Think Out Loud

Earlier this month, Oregon City officials penned an open letter, published by Pamplin Media, to the Oregon Department of Transportation. The letter states that the city’s commission is “adamantly opposed to any application of tolling in the region.”

It also details concerns over how local communities and businesses in Clackamas County will be affected by drivers who try to avoid freeway tolls.

Denyse McGriff is the mayor of Oregon City and John Lewis is its public works director. They join us with details of their concerns and what they hope to see moving forward.

Last week, the first ever tri-county point-in-time count began. Volunteers, service providers and outreach workers from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas County surveyed people without adequate shelter to formulate updated data on what homelessness looks like in the region. The count finished yesterday. We’ll hear from two Portlanders who volunteered for this count for the first time. Marianne Nelson and Richard Gibson share why they chose to participate and what they heard from people they surveyed.

If farmers or ranchers want to put solar panels in their fields, they often have to give up agricultural production on that land. But the practice of “agrivoltaics” combines the two by elevating the panels, allowing grazing and growing to continue underneath. The cost of the steel needed to raise the panels above ground level often makes agrivoltaics prohibitive, but one Oregon company is looking to make the practice more accessible. We’ll get an overview of agrivoltaics from Serkan Ates, an associate professor in Oregon State University’s department of animal and rangeland sciences. We'll also hear from Portland-based RUTE Foundation Systems, which is working on a cable-stayed agrivoltaics system that the company says uses less steel and thereby lowers its cost. David McFeeters-Krone, a business development and government relations consultant with RUTE, joins to tell us more about the company’s technology.

Earlier this month, the Pinckney Gallery in Bend launched “Black Excellence Showcase”. The exhibit features painted canvases, digital art, sculptures and mixed-media installations made by Black artists and community members in Central Oregon. It’s the first time an exhibit highlighting Black artists has been done at the gallery which is located on the campus of Central Oregon Community College. The exhibit also provides a space for representation and collaboration with the community. One of the featured works is a mural celebrating Black femme identity, with photos and hand-written notes submitted from community members reflecting on what it means to nurture and be nurtured. June Park is an adjunct professor in the fine arts department and the director of the Pinckney Gallery. Mel Smith is completing a certificate in graphic design and illustration at Central Oregon Community College. Shandell Landon is an instructor at OSU-Cascades and a community volunteer. They join us to talk about the “Black Excellence Showcase” and their contributions to it.

“Black Excellence Showcase” will be at the Pinckney Gallery located on the campus of Central Oregon Community College in Bend until Feb. 24. Admission is free and open Monday through Friday.

Oregon launched a hotline this month to help callers across the country understand the state's reproductive laws following the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year. Abortion remains legal in Oregon and the Supreme Court’s decision did not change abortion laws in the state. We hear more about the hotline from Anna Sortun, a partner with Tonkon Torp and one of the lawyers taking calls.

The Oregon Reproductive Rights Hotline number is (503) 431-6460.

The dry farming collaborative at Oregon State University will convene on Feb. 8 to discuss dry farming techniques and the results from trials using the method. Dry farming is a technique that relies on moisture stored in soil during a rainy season to produce crops during a dry season. We learn more about how dry farming is used in western Oregon from Amy Garrett, the board president of the Dry Farming Institute and Lucas Nebert, a research associate at OSU

Cisplatin is a common chemotherapy drug used to treat several types of cancer in both adults and children. While effective, the drug can build up in the inner ear and cause permanent damage. The resulting hearing loss can affect young patients, potentially causing delays in learning and social-emotional development. Until recently, there were few options to prevent or slow that hearing loss. Sodium thiosulfate (STS), a drug studied for years by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University, has been shown to counteract the toxic effects of cisplatin in the inner ear. The FDA has recently approved its use for patients as young as 1 month old.

OHSU audiologist Kristy Knight joins us to explain what the treatment could mean for pediatric cancer patients. We also hear from Jennifer Boesche, a Beaverton mother who petitioned the FDA to approve STS after it helped slow her daughter’s treatment-based hearing loss.

As schools shut down during the beginning of the pandemic, students had to quickly pivot to virtual learning at home. This shift led to an increasing number of Oregon parents opting to homeschool their children, even after schools reopened. As the Oregon Capital Chronicle reports, homeschool enrollment numbers today are 40% higher than what they were pre-pandemic. Rosalyn Newhouse is a volunteer and board president of Oregon Homeschool Education Network. She joins us to share the reasons some parents made the switch and the challenges it can have.

Edwidge Danticat is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs, with a focus on the rich experiences of the Haitian diaspora. Her latest book is the collection of short stories “Everything Inside.” We listen back to a conversation with Danticat in front of an audience at Woodburn high school from May 2022.

Recent U.S. Census data found that Oregon’s population decreased in 2022 for the first time in 40 years. Last week, China announced that its population went down for the first time in 60 years. Then, this week, Japan’s prime minister said that his country, with its lowest birthrate in more than 120 years, is “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions.”

Peter Walker, a professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Oregon, joins us to talk about what’s driving global population trends, and why some regions are shrinking and others are still growing.