Think Out Loud

Nearly 50 years ago, a Seattle juvenile court judge came up with the idea of using trained volunteers to appear in court to speak on behalf of abused and neglected children as a way to get more information about their individual cases. Today, nearly a thousand local Court Appointed Special Advocate programs exist in 49 states, including Oregon. CASA volunteers provide the court with regular updates about a child’s particular case and make recommendations about their placement, informed through monthly visits with the child and discussions with their teachers, counselors and others involved in their welfare.

But meeting the growing need for CASAs in Oregon and the rest of the nation is getting tougher. In April, the national CASA organization announced the termination of federal grants totaling millions of dollars which would have been disbursed to state and local CASA programs. That’s in addition to the loss of a $1.7 million federal community project grant earmarked for Oregon’s 19 local CASA programs. 

Joining us to share their experiences are Amy Muñoz, who has been serving Jackson County as a CASA volunteer for seven years, and Rachel Robb, who was sworn in as a CASA volunteer serving  Malheur County in January.

With the Trump administration’s dismantling of environmental regulations and total reversal on policies to combat climate change, activists have filed lawsuits and requests for injunctions all over the country. The latest development is the Trump-led Environmental Protection Agency reversing the long-standing “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases threatened human health and welfare. One environmental law professor at Harvard called it “an assault on the foundation of all federal climate policy.”

Lewis & Clark environmental law professor Melissa Powers says Oregon — and other states — do have options to fight climate change, besides filing individual lawsuits. She says one viable strategy would be for Oregon to create a Climate Superfund. We talk with her about what unraveling of environmental regulations is likely to mean in Oregon and more about the potential for an Oregon Climate Superfund.

The Oregon Bee Atlas provides comprehensive data about the state’s native bees and the plants they need to thrive. With the help of volunteers, researchers have gathered information of about 800 different bee species in the state. Andony Melathopoulos is an associate professor in the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. Lincoln Best is a taxonomist for the Oregon Bee Atlas. They join us with more on the project and the role volunteers have played in uncovering more about Oregon’s bees.

The warmth and sunshine of summer makes it an especially ideal time  in Oregon to recreate outdoors and experience the state’s bounty of hiking trails, rivers, mountain peaks and other scenic attractions. But that spike in outdoor recreation can also lead to more calls for potentially life-saving search and rescue missions by law enforcement in remote locations. Linn County is one of the many counties in the state that have well-established search and rescue programs that rely heavily on unpaid volunteers, including youth as young as 14 years old. 

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office has been operating a youth search and rescue program for more than 30 years. The bootcamp-style training academy is open to youth ages 14 to 18 years old who are taught first aid, shelter and fire building, navigation using compasses and maps and learning how to search for and gather evidence of possible crimes in wilderness areas. The majority of the personnel responding to search and rescue missions in Linn County are youth volunteers, who age out of the program when they turn 21. 

Ric Lentz, emergency manager and search and rescue coordinator for the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, and Drew Funk, a 19-year-old volunteer who has been with the county’s youth SAR program for four years, join us to share the critical role youth play in SAR missions and describe how that role has evolved in recent years.

The Trail Blazers are up for sale for the first time in 37 years. And there’s a real fear among fans — and elected officials —that if Portland doesn’t play its cards right, the new owner could move the team to another city. Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson sent a letter recently to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stating their emphatic support for keeping the team here. Marshall Glickman, whose father founded the team and served as the president of the organization, along with former player and gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley are among those who created Rip City Forever to advocate for doing whatever it takes to keep the Blazers in Portland. Specifically, the team will need a new or upgraded arena. Glickman and Dudley join us to tell us how they hope to help the city avoid losing the economic boost and civic pride that the Blazers bring.

The College Assistance for Migrants Program, or CAMP, has supported children of migrant farmworkers for more than 50 years — helping students who often face financial hardship, language barriers, and limited academic preparation navigate their first year of college.
But this year, the federal funds that sustain CAMP programs across the country have been frozen, despite being approved by Congress for the 2025 fiscal year.
At Portland Community College, the delay in nearly $475,000 in funding threatens to halt scholarships, mentorship, and key support services that many students rely on to stay enrolled and succeed.
Greg Contreras, who runs PCC’s program, and sophomore Atziri Lopez — a former CAMP student and current peer mentor for the program — join us to discuss how the funding freeze is already disrupting students’ lives, and what could be lost if the program is forced to shut down.

Two new laws that passed in the Oregon Legislature are pushing the state toward what other countries have done to address housing: state-level zoning laws. As Sightline Institute reports, HB 2258 and HB 2138 seem to give the state much more authority and the power to override local zoning codes. Oregon has been making changes to zoning laws since 2017, and this new approach follows countries such as Japan and Australia. Micheal Andersen is the director of Cities and Towns at Sightline Institute. He joins us to share more on what these new laws could mean for the future of home development in the state.

Southern Oregon University is currently facing a financial emergency. The current budget for the institution is roughly $71 million, but cuts need to be made to drop that number to $60 million. President Rick Bailey points to a number of factors contributing to the crisis, including the lack of state support and actions from the Trump administration. Bailey’s new proposal to cut costs includes declaring a financial exigency that could impact more than 60 employees and possibly result in cutting 15 academic majors. Bailey joins us to share more on the financial state of the institution.

In western Lane County, the unincorporated community of Mapleton has struggled with its water infrastructure. Community leaders had stitched together funding to improve Mapleton’s system. That patchwork included federal funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and FEMA, according to reporting by KLCC. 

While it’s been able to claw back some money with the help of lawmakers, the community has still lost funds and resources after federal changes. Art Donnelly is the vice chair of the board of commissioners of the Mapleton Water District. He joins us with more details about Mapleton's situation and what’s at stake for those living in rural areas with failing infrastructure.

Several communities in Oregon have bought portions of their surrounding forests to more directly manage their natural resources. The “community forest” model has been used to manage for wildfire risk, drinking water quality, recreation and more. The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board recently awarded grants to six cities to protect forests around their drinking water sources. The funding allows them to purchase land, arrange for conservation easements and pay back debt on property they’ve already acquired within their watershed.

We’ll hear more from Ann Vileisis, mayor of Port Orford, which received one of the grants. We’ll also learn about community forests more broadly from Dylan Kruse, president of the conservation nonprofit Sustainable Northwest.