Think Out Loud

Government agencies are having trouble filling open cybersecurity positions, which can leave them vulnerable to attacks. Oregon State University has received $4.8 million from the National Science Foundation to help boost and train workers to shore up cybersecurity at some of our most vulnerable federal agencies. Dave Nevin is an assistant professor of practice in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Rakesh Bobba is an associate professor of computer science at OSU. Cameron McCawley is a student and president of the OSU security club. They join us with more on what the funding will do and how OSU is preparing students for jobs in cybersecurity.

Oregon’s Clean Fuels Program was created to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel suppliers, with a goal for companies to scale back emissions by at least 37% by 2035. These companies can purchase carbon credits, which are awarded to clean fuel providers by the Department of Environmental Quality, to counterbalance their emissions. One Lincoln City man found a way to swindle the system. Merlin Thompson defrauded the DEQ carbon credit system and sold credits he did not earn for nearly $2 million. Alex Baumhardt is a reporter for the Oregon Capital Chronicle and has been following this story.

Who is an American? And what does it mean to be one? Those are questions that Cristi Miles, co-founder of the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, thought about when she first heard a podcast about an iconic series of photographs published in the late 50s by Robert Frank. The collection is called “The Americans,” and little did she know that a few years later she would be exploring those themes and reimagining the photographs on stage using music and dance. The production, now playing at the historic Alberta House in N.E. Portland, takes its name from the Robert Frank collection. Miles co-directed the show and joins us to talk about how the ensemble went about exploring American identity in a performance that’s as much a poem as a play.

The pandemic relegated many people’s professional lives to the internet — water-cooler conversations and lunches with coworkers became meetings over Zoom and group chats on Microsoft Teams. And for creative professionals like musicians and artists, that isolation was even more pronounced.

Third Angle New Music’s upcoming performance “Self Portrait” deals with those themes. The show will feature solo performances and testimonials from local musicians and composers about their experiences navigating mental health struggles during the pandemic. 3A is also offering an accompanying series of free mental health workshops for music educators.

Sarah Tiedemann is the artistic director for 3A and a flutist performing in “Self Portrait.” She joins to tell us more about the show ahead of its opening on Jan. 26.

An Oregon man is facing felony charges over a curb that has been painted “lipstick red.” Defendant Allen Buzzard will face trial over the incident in February. What started as a misdemeanor at Brownsville Municipal Court has escalated into a felony charge with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines of $125,000. We learn more about the case from Penny Rosenberg, a regional editor for several newspapers in the Pacific Northwest. She has reported on the issue and continues to follow the case.

Protesters who have participated in demonstrations in Portland are familiar with rubber bullets, pepper balls, teargas canisters, and other kinetic impact projectiles (KIPs). Just last week, the city agreed to a $75,000 settlement with a protester who says he was hit multiple times with 'FN 303 less-lethal' projectiles during the 2020 protests. Freelance journalist Linda Rodriguez McRobbie has been looking into the history of the use of these devices by law enforcement. She joins us to talk about what she found.

Three days a week, residents queue up at the Portland Open Bible Community Pantry on 92nd avenue to receive free boxes of food containing fresh produce, meat, bread and other grocery staples. Executive director and founder Betty Brown said the pantry was created eight years ago to address a “food desert” in Southeast Portland. In 2021, the pantry used a grant from the Oregon Food Bank to launch an online ordering system for clients to select food items for drive-through pickup. Last fall, the nonprofit partnered with Providence Health to stock a local clinic with a food pantry so that patients could leave with a bag of groceries to meet dietary or nutritional needs. Betty Brown and Olivia Estrada, a mother and client of the Portland Open Bible Community Pantry, join us to talk about hunger, food insecurity and the impact the pantry is having in Southeast Portland.

Governor Tina Kotek recently announced three executive orders to address housing and homelessness, and asked lawmakers to put $130 million towards unsheltered Oregonians. We’ll hear from Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann, and Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall about what they’d like to see next.

Portland comic book artist Rupert Kinnard introduced his character the Brown Bomber in 1977, and later, BB's sidekick Diva Touché Flambé. Kinnard created the first African American LGBTQ characters in comics. His stories are now chronicled in the documentary, “No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics,” which premieres on OPB on January 23, 2023 in the new season of the PBS series “Independent Lens.” Throughout his career, Kinnard contributed to Willamette Week and co-founded Just Out. He was also the first Black member of the first LGBTQ-rights umbrella organization in Oregon. Through the Brown Bomber and Diva Touché Flambé, he provided commentary on social issues including gay rights and racial justice. Kinnard spoke to us in June 2021 when the documentary was featured in the QDoc festival in Portland.

The 1985 Steven Spielberg film "The Goonies'' is a quintessential adventure movie, following a middle schooler named Mikey and his friends as they find a treasure map and go on an epic adventure to save the family home from being demolished to make way for a golf course at the local country club. They call themselves the “Goonies” because they live in the Goon Docks neighborhood of a fictional version of Astoria on the Oregon coast. Since the movie first made its debut, the real Astoria house has been a tourist draw for fans across the country.

The Goonies themselves famously “Never say die!” And one of the film's biggest fans would never do so either. Behman Zakeri lives in the Kansas City area and was among a number of would-be buyers that put in immediate offers when the home went up for sale last fall. He says he’s committed to making sure the house is preserved and that other die-hard fans will have access to it. What that will look like, though, is anyone’s guess, says Zakeri, as he’s not legally allowed to rent the home on a short term basis or make it into a museum.

Zakeri joins us to share why and how this movie became so woven into his identity and what his plans are for the future.