Think Out Loud

The Incarcerated Individual Betterment Fund is meant to improve the welfare for people in custody in prisons throughout Washington state. The fund is supported by the money collected from phone calls and other fees from people who are incarcerated. The pot of money has swelled upwards of $12 million. But recent reporting from the Washington State Standard has found that Washington isn't using most of the money to improve prison conditions. Grace Deng is a state house reporter for the media outlet. They join us to share more.

Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit that advocates for arts and arts education in the U.S., released data on how the arts sector affects Oregon. The study showed that Oregon’s nonprofit arts industry generated more than $800 million in economic activity in 2022. Randy Cohen is the vice president of research for the organization. He has toured across  the country discussing findings from the study. He’s currently visiting Eastern Oregon to talk about how the arts sector affects economies in Pendleton, Joseph, Ontario and other communities. Roberta Lavadour is the executive director for the Pendleton Center for the Arts and serves on the Oregon Arts Commission. They join us with details of the study and how the arts industry affects communities like Pendleton.

The number of students regularly missing school across the country has soared since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A state report released last year found that more than a third of Oregon students are chronically absent, meaning they miss at least 10% of school days. State lawmakers removed truancy fines in 2021, but a new program in Umatilla County reintroduces them. As reported in the East Oregonian, the program uses a mix of family support, intervention from district officials and legal action with the goal of bringing students back to the classroom. Heidi Sipe is the superintendent of the Umatilla School District. She joins us with more details.

After more than two decades, Portland will once again host a women’s professional basketball team. The as-yet-unnamed team will start playing in the 2026 season. The city’s last WNBA team, the Portland Fire, played from 2000 to 2002 before folding. The announcement comes roughly a year after a different deal to bring a WNBA team to the city fell through. It also comes amid an explosion of interest in women’s sports, both in the Northwest and across the country. Sean Highkin broke the news of the expansion last month in his Substack newsletter, The Rose Garden Report. He joins us with more details on the new team and what it could mean for Portland.

The Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan, which was passed by the Oregon Board of Forestry in March, will reduce logging in western state forests to protect threatened species. Now a school district in Clatsop County is suing the state over the proposed plan. They argue reducing timber harvesting in the area could cause the district to lose millions. Alex Baumhardt is a reporter for the Oregon Capital Chronicle and has been reporting on this issue. She joins us to share more.

For many in the U.S., it can be difficult to find a mental health provider that’s covered by insurance. But many mental health clinicians say insurance companies can make it difficult to be a part of their network. They say companies have “clawed back” payments from therapists or questioned a patient’s need for services.  Health care reporter Annie Waldman, along with a team of other ProPublica journalists, reported on why therapists leave insurance networks. The story was also co-published with NPR. Melissa Todd, a licensed psychologist practicing in Eugene said she left an insurance network after feeling pressured to limit a patient’s care.  We hear more from Waldman and Todd on what providers have experienced and what mental health care looks like in Oregon. 

Hearings on the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons ended on Tuesday in Portland. The grocery chains argue that the merger is necessary for them to compete with non-traditional grocers like Costco, Amazon and even Dollar General. But the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal in federal court in Oregon on the grounds that it would harm workers and consumers. Lawsuits against the merger are also slated to begin soon in Washington and Colorado. In the meantime, U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson’s ruling on the Oregon case is expected to have significant implications for the deal. Elizabeth Hayes has been following the proceedings as a reporter for the Portland Business Journal. She joins us with more details on what she heard over the past few weeks. 

It’s not often a new language emerges.But in the last 15 years, a new language was born right here in the Pacific Northwest. It’s called Protactile, and it was created by a group of DeafBlind people who prioritize touch. One of the people at the center of creating this new language is Jelica Nuccio. She moved to Monmouth, Oregon, where Western Oregon University just received a grant for $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to help train Protactile language interpreters. We spoke to Jelica about her work in 2021.

Hardly a week goes by in the U.S. without a mass shooting, as the recent shooting at a high school in Georgia earlier this month reminds us of. In that tragedy, a 14-year-old student is suspected of killing two students and two teachers with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle which was legally purchased by his father. The National Rifle Association, along with some conservative lawmakers and the gun lobby argue that mental illness is to blame for mass shootings – not the easy access to firearms.  A new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University challenges that view. It compared the U.S. to 40 other countries for the prevalence of mental health disorders and deaths from firearms over a 20-year period, from 2000 to 2019. It found, for example, that the firearm death rate was 11 times greater in the U.S. compared to the other nations while the prevalence of mental health disorders in the U.S. was similar. It also found that the firearm death rate in the U.S. had increased, whereas it declined among the other nations. Joining us to share details about the study is Archie Bleyer, a pediatric and young adult oncologist at OHSU.  Read on-air: The Great Salt Lick auction will take place this Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Churchill School in Baker City. Attendance is free.  

Hardly a week goes by in the U.S. without a mass shooting, as the recent shooting at a high school in Georgia earlier this month reminds us of. In that tragedy, a 14-year-old student is suspected of killing two students and two teachers with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle which was legally purchased by his father. The National Rifle Association, along with some conservative lawmakers and the gun lobby argue that mental illness is to blame for mass shootings – not the easy access to firearms.  A new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University challenges that view. It compared the U.S. to 40 other countries for the prevalence of mental health disorders and deaths from firearms over a 20-year period, from 2000 to 2019. It found that death by firearms was 20 times greater in the U.S. compared to the other nations, while the prevalence of mental health disorders in the U.S. was similar. It also found that the firearm death rate decreased, on average, in those other countries whereas it increased sharply in the U.S. over that timeframe. Joining us to share details about the study is Archie Bleyer, a pediatric and young adult oncologist at OHSU.