KGW’s Straight Talk

 Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler reshuffled some of the city's biggest bureaus at the start of the year in what he described as an effort to consolidate groups related bureaus together under the same commissioners in preparation for the city's transition to a new form of government.

One of those changes was to give control of the city's Housing Bureau to Commissioner Carmen Rubio. The previous housing director, Commissioner Dan Ryan, now heads up Portland Parks & Recreation, the Office of Community and Civic Life, the Office of Equity and Human Rights and serves as the city's Arts Liaison under a "culture and livability" unbrella.

Ryan was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk, and he said while he's eager to take on his new role, he still wants to make sure the projects he was overseeing at the housing bureau can come to fruition — especially the Safe Rest Villages project.

Multnomah County's new chair, Jessica Vega Pederson and Oregon's new behavioral health director Ebony Clarke join KGW to talk about their plans for the homelessness and mental health care crises.

The societal challenges are showing up in the hallways of our public schools. Administrators say it'll take a community-wide effort to help the kids.

Oregon is facing a drastic shortage of mental health care workers--the state needs as many as 35,000 new workers by some estimates to fill the mental health care needs in the state. But people interested and willing to go into the field are facing high barriers to doing the work. What can be done to change the system, and open up the pipeline of behavioral health care workers?

Dan Rayfield answers more questions about his plans for lawmakers ahead of the 2023 Oregon legislative session

Laural Porter sat down for a one-on-one interview with Oregon house speaker Rep. Dan Rayfield, to talk about his plans for the 2023 session. He says he hopes to foster a culture of respect at the Capitol, where Republicans and Democrats can work together toward affordable housing, health care, and taking care of the state's economy.

Nurses say Oregon's health care system is broken, and too many skilled nurses are leaving health care because they are stretched too thin to be able to provide quality care to patients. Oregon House Bill 2697 would mandate minimum staffing requirements for hospital nurses, and close loopholes around meal and break times.

Extra conversation from our regular Straight Talk episode. The majority of Representatives from both Oregon and Washington in the 118th Congress will be women. The northwest's newest elected leaders say they're well-prepared and ready to serve their diverse districts.

The majority of Representatives from both Oregon and Washington in the 118th Congress will be women. The northwest's newest elected leaders say they're well-prepared and ready to serve their diverse districts.

News editors from The Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Willamette Week, and The Columbian joined KGW to discuss the biggest news from 2022, including the race for Oregon governor, the upsets in Congressional races, and Portland's new homeless plan.