Think Out Loud

 Thousands of Oregonians are dealing with having to pay back some unemployment benefits the state now says they shouldn't have received. The Oregon Law Center filed a lawsuit in 2022 arguing that the Oregon Employment Department is violating the due process clause of the constitution. The case is ongoing and represents the confusion around paying back benefits. Meanwhile the agency says it was overwhelmed by requests during the pandemic, and it’s possible that more than $5.5 million could be waived in overpaid benefits. Dianne Lugo is a reporter for the Statesman Journal and has covered these issues. She joins us with more on her reporting.

Last week, a state report showed that 38% of all Oregon students are chronically absent, meaning they miss at least 10% of school days. Charan Cline is the superintendent of the Redmond School District in Central Oregon. He joins us to share more on what this issue looks like in his district. Stacy Parish is the leader of Oregon Department of Education’s Tribal Attendance Promising Practices. She joins us to share more on what this issue is looking like for Oregon’s Indigenous students.

Last month, Multnomah County fined ambulance service provider AMR more than $500,000 for slow response times to emergency 911 calls. According to its exclusive contract service with the county, AMR is required to respond to 90% of life-threatening calls within 8 minutes in urban areas. But in August, AMR ambulances were delayed in responding to 14% of emergency calls. The company has appealed the fine and claims the problem is largely due to the county’s staffing requirement of two paramedics per ambulance. In Washington, Clackamas and Clark counties, for example, no such requirement exists, and AMR is able to staff ambulances with one paramedic and an EMT.Meanwhile, there’s a growing shortage of EMTs and paramedics across the nation, including Oregon, which community colleges are helping to address through training courses. Joining us to talk about these issues are Dr. Paul Lewis, deputy health officer for Multnomah County; Randy Lauer, vice president of operations for AMR; and Dave Schapp, EMS programs director at Central Oregon Community College in Bend.

Every Thursday night for nine years THE THESIS brings artists and audiences who love hip-hop to celebrate together at Kelly’s Olympian in downtown Portland. The event is Portland’s longest-running hip hop showcase. We talk to Mac Smiff and Grant Stolle, two of the founders of THE THESIS, about creating a safe space to uplift local hip hop artists. 

A coalition of environmental groups and tribes who are suing the federal government over the condition of salmon on the Snake River have been in talks with the government for over a month. Those talks are tentatively scheduled to reach an agreement by December 15, but last week, a leaked draft agreement showed that the federal government may agree to take down the four lower Snake River dams. The agreement also revealed federal government commitments to investing in habitat restoration and alternative energy development on tribal lands. The Snake River is the main tributary of the Columbia River, flowing from Idaho and eastern Washington into Oregon. We talk to longtime Idaho journalist Rocky Barker about how we got here, and what the leak could mean for a future agreement.

A team of scientists at Oregon State University has recently received more than $4 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lead a study to understand a disease threatening honey bees. The bacterial disease targets the larvae within a honeybee colony, killing them within a few days before they can emerge from their cocoons as adults. Although the disease is not new, it appears to have gotten worse in the past five years, according to Andony Melathopoulos, an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at OSU, and the co-principal investigator of the study. The disease is of particular concern to beekeepers who travel across the country with their colonies and have noticed a rise in infections following the start of blueberry pollination in April. Melathopoulous joins us to talk about the details of the study, which will also include steps beekeepers may be able to take to protect their colonies and the multibillion-dollar industry that depends on their services.        

When we talked with Chas Hundley in 2017, it was after he’d been running his first paper, the Gales Creek Journal for about 4 years and was about to take it — along with a second news site, The Banks Post — to print. To do that he had to leave his job in tech, and devote himself full time to local journalism. Now, 10 years and one global pandemic later, he’s still at it, largely on his own. But in that time he’s gone to weekly printing and launched the online Salmonberry Magazine, which focuses on the Tillamook State Forest area. Hundley joins us to share more about his journey and his hopes for these publications — and the communities they serve — in the next 10 years. 

By 2029, the Knott Landfill outside of Bend is expected to reach capacity and will no longer accept any more solid waste. Now, Deschutes County officials are looking at two potential locations for a new landfill. Tim Brownell is the director of solid waste for the county. He joins us to share more on how to plan and build a landfill, as well as the timeline for opening.

Though data about clients at Oregon’s new legal psilocybin clinics is protected by privacy rules, it appears that many are coming from outside the state. Freelance journalist Grant Stringer talked to multiple clinic owners and clients in a story for The Oregon Capital Chronicle. We talk to him about what he learned.

A new study from Oregon Health & Science University used TikTok to survey teens and young adults about their understanding of menstrual health. It found that although the vast majority of respondents would prefer to control or stop their period using hormonal medications, nearly two-thirds were unsure whether it would be safe to do so. Researchers also found that health literacy was lowest among respondents who identified with a Christian family background or who lived in the U.S. South.

Maureen Baldwin, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at OHSU, joins us with more details on how parents and health care providers can help fill gaps in menstrual health knowledge.