Think Out Loud

After hours of public briefings, discussions and a public listening session, Multnomah County Commissioners decided last week to pause a controversial move to change Preschool for All’s funding stream. Commissioners were meant to vote this week on an ordinance that would have adjusted the program’s income tax threshold based on inflation, something the governor asked them to do. Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson joins us to discuss the current state of the county’s ambitious plan to achieve universal preschool, and gives us an update on drug treatment and deflection a year after the state ended its drug decriminalization experiment.

As a part of President Trump's takeover of policing in the nation's capital, he has pledged to remove homeless people and encampments from the city. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said homeless people who don’t leave the city will face punishment in the form of fines and jail time. Cities across the country are struggling  with how to regulate homeless camping, including in the Pacific Northwest. We take this moment to listen back to several conversations we had with people living on the streets of Portland and Vancouver about how they think homelessness should be regulated.    Back in 2022, then Portland mayor Ted Wheeler pledged to create several huge sanctioned homeless camps at the edges of the city and threatened to send people who wouldn’t go to those camps to jail. OPB’s “Think Out Loud” spent a day on the streets of Portland asking people how they felt about the plan.   Earlier this winter, OPB’s “Think Out Loud” spent a morning with staff and volunteers of the Council for Homeless as they participated in the Point-in-Time count in Vancouver, Washington.  The Point-in-Time count is a federally required snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in a given area.   

On June 30, 2021, former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown held a Reopening Oregon Celebration at Providence Park in Portland. Years later, Oregon schools and businesses are fully open, many workplaces have returned to in-office work and people regularly gather together inside. Patrick Allen is the former director of the Oregon Health Authority. He ran the agency during the height of the pandemic and joins us with details of what he learned working through a once-in-a-century crisis. 

The number of cannabis-related reports to poison control centers across the U.S. has risen greatly since 2009, according to new reporting from the New York Times. They also found a rise in cases where cannabis poisoning led to breathing problems and even life-threatening effects, especially among teens and adults. Rob Hendrickson is the medical director of the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU. He joins us to share what he’s seen in the emergency room in recent years.

Earlier this week, President Trump said he’s working on an executive order to end mail-in ballots and voting machines across the country. The administration cites corruption as the leading cause for action despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud from voting by mail. Oregon’s Secretary of State Tobias Read joins us to share his response and efforts to protect Oregon’s vote-by-mail system for elections.

Wildfire crews do important work managing wildfires, but that work is often done without masks. A recent New York Times investigation found many wildfire fighters are getting cancer, cardiovascular diseases and have died because of the toxic smoke they inhaled while on the job. Researchers at the U.S. The Forest Service have recommended wildfire crews be required to wear masks for decades, but the agency has refused. Hannah Dreier is an investigative reporter for the times and joins us to share the details on why the agency won’t allow wildfire crews to wear masks and what she heard from people first hand. 

Oregon recently launched a recycling program that aims to hold businesses accountable for the packaging waste they create. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (RMA) charges producers of paper, packaging and food serviceware for the products they distribute in Oregon. The goal is to fund recycling services in small communities through the fees that businesses pay into the program.   The RMA was the first law of its kind to pass in 2021 and was followed by similar legislation in California, Colorado and a handful of other states. It’s currently facing a lawsuit from a trade group that claims the law is illegal and unfairly impacts its members.   Nicole Portley is a program plan lead for the RMA at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. She joins us with more details on how the new program is working.  

Phil and Penny Knight have pledged $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University for cancer research. The Knight Cancer Institute will become self-governed within OHSU and will have its own board of directors. In December, renowned cancer researcher Brian Druker announced his resignation as the institute’s CEO but said last week he will return as the inaugural president of the organization. He joins us with details about what this means for cancer care in Oregon.

 CareOregon, the largest Medicaid provider in the state, will soon stop covering mental health and substance use treatment from out-of-network providers. Coverage will end on Oct. 1 for Medicaid members and on Jan. 1 for members of Medicare Advantage. The decision will disrupt care for an estimated 15,000 patients, or about 15% of the organization’s members who use behavioral health services. The organization says the changes will bring it back into alignment with industry best practices after making provisions to expand access to mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.   Amit Shah is the chief medical officer at CareOregon. He joins us with more details about the decision.  

The tsunami warning that hit the Oregon coast earlier this month triggered more than just alarms — it revealed deeper cracks in the state’s emergency response system. For two state representatives who are helping lead efforts to modernize how Oregon prepares for natural disasters, the incident underscored the gaps in Oregon’s disaster readiness, from outdated emergency notification systems to underfunded infrastructure and training.  Rep. Paul Evans (D-Monmouth) has a $300 million proposal to modernize Oregon’s disaster preparedness, aiming to improve communication systems, strengthen infrastructure, and expand local readiness efforts over the next decade. He and Rep. David Gomberg (D-Lincoln, West Benton, Lane) join us to discuss where Oregon has made progress, where significant vulnerabilities remain, and how new investments could help the state better prepare for the next major crisis — whether it’s a tsunami, wildfire, or another emergency all together.