Think Out Loud

Oregon lawmakers must end the legislative session by March 8th. Bills are still moving through chambers, but several major issues remain unsettled, among them balancing the state’s general fund budget and solving transportation funding. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart joins us to talk about the key bills and developments in Salem as the session nears its end.

 U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said President Trump’s decision to launch an attack on Iran “shreds our Constitution, which assigns decisions of war to Congress.” As of March 2, at least six U.S. Service members have been killed in the military operation. The House and Senate are set to vote this week on bipartisan war powers resolutions, which would limit Trump’s ability to take military action — in Iran and around the world — without Congressional approval. Though the measures are bipartisan, those supporting and opposing the Trump-ordered attacks on Iran are split along party lines, with Democrats opposing and most Republicans supporting them. We hear from Merkley, a long time member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, about what he and other Democrats are doing to prevent further war and bloodshed in the region.

La Pine Library is hosting a free event this Saturday, “Not Your Mama’s Cheddar,” as part of Deschutes Public Library's monthlong exploration of fermentation, decay and rot. Teri Tith is leading Saturday’s event, drawing on her extensive knowledge about cheese and years of experience working as a cheesemonger at Market of Choice in Bend to help educate the public about this delicacy, including cheddar, her personal favorite. 

But to say Tith is a cheese expert is an understatement. She’s a Certified Cheese Professional, which she was awarded in 2023 by the American Cheese Society. Tith earned that distinction by working more than 4,000 hours in the cheese industry, and she also had to pass an exam testing her knowledge on the production, distribution and science of cheese. 

Tith also holds a Level 3 certification in wine from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust, which she says has helped inform the kinds of wines she selects for wine and cheese pairing events at tasting rooms in Bend. While most people know about the natural pairing of cheese and wine, most don’t know about the pairing possibilities of cheese and sake, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice. Last autumn, Tith offered cheese and sake pairing classes and is now pursuing a Level 2 certification to boost her knowledge of this traditional Japanese beverage. 

Tith joins us to share more details and insights into artisanal cheeses made in Oregon and beyond.

Navigating substance use disorder can be especially difficult for those who are pregnant. As reported in InvestigateWest, state data shows that mental health conditions and substance use disorder were the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in Oregon from 2018 to 2021. And a study from OHSU found that the rate of opioid use during pregnancy has more than doubled over the last decade.

Those with substance use disorder are often reluctant to seek prenatal care due to stigma around their addiction, and drug treatment centers often turn away pregnant patients due to potential health risks. Efforts like Project Nurture and Nurture Oregon aim to integrate behavioral health and perinatal care by connecting pregnant clients with peer support, social services and other resources.

Diana Smith is the clinical lead for Project Nurture at Legacy Health. Sarah Bovee is a perinatal peer mentor and doula for Project Nurture. They join us to talk about providing simultaneous prenatal care and treatment for substance use disorder.

National guidelines recommend a routine screening for anxiety and intimate partner violence in adolescent girls and women. But the screenings are rarely implemented across clinics in Oregon, according to a new study from Oregon Health and Science University. 

The study cites reasons such as provider discomfort, lack of awareness and challenges to workflow as reasons these screenings aren’t being implemented. Amy Cantor, a researcher and OHSU family physician, was the senior researcher on this study. She joins us to share her findings and how the research led to new, tangible tools that providers can use in the screening process.

It’s tough to be a craft brewer these days, whether that’s in Oregon or elsewhere in the nation. Shifting consumer demands, including for non-alcohol beer, along with rising costs and market saturation have contributed to declining craft beer sales in recent years. In Oregon, the abrupt closure of Rogue Ales last November after nearly 40 years was a stark reminder that even iconic brands aren’t immune to the industry’s struggles. 

It’s against this backdrop that four Central Oregon breweries and a cidery recently announced the formation of the Oregon Beverage Collective. The new partnership includes Cascade Lakes Brewing Company, Silver Moon Brewing, Crux Fermentation Project, GoodLife Brewing Company and Tumalo Cider Company. The OBC aims to share resources and manage rising costs for supplies and ingredients. Crux’s production facility in Bend will now be responsible for brewing most of the OBC’s craft beverages. Crux Fermentation Project has also been acquired by the Rhine family, which owns Cascade Lakes Brewing. 

Andy Rhine, co-owner of Cascade Lakes Brewing and President of OBC, says the collective will allow each of the brands to retain its own identity while fostering new collaborations between them. Rhine joins us, along with Steve Augustyne, CEO of OBC and owner of Silver Moon Brewing, to share what this collective model offers for both brewers and consumers.

A veritable gold rush appears to be opening up, not in the dusty hills of California but in the deep seabeds of the Pacific Ocean that’s being driven by an insatiable global demand of critical minerals that power our electric cars, smartphones, computer chips and more. While manganese, nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals are currently being mined on land, they could also be extracted by mining seabeds in locations like Gulf of Alaska seamounts or near the U.S. territories of American Samoa and the Mariana Islands. 

Last April, President Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to fast-track the review and issuing of exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits for seabed minerals.

The Metals Company, based in Canada, has applied for an exploration license and commercial recovery permit in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a massive band of the Pacific Ocean stretching between Hawai’i and Mexico that is thought to be rich in deposits of critical minerals. Last May, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved a request from California-based Impossible Metals to begin a leasing process to explore for deep-sea minerals off the coast of American Samoa. 

Despite these companies’ claims that deep-sea mining is a more ethical and environmental alternative to terrestrial mining, it is rife with uncertainty and poses grave risks to the health and biodiversity of the deep ocean, according to Astrid Leitner, an oceanographer and assistant professor in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. She joins us to share more details, including the research she has done on deep sea ecosystems in areas the Trump administration is now interested in opening up to mining.

Home Forward, the housing authority for Portland and Multnomah County, is the largest provider of affordable housing in the state. Reporting from Willamette Week has found that the agency has an unusually high vacancy rate and takes, on average, half a year to fill vacant units at some of its properties. The lack of rental revenue from empty units is making it difficult for the agency to pay off its debts.

Sophie Peel is a reporter for Willamette Week covering Portland City Hall and neighborhoods. She joins us with more details about her investigation into Home Forward.

The Oregon state Senate may soon take up the bill that would enshrine additional protections for Oregonian patients and providers of reproductive services or gender-affirming care. That bill, HB 4088, has already passed in the House and has been referred to the Senate by committee. Chief sponsor Rep. Lisa Fragala (D-Eugene) says the bill reflects a commitment to the rights of Oregonians to access these types of medical care and retain their privacy. Fragala joins us with more on the legislation. We also hear from Rep. Virgle Osborne (R- Roseburg) who voted against the bill.

In the last decade, more than 150 teachers in Washington were disciplined for sexual misconduct. But new reporting from Investigate West found that many of these cases weren’t easily accessible to the public. The reason the information is hidden? When a teacher voluntarily surrenders their license, their information in the state’s misconduct database is shielded from public view. Nearly 45% of teachers on this database volunteered to surrender their license. Moe Clark is a collaborative investigative journalist for IW and a Murrow News Fellow through Washington State University. She joins us to share more.