Think Out Loud

After a turbulent year in Deschutes County law enforcement, newly appointed interim Sheriff Ty Rupert says the office is at a turning point. Sworn in Aug. 1, Rupert steps into the role after the resignation of Kent van der Kamp, whose tenure ended after an investigation and a lifetime law enforcement ban. With 15 months to stabilize the department before next year’s election, Rupert inherits a department facing challenges with morale, public trust, and employee retention after the controversy.He joins us to discuss how he hopes to rebuild trust with the public and address cultural challenges within the sheriff’s office while serving the Deschutes County community.

For the past decade, pension investments made by the state have leaned heavily towards private equity. As reported in the Oregon Journalism Project, this choice has cost the state billions as this form of investments continued to be made despite advice from experts to diversify Oregon’s portfolio. Jim Neff is the managing editor for OJP and reported on this story. He joins us to share why the state stood by private equity investments and what this choice means for Oregonians.

Think Out Loud staff read audience feedback.

A mysterious wasting disease has been decimating sea star populations along the West Coast since 2013. The illness works quickly, causing sea stars to lose limbs and reducing them to a pile of goo in a matter of weeks. Sunflower sea stars have been particularly hard-hit —  roughly 90% of their global population has succumbed to the disease, possibly contributing to the demise of many West Coast kelp forests.

The cause of the wasting disease has stumped scientists for more than a decade. But now, a team of Northwest researchers have identified a bacteria that appears to be behind the illness. 

Alyssa Gehman is a marine disease ecologist at the Hakai Institute, a marine research organization in British Columbia. She joins us with more details on what the breakthrough could mean for sea star recovery.

Drywall is one of the most commonly used materials in construction — and one of the most wasteful. It's estimated that more than 10 percent of drywall from new buildings end up in landfills. The material can release harmful gasses, such as hydrogen sulfide, and act as a potential contaminant for groundwater. But two architecture professors at Washington State University’s School of Design and Construction have developed a way to turn this waste into something useful.

Taiji Miyasaka and David Drake have spent years developing and patenting a process to transform drywall scraps into usable building blocks — a substitute for bricks — and fire-resistant wall panels that are both known as Drywall Waste Technology. Made with up to 90 percent drywall waste, WSU estimates that excess material from just 16 new homes could produce enough DWT material to build one tiny home. Miyasaka and Drake’s products have earned international acclaim, winning the AZ Award for Environmental Leadership in Azure magazine’s global design competition.

David Drake joins us to explain how this technology could be a resource in addressing both housing shortages and construction waste.

Earlier this summer, Clackamas Community College President Tim Cook embarked on an unique and physically daunting challenge: running roughly 1,500 miles to visit all 17 community colleges in Oregon. He kicked off his run on June 16 at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario as a way to raise money and awareness of the financial hardships community college students in Oregon face, from food insecurity to not having enough money to pay rent or utility bills. In 2023, for example, nearly two-thirds of Portland Community College students who responded to a basic needs survey reported experiencing either homelessness, housing insecurity or food insecurity.  

On Wednesday, Cook completed the last leg of his 52-day journey in Hood River when he arrived at Columbia Gorge Community College. His “Running for Oregon Community College Students” campaign has raised so far more than $130,000 for community colleges to distribute directly to students in need. Cook joins us for more details and to share his thoughts about the current and long-term challenges Oregon community colleges face.

There are nearly 5,000 wild horses grazing throughout Oregon. But according to the Bureau of Land Management, the state can only sustainably provide for just over 2,600 horses on public lands. To help manage herd populations, the agency works to find some wild horses new homes, and it's people like Kimber Teatro who help turn these wild mustangs into domesticated horses. Teatro has been a participant in the Mustang Adoption Challenge since 2019, where wild horse trainers are given more than 100 days to work with an animal and get them ready for adoption. During most of the year, Teatro can actually be found working as a tattoo artist in Portland, but during the summer, she takes a different tack, spending her days working with these wild horses. This year she will be showing her horse Finn at the competition, which takes place at the end of August in Albany. She joins us to share more

When musician Jermaine Malone set out to run an all ages venue in Portland, he wanted it to be a place for musicians and bands to perform and for fans young and old to come see them, sure. But he also wanted so much more. He wanted to provide good food and drinks of all kinds — and a space for open-mic nights, makers markets and even after school programs. The Heights Lounge and Events Space that opened in April is now exactly that. We sit down with Malone to talk more about his space, which he says is the only wholly Black-owned venue in the state.

Southern Oregon University recently announced plans to cut 15% of its budget over three years. The proposal would eliminate 15 majors and 11 minors, and lead to the elimination of more than 60 positions through a combination of layoffs, voluntary retirements and not filling vacancies. SOU President Rick Bailey attributes the university’s ongoing financial crisis to a number of factors including declining enrollment, decreased state funding and federal actions by the Trump administration.

Sage TeBeest is a creative arts program assistant at SOU and the president of SEIU 503 Sublocal 84, which represents classified staff at the university. She joins us with more on how union members are reacting to the cuts.

While still a junior at Grant High School in 2022 Alex Sahli submitted a design for a LEGO set of the Italian Riviera. At 17 years old, he had already submitted five designs for sets to LEGO Ideas. That’s an online platform which allows fans of the iconic toy building blocks to upload a design of their own creation and win enough votes of support from fellow LEGO enthusiasts for the company to review it and possibly turn it into a mass produced set. Sahli’s submission of an Italian village scene featured, among other details, a Vespa scooter, fishing boat, gelato shop and brightly colored buildings with tiled roofs.

But it wasn’t until two years later, in 2024, when Sahli was a college freshman, that LEGO informed him that his design had been accepted for production. Later this month, the Italian Riviera set will go on sale, with more than 3,000 pieces and nine minifigures, including one immortalizing the designer himself as a camera-toting tourist. 

Sahli joins us to talk about the experience of designing a LEGO set and his other original creations that are attracting a following on social media.