Think Out Loud

Last year, Reynolds Middle School went back to distance learning for several days due to behavioral issues. Now the school district has a new Social Emotional Learning curriculum to help students cope with everyday challenges. They’ve also hired social workers for each school building and have developed community partnerships for mental health services. We talk to Candice Vickers, executive director of student and family services at Reynolds School District, and Michelle Cardenas, program administrator for school culture and climate, about the work they are doing to support students.

It’s hard to overstate the effect that a changing climate is having around the world. And a group of young social activists in Oregon are calling attention to the disconnect between the extreme urgency of the climate issue and the lack of adequate policies to make a real difference. The effects of extreme heat waves, wildfires and drought are getting worse, not better. The young leaders of Our Children Oregon have a message: we need real action now. They say they want a voice in shaping the policies that affect them most of all, that they deserve a seat at the table. Our guests are: Avery McRae, one of the 21 plaintiffs in the climate lawsuit Juliana v. U.S.; Adah Crandall, a climate change organizer with Sunrise PDX; and two members of the OCO youth leadership cohort, Jax Richards, and Caroline Gao, who is also Oregon’s Youth Governor. And Meredith Connolly, the Oregon director of Climate Solutions, a nonprofit focused on policy solutions, joins us as well.

If you think the Civil War is ancient history, you need to meet Ray Lincoln Puckett. His great uncle fought in the Civil War and shared stories with him when he was in grade school. Puckett is 97, and one of the few veterans of World War II still alive. Just 170,000 remain of the 16 million that were deployed in that war. He lives independently, in the home he shares with his partner in King City, Oregon. Puckett joins us to share some of his memories just ahead of Veterans Day.

Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted a new set of rules this summer that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state’s eight largest metro areas. The Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities rules affect several aspects of land use, transportation and development. Among other things, they require cities to remove certain parking mandates, provide more electric vehicle infrastructure, and designate mixed-use “climate-friendly areas” where residents can meet their daily needs without using a car.

Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development spent nearly two years crafting the rules with city representatives. However, several cities aren’t pleased with the results — they say the rules are too prescriptive and will be too costly to implement. A group of cities is even planning a lawsuit to get the state to pause the rules and renegotiate.

Joining us to talk about the dispute is Kevin Young, a senior urban planner with the department. We’ll also hear from Cornelius Mayor Jef Dalin and League of Oregon Cities lobbyist Ariel Nelson about how the rules are affecting some Oregon cities.

While some races for Oregon state legislative seats are still close to call, some candidates did win definitively. Virgle Osborne is one of them. He’s a newly elected Republican representative from the state’s 2nd District. He’s a small business owner in Roseburg, and his core issues, according to his campaign website, include a tough-on-crime approach as well as lower taxes and ensuring forests are "properly managed."

Travis Nelson is a registered nurse and was appointed in January to serve out Tina Kotek’s term in the 44th district when she declared her candidacy. He says health care and equity issues among his top priorities. This is his first election, and Nelson is the first LGBTQ Black man to win a seat in the Oregon House. We talk with him and Osborne to see how they’re feeling after their decisive wins, how they plan to approach governing and what their priorities will be in the 2023 legislative session.

Heather Hansman loves skiing. In her 20s, her life revolved around the sport. Later, she covered it as a journalist. Now, she’s written a book about skiing and the people who love it, as well as the uncertain future of a sport that depends on certain weather conditions. She examines the race, class and gender inequities in the world of skiing, as well as the mental health struggles some devoted skiers face. We talk with Hansman about “Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow.”

The results of many key elections in Oregon and Southwest Washington are still too close to call. Nationally, the election didn’t bring a decisive landslide that Republicans and many pollsters had been predicting. But the Republican candidate for governor in Oregon, Christine Drazen, is still within a few percentage points of the Democratic candidate, Tina Kotek. Several congressional races are also very close. We cover a few races that appear more certain, including the change to Portland’s charter, Portland city council, and the Oregon Labor Commissioner.

Last month, Oregon Governor Kate Brown spent nearly two weeks leading a trade mission to South Korea and Japan promoting Oregon’s agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and other industries. According to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Japan and South Korea are the state's second and third largest export markets for the state’s agriculture and food products, and generated $600 million in sales last year. Oregon is also the only state in the U.S. allowed to sell fresh blueberries in South Korea. Joining us are two members of the agriculture trade delegation that recently returned from Asia. Theresa Yoshioka is the international trade manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Ellie Norris is the vice-chair of the Oregon Blueberry Commission and the owner of Norris Farms, a 650-acre blueberry farm in Umpqua.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost all U.S. hospitals screen babies for hearing loss shortly after they’re born. The brief test helps detect signs of deafness and hearing loss, which could lead to developmental delays if not caught early. But the equipment used to perform the test costs thousands of dollars, making it a luxury in many lower-income countries.

Researchers at the University of Washington recently developed a low-cost way to conduct newborn hearing screenings using a smartphone and earbuds. Shyam Gollakota is a professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and one of the researchers behind the project. He joins us to talk about what the new method could mean for global health equity.

Nearly half of the fires in Portland in 2021 started near or at a homeless camp, with an average of six camp fires a day and the amount of total fires doubling over three years. Some of these fires spread to abandoned buildings, wooded areas and alleys, drawing growing concern from local residents and increasing the workload for Portland Fire & Rescue. These fires lead to people experiencing homelessness losing their homes and possessions. Natalie O’Neill is a freelance journalist based in Portland. She joins us to share how these fires are affecting the people living at these camps and the city itself.