The Oregonian/OregonLive last week published the results of a series of polls that shed light on the sentiments of Portland-area residents heading into a May election.

John Horvick, senior vice president of polling partner DHM Research, joined the podcast Beat Check with The Oregonian to review the results and discuss some of the most interesting findings. Also on the panel are reporters Mike Rogoway and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh.

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Any newspaper editor will tell you readers love animal stories. The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Samantha Swindler took that axiom to the next level this spring with a 12-part video series on the mysterious disappearance of Cosmo, the talking crow.

She joins Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to discuss the narrative, which also was published on Instagram, Facebook and, of course, OregonLive.

Cosmo first came to the newsroom’s attention after a viral story out of Williams about a talking crow that had “befriended” an elementary school. Swindler, who works on the Here is Oregon features team, reached out to obtain audio or video of this supposed talking crow.

She quickly learned Cosmo was missing and the crow may not have been the beloved local fixture we first envisioned. Originally conceived as a podcast, “The Mystery of Cosmo the Talking Crow” quickly morphed into an experiment in creative multimedia storytelling on TikTok, the social media platform so much in the headlines these days.

In this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:

--Why Swindler was drawn to the quirky story

--The reporting challenges she faced

--The question of whether Cosmo really did talk

--Why humans can’t resist anthropomorphizing animals -- that is, attributing human behaviors and motives and emotions to our pets

Within the episode, Swindler refers to “Serial,” the groundbreaking and hugely popular true crime podcast (We are careful to note nothing about the Cosmo story involves actual true “crime.”).

She also makes reference to a “milkshake duck” moment, a reference to a fictional duck that is cute and beloved until it is revealed to be racist. Like that internet meme, Cosmo, too, was cute on the outside but perhaps had a touch of evil within, depending on who is talking.

And Swindler still hopes for “The Jinx” reveal, as in the HBO docuseries hot-mic moment where Robert Durst appears to confess. Alas (spoiler alert), Swindler and the rest of us are still waiting for the final word on Cosmo’s fate.

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Semiconductor manufacturing is critical to Oregon’s economy: it’s the state’s largest manufacturing sector in terms of employment, exports and contributions to its gross domestic product. Intel, the state’s top chipmaker, employs 23,000 people and is Oregon’s largest corporate employer.

But the chips – celebrated by state lawmakers, ubiquitous in thousands of computer systems, from desktops and cell phones to medical devices and wind turbines – also come with a major disadvantage. Chipmaking is a heavy industry that’s one of the dirtiest in the state. Chip manufacturing pollutes the air, uses huge quantities of water and energy and generates a greenhouse gasses, significantly contributing to the state’s slice of global warming.

Mike Rogoway, who covers the business of technology for The Oregonian/OregonLive, talks about why Intel and other semiconductor companies are so polluting, what they’re doing about it and why it’s so difficult to clean up this essential industry sector.

“It’s not clear at this point whether we can have our cake and eat it too, whether we can have our more advanced semiconductors and have more clean materials used in the manufacturing process,” said Rogoway. “I think the companies are committed to finding a way there. I just don’t think we have clarity at this point as to how they will get there or how long it will take.”

Read more about Intel/chip manufacturers’ environmental impact:

Intel’s expansion plans revive concerns about Oregon factories’ environmental impact

Intel wins air quality permit for Oregon expansion despite underreporting carbon emissions

Intel contractor sues for $550,000, says toxic chemicals in Oregon factory cost him his sense of taste and smell

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As many by now know, Oregon ranks miserably when it comes to addressing residents’ mental health needs compared to the rest of the U.S.

Especially troubling: Our state is dead last — the absolute worst in the nation — in balancing the prevalence of youth mental illness with access to care.

That’s left many families with a teen in crisis or struggling with addiction no choice but to send them out of state for treatment.

But efforts are also underway to fill some of the most glaring gaps in Oregon’s youth mental health system.

On the latest Beat Check, I talk with Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Nicole Hayden about her recent three-part series on youth mental health in our state.

Read More:

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The Oregonian/OregonLive is in the midst of its annual update of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System beneficiary database.

Last week, we published an update that showed nearly 6,000 retirees tapped into the pension benefit system in 2023. In a week or so, we’ll have our database fully updated and available so readers can lookup all current retirees and their benefits.

Reporter Ted Sickinger, who has examined the system for more than a decade, joined Editor Therese Bottomly for this week’s installment of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about the challenges facing PERS and Oregon public agencies. Sickinger talks about his analysis of the new retirees and their benefits and also the outliers in the system as a whole. The conversation covers:

--How we got here and the real-life impact of the system’s shortfall

--What reforms have already been made to the system?

--What the Legislature and the PERS board can do about the shortfall?

--What’s behind some of the outsized benefits packages?

To learn more about PERS:

How did we get here? A short video

How a serial killer kept receiving PERS in prison

The Oregonian wins Pulitzer Prize for PERS editorials

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Many homeowners in Oregon are feeling the impacts of higher electricity bills and facing the prospect of yet another rate increase next year. As electricity bills have skyrocketed, causing widespread anger and frustration, many people have begun to question how and why utilities recoup money from their customers.

Last month, the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, a state nonprofit group that advocates for those customers, asked Oregon regulators to dismiss Portland General Electric’s newest rate increase proposal – an unprecedented move that diverges from the state’s standard rate-setting process. Since then, the case has generated well over 1,000 comments from frustrated PGE customers.

They raise important questions: Are back-to-back rate increases fair? Why should customers bear all of the cost of infrastructure upgrades and other investments and not the utility and its shareholders? Does the clean energy transition translate into higher rates? And if clean energy is supposedly cheaper than fossil fuel-powered energy, why are rates going up exponentially?

Dain Nestel, the Director of Customer Solutions at Portland General Electric, talked on Beat Check about the reasons for the steep increases and how the company is trying to reign in costs and help its customers in an era of increasing electricity demand, extreme weather and aging infrastructure.

For a different perspective, Beat Check previously hosted Bob Jenks, the executive director of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, to address those issues from utility customers’ perspective.

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In February, elected leaders of a small town in Marion County took the extraordinary step of firing its top cop amid a series of troubling allegations.

Gervais Police Chief Mark Chase’s removal has since touched off a feud between the chief’s defenders and officials in the quiet community about 15 miles NE of Salem.

Chase, it turns out, is no stranger to controversy on the job. Leaders in Junction City, about an hour south of Gervais, fired Chase from his role as police chief there in 2016.

On the latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Catalina Gaitán talk about small town politics in the age of toxic divides.

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Oregon’s largest corporate employer has been one of the biggest boosters calling for an infusion of taxpayer dollars into U.S. manufacturing of computer chips.

Last week, Intel got its wish: an $8.5 billion check from the federal government. Mike Rogoway, who covers the chip industry for The Oregonian/OregonLive, spoke with business editor Elliot Njus about what this award means for Intel in Oregon and around the world.

He also discussed his reporting on the Oregon Employment Department, which launched long-awaited upgrade to its computer system that handles unemployment claims — but the transition doesn’t seem to have ended difficulties for Oregonians seeking jobless benefits.

Read more:

Subscribe to Beat Check anywhere you listen to podcasts to get new episodes each week.

You can support local journalism by becoming a subscriber to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Explore more of our podcasts and sign up to get newsletters for the latest news and top stories.

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Environmentalists notched what they consider a major win in the 2024 short legislative session. The COAL Act directs the state to drop about $1 billion in coal investments and to cease new investments in companies that mine and burn coal.

Proponents say the legislation aligns the state’s public pension investments with Oregon’s existing climate goals to reduce carbon emissions and transition to 100% clean energy.

Oregon isn’t the only state going this route. Fossil fuel divestment campaigns, which launched over a decade ago on college campuses, now focus on governments, pension funds, faith-based organizations and foundations, among others. To date, about $14 trillion has been divested from fossil fuels globally and commitments to divest topped $40 trillion across the world as of this summer.

Oregon’s coal-divestment legislation is based on a California law adopted in 2015 that led that state’s pension systems – the two largest public funds in the country – to divest from coal. A few other states and cities have also followed suit. Maine became the first state to pledge divesting from fossil fuels. New York City divested $3 billion of its pension funds three years ago and Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco and Pittsburgh are also moving to divest their pension funds. Even Eugene in Oregon has pledged not to invest in fossil fuel companies.

But the movement to divest also has many critics. Some labor unions fear it could threaten hard-earned retirement money. And the issue has become highly politicized, with over a dozen Republican states passing or introducing model bills that ban them from doing business with financial groups that divest from fossil fuels.

Divestment is even controversial in California, where a bill to divest the state’s pension systems from all fossil fuels was shelved again during last year’s legislative session.

On the Beat Check podcast, the chief sponsor of Oregon’s coal divestment legislation, Rep. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, talked about why Oregon’s divestment from coal will help the state reach its climate goals, how it compares with other fossil fuel divestment campaigns and what individual investors can do to divest and align their own money with their environmental values.

Pham also spoke about what the state should invest in and how programs like Portland’s Clean Energy Fund – which she helped create – and the statewide Climate Protection Program’s Community Climate Investments can help low-income communities take part in the clean energy transition and better adapt to the changing climate.

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A lack of funding and the passage of Measure 110 dealt a double whammy to Oregon drug courts. Even as fentanyl became a scourge, one of the best tools to help addicts largely faded away.

Programs in Deschutes, Benton, Polk and Multnomah counties shut down in recent months or years and others have been hit with funding problems. But in this short legislative session, the Oregon Legislature voted to increase funding to $37 million this two-year budget cycle, an increase of almost 50%.

Legislators also recriminalized drug possession, voting to creates a new misdemeanor for people caught with small amounts of illicit drugs. That might send more people into drug courts tailored to lesser offenders.

Reporter Aimee Green took a deep dive into the history of drug courts in Oregon, how they work and how people have benefited from them. She talked to policymakers, recovering addicts and judges.

Green joined Editor Therese Bottomly to talk about her article (Bottomly’s sister is a Multnomah County judge).

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