Mohammad Usrof came to the U.S. from his hometown in Gaza 12 years ago for school. He has since married and settled in the Pacific Northwest. Usrof shares what he hears from friends and family in Gaza and Egypt, and what it’s like living so far away from this conflict. 

The task force that investigates online child exploitation in Oregon has long been understaffed, leading to a serious backlog of tips to follow up on. But as reported in Willamette Week, state lawmakers recently approved an extra $2.7 million for the team, allowing it to nearly quadruple in size. The money will also support community outreach efforts and training for local law enforcement to aid in their investigations.

Michael Slauson is chief counsel for the Criminal Justice Division at the Oregon Department of Justice, which oversees the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He joins us to talk about the work the task force does and what this new funding could mean.

Public health agencies are playing an increasingly important role in alerting residents to the risks of wildfire smoke as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires in the West. But that messaging can lack important information about the severity of that risk and specific actions that can be taken to mitigate it, according to a new study from the University of Oregon. 

The study examined nearly 1,300 messages about wildfire smoke exposure that were sent in 2022 by federal, state and county health agencies in Oregon and Washington using the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. While slightly more than half the tweets were sent during September and October when wildfire smoke peaked, less than a fifth of them contained useful air quality descriptions or steps residents could take to mitigate exposure to it, such as using an air purifier at home or wearing a mask outdoors to filter out ash and smoke particles. 

Joining us to discuss the findings, and the opportunities they reveal to better communicate wildfire smoke health risks  is Cathy Slavik, the lead author of the study and a research associate at the Center for Science Communication Research at the University of Oregon.

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is actively trying to hire 250 seasonal park ranger and ranger assistants in anticipation of another busy summer this year. The recruitment drive started in February, two months earlier than last year, and has already yielded more than 4,200 applications for seasonal park ranger assistants - a nearly 100% increase compared to the number of applications the agency received for this position during this same time last year. 

The OPRD won approval from state lawmakers last year to lengthen the duration of its seasonal positions up to nine months to better handle increasing numbers of visitors beyond peak summer months. There were an estimated 52 million day visits made last year, making it the second busiest year on record for the parks system. Joining us to talk about how these recruitment efforts are going and what staffing looks like at their parks are Jason Elkins, Park Manager at Cape Lookout Management Unit which includes Cape Lookout State Park on the Oregon coast, and Grace Neil, who recently started her second year as a seasonal park ranger at Wallowa Lake State Park in Eastern Oregon. 

Culverts are all around us and you may not even know it. Culverts are pipes and tunnels, often under roadways and railroads, that allow water to pass through them. While water easily passes through them, the same can’t be said for some migratory fish like salmon. Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist who reported on the efforts being made to fix culverts for Hakai Magazine. He joins us to share more on the impacts the infrastructure can have and what it takes to replace them.

Earlier this month, Oregon State University received $10 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with a coalition of Native American tribes to explore opportunities to manufacture products and materials made from hemp. Some of those industrial applications include turning it into carbon for use inside energy storage devices, processing hemp fiber for use in car door panels and floorboards and mixing the interior part of the stalk with lime and water to make a lightweight alternative to concrete in home construction. The federal ban on growing hemp ended in 2018 when Congress legalized its production as an agricultural commodity, and removed it as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act. 

OSU’s Global Hemp Innovation Center is collaborating with 13 tribal nations in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho on this effort which will also include educational outreach and workforce training opportunities. Joining us to share details of this partnership are: Jeff Steiner, the director of the Global Hemp Innovation Center at OSU; Jim Souers, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the CEO of the Warm Springs Economic Development Corporation; Mary Jane Oatman, an enrolled member of the Nez Perce Tribe, a descendant of the Delaware Tribe and the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association.  

Last week, the Yurok Tribe signed a historic agreement with the National Park Service, California State Parks and Save the Redwoods League to transfer a 125-acre property back to tribal ownership. The site, known as ‘O Rew, is roughly in the center of Yurok ancestral territory and sits at the southern gateway to Redwood National Park. The agreement marks the first time that a national park will be co-managed by a Native tribe.

Nika Bartoo-Smith recently wrote about the agreement for Underscore News and ICT. She joins us with more details.

Last week the VA Portland Health Care System opened the Social Neuroscience & Psychotherapy Lab, known as the SNaP Lab, focused on psychedelic therapy and clinical trials. Dr. Christopher Stauffer, a psychiatrist, clinical researcher and director of social neuroscience and psychotherapy at Portland VA, joins us to talk about the new lab, and the two clinical trials currently underway.

Oregon’s Bottle Bill, which offers cash refunds for empty bottles and cans, was a landmark piece of legislation when it first passed in 1971. Since then, it’s served as a model for similar bills in other states and led to some of the highest recycling rates in the nation. The bill was originally intended to discourage littering, but the cash refunds it offers have increasingly become a lifeline for low-income Oregonians and people experiencing homelessness. As extensively reported in Willamette Week, critics now say the bill is fueling open-air drug markets outside return sites.

We’ll get an overview of the Bottle Bill from Eric Chambers, vice president of strategy and outreach for the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative. We’re also joined by RJ DeMello, chair of the St. Johns Neighborhood Association; Ken Thrasher, former CEO of Fred Meyer and board chair of the Northwest Community Conservancy; and Kris Brown, manager of The People’s Depot, a Portland redemption center run by can collectors. They share their perspectives on how the Bottle Bill does – or doesn’t – interact with the state’s growing opioid and homelessness crises.  

Mismanagement, inequity and turnovers plague Oregon’s Department of Early Learning and Care, a new story from InvestigateWest shows.  The agency is responsible for more than $1.3 billion in early learning investments and has seen more than five managers and directors leave the office in the past 18 months, with some employees describing office culture as “toxic.” Kaylee Tornay is an investigative reporter who has been reporting on this issue. She joins us with more on what some workers have been facing.