The Oregon Health Authority announced last month that face masks would no longer be required in health care settings beginning April 3. The mandate originally went into effect in August 2021 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals, urgent cares and other medical facilities. The new guidance doesn’t prevent health care facilities from continuing to require masks, leaving providers around the state to decide whether and how to update their policies.

Asante Health System in southern Oregon will discontinue its COVID-era mask requirements. Holly Nickerson, vice president of quality and patient safety, joins us to talk about how the decision was made and what patients and staff can expect going forward.

If you’ve seen live music in Portland over the last couple of decades there’s a decent chance you’ve seen Jenny Conlee on the accordion or keyboard. She may be best known for her work with The Decemberists, with whom she’s played for the last 23 years. She has also played with Casey Neill and the Norway Rats, Jerry Joseph, Little Sue, The Minus Five, Stephanie Schneiderman
or Ashley Flynn. Conlee has a new solo album out called “Tides: Pieces for Accordion and Piano.” Some of the original songs were inspired by her time on the southern Washington coast. Conlee joins us in the studio to tell us more about “Tides” and play a few songs on accordion.

On April 24, a 75-bed navigation center for people experiencing homelessness will open in Salem. The facility will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be the first of its kind in Marion County. Case workers will be on site to help clients access medical care, behavioral health services and transition to stable housing. City officials say it is designed to be a “low barrier” shelter which does not require sobriety for entry, and accepts all genders, as well as pets.

The Salem City Council has allocated more than $23 million in state and federal funds to expand shelter and homeless services, including launching this spring a third micro-shelter community of small living units to temporarily house young adults, 18 to 24 years old. The city is also opening 52 units inside a former Oregon State Hospital building to provide permanent supportive housing for unsheltered people who are disabled, mentally ill or have other complex medical and behavioral health needs. Joining us to talk about Salem’s efforts to tackle a growing homelessness crisis are Salem Mayor Chris Hoy and Salem Housing Authority Administrator Nicole Utz.

A young woman in the midst of cancer treatment goes on a road trip in a broken down el camino with her no-good ex-boyfriend. A man working as a ghoul at a sort of halloween theme park learns that his whole life has been a lie. A gay man is forced to come out over and over again to his senile misogynist father. A mother’s moral outrage on behalf of her son goes seriously awry. Two new collections of short stories tell stories about people living on the edge of a society that is failing them. George Saunders’ “Liberation Day” is filled with wry humor, even as his characters are often trapped by their own foolishness. The characters in Jess Walter’s collection, “The Angel of Rome,” are often filled with humor and hope, even as they struggle against poverty and indifference. OPB’s Geoff Norcross talks to Saunders and Walter about the art of writing short stories about our time.

The Oregon-based nonprofit LifeWorks NW began providing mental health services more than 60 years ago, long before the idea of providing mental health services in the community was recognized as a best practice. Today the nonprofit runs a variety of mental health treatment programs, including Adolescent Day Treatment and one of the state’s Early Assessment and Support Alliance programs. It’s also one of the three partners of the Bridge clinic at OHSU.
As a part of a new OPB series tackling some of the most pressing problems that Oregonians are facing, along with some promising solutions, we went to the LifeWorks NW Tigard site and sat down with those involved in receiving and giving mental health care.Our guests were: Massimo Merolla, an Oregon State University sophomore; Occupational Therapist Kylie McDermott; Tamara Sale, director of the EASA Center for Excellence; Sara Cady and her dad Josh Cady; Family Therapist Becca Schweigert; and Karen Bos, OHSU assistant professor and medical director of LifeWorks NW.

Whale Watch Week officially kicked off on Tuesday, a chance to catch gray whales as they pass along the Oregon coast during a migration which stretches from the warm lagoons of Baja, Mexico to the icy waters of Alaska. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department hosts the whale watching event twice a year, including most recently last December, when it took place for the first time in person since the start of the pandemic. For the spring event, 17 viewing sites have been set up from Fort Stevens near Astoria to Harris Beach near the California border. At each of the sites the public can explore interactive exhibits, grab a pair of binoculars and get help from trained volunteers to spot the marine mammals traveling about a mile off the coast, some with recently birthed calves in tow. Peter McBride is a park ranger with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department based at Beverly Beach, near Newport. He joins us to talk about Whale Watch Week and what visitors can expect to see during the event which ends this Sunday.

Last year, nearly 70,000 people reported to the Federal Trade Commission that they were caught up in a romance scam, with their swindlers raking in a total of $1.3 billion. A romance scam, or confidence scam, is when someone feigns affection or attraction to someone for financial or material gain. In Oregon, victims of these cons lost over $10 million between January and October of 2022. Freelance journalist Ian Frisch reported on one Portlander's experience with this type of scam for The Verge. He joins us to discuss the growing trend of romance scams and how one man’s Tinder date turned into a car theft police sting.

Earlier this month, the governor’s office announced that Malheur County has been added to a homelessness state of emergency. The rural county has faced its own issues with homelessness and officials say that it has few resources to manage the issue. Tom Vialpando is the mayor of Vale. He joins us with more on what he hopes to see happen in the county.

"Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell about Fear" explores danger and culture through stories about wolves. Portland-based author Erica Berry weaves in her own experiences and encounters with "big, bad wolves." She also charts the journey of OR 7, a radio-collared Oregon wolf who wanders throughout the state and into California. Berry joins us to discuss her book and what wolves mean to us.

We listen back to a 2016 conversation with Walter Cole, whose alter ego was the legendary Portland drag queen Darcelle. Cole died last week at the age of 92.