Health care is always a discussion topic in our country, and it only figures to get discussed more as our society ages and faces more health issues. Jackson County Public Health , La Clinica , and the Suicide Prevention Coalition all join forces to present a public health forum later this week (Thursday, June 20) in Medford. The purpose is to focus on issues of concern in the community, ranging from substance abuse to communicable diseases.

Henry David Thoreau was not the only writer to head for solitude in the woods. Karen Auvinen, an award-winning poet, took a leave from people to immerse herself in her writing. The situation changed completely when a fire consumed nearly everything she owned, including much of her writing. She tells the story in her memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living .

You've heard of watersheds and viewsheds, now welcome to the concept of Fibershed . That is the name of a Sonoma County-based organization that focuses on the fashion industry as a way to improve the planet. Fiber can be grown for clothing with an eye to storing carbon in the soil, greatly reducing the footprint of the fashion industry. Rebecca Burgess is the Executive Director of Fibershed.

Businesses that were flat-out impossible a few years ago are thriving under the legalization of marijuana for personal use. One example: Grown Rogue , which provides cannabis and concentrates in many different varieties. The company describes itself as a "seed-to-sale" operation, involved in cannabis from cultivation to final product. Sarah and Obie Strickler started the company and run it still.

It is one of the most significant dates in American history: June 19, 1865. That is the day that Union troops arriving in South Texas informed the community that slaves were free, two years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The month and date got contracted to "Juneteenth" over the years, and the occasion is now observed in many communities around the country. Oregon Shakespeare Festival always puts on a joyous celebration.

Most of the work of the Ashland New Plays Festival is staged readings of plays in development; ANPF's main event is in October. But this weekend (June 14-15), the festival presents a full production. Subject matter and the playwright's bio clearly made this an easy choice: E.M. Lewis is from Oregon and wrote a play about the debate over firearms. "The Gun Show" features a single actor and the playwright together, and takes a middle-of-the-road approach more interested in discussion than debate.

Maybe a quarter of the people in the world will experience mental illness at some point in their lives. So it's not rare, but seeking treatment can be. Southern Oregon Compass House in Medford welcomes people dealing with persistent mental illness. And once a month in our shared Compass Radio segment, we get to meet house members, to hear their personal stories.

J.D. Vance made quite a splash with his book Hillbilly Elegy . The book about hard times in Appalachia and environs, and how the people living those hard times see themselves and the country, shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. It was seen as a key to understanding how Donald Trump won the presidency. And Ron Howard will make a movie out of it.

Manipulating the genes of human beings in any form can make some people uneasy, even though the process can save lives. The work of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at OHSU in Portland works on the assumption that there is value in science correcting what nature got wrong. But there are limits to what can be done by the scientists there, including a ban on federal funding for research involving genetically altered embryos. Congress has kept that ban in place, to the chagrin of

The winds blowing into Humboldt County from the Pacific make it an attractive place to consider generating electricity from wind. And the renewable energy company Terra-Gen plans to do just that. The project proposal is bold in scale, with up to 60 wind turbines envisioned for high ground near Scotia and Rio Dell. The visual impact is a concern for some of the people in those community. We recently heard some of those viewpoints.