Forest Service Employees For Environmental Ethics, an Oregon-based environmental group, filed a lawsuit earlier this month against the U.S. Forest Service. The complaint alleges that the agency is in violation of the Clean Water Act by inadvertently dropping fire retardant into waterways. Andy Stahl is the executive director of Forest Service Employees For Environmental Ethics. He joins us with details of the complaint.

Earlier this month, Coos and Curry County came together to plan for the worst-case disaster scenario. They underwent a series of exercises to solidify roles for each county and get familiar with what to do in the case of a tsunami, earthquake or other emergency situation. Debbie Mueller is the Coos County Emergency Coordinator. She joins us to share how these trainings went and how Oregonians can be prepared for the worst.

This election, Multnomah County voters will decide whether to join the 50 or so other municipalities around the country that have adopted a system of ranked choice voting.
Multnomah County’s Measure 26-232 is different from the one on the Portland ballot that would change the city’s form of government, including a form of ranked choice voting.
The county measure would use a basic method of instant runoff ranked choice voting to decide contests for sheriff, auditor, and all the members of the Multnomah County Commission.

As a hypothetical example, 100 voters are choosing among Apple, Banana and Cherry. Banana gets 45 first choice votes, more than Apple or Cherry, but not the 51 needed to win. Another round of counting is done: Cherry had 41, and Apple had 14, so Apple is eliminated. All of Apple’s second choice votes are then counted, which in this theoretical election are evenly split -- with seven votes going to each remaining fruit -- leaving a final tally of Banana: 52 and Cherry: 48. However, if Cherry had gotten 10 of those Apple votes instead of seven, the outcome would have put Cherry … on top.
Minneapolis, Minnesota has been using this kind of instant runoff ranked choice voting since 2009. We talk with Aaron Grossman, one of the city’s election supervisors, about how it’s been working there and what he’s heard from voters over the years.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries oversees the rights of workers in Oregon. Two candidates are vying to be the state’s next labor commissioner, a nonpartisan role. Cheri Helt is a former Republican state representative and a former member of the Bend-La Pine school board. Christina Stephenson is a civil rights attorney who represents workers in employment disputes. Both candidates join us for a debate.

Wildfire smoke drove down the air quality significantly in many parts of Oregon this summer and fall. Many students were not allowed to play or take breaks outside because of the high levels of air pollution from smoke. The Oregon Health Authority provides guidance for people — and school districts — trying to figure out what level of exposure is safe. And even though rain has finally brought some relief, questions about how to respond to bad air quality are only going to get more urgent in the coming years.

Our guests are Molly Kile, professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University; Gabriele Goldfarb, manager of the Environmental Public Health Section at the Oregon Health Authority; and Carl Mead, Deputy Superintendent of Operations and Support Services for the Beaverton School District. We discuss the effects of smoky air on young lungs, and what goes into the decisions that schools and health authorities have to make.

In 2019, the band YACHT released an album called Chain Tripping. Every piece of the album was created by artificial intelligence: the music, the lyrics, the album art and the title.The band members, who come from Portland and Astoria, also made a documentary about the process of creating the album. It’s called The Computer Accent, and it’s playing this week at PAM CUT. Lead singer Claire Evans joins us to explain what AI can do for music, and what it can’t.

House Bill 4074 allocated $6 million to address the mental health of Oregon cannabis farm workers who faced poor working conditions at illegal farms. Racies de Bienestar, an Oregon-based nonprofit that focuses on the Latine community, will be receiving a part of that funding. Starting sometime this fall, the group will launch their program and provide more care to this community. Ruth Zúñiga is the executive director and co-founder of Raices de Bienestar. She joins us to share the barriers and stigmas this community faces when trying to access mental health care, and how she and her group are working to address them.

With the November election ballots starting to be mailed to voters this week, the state of Oregon is sending out the message that elections here continue to be free, fair and secure. The Secretary of State’s office is encouraging Oregon voters to “know their rights” and urging anyone who feels someone is trying to intimidate them at the ballot box or elsewhere to report it to her office. Donald Trump and his supporters are attempting to cast doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections with lies about election fraud, and specifically about the security of voting by mail.

Voters in some Oregon counties have complained about being questioned about their votes from people falsely representing themselves as government employees. And Oregon is not immune to the “monitoring” of voters at ballot boxes, which some voters say they find intimidating. Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan joins us to remind us about the safeguards baked into the state's vote-by-mail system, and walk us through the efforts to counter disinformation and intimidation.

In August, the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife division named Alexander Hayes, a deputy district attorney in Clackamas County, its “Prosecutor of the Year.” Hayes has been with the district attorney’s office for nearly four years, specializing in prosecuting cases involving illegal hunting and poaching. In one of his first cases with the county, he secured convictions against three individuals who had illegally baited and killed bears in eastern Clackamas County. In 2019, he worked with law enforcement investigators to stop a poaching operation involving sturgeon that was being illegally fished from the Willamette River and sold to local restaurants. Hayes joins us to talk about the challenges and rewards of prosecuting wildlife crimes.

Next month, Portlanders will vote on a ballot measure that affects the city's charter. Supporters say the proposal will make city government more representative. But the measure is complex, and opponents say it tries to change too much. Joining us to explain the key changes proposed in the measure is Chris Hughes, policy director and counsel at the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center. We’ll also hear from Sol Mora, campaign manager for Portland United for Change – which supports the charter measure – and Alisa Pyszka, a member of the Partnership for Common Sense Government, which opposes it.