Think Out Loud

Last spring, the Hood River library system went on the road with a bookmobile that travels to rural communities throughout the county. The van offers books, DVD players, laptops and free wifi to patrons This summer, the bookmobile started offering other services as well, including hygiene kits, cold water on hot days, and meals to school-age kids. Yelitza Vargas-Boots, the bilingual outreach librarian for the Hood River County library district, joins us to explain the services of the bookmobile.

The Portland City Council this week unanimously passed a drug criminalization ordinance crafted by Public Safety Commissioner Rene Gonzalez and Mayor Ted Wheeler. The measure bans the public use of drugs, contingent on a change in state law to allow such measures. City commissioners also voted to direct lobbyists to push for that state law change. Addressing public safety and homelessness were chief among the issues Gonzalez campaigned  on. Earlier this year he made a controversial decision to prevent Portland Street Response from distributing tents and other supplies to people experiencing homelessness. The future of the popular PSR program has yet to be determined, with full funding for its ongoing operation yet to be identified. Gonzalez joins us to talk about his vision for a public safety system that serves all residents.

Football has been the main focus of the PAC-12 realignment, in which all but Oregon State University and Washington State University have jumped ship for other conferences. But what about the bands, cheer squads and other student groups that support athletics? As reported in the Daily Barometer, members of OSU’s marching band are facing their fair share of distress and uncertainty over the PAC-12 collapse. Mayri Ross is a fifth-year saxophonist in the OSU Marching Band and serves as the band’s recruitment officer. She joins us to talk more about what conference realignment could mean for members of the marching band.

Forest thinning improves the health of older trees and enhances native biodiversity on federal lands in eastern Oregon. That’s according to a new study from Oregon State University, in partnership with local groups in Oregon’s Blue Mountains. We talk to James Johnston, the assistant professor in the College of Forestry at OSU who authored the study, about how selective thinning could make forests more resilient in the face of forest fires.

Jesse Johnson walked out of the Marion County Jail on Tuesday as a  free man, after 25 years behind bars in Oregon. In 2004, Johnson was convicted of murdering 28-year-old Harriet Thompson in a Salem apartment — a crime that he denied committing. A jury then sentenced him to death, and Johnson lived on death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary until 2021, when his case was overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals. Prosecutors quietly dismissed the case against him on Tuesday, acknowledging evidence in the case was too thin to retry the 62-year-old. OPB editor Ryan Hass tells us the details. 

While rescue shelters for dogs and cats can be found in many Oregon cities, there are fewer options for small pets like hamsters, hedgehogs, rats and chinchillas. The Little Critter Crew is working to change that. As reported in Eugene Weekly, the Eugene-based animal rescue has built a network of 32 foster homes across the state since it launched in 2020. Kayla Hernandez is the rescue’s co-founder. She joins us to share more details on how the “crew” operates and the importance of small animal rescue. 

This summer, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek recently signed into law an ambitious, $90 million climate package to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and leverage as much as $1 billion dollars in federal funds to tackle climate change. Among its provisions are rebates on medium and heavy-duty electric trucks and help for homeowners to offset the cost of installing heat pumps. It also makes Oregon the fourth state in the nation, along with Washington, Colorado and Maryland, to require building performance standards for large commercial buildings which, along with residential buildings, accounted for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon in 2021.  The Oregon Department of Energy will oversee the state’s program which will begin in phases starting in 2028, and develop energy targets for buildings 20,000 square feet and greater. The standards do not, however, apply to schools, dormitories, hospitals, parking garages and multifamily residential buildings. Joining us is freelance journalist Erika Bolstad to talk about her reporting on building performance standards and the impact they could have in Oregon.   

Maternal mortality rates in Oregon more than doubled in the twenty years from 1999 - 2019. They rose at an even higher rate in the U.S. as a whole. That’s according to a recent study - and the very first to look at rates across ethnic groups state-by-state. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this summer, a collaboration between researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington and Mass General Brigham. The highest death rates are among Black mothers, and the highest rates of increase are among Native Americans. We talk with co-author Dr. Allison Bryant, an obstetrician and senior medical director for health equity at Mass General Brigham, about the results of the study and what she sees in her own practice.  

 In 2020, former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed an executive order to achieve the state’s carbon reduction goals. The order directs state agencies to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Three years later, we check in with Nora Apter, a senior program director for climate at the Oregon Environmental Council, about where the plan stands now and the progress Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality is making on climate goals.

For the last two months, Laborers’ Local 485 member employees with Metro Park and Nature and the Oregon Zoo have been working under an expired contract with Metro. Negotiations are ongoing, and employees are asking for hazard pay when working in extreme weather, extra days off when dealing with extremely traumatic situations in the workplace and higher pay across the board. Marina Garcia is the guest services lead at the Oregon Zoo. Kendra Carillo is the maintenance lead for Metro Parks and Nature. They both join us to share conditions they and their teams are facing and what they want out of negotiations.