Think Out Loud

A big shift took place over the weekend in the way people buy and sell homes in the U.S. The National Association of Realtors settled a lawsuit earlier this year that changed the way real estate agents get paid. Previously, a home seller would pay for both their own real estate agent and the agent representing the buyer. The two agents would split the commission, which was typically around 5-6% of the home’s selling price.

But now, buyers either have to pay for their own representation or negotiate with the seller to pay their agent’s fee. Some agents say the new rules will mean more clarity for consumers, while others say they will drive agents out of the business.

Ashleigh Fordham is the principal broker and owner of Windermere Real Estate in Salem. She’s also the current president of the Oregon Association of Realtors. Colin Mullane is a former president of the organization and the principal broker and owner of Full Circle Real Estate in Ashland. They join us to share their perspectives on how these changes are playing out in Oregon.

On Monday, the Oregon Department of Forestry confirmed that the emerald ash borer has been discovered in three new counties in the Willamette Valley. In the past month, the invasive pest was caught in traps set in Marion and Yamhill counties, and is also suspected of being in neighboring Clackamas County, pending confirmation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The highly destructive beetle, which is native to Asia, has killed over 100 million ash trees nationwide since it first appeared in the U.S. over 20 years ago. The state’s agriculture and forestry departments quickly mobilized to contain it when it was first spotted in Oregon in Forest Grove in Washington County two years ago. Those efforts included issuing a quarantine that’s now permanent to prevent the movement of firewood and other plant materials out of the county made from ash, white fringe and olive trees. State crews have also removed infested ash trees and have been treating healthy trees with insecticide near infestation sites. Lilah Gonen is a community assistance forester and the emerald ash borer coordinator for ODF. They join us to talk about the state’s efforts to slow the spread of emerald ash borer and the threat it poses to native Oregon ash trees. 
 

On Monday, the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago. It comes four weeks after President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic party nominee. Harris quickly ramped up her campaign and won a majority of delegate votes to secure the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this month, and shortly thereafter announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

Kien Truong is a delegate from Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, the chair of the Young Democrats of Oregon Caucus and is currently attending the convention. He is also a gay immigrant from Vietnam who became a U.S. citizen in 2021. He joins us from Chicago to share his perspective and efforts to mobilize young, diverse voters ahead of the November general 

Georgia Cloepfil spent six years playing soccer professionally in six different countries after she graduated from college. It was a lonely, physically demanding life that was also incredibly rewarding. Cloepfil’s new memoir, “The Striker and the Clock,” details that time, and the beauty and complexity of the game she still loves.

On August 24, 1949, work crews and bulldozers cleared out a neighborhood just outside of Eugene known as Ferry Street Village. The Lane County Board of Commissioners had voted to demolish the neighborhood just a month before, and some residents who hadn't gotten the news ran from their homes with as much as they could carry. The neighborhood was one of the only places near Eugene where Black people could settle. The Black Cultural Initiative is working with other groups to raise money for a monument to the neighborhood and the families that lived there. Talicia Brown-Crowell, the founder of BCI, joins us to talk about why it is important to preserve the history of this neighborhood.    

The Portland Votes 2024 Grant Program has awarded $210,000 to 11 different organizations to support education efforts about ranked choice voting. The adoption of a new city charter has changed multiple aspects of city government. One of the most prolific is that in November, voters will participate in a ranked choice voting process to choose city council members, which is different from how many people are used to voting. Direct voter education grantees including APANO, NAYA and Urban League of Portland will provide cultural and language-specific educational opportunities about the new system to the communities they serve, while other grantees will hold broader voter education efforts. Grace Ramsey, co-founder of Democracy Rising and the project manager of the grant program, joins us to share more about these educational opportunities.

The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to approve a temporary staffing plan that aims to improve ambulance response times in the county. The decision comes after months of disagreement between the county and its sole ambulance services provider, American Medical Response.

The company hasn’t met its contractual requirement to respond to 90% of life-threatening calls within eight minutes since 2022. AMR has long blamed the delays on the county’s requirement that each ambulance be staffed with two paramedics. The new agreement will allow some ambulances to be staffed by one paramedic and one EMT through July of next year.
Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson joins us to talk about all of that and more.

Oregon hop growers will be harvesting their crops next week, but at a much smaller yield than last year. The acreage for the plant has fallen by 18% this year in Oregon and nationwide. The driving factor is declining beer sales and changes in consumer habits. Michelle Palacios is the administrator for the Oregon Hop Commission. She joins us to share more on the future of the industry.

Coastal Curry County is home to several different rivers but all of that open water can lead to accidents like drownings. Luke Martinez is the aquatic safety officer and lifeguard for Curry County. He says he’s seen tourism in the region grow and has witnessed more incidents around water safety. He joins us with details of what the county has been experiencing and how a junior lifeguard program can help educate residents. 

When Matt Swihart started Double Mountain Brewery in 2007, his vision was to sell beer in the most ecologically sustainable way possible: in reusable bottles, which would be returned, cleaned and refilled, to be sold again. He says it wasn’t a new idea at all - this was common for all kinds of beverages in the early 20th century. And it wasn’t even novel - in other countries, refillable beverage containers occupy a solid share of the market. Nevertheless the regional infrastructure didn’t exist, so the company started small and took its time. The game changed in 2018 when the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative partnered with Double Mountain to help develop standard refillable glass beer bottles that any brewery in the state could use. 

Now, the Newberg company Revino is working with a number of vintners to put their wine in its returnable, refillable bottles. And while the company is still scaling up all the infrastructure needed, it’s gotten significant traction already, with Willamette Valley Vineyards announcing its rollout of over 1500 cases of one of its Pinot Noirs being released in Revino bottles. We talk with Double Mountain Brewery’s Matt Swihart and Revino cofounder Adam Rack about the significant environmental benefits of glass bottles over other kinds of containers, and the role they see refillables playing more broadly in helping states meet climate goals.