Think Out Loud

For years, researchers have shown that play is an important part of a child’s social, emotional and cognitive development. It can help children master new skills, build confidence, spark creativity, along with other positive effects. But less attention has been given to how parents and caregivers also benefit from play. Researchers at Oregon State University aim to change that by using a national grant they were recently awarded to develop a program for parents and caregivers to more easily and sustainably engage in play with their kids. Xiangyou (Sharon) Shen is an assistant professor in leisure, environment and health in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. Shauna Tominey is an associate professor of human development and family sciences at OSU. They join us to talk about making parenting more playful.

Oregon’s only federally-run boarding school for Native American students failed to properly spend or account for millions of taxpayer dollars as well as hundreds of thousands contributed to student accounts by Indigenous families, according to an audit published Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General. OPB editor Rob Manning, who worked on a  five-part investigation into Chemawa, joins us to talk about the audit.

From ocean acidification to rising sea levels and warming temperatures, climate change is taking a toll on the world’s oceans and fisheries. Scientists at NOAA, for example, have found that warming temperatures in the Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska are affecting the movement of Pacific cod and Alaska pollock, and that some fisheries are more vulnerable to climate change than others.

Tensions may also flare up in the coming years between fishing fleets in pursuit of stocks as different fish expand or contract their range. A research team led by Oregon State University was recently awarded more than a million dollars by the U.S. Department of Defense to study this issue. James Watson is an associate professor in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and is the principal investigator on the project which is launching in September. He joins us to share details about it and what past fishing disputes on the high seas could tell us about future ones.

Pacific Seafood, a seafood processing company based in Oregon, owns more than 40 facilities across 11 states. The company is a major force in the fish, crab, and shrimp industry up and down the West Coast. Brand Little, a fisherman based out of San Francisco, says Pacific Seafood has too much power, and is able to both dictate the price offered for crabs and exert influence on the start date of the crab fishing season. Little filed a lawsuit in California on behalf of other small fishermen. We talk to Brand Little, and his lawyer Stuart Gross. Pacific Seafood declined to join us because of the ongoing lawsuit. 

Sudden oak death, a tree disease caused by a fungal-like pathogen, can lead to bleeding cankers, leaf blight and rapid dieoff in a number of plant and tree species. The disease was first detected in northern California in the mid-1990s, and has been slowly spreading in Southern Oregon since 2001. Newly infected trees were recently found in Humbug Mountain State Park near Port Orford, leading to renewed treatment efforts by state agencies. 

Gabriela Ritokova is a forest pathologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry. She joins us with more details about the disease and efforts to contain it.

For more than a hundred years, all the members of Portland's city council have been elected city-wide. That's about to change after voters passed a major overhaul to the city charter last November. The volunteer Independent District Commission has released three maps depicting different options for how the districts could be drawn. We talk to Josh Laurente and DaWayne Judd, co-chairs of the Independent District Commission, about their proposed maps for how to divide the city into four districts.

Portland area counties are joining together to work on a regional heat map. The data will be collected by volunteers, and public health officials hope that the information can help better prepare the region for hotter summers. 

In a typical year in Portland, no heat related deaths are reported. In 2021, after the record-breaking heat dome, at least 69 deaths resulted from extreme heat in the last week of June, according to Multnomah County. Summers in Oregon are heating up, and public health officials say that managing heat islands will be an important part of addressing rising temperatures.

Kathleen Johnson is a senior program coordinator at Washington County Public Health. Morgan Zabow is a community heat and health information coordinator for NOAA. And J’reyesha Brannon is a volunteer with Multnomah County who will be collecting data for the heat map research. They join us to share more on the importance of exploring heat in and around Portland and the potential for collaboration among health officials and the general public.

The system for dispatching emergency services is itself in need of help. The Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications has been struggling for many years to get its hold times down. It has hired more dispatchers, and is now using a system of automatic call backs to numbers that hang up. It’s also implemented as an automated answering system for non-emergency calls. Given the challenges, it might come as a surprise to learn that the award for best dispatcher in North America is Portland’s own Stephen Zipprich. He joins us to talk about the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch award, his experience over the last decade of this work and what keeps him going. 

Measure 114, Oregon’s voter-passed law to regulate firearms, has yet to go into effect because of multiple court challenges. Measure 114 bans future purchases of magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It also requires those wishing to buy a firearm to get a permit first. Permits will require applicants to complete a safety class and a federal background check.
Last Friday, a federal judge ruled that the measure’s ban on the sale or manufacture of large-capacity magazines and its requirement for a permit to purchase a gun are constitutional. The ruling was appealed and may eventually be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Measure 114 also faces a challenge at the state level that will be heard in September. Norman Williams, law professor at Willamette University, explains where the legal challenges stand now.

Oregon archaeologists have found evidence of human occupation in the state that dates back more than 18,000 years. University of Oregon students and faculty working at the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Harney County found stone tools and fragments of camel and bison teeth beneath a 15,000-year-old layer of volcanic ash. Radiocarbon dating of the tooth enamel revealed that the fragments were 18,250 years old. Due to their position in the ash, the tools are thought to be even older — making them some of the oldest evidence of human civilization in North America.
Joining us with more details about the discovery is Pat O’Grady, a staff archaeologist at the University of Oregon Museum of Cultural and Natural History.