Think Out Loud

More than 90% of all liquid fuel in Oregon is stored along a 6 mile stretch of the Willamette River just north of downtown Portland known as the Critical Energy Infrastructure hub. Studies have shown that a major earthquake could cause the release of as much toxic liquid as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with oil reaching all the way to the mouth of the Columbia River. This fall, the city released a draft proposal to reduce the fuel stored at the site and require seismic upgrades. Eric Engstrom, director of the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, joins us to explain the plan.

Sparked by pandemic-era baking trends, interest in small-batch, locally-milled flour is growing among commercial and home bakers. Operations like Camas Country Mill in Oregon and Cairnspring Mills in Washington supply restaurants, bakeries and amateur bakers with high-quality flour sourced from local farmers who use regenerative growing practices.     A new partnership between Cairnspring and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation will bring a flour mill to the reservation in Eastern Oregon. The new facility is expected to expand Cairnspring’s production capacity twelvefold and create 20-25 new jobs.  Kevin Morse is the co-founder and CEO of Cairnspring Mills. Bill Tovey is the director of the CTUIR Department of Economic & Community Development. They both join us to talk about the partnership.

Big changes are in store for the federal student loan program. President Trump’s tax and spending bill, which was signed into law last summer, ends a supplemental loan for graduate students and caps  the amount they can borrow from the government. It also allows students in professional programs, such as law and medicine, to borrow more than students in other graduate programs, such as nursing or social work.   The bill reduces students’ loan repayment options from seven to two. It also phases out the Biden-era SAVE plan, which was the most flexible income-driven repayment option.         Jennifer Bell is the director of financial aid at Portland State University. Susan Bakewell-Sachs is the vice president of nursing affairs and dean of the School of Nursing at Oregon Health & Science University. They join us to discuss what the changes could mean for students who rely on loans, particularly to get advanced degrees.  

 After months of searching, Portland has officially named Raymond Lee as the first long-term city administrator. The position, which was created with the city’s new form of government, oversees thousands of city employees and the day-to-day public services including public safety, public works and city operations to name a few. But Lee isn’t the first city administrator. Michael Jordan has filled the role in the interim since 2024. In this time in the position, he has responded to federal actions, made recommendations for the city’s budget and more. Jordan joins us to share more on what his time was like as Portland’s first city administrator, advice for his successor and what the city’s transition to a new form of government has been like.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit’s Eventual Tenant Ownership program is meant to give people the chance to buy the home they're renting. It works by providing developers with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for building homes that would qualify for this program in exchange. But new reporting from Underscore Native News and ICT highlights how the Washington program, which mainly serves tribal lands and governments, has failed to convert a single home to ownership. Luna Reyna is the Northwest Bureau Chief for the publication. She joins us to share more.

Staffing shortages and rising labor costs have caused many 24/7 businesses to reduce their hours since the COVID-19 pandemic. But Rose City Coffee Co. is bucking the trend.  The Southeast Portland coffee shop is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’ll talk with owner Christie Gryphon about what it takes to run a 24-hour business in today’s economy.

Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties recently launched a regional dashboard that tracks the health impacts of climate change in the metro area. It includes data on heat and cold events, air quality, infectious diseases and the effects climate change can have on mental health. The dashboard is an evolution of the counties’ Regional Climate and Health Monitoring Report, which was previously released every two years as a lengthy PDF.  Sarah Present is the Clackamas County Health Officer, and Kathleen Johnson is a senior program coordinator at Washington County Public Health. They join us to talk about the new dashboard and how climate change is impacting public health in the metro area.

Oregon is the leading producer of Christmas trees in the nation, accounting for about a third of all real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. Christmas tree farmers in Oregon grew more than 3 million Noble fir, Douglas fir and other Christmas tree varieties in 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available.    Priya Rajarapu is an assistant professor in the college of forestry at OSU and the Christmas tree specialist at OSU Extension Service. In the past year, she has visited 20 Christmas tree farms in Oregon where she has offered advice, diagnosed diseased trees and confirmed infestations of bark beetles and other pests.    But the biggest threat Oregon’s roughly $120 million Christmas tree industry faces is climate change, according to Rajarapu. Extreme heat and drought can imperil the survival of Christmas trees, especially seedlings. Rajarapu has been studying mulch alternatives like compost that has been shown to boost the survival of seedlings during their first year.   Rajarapu joins us for more details about her work and why non-native varieties such as Nordmann and Turkish firs are gaining in popularity among both farmers and consumers.  

 A new investigation by ProPublica and High Country News reveals how wealthy ranchers and corporations are profiting from federal subsidies for fees they pay to graze cattle on public land. The three-part investigation used data from the Bureau of Land Management to analyze grazing fees and identify the largest ranchers on public lands. Joining us for more details is Mark Olalde, an investigative reporter at ProPublica.

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria is currently undergoing a $300 million expansion. The new facility will include a more secure foundation, a vertical tsunami evacuation staircase and other features meant to make it more resilient during a potential earthquake.   That work was supposed to be covered by a $20 million grant from the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. But the Trump administration cancelled the program this spring, leaving projects across the country and state stranded.  Work on the hospital is proceeding despite the loss of federal funding. Columbia Memorial CEO Erik Thorsen joins us to talk about where the project stands.