Clackamas County is modernizing its outdated analog radio system. The old system relied on technology from the 90s and used parts that were no longer supported by the manufacturer. First responders transitioned to the new digital system last month. John Hartsock is the manager of the task force behind the update. He joins us with details on the new system and why the change was urgently needed.

Duncan Wyse, President of the Oregon Business Council, has gathered together a team of people to solve what he says is a big problem. Oregon appears to be losing out on new semiconductor factories. Intel just chose to build a new chip manufacturing campus in Ohio, which may end up being larger than Oregon’s current site. Wyse hopes the new task force can make Oregon a more attractive location for future manufacturing.

A short filmed shot in southern Oregon premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last week. “You Go Girl!” follows Audrey Jenkins, a new york stand up comic, exploring nature in remembrance of her mother. Shariffa Ali is the director and co-writer for the production and joins us to share what she hopes audiences can take away from film.

The Oregon Legislature kicks off its 2022 session on Tuesday with new leaders in both chambers. We hear from two of them: the new House Majority Leader, Rep. Julie Fahey (D, West Eugene & Junction City) and the new Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Tim Knopp (R, Bend). We’ll ask what they hope to accomplish in the short session, and how well Republicans and Democrats can work together in Salem right now.

OPB health reporter Amelia Templeton spent a day in the emergency department at Salem Health hospital last week. The day she was there, the hospital had 540 patients, but only 494 beds.

Oregonian Clara Honsinger is now the top women’s cyclocross racer in the United States. She won a national championship in 2019 and now, she’s about to compete in the cyclocross world championships. We spoke to Honsinger in 2019 and today we’re listening back to that interview.

When you think of a fish that breaks the state record for size, you probably don’t think of one that weighs just 5 pounds, 12 ounces. But for a whitefish, that’s big. It was bigger than any that Bend fisherman Alex Dietz had ever seen. So when he caught it on the Deschutes river, he went to have it weighed and submitted the paperwork to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Dietz thinks it might be the biggest on record, period. He’s waiting to hear back from the International Game Fish Association for confirmation. Dietz won’t give up the exact spot he caught the whitefish, but he joins us to talk about his hobby and what makes him keep coming back to the river.

A new art exhibit at Portland State University showcases 20 artists exploring themes of Black identity, resistance and resilience. The individual exhibits span varied media — from augmented reality comic book panels to vibrantly colored canvases. Amid the racial justice protests catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd in 2020, philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer created a program to award grants of $2,500 each to 60 artists in Oregon and Washington. We talk with J’reyesha Brannon and Steven Christian, two of the artists selected for the Black Lives Matter Artist Grant exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University. The exhibit is free to attend and runs through April.

The American Red Cross is experiencing a severe blood shortage. The lack of blood drives and a decline in donors has created the worst shortage in over a decade. Meanwhile, more than 20 lawmakers, including Oregon’s U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, have called for a change in federal policy. Currently, men who have sex with men must abstain for 3 months in order to be eligible to donate blood. Angel Montes is a regional donor services executive with the American Red Cross. Jonathan Frochtzwajg is the public policy manager with the Cascade AIDS Project and Prism health. They join us with details.

As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong found writing poetry to be freeing -- an empowering way of escaping the invisibility of Asian American identity. Then, as a professional poet, it became clear that the literary world expected Hong’s identity to be both a part of, and a limitation to, her work. This cognitive dissonance is one of the “Minor Feelings” addressed in her book of essays of that name. Cathy Park Hong joins us in front of an audience of students at Portland’s Leodis V. McDaniel High School.