Aug 28, 2024•13 min
Wildfires have burned more than a million and a half acres in Oregon so far, with the season still not over. Eastern Oregon has been especially hard hit by massive fires this summer, including the Durkee Fire which ignited last month and has burned nearly 300,000 acres. Ranchers in Eastern and Central Oregon face growing uncertainty and mounting economic losses to their livelihoods. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association started a fund to raise money to help ranchers who’ve lost cattle or pasturelan...
Aug 28, 2024•11 min
Earlier this year, the Portland band Blitzen Trapper released its 10th studio album, “100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions.” The band found success in 2008 with the release of their album “Furr.” Founding members Eric Earley and Brian Adrian Koch join us in the studio, along with fellow band member Nathan Vanderpool, to play some songs and talk about the new album, which is based on songs that Earley recorded on 4-track tapes in the early '90s.
Aug 27, 2024•31 min
As summer draws to a close, teachers across Oregon are readying lesson plans for the start of a new school year. But for school districts in rural parts of the state, budgetary constraints may mean that arts literacy and the benefits it offers students aren’t included in the curriculum. Since 2020, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the central Oregon coast has been helping fill that need through a monthly youth arts program. It originally served 500 students at two schools in Tillamook Cou...
Aug 27, 2024•22 min
Students at Umpqua Community College in Southern Oregon may soon have some new options for housing. The college is converting three historic buildings in downtown Roseburg into student dorms and apartments. College leaders hope that providing housing will help attract students from around the region and that bringing students downtown will add vibrancy to the city’s core. UCC President Rachel Pokrandt joins to talk about the role the college hopes to play in revitalizing downtown Roseburg and al...
Aug 26, 2024•18 min
Bill Sumio Naito, who died at age 70 in 1996, was a Portland-born son of Japanese immigrants who became one of the city's most significant business and civic leaders. Erica Naito-Campbell, his granddaughter, grew up next door to him and has written a new biography of the man who lends his name to the road thousands of people drive and bike on every day. The book, “Portland's Audacious Champion,” details Naito’s life from growing up in East Portland, through military service in World War II, to h...
Aug 26, 2024•22 min
On Monday, a judge at the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland will hear arguments to temporarily block the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains. The nearly $25 billion deal, which was announced nearly two years ago, would create the largest supermarket chain in U.S. history, with roughly 5,000 stores and 700,000 employees across 48 states. Kroger owns Fred Meyer and QFC grocery stores in the Northwest, and Albertsons owns Safeway. In February, the Federal Trade Commissio...
Aug 26, 2024•13 min
Al Ward is a 65-year-old musician who is hiding out from the wreck of his life in an abandoned mine in the high Nevada desert. Ward spends his days drinking and writing songs until he encounters a half-blind horse, and is forced to reckon with his life. Portland author Willy Vlautin joined host Geoff Norcross at the Pickathon Experiential Music Festival to talk about the compulsion to create art, the power of music, and the possibility of redemption.
Aug 23, 2024•32 min
