Locus Focus

Until a few weeks ago it looked likely that Portland would be able to shut

down Zenith Energy's oil train operations in NW Portland. But then, without

any public notice, Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan abruptly changed

course and approved the land use compatibility stat...

For thousands of years the north reach of the Willamette River, near its

confluence with the Columbia, was a braided river of shallow channels and

islands rich in biodiversity. That was until European settlers came to the

Pacific Northwest and displaced the Indigenous peopl...

This program originally aired on January 24, 2022

For 18 years communities across Southern Oregon fought an existential

struggle to stop the massive Jordan Cove LNG export terminal that was

proposed for Coos Bay and its accompanying 36" fracked gas pipeline that

would h...

In late 2017 Zenith Energy stole into Portland in the dead of night and took

over an abandoned petroleum facility, proceeding to turn it into the largest

oil-by-rail facility in the Northwest. The community rose up in fury that a

fossil fuel facility of this size could oper...

Even though there are no large fires burning close to Portland this summer,

you can still smell the smoke from all the megafires burning from British

Columbia to Northern California. This is the new reality we are facing, a

confluence of climate chaos, exacerbated by loggin...

In recent years scientists have discovered that methane gas is 85 times more

potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Yet the

so-called natural gas industry (a euphemistic term for methane) has doubled

down on promoting its product as a bridge fuel to ...

The Cully neighborhood in outer NE Portland is one of the most culturally

diverse communities in Portland. And for many decades it has been the most

overlooked and underserved community as well, with more than its share of

poverty, and less than its share of environmental a...

Now that election season is really upon us, it's a good time to take another

look at the proposed changes to Portland's city charter, which will be on

this November's ballot. These changes will be quite dramatic, not only

changing our  city government from a commission to a...

This program aired originally on August 1, 2022

This November Portland voters will have an opportunity to vote on a complex

measure that would amend the city charter in some drastic ways. The changes

include rank voting, expanding the city council to 12 members who would...

THIS PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON JUNE 27, 2022

Sixty-six million years ago an asteroid some seven miles across slammed into

the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. More than half

of known species, including the dinosaurs, vanished seemingly over...