KGW’s Straight Talk with Laural Porter

Former Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Shannon Singleton are locked in battle for Multnomah County commissioner in District 2, covering North and Northeast Portland.

The 2024 election is now a little more than a month away, and the candidates in Portland's mayoral race are entering the final stretch ahead of what will likely be the city's biggest-ever election in terms of the number of seats on the ballot.

The winners will be the first to hold office under Portland's new form of government, with the new mayor in particular likely to play an outsize role in setting the tone for how the new system will function. Mayoral candidates and current city commissioners Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk.

The winner of Portland's November 2024 mayoral election will become the first mayor under the city's new system of government in 2025, working with a professional city administrator to manage the city's executive functions and implement policy at the direction of a new 12-member city council.

The race includes three of the four current city commissioners: Carmen Rubio, Rene Gonzalez and Mingus Mapps. But it includes several other candidates who aren't part of the current city leadership, and two of the most prominent among that group are Keith Wilson and Liv Østhus.

Both candidates were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss their campaigns, their vision for Portland and how they would approach the job under the new system of government. Neither candidate has held elected office before, but both say they view their outsider status as an asset in a race.

Rep. Andrea Salinas and Republican Mike Erickson rematch for Oregon's 6th Congressional District includes parts of southwest Portland, Salem, Woodburn, Yamhill County, and Lake Oswego in Clackamas County.

The general election is an historic one in Portland as it is the first time voters will pick elected leaders under the new city government — and voting system.

September is Recovery Month, celebrating the recovery community and highlighting the importance of evidence-based treatment and recovery practices. Coincidentally, Sept. 1 is also the day that drug recriminalization takes effect in Oregon, following the passage of House Bill 4002, which rolls back a key provision of Measure 110, Oregon's 2020 drug decriminalization measure.

Under the new law, possession will be a misdemeanor, but it does allow offenders to "deflect" from the justice system into treatment programs on a county-by-county basis. Tony Vezina is co-founder and executive director of Fourth Dimension Recovery Center, or 4D Recovery, which is participating in the Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington county drug deflection programs. It's a youth-led, peer-focused recovery community, and Vezina was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the organization's work and mission.

The start of the new school year is just a week or two away, which means students across Oregon are likely dreading having to start setting early alarm clocks once again. School start times vary across the state, but a local group of students has begun pushing for a conversation about pushing those start times later into the morning — no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

Studies have shown that teens would benefit from more sleep and graduation rates would likely improve. But in some districts, parents, teachers and district officials push back on the idea, citing family scheduling and transportation challenges, as well as concerns about cost.

The renewed discussion also comes as Oregon, like many other states across the country, is grappling with a sharp rise in student absenteeism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students Alvin Chan and Aditi Subramanium joined OSU pediatrician Dr. Ben Hoffman and Oregon State Rep. Hoa Nguyen as panelists on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss possible solutions to the problem, including the idea of later start times.

From concerns over A.I. surveillance, Israeli athlete participation, climate and Olympic opposition, controversy mounts amid start to 2024 Paris Olympics Games.

From the Portland Rose Festival and music festivals to the women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, how events are helping Portland rebound.

Oregon Dept. of Corrections Director Mike Reese said his main focuses are employee wellness, reducing recidivism, and addressing aging infrastructure and technology.