Think Out Loud

Portlanders will be seeing a new face on the city council. Voters have elected Rene Gonzalez to be the city’s newest commissioner, ousting incumbent Jo Ann Hardesty. Hardesty joins us to share her take on the election – and the direction she thinks the city is headed.

Anthony Doerr’s last book, “All the Light We Cannot See,” told the stories of two different young people growing up in Europe during World War II and whose lives eventually overlapped. His newest book, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” uses a similar template, but on a much more complex scale. This book follows five different characters whose storylines eventually meet up. The stories range from ancient Greece to sometime in the near future, but they all share something in common: a love for the power of storytelling itself. And for the people and libraries that keep stories alive. Anthony Doerr joins us in front of an audience of students at Grant High School.

Space exploration and the potential habitability of other planets are on the cutting edge of scientific research. But University of Oregon archaeology professor Scott Fitzpatrick says humans made similar advances thousands of years ago when they traveled vast distances to populate remote islands.

Fitzpatrick compares early island exploration to space travel in a recent chapter he contributed to a new book. He joins us to talk about the parallels between the two and how looking to the past could make future space travel more successful.

Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity and Portland Audubon filed notice they intended to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to list the streaked horned lark as threatened and a rule the agency finalized that exempts farming activities within its habitat. The two groups argue that the songbird, which inhabits the open grasslands and prairies of western Oregon and Washington, should be listed as endangered and not threatened. According to a population survey conducted more than a decade ago, there are an estimated 1100 to 1600 larks remaining. The USFWS first listed the streaked horned lark as threatened nearly a decade ago, and allowed for an exemption to farming activities on open fields and prairies the larks use for nesting. That agricultural exemption has now been extended to Washington state as well, with the agency arguing it will “meet both land management considerations and the conservation needs of the streaked horned lark.” Noah Greenwald is the endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Roger Beyer is the executive director of the Oregon Seed Council, a trade association which advocates on behalf of seed farmers and the seed industry in Oregon.

As far as respiratory illnesses go, COVID-19 has been top of mind for much of the last three years. But state health officials are now raising the alarm about other viruses that largely stopped circulating during the pandemic. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order this week to help address rising pediatric cases of respiratory syncytial virus, commonly known as RSV. And health officials have warned of possible influenza and COVID-19 surges as winter approaches.

Joining us to talk about concerns around these viruses going into the winter season is Dr. Tom Jeanne, deputy state health officer and deputy state epidemiologist with the Oregon Health Authority.

This past weekend, the Oregon Ducks faced off against the Washington Huskies and were met with a brutal loss. But the season isn’t over yet. The Ducks and the Utah Utes will play each other on Saturday and the game has implications for which team will make it to the Pac-12 Football Championship Game. We check in on college football with Zachary Neel, the managing editor for USA Today’s Ducks Wire.

In May, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife received a tip that an unusual-looking crayfish was spotted in a creek around Lithia Park in Ashland. Biologists from the state agency laid out traps and confirmed the presence of Northern crayfish which are native to the Midwest. It marks the fourth invasive species of crayfish now found in Oregon waterways. Sampling conducted by ODFW scientists found that Northern crayfish had moved from the Ashland canal to Bear Creek near Medford, 15 miles away, and raised concerns that they could already be in the Rogue River. Rick Boatner is the invasive species coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He shares with us how the aggressive crustaceans are proliferating in Southern Oregon and the threat they pose, not only to native Signal crayfish but also to endangered steelhead and salmon.

Oregon state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced the largest ever AG-led privacy lawsuit. Google agreed to a total of $391.5 million in the settlement over tracking users location even when they had turned a tracking setting off. Rosenblum and Nebraska AG Doug Peterson led the effort, which ultimately 40 states signed on to. Oregon’s share is $14,800,563. As part of the agreement, Google will be changing its tracking and disclosure practices. We get more details from Assistant Attorney General Kristen Hilton who headed the settlement team.

By 2023, Southeast Salem will see the state’s first community microgrid. In an emergency, this facility would provide power to six apartment buildings, over 30 homes and a handful of government buildings. Trevor Smith is the public information officer for the City of Salem. Darren Murtaugh is the senior manager of Portland General Electric’s grid edge solutions team. They both join us to share how this microgrid works and what it could mean for the future of Salem and the state.

Oregonians voted in 2020 to legalize psilocybin therapy in supervised facilities. The hallucinogenic drug has gained traction in recent years as a viable treatment for PTSD, severe depression and substance use disorder. But the majority of the state’s 36 counties have reservations about the therapy — 25 counties voted against allowing psilocybin use last week, along with several municipalities. Jefferson Public Radio reporter Jane Vaughan joins us to talk about those bans and what they could mean for the future of psilocybin in Oregon