Think Out Loud

The number of registered voters who choose not to be members of any political party is growing. In fact, in Oregon, the percentage of these voters is bigger than both registered Democrats and Republicans. But those who vote in the major party primaries are the ones that decide which candidates appear on the general election ballot that is open to all voters. While Oregon’s neighbors, Washington and California, have made changes to their primary systems to allow for more participation, Oregon voters have said "no" in the past to doing the same. Nonetheless, Rep. Mark Gamba, D-Milwaukie, is among the sponsors of HB 3166, which would scrap the closed primary system that only allows party members to vote.

Gamba joins us to discuss how to best enfranchise non-affiliated voters (NAVs), along with attorney and political consultant Julie Parrish, who served four terms as Republican representative in the Oregon House.

Multnomah County chair Jessica Vega Pederson released a proposed $4 billion budget plan this week. The budget includes cuts to several programs and over 100 staff to address a $77 million shortfall. Earlier this year the county asked local and state jurisdictions to help fill a shortfall of over $100 million in the county’s homeless services budget. Chair Vega Pederson joins us to explain her budget proposal.

Next month marks the five year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. Across the state and country, protests soon followed as videos and the news spread of his death, sparking wider conversation around race, police violence and more in our daily lives. 

But what has and hasn’t changed since then? To answer these questions and more we’ll hear from Candace Avalos, Portland City Councilor representing District 1, Luke Richter, president of the Central Oregon Peacekeepers and Mic Crenshaw, an activist, educator and hip-hop artist. We’ll also hear from Aaron Schmautz, the president of both the Portland Police Association and the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs. 

On Tuesday, Portland Public Schools Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong shared her new proposed budget of $2 billion for the 2025-26 school year, her first budget proposal as the leader of Oregon’s largest school district.  But with rising costs, limited revenue and declining enrollment are putting pressure on a school that is now facing a financial shortfall of $40 million. Supt. Armstrong joins us to share the details. 

Songs of Power and Protest is a songwriter showcase that’s happening in Portland on April 26 at the Cravin' Gravy Social Club at 8 p.m. Jordan Sings and Ezza Rose are Portland musicians that will perform at the event. They join us to talk about the showcase and the power of music to express dissent.   

Oregon lawmakers are considering HB 3018, which would require thousands of Oregon businesses – from hospitals to restaurants to food producers – to compost their food waste. Nationwide, an estimated 15% of methane gas pollution is created by food and other organic waste decomposing in landfills. The bill would also try to reduce the amount of food being tossed out in the first place by requiring foods sold in Oregon to be more clear about when a product is safe to eat. The state’s Department of Environmental Quality has estimated that 70% of the food thrown away could be safely eaten.

We get two perspectives on the proposals: Charlie Fisher is the state director of Oregon State Public Interest Research Group and helped write the bill. Jason Brandt is the president and CEO of the Oregon Restaurant And Lodging Association and has concerns about the bill.

“Hands of the Ancestors” is an exhibit currently taking place at Linfield University’s Miller Fine Arts Center in McMinnville. It showcases the work of Stephanie Craig, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a seventh-generation basket weaver and artist. Oregon ArtsWatch recently profiled Craig and her exhibit, which is on display until May 2. 

Craig spends nine months of the year locating and harvesting traditional materials such as hazel, rushes, bigleaf maple and western red cedar from across the state. She uses them to shape baskets and other woven items with the aid of tools like an antler awl and kupin, a traditional digging stick. But “Hands of the Ancestors” offers visitors more than just a window into Craig’s skills and artistry. It opens up a bridge linking the past to the present and future with an array of family photos and texts honoring the elders who taught Craig the Kalapuya tradition of basket weaving and the new generations Craig teaches today, including her 4-year-old daughter.

Craig joins us to talk about the exhibit and the messages of resilience and Native pride embedded in her work.  

Just over 5 years ago, Sarah Baker created an  Instagram account that they hoped would evolve into something more. A couple of months later, they had connected with some other activists and filmmakers and launched a film festival of Earth Day shorts in 2020 - just weeks after the pandemic lockdown. Five years later, the group of volunteer creatives say they are Making Earth Cool with a “collective that creates content and events using science, comedy & creativity to educate & inspire people to be better stewards of our only home, Earth.” Baker joins us to talk about this year’s screening of short films, and the community activities MEC is spearheading, including a parade later in the week and what it calls a kind of spiritual “Earth Ceremony.”

A federal law passed in the 1950s gave six states, including Oregon, civil and criminal jurisdiction over tribal reservations. Tribal nations have argued that the law undermines their sovereignty.
Oregon tribes have been able to petition the governor to repeal the law on their land, but there’s no official procedure or timeline for that process to take place. Senate Bill 1011 would change that by laying out clear guidelines for federally recognized tribes to regain control over civil and criminal matters that take place on tribal land.
Brent Leonhard is an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. He joins us with more details about the bill and its implications for tribal sovereignty.

Democratic Oregon U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter traveled to El Salvador, along with three other Democratic Congressional representatives, to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Maryland resident was sent to El Salvador last month without a court hearing and despite a 2019 order from an immigration judge that barred his deportation. The Trump administration has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13 and engaging in human trafficking. 

Last week, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland traveled to El Salvador where he was eventually able to meet with Abrego Garcia. Rep. Dexter joins us to explain why she also decided to make a trip there, which she argues is less about Abrego Garcia’s particular case and more fundamentally about the constitutional right to due process. The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from detention, which it has refused to do.