Medical Teams International is based in Tigard but its workers and volunteers bring life-saving, humanitarian aid around the world. The nonprofit’s president and CEO Eric Ha says the refugees they serve in East Africa fled violence, war or natural disasters. Many of them came years ago from Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania and other countries. The camps over time have become settlements, and in some cases the MTI programs are people’s only access to any kind of medical care - from treating comm...
Feb 21, 2025•20 min
On Monday, the Salem city council will vote to place a property tax levy on the May ballot which would cost the average Salem homeowner nearly $230 a year. If approved, it would help the city address a $14 million budget deficit and restore library hours which were cut last year. The levy would also fund parks maintenance, recreation programs such as youth camps, and classes and activities for seniors at Center 50+. The vote will take place just two weeks after the abrupt resignation of city man...
Feb 21, 2025•15 min
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians recently purchased roughly 2,000 acres of land near the Table Rocks preserve north of Medford. The property is part of the ancestral homeland of several tribes that were forced out of the Rogue Valley in the mid-1850s. The tribes were relocated to the newly-created Siletz reservation on the coast, forcing them to adapt to an unfamiliar climate and way of life. The tribe plans to use the Table Rocks property for conservation and the cultivation of first f...
Feb 20, 2025•19 min
Earlier this month, the city of Bend announced it is seeking applicants to fill three vacancies on its Human Rights and Equity Commission. Its goals include advocating for historically marginalized or underrepresented groups, evaluating city policies or regulations for potential barriers they may create and recommending how to remove them. The commission is one of two community advisory groups convened by Bend’s Accessibility and Equity Department, which also provides linguistic services to non-...
Feb 20, 2025•16 min
In 2017, Oregon lawmakers passed a transportation package that was expected to generate $5.3 billion. Eight years later, revenue forecasts show funding has fallen short of projections, leaving the Oregon Department of Transportation with an ongoing budget crisis. Audits have revealed that ODOT is failing to meet accountability measures set up in the legislation, and many of its projects are behind schedule and over budget. Anastasia Mason recently investigated the 2017 package for the Statesman ...
Feb 20, 2025•17 min
Portland’s Albina district was once a center for Black musicians in this country - producing some classic jazz, soul and gospel albums and bands. The newest record in Albina Music Trust’s catalog features Portland-based producers remixing some of the city’s historic music. Music producer Tony Ozier and DJ Jumbo join us to share some of the music and talk about the collaboration.
Feb 19, 2025•17 min
Portland will soon have what may be the first-of-its-kind training facility purpose-built for female athletes. RAJ Sports, the owners of the Portland Thorns, are building several soccer pitches, basketball courts, and more to serve the Thorns and the new WNBA franchise team. Karina LeBlanc, executive vice president of strategic growth for RAJ Sports, joins us to discuss the new facility and the future of women’s sports in Portland.
Feb 19, 2025•15 min
The Bonneville Power Administration is among the federal agencies currently being gutted by Elon Musk at Pres. Donald Trump’s direction. The ostensible reason for federal government layoffs and buyouts is to save taxpayer dollars. In the case of the BPA, it’s funded by its ratepayers, not taxpayers, but that hasn’t stopped the departure of hundreds of the agency’s skilled and specialized workers. And additional staffers who were considered probationary were let go without notice last week. And t...
Feb 19, 2025•21 min
The James Beard Foundation Awards are considered one of the top accomplishments in the culinary world. For the 2025 season, several restaurants and chefs in the state are semifinalists. Out of the seven Oregon chefs nominated for Best Northwest and Pacific Chef category, only two came from Portland. Kari Shaughnessy is the owner and executive chef of Hayward in McMinnville. Josh Dorcak is the owner and executive chef at MAS in Ashland. They both received a nomination and join us to share what th...
Feb 18, 2025•22 min
Donnie Horn started Triangle Productions with an original play he wrote in 1989 that dealt with being a gay man in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The theatre is now one of the oldest LGTBQ theatres in the country, celebrating its 35th season. The show that’s currently running is another Horn original: a musical he collaborated on with musician Michael Allen Harrison called “JC: Gospel According to an Angel.” Horn is also working on The Umbrella Project, which draws together a wide array of st...
Feb 18, 2025•15 min
If you’ve passed by the Chess Club storefront in Portland’s Old Town recently, you may have wondered what it sells. A small label in the window gives you a hint — “global magazines.” The store carries hundreds of publications from around the world, with topics ranging from queer periodicals to art and design quarterlies. Owners Andrew Simon and Christy Lai have said that they want the store to serve as a meeting place and conversation starter for people in search of offline connection. Simon and...
Feb 18, 2025•14 min
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 9066, which sent people of Japanese descent – many of them U.S. citizens – from their homes to “relocation centers,” resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Every two years, people come from all over the country to Klamath Falls to remember the Tule Lake internment camp, just south of the Oregon border. Today, we listen back to a conversation we recorded at the Tule Lake Pilgrimage ...
Feb 17, 2025•51 min
In Courtney Gould’s latest young adult love story, “Where Echoes Die,” two sisters travel to a strange desert town to investigate the death of their mother … and find that everything is not as it seems. In Jennifer Dugan’s novel “The Last Girls Standing,” two survivors of a summer camp massacre search for the truth of what happened that terrifying night. OPB’s Jenn Chavez talked to Dugan and Gould at the 2024 Portland Book Festival about psychological thrillers and writing queer love stories for...
Feb 14, 2025•43 min
Cattle ranching is a nearly $20 million industry in Grant County. But it can take a serious environmental toll on the region’s land and waterways. Jack Southworth, a fourth-generation rancher in Seneca, has been practicing holistic land management since the 1980s. He’s planted willows to restore the streams on his property and worked with the Forest Service to sustainably graze his cattle in the summers, among other measures. Southworth gave us a tour of his land and talked about what he sees as...
Feb 13, 2025•40 min
Portland’s sunny days are done and snow has started to fall around the region Thursday. Currently, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for the Portland area, with current predictions saying the metro area should expect up to 2 inches of snow and sleet. Dylan Rivera is the public information officer with PBOT. He joins us to share how the agency is preparing streets. We’ll also hear from Jes Larson, the assistant director of homeless services for Washington County to he...
Feb 13, 2025•15 min
“Geography is everything” for digital creator Geoff Gibson. The Portlander’s YouTube channel explores population geography and how that affects cities, states and countries. Some of his video essays have millions of views including pieces about the Cascadia Subduction Zone and why some parts of Oregon and Northern California have few people living there. More recently, Gibson covered Astoria and why it never became a major hub like San Francisco. We learn more about “Geography by Geoff” and how ...
Feb 12, 2025•21 min
Democrats continue to struggle over how to counter President Donald Trump and the unprecedented governmental power he has given to billionaire Elon Musk, the world's richest man. Recently, Democrats banded together to fight against the unelected "special government employee" through protests and policy proposals. Democrats are among those who say the country is at the brink of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration has suggested it may not abide by judicial ruling it disagrees with...
Feb 12, 2025•10 min
Reports of child sexual abuse in schools in Oregon have drawn outrage and concern in the communities where they have occurred. Researchers and therapists who focus on helping child abuse survivors have best practices and prevention strategies, but they don’t actually know how prevalent abuse is in the state. Oregon is not alone. According to the University of Oregon’s Center for Childhood Safety and Wellbeing, no state has yet taken that on. Center director Jeff Todahl intends to change that wit...
Feb 12, 2025•14 min
Perhaps no executive order of President Trump’s has so far been met with as much confusion and consternation as the one issued two weeks ago freezing federal funding for grants and loans. Although it has been blocked temporarily by federal courts, nonprofits and organizations are still reeling from the effect it’s had on grants they’ve won from agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts. That’s especially true if you’re a nonprofit like Portland choir Cappella Romana, which won a $35,000 ...
Feb 11, 2025•14 min
On his first day in office, President Trump placed a 90-day freeze on all U.S. foreign aid. He then put all employees of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, on leave last week. A federal judge has temporarily paused the mass layoffs, but the freeze on aid remains — meaning many programs providing food assistance, health care services have had to cease operations. Suparna Chaudhry is an assistant professor of international affairs at Lewis & Clark College. She jo...
Feb 11, 2025•13 min
Last month, President Trump signed an executive order directing federally run insurance programs, including Medicaid and TRICARE for military families, to drop coverage for gender-affirming care. Last week, Oregon’s attorney general joined a lawsuit with Washington State and Minnesota against the Trump administration over that order, which also seeks to cut off federal funding from institutions that provide hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgical treatment for people under 19. The state’s...
Feb 11, 2025•17 min
In January, acclaimed filmmaker David Lynch died. He is known for films such as “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet,” but is also behind the award-winning show set in the Pacific Northwest, “Twin Peaks.” While much of the show was shot in a Los Angeles-based studio, exterior shots were filmed in Washington towns, including North Bend, Snoqualmie and Falls City. Katherine Cusumano is a freelance journalist and essayist. She, along with Oregon photojournalist Riley Yuan, went out to Twede’s Cafe in Nort...
Feb 10, 2025•13 min
State Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) returns to the Oregon Legislature this session after about a decade away. He lost his reelection bid in a close race in 2014. He replaces former Republican Sen. Brian Boquist who was unable to return to the legislature after the 2023 GOP walkout. Funding a transportation package is a key issue for lawmakers this year. Starr worked on a bipartisan transportation effort in 2009 and serves as a co-vice chair of the joint committee on transportation during the curre...
Feb 10, 2025•14 min
U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle announced last week she’s leaving the Department of Government Efficiency House caucus. She was one of few Democratic members of DOGE, the new efficiency effort led by Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and other companies. She told OPB that President Donald Trump has given enormous power to billionaire Elon Musk – including control of the government's finances - and that they are operating “unconstitutionally and illegally.” Hoyle says Musk’s access to Social Security...
Feb 10, 2025•17 min
The Portland Trail Blazers have now won 9 of their last 10 games, including Monday’s thrilling overtime against the Phoenix Suns. Their streak has now extended to six games with last night’s win against the Sacramento Kings. It’s a dramatic turnaround to a season that began with a slew of losses, and while the Blazers still have more losses than wins, expectations are rising about how they’ll end the season in late April. Sean Highkin is the founder of the Substack newsletter, The Rose Garden Re...
Feb 07, 2025•16 min
The “Black, Black History Month pop-up museum in Portland’s Old Town district has three floors of exhibits featuring history, photography, paintings, film and music. And the Horizon Enterprise Building that serves as the temporary museum is itself a kind of exhibit, as its new owners want to turn it into a community space to serve and support BIPOC artists and organizations. Tory Campbell is the interim director of culture at the 1803 Fund, which is supporting the building’s transition - and the...
Feb 07, 2025•18 min
Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp, BPA and other electricity providers throughout the West are weighing two new "day-ahead" energy market proposals. It’s important because the choice could cost electricity consumers billions over the next decade. Pete Danko wrote about this for the Portland Business Journal and joins us to explain.
Feb 07, 2025•11 min
Enforcement of Portland’s property maintenance rules are complaint-based. That means the city doesn’t even come to investigate unless a neighbor or anyone who passes by a property reports something. In about a third of cases, Ombudsman Jennifer Croft says, no violation is found. In other cases, fines can be imposed and homeowners can be burdened with ballooning penalties if they can’t or won’t fix the problem. Those most affected by this system are homeowners of color who live in diverse or gent...
Feb 06, 2025•10 min
The largest healthcare strike in Oregon history appears to be at an end. The unions representing most of the 5,000 Providence doctors and nurses who worked at eight different hospitals and six clinics around the state have now reached contract agreement. Union leaders say if members vote to approve the deal Thursday and Friday, they will end the strike and return to work immediately. We get the latest from OPB healthcare reporter Amelia Templeton.
Feb 06, 2025•10 min
Oregon Health & Science University has been facing a series of mounting challenges in recent months, including its proposed merger with Legacy Health, which is being reviewed by the Oregon Health Authority. If approved, OHSU would control five of the six hospitals in Multnomah County, according to a report issued by OHA last November. OHSU has also had to contend with the departure of prominent executives such as the interim head of its health unit last month, and Dr. Brian Druker, a world r...
Feb 06, 2025•24 min
