Children naturally get together and play when they find themselves in the same place. But not all children are good and making new connections, and these are the children who ask the question that is also the title of Caroline Maguire's book, Why Will No One Play with Me? Maguire is an educator and personal coach who works with children with ADHD and their parents. her book lays out her system, "The Play Better Plan to Help Children of All Ages Make Friends and Thrive."

There are not a lot of people in Josephine County (86,000+), but a more than a few play musical instruments. In fact, enough of them play music and play it well that they formed the Three Rivers Community Orchestra a couple of years ago. It's a creative outlet for the musicians, and an entertainment option for the community. TRCO can always use more quality string players, and has a few other needs.

If you want to know what a certain bird looks or sounds like, there's a good chance the work of Gerritt Vyn can provide what you want. Vyn, who is based in the Portland area, is an internationally-renowned photographer, cinematographer, and sound recorder who focuses mostly on birds. He says birds are good indicators of environmental health, and a good object of focus for people to learn more about the natural world.

It's hard to imagine living for 100 years or more, but then our ancestors could scarcely imagine a world in which few people died as children. Fatal childhood diseases are now rare in developed countries. And science is always looking at the other end of life. Science journalist Chip Walter takes a look at the effort going into extending human life, and the gobs of money funding that effort.

The forested lands owned by the state of Oregon are small when compared with the state's federal forests. But the state lands still play an important role in providing timber for mills and revenue to counties and schools. The Draft Revised Western Oregon State Forest Management Plan was released on December 2, outlining the plans for managing the state forests, including the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Santiam forests. Comments on the plan are open until the end of January.

You can live an urban lifestyle in the region, but not in many places. We're surrounded by open country, much of it farmed. And farmers can use a little help every now and then with practices and procedures, which are available from the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center , SOREC. It provides classes for the general public--extending the mission of Oregon State University far and wide.

People who know nutrition often advise grocery shoppers to stick to the outside aisles of the store. That's where the fresh foods like fresh vegetables and protein and dairy lie. Trouble is, kids LOVE the stuff in the inside aisles... the processed foods like macaroni and cheese. Bettina Elias Siegel maintains a focus on kids and food, and more specifically on how food is marketed to kids. She finds plenty to dislike, and shares the details in her book Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children

Have the New Year's resolutions been dropped already? Whether you make them or not, there's always room for improvement in any person's life. Kate Hanley takes them up in short (five minutes) podcasts under the title "How to be a Better Person." Hanley is a writer and personal development coach who learned a lot of lessons about how to stop sabotaging herself.

Chocolate or vanilla? How about chocolate or vanilla or strawberry? Decisions can perplex us, especially when the number of choices increases. Ellen Peters at the University of Oregon knows this well... she is an expert in decision-making and in the science of communicating science. That's not a typo, there's a science in delivering information about science. And Peters, who heads the Center for Science Communication Research at UO, joins us to lay out the basics.

Les AuCoin spent 18 years representing Northwest Oregon in the U.S. House, at a time when issues like the spotted owl and forest management were looming large. He ran for the Senate in 1992, lost to Bob Packwood, then watched as a sexual misconduct scandal swept Packwood from office three years later. AuCoin had to let the painful loss go, a practice he used on other disappointments in life. AuCoin gives many details of his journey in the book Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics .