Think Out Loud

Drivers could be paying a toll to drive on I-5 and I-205 in the next couple of years. The Oregon Department of Transportation is soliciting public comments now for an upcoming study on tolling those freeways. Aaron Golub is a professor in the Urban Studies and Planning department at Portland State University. He joins us to tell us more about what tolls on I-5 and I-205 might look like in the next few years, where tolling has worked elsewhere, and the challenges of addressing congestion along with safety and equity more broadly.

Last month, four candidates of Vietnamese heritage from the Portland metro area were elected to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives. Along with Rep. Khanh Pham, who won reelection in November, Oregon now boasts the largest number of Vietnamese American state lawmakers in the nation. We hear from Representative-elect Hai Pham, a Democrat and pediatric dentist whose House District 36 covers Hillsboro, parts of Beaverton and unincorporated Washington County. Rep. Khanh Pham is a Democrat representing House District 46, which covers Northeast and Southeast Portland. In 2020, she became the first Asian American lawmaker elected to serve in the Oregon state Legislature.

Eric Watkins says he started the Instagram and Twitter accounts called "Elite Oregon Girls" to highlight female high school sports in the state.

But an investigation by student journalists at Portland's Grant High School alleges that Watkins was using those accounts to send inappropriate messages to female student athletes.

According to the report, the Elite Oregon Girls Instagram account featured a story in November that stated: “I’m stepping back from running EOG for an unknown period of time.”

The Instagram account is now private.

In a statement to OPB, Watkins wrote: “Grant Magazine deliberately withheld contextual insight regarding those messages, misleading the public to believe that it was done with inappropriate intentions. The article is being thoroughly reviewed and legal options are being weighed.

EOG was proof that girls thrive when they are invested into and cared about. I gave every ounce of passion I could into them and I walk away successful, they have a brighter future ahead,” he added. “I have no regrets and that story was nothing short of a backstabbing hit."

In a Twitter thread on Dec. 19 he wrote: "A new group awaits and a new adventure comes in 2023. Peace out Oregon.”

Veronica Bianco is an editor-in-chief and a reporter for Grant Magazine. Ava Siano and Claire Coffey are reporters for the outlet. They join us with details on their reporting.

At Salem’s Sprague High School, there have long been stark differences between the resources for girls softball and boys baseball. These included inequities in the fields, locker rooms, equipment, coaching time and more. Earlier this year a federal civil rights Title IX investigation was launched, which resulted in the district entering a voluntary resolution agreement. The district says it was more than happy to agree since it had already begun investing in girls sports as it aims for parity with boys sports. Salem-Keizer school district’s Coordinator of Athletics and Activities Lara Tiffin tells us about those improvements and what they will mean for students.

A third of stillbirth deaths go without answers to why they happen. As reported by ProPublica, researchers and maternal health groups are calling for doctors and hospitals to offer post-mortem examinations. These can include assessments such as placental exams, genetic testing and autopsies. These tests are often able to determine a cause of death, or at least eliminate one that may be suspected. But data from the Centers for Disease Control show that only 60% of stillbirths had a planned placental exam and only 20% had an autopsy planned. Karen Gibbins is an assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at OHSU and has published research on stillbirths. She joins us to share what we know about stillbirths and how examinations could give us a better understanding of why they happen and how to prevent them.

Jennifer Gibson has recently been chosen as the post-wildfire coordinator for the National Park Service. She is no stranger to wildfire recovery. She was personally affected by the Carr Fire in 2018 while working at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California. The blaze burned more than 90% of the park. She’s also worked as the chief of resources and fire at Crater Lake National Park. Now, she plans to assist other parks across the country as they manage the impact from wildfires. Gibson joins us with details of how the national agency collaborates with parks in the aftermath of fires.

Frank Thompson oversaw the only two state executions in the last 50 years in Oregon, the most recent in 1997. He’s been working to abolish capital punishment ever since. Former Governor John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on the practice in 2011, which Gov. Kate Brown extended in her administration. In 2019, the legislature narrowed the crimes that are eligible for the death penalty. And last week Brown commuted the sentences of the last remaining death row inmates and ordered the dismantling of the execution chamber itself, moving Oregon closer than it’s been in decades to being a state without capital punishment. Thompson joins us to share his reflections about his experience and the direction the state is headed.

Rosemary Brewer is the executive director of the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center. She says the people she represents have their own perspectives on the death penalty, and those attitudes reflect a wide range -- just like all Oregonians. But she says victims have a right under the Oregon Constitution to have a meaningful role in the justice system. Brewer says whether or not there was a legal obligation to victims or not, giving significant notice to victims when their offender’s death sentence is being commuted would reflect empathy and respect. In the recent commutations, victims were notified the same day. Brewer joins us to talk about the role that respect for victims plays in the justice system at large.

When archaeologists Eric Gleason and Jacqui Cheung bought a run-down building in The Dalles’ downtown in 2000, they had a vague sense of its history. 210 E. 1st St. was simply known as “the Chinese building,” having operated as a Chinese laundry and merchandise store from the late 1800s to the 1920s. But the building had long since fallen into disrepair, and information about its owners and occupants proved elusive.

Gleason and Cheung’s renovations and research over the last 20 years have revealed a deeper history of the Wing Hong Hai Company store — and the small but vibrant Chinatown that surrounded it. The artifacts and documents they’ve uncovered offer a glimpse of what life may have been like for Asian immigrants who came to The Dalles 150 years ago. Gleason and Cheung join us for a tour of the building and to share some of those insights.

The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area is the largest in the U.S., covering more than 80 miles of forest, hills and bluffs in Oregon and southwest Washington. Friends of the Columbia Gorge is a conservation nonprofit that was instrumental in getting the federal government to declare the region a National Scenic Area 40 years ago, and has worked to protect its scenic resources which draw roughly two million people a year to recreate there. The organization is also spearheading an ambitious effort to connect communities throughout the gorge in a 200-mile trail loop. The Gorge Towns to Trails initiative aims to “promote alternative transportation options,” reduce congestion at popular trailheads and introduce hikers to less-visited areas of the gorge.

Gorge Towns to Trails project manager Renée Tkach joins us to walk a bit of the trail and talk about its progress so far. D’na Chase, a Cherokee Nation tribal member and land trustee with Friends of the Columbia Gorge, shares her vision for engaging the gorge’s many Indigenous communities in projects like Towns to Trails.