Any Friday is something of an event. First Friday is a slightly bigger deal in the arts world, as several communities in our region observe First Friday Art Walks. The Exchange goes with the flow, with our monthly First Friday Arts segment. We open the phone lines (800-838-3760) and invite arts organizations from throughout the listening area to call in with details of arts events in the coming weeks... from fine art to open mike nights, all arts events are fair game. If you're just not

It's not Austin, but our region is home to a number of venues for hearing live music. Josh Gross has visited many of them by now. Josh is the music editor for the Rogue Valley Messenger, so he pays great attention to the live music scene.

Building healthy communities is about more than people getting exercise. It also involves mental health and economic health, just for starters. These items and more are on the table for the "Next, Now" conference coming to Grants Pass next week (October 10-11). Community leaders in a number of fields will talk about building stronger, more resilient communities, by recognizing the prevalance of ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences. Southern Oregon Success is among the partners, and contributors

By now, somebody in Oregon Congressional District Four must be thinking "you again?" And it could be one of the two major-party candidates. Democratic incumbent Peter DeFazio is facing Republican challenger Art Robinson for the fourth straight election. It's hard to run against an incumbent for Congress; maybe harder in a district with Eugene and Corvallis on one end and Cave Junction and Brookings on the other.

VENTSday returns to the air this week, with an issue that always generates strong feelings: the death penalty. Capital punishment is still on the books in both states, though California's vote on Props 62 and 66 will determine if executions will continue there. What is appropriate, in your mind? Should the state have the power to kill people, as punishment for murder? Should crimes other than murder be eligible for death sentences? VENTSday seeks YOUR thoughts, through our survey (below); by

California went down this road before, and turned back. The last presidential election, in 2012, featured a vote to repeal the death penalty in the state. Proposition 34 went down to defeat, though narrowly. Now another death penalty repeal appears on the ballot, as Proposition 62. Whatever its number, it will get no support from San Bernardino County D.A. Mike Ramos. He advocates keeping capital punishment in place, and supports a different measure, Prop 66, which would keep the death penalty

It sounds like a dream come true: a chance to preserve more than 350 acres of land along the Rogue River, in ways that will benefit people and other creatures. This dream does not come cheap... but it does come at a reduced price. The Southern Oregon Land Conservancy is working to raise $3.5 Million by the end of the year to make the "Heart of the Rogue" project a reality.

It all started with a rugby shirt. Yvon Chouinard ordered them from overseas, because he found a brand that would keep his rock-climbing equipment from cutting his neck. He soon began to make and sell his own under a new name: Patagonia. Now it's about much more than shirts, and about much more than the gear itself. Patagonia works to deliver Earth-friendly and sustainable goods and donates a chunk of its income to environmental groups. A book Chouinard wrote for his employees, Let My People Go

"Attica" is one of those names that seems familiar to many Americans, even people who know nothing of the story attached to the name. Heather Ann Thompson, a historian who researches mass incarceration, fills in the story of the 1971 uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, in her book Blood in the Water. Prisoners took over Attica to protest the conditions, and prison bosses were negotiating with them. But then the state mounted an assault on its prison, and 39 people

All the experts on aging say we should be engaged in interesting activities when our working days are done, to help prolong life. Which sounds swell, unless income is an obstacle to getting into activities. The non-profit EngAGE, "The Art of Active Aging," offers activities to low- and moderate-income seniors in Southern California, and just recently in Portland.