The kids we get are not necessarily the kids we expected. Nature has a way of making changes in the family tree. Andrew Solomon talked to hundreds of people in families where the children were born in a variety of circumstances... with disabilities or other differences from the parents. How parents and society cope is the focus of Solomon's book Far From The Tree .

It's pretty typical to complain about potholes, but even the people who fix Oregon's roads will tell you repairs are needed. And the state legislature recognizes this; that's why it's been talking for a couple of years about a major transportation bill. Now one is on the table, with a mix of tax and fee ideas and plans for shoring up the ways of getting around Oregon.

Southern Oregon University is not a very big campus, but its price tag figures to get bigger in the next academic year. A budget shortfall for Oregon state government will likely impact the seven state universities, which largely have to fund themselves through tuition. So SOU President Linda Schott proposed, and the board of trustees approved, a tuition hike of 12%. The state's revenue picture got clearer with the release of new income figures this week; there is more money, but taxpayers are

"We're going to build a wall" were practically the first words of Donald Trump's campaign for president. The plan for a continuous wall on the Mexican border has many friends, and enemies, and practical obstacles. Ronald Rael is an opponent of the wall, but considers it as both architectural and metaphorical construct. His book Borderwall as Architecture is a mix of anger, whimsy, and design.

Craig Chaquico has played the guitar in a lot of circumstances; he was just 20 when he joined Jefferson Starship. But Chaquico has never played with a choir, he says. Until now... a concert on May 20th has him strapping on his guitar to accompany the Jefferson State Choral Coalition . What do you know... another band named Jefferson?

It's almost like an old-fashioned barn-raising, the way Habitat for Humanity works. People with home-building skills come together with a soon-to-be homeowner and work together to build the house. Rogue Valley Habitat for Humanity marks 30 years on the job this year, with activity in Medford and several other communities.

What began as an idea for a long bike ride has turned into much more over the years. 30 years, in fact. That's how old Cycle Oregon will be this year, and it celebrates with a multiple-day ride through the South Cascades, including Crater Lake, in September. Former Oregonian columnist Jonathan Nicholas and Jim Beaver of Ashland were part of the original ride and the growth of Cycle Oregon. The race doesn't just collect money from riders, it also hands out plenty through its foundation.

Will the future be flying cars or robot overlords? It could be neither, but Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever urge us to make conscious choices. Because technology will inevitably advance, and people should have a say in whether our future looks like "Star Trek" or "Mad Max." Wadhwa and Salkever are the authors of The Driver in the Driverless Car , a look at how we make such choices.

The news about Oregon's unemployment rate is great, on its surface: the lowest rate recorded since the current accounting system went into place in 1976. But if you live in rural Oregon, as many of our listeners do, you might wonder where the prosperity is. A new report on "The Employment Landscape of Rural Oregon" shows just how much the rural parts of the state lag economically behind the urban areas.

The work of August Wilson has been staged on plays around the world. But his poetry takes center stage in a new work at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival called "UniSon." It is a musical based on Wilson's work and shaped by the OSF company-within-the-company called Universes . They wrote and performed "Party People" at the festival a few years back, and that's when we first got to know Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, and William Ruiz, who goes by "Ninja."