Think Out Loud

With 73 individuals remaining, southern resident killer whales, or orcas, are the only endangered population of killer whales in the U.S. They spend the spring, summer and fall hunting for salmon throughout the inland and coastal waterways of Washington and British Columbia. Their territory overlaps with northern resident killer whales which hunt for salmon from Glacier Bay, Alaska to the central coast of Washington, and share a similar matrilineal social structure. Both groups face threats such as plummeting salmon stocks, pollution and increased maritime activity. But unlike the population of northern resident orcas, which has been steadily increasing, the southern resident population has declined over the past 20 years.

A team of international scientists has now revealed another possible clue to help explain their struggle for survival. They found that adult males spent more time hunting and catching salmon than females within the southern resident population, with the foraging pattern reversed in the northern population. They also found that southern resident mothers with calves spent less time hunting than northern resident mothers. Joining us now is Jennifer Tennessen, a senior scientist at the University of Washington Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, and the lead author of the study which was published this month in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

A recent draft report from the Oregon Health Authority found high levels of dioxin contamination in some yards in a Eugene neighborhood. Dioxins are highly toxic pollutants that can cause cancer, reproductive problems and damage to immune systems. Residents have been instructed to keep their children from playing in the dirt and to not eat eggs from backyard chickens until the soil can be replaced.

The contamination likely stemmed from the nearby J.H. Baxter plant, which treated wood products with rot-prevention chemicals like creosote. The plant accrued fines for emissions violations and chemical mishandling and raised complaints from neighbors for years before it shuttered in 2022. The OHA report is part of a state and federal investigation into contamination at and around the site.

Christian Wihtol has been covering this issue for The Lund Report. He joins us with more details on the agency's findings.

This week, the Portland Bureau of Transportation released its annual report on traffic deaths. It found that 63 people died in traffic crashes in 2022. The Street Trust, a Portland-based advocacy group focused on transportation, recently issued six recommendations to reduce pedestrian fatalities in Oregon. Sarah Iannarone is the executive director of the organization. She joins us with more on the trust’s vision for a safer Oregon.

In a career spanning more than three decades, Georgina Hayns has been making puppets that have been brought to life through the art of stop-motion animation on TV shows and feature films like “Bob the Builder” and Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride.” But instead of relying on computers to do the animating, the characters in stop-motion animation are made by hand from materials like clay, latex and silicone. They are then animated by being positioned on sets and moved in tiny increments, with each movement recorded frame by frame.

Today, Hayns is the director of character fabrication at ShadowMachine, a stop-motion animation studio in Portland. She recently led a team of artists who made 200 puppets for an animated, Academy Award-winning version of “Pinocchio” by director Guillermo del Toro. She joins us to talk about working on the film, the opportunity that led her to leave her native England for Portland and the enduring appeal of an avowedly analog style of filmmaking.

A bill in the Oregon House of Representatives would ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, flavored e-cigarettes and hookah. Five states have enacted similar bans, including California, which allows an exception for hookah sales. In Oregon, Washington and Multnomah counties both voted to ban flavored tobacco sales, but a state circuit court judge ruled in 2022 that only the state has that authority.

Here to tell us more about the bill is Dr. James Bishara, a pediatric cardiologist at OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.

In Oregon, people released from prison were 10 times more likely to overdose on opioids compared to the general population, according to a new study that tracked prison release and overdose data from 2014 to 2018. The risk of overdose doubled during the first two weeks of release, and formerly incarcerated women were almost twice as likely as men to experience an opioid overdose. A team of scientists from Oregon State University, Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon Department of Corrections shared these findings which were published in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. The study looked at both fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses using data collected from the Department of Corrections, state Medicaid insurance claims for emergency room and hospital admissions, as well as death certificates. Joining us are Dan Hartung, a professor in the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University and Elizabeth Waddell, an associate professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, to talk about the research and new efforts in Oregon to expand access to substance use treatment both during and after incarceration.

Caregivers in Oregon group homes are reaching a crisis. Facing long hours, low pay and concerns for safety, these state employees with the Department of Health and Human Services are urging their bosses to listen to their concerns and address working conditions. Christina Sydenstricker-Brown is a caregiver. Ben Botkin is the criminal justice and health reporter for the Oregon Capital Chronicle and has been covering this issue. They both join us to share the conditions these more than 600 employees are facing and what it could mean for the future of the industry

Portland’s Central library in the heart of the city’s downtown is by far its biggest branch. It also provides internet and other services to those who may be experiencing homelessness or just want to duck in to get out of the elements. Some bond funded renovations started last year, but now the building will close while various updates get completed. The Albina branch will be closing temporarily for construction later this week, followed by the North Portland branch in early April. The Holgate and Midland branches are currently closed for renovations.

Taxpayer backed bonds are also funding a huge brand new library in Gresham. Katie O’Dell has worked at the Multnomah County Library for much of her career and she’s currently the capital bond deputy director there. She joins us to tell us about what’s happening system-wide and the plans the library has made to backfill services while some of these critical facilities are getting remade.

A structure at the base of Portland’s Steel Bridge caught fire Wednesday. Crews found that people had been living inside the structure after tunneling inside. We’ll get an update on the situation from Rick Graves, public information officer for Portland Fire & Rescue.

Skin disease and alcohol use disorder may not be related conditions, but new research from Oregon Health & Science University suggests they could be treated by the same medication. Researchers ran animal studies and found that apremilast, which is normally used to treat psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, had an effect on alcohol consumption. In human studies conducted at the Scripps Research Institute in California, participants who received apremilast reduced their alcohol intake from five to two drinks per day, on average.

Angela Ozburn is an associate professor of behavioral neuroscience at OHSU and a senior author of the study. She joins to tell us more.