Think Out Loud

In the last two weeks of the Oregon legislative session, which ended late Friday night,  housing advocates including the Community Alliance of Tenants, the Oregon Housing Alliance and the Urban League of Portland sounded the alarm and protested in Salem over funding cuts. They said the programs for emergency rent assistance and programs to prevent eviction must remain funded to prevent thousands of individuals and families with children from being evicted and becoming homeless. Lisa Bates is a professor of Black Studies at Portland State University and helps run a research program studying evictions across Oregon.   We talk with Bates about the lack of legislative funding for homelessness and housing programs and what’s needed in her view to address the ongoing homeless and housing crisis.  

The Oregon Legislature wrapped up the 2025 regular session on Sunday. Lawmakers passed bills that addressed utility rate hikes, large energy users like data centers and microgrids for local electricity generation, among other environmental issues. But some advocates think lawmakers didn't go far enough in advancing the state's carbon-cutting goals.   Nora Apter is the Oregon director for Climate Solutions, a regional nonprofit that advocates for climate policy. She joins us to talk about what lawmakers did – and didn’t  – pass in terms of climate legislation and how federal rollbacks of environmental protections could impact the state’s climate goals.   

The gavel came down on this year’s session of the Oregon legislature on Friday. Legislators failed to pass a controversial funding package for transportation and infrastructure. They also took up gun bills, civil commitment, wildfire funding and many other issues. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart helps us understand it all.  

On Tuesday, Oregon's first measles case of the year was reported in Multnomah County, joining a slew of other states who have had reported cases this year. The individual who tested positive is an adult who is believed to have acquired the disease while traveling abroad and was hospitalized in Portland. The highly contagious disease is transmitted through the air via coughs and sneezes, with symptoms including fever, cough and a rash appearing from seven to 21 days after exposure. Paul Ciselak is the medical director for communicable disease and immunizations at Oregon Health Authority. He joins us to share more.

Two Portland bars are among the top four finalists for this year’s Spirited Awards, one of the most prestigious honors in the cocktail world. Pacific Standard, located inside the KEX Hotel, is nominated for Best U.S. Hotel Bar. Palomar — a Cuban-inspired bar that recently moved from Hosford-Abernathy to Northwest Portland — is a finalist for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar. The awards, which will be announced in New Orleans on July 24, recognize excellence in bars and mixology around the globe. Pacific Standard’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler is also up for Best U.S. Bar Mentor. Morgenthaler joins us along with Palomar’s Ricky Gomez to talk about what the nominations mean, how their approach to running a bar has evolved, and how they’re navigating a cocktail in

Lance Orton is the executive director of CityTeam Portland, which offers shelter, housing and recovery services to its clients. If you hadn’t read about him or heard him tell his story, you’d never guess Orton was himself homeless and addicted to heroin just seven years ago. In addition to being the executive director of CityTeam, he also sits on the board of Central Eastside Together and the Old Town Community Association. He also serves as board chair of Shelter Portland, a public-private initiative by Mayor Keith Wilson to create strategic solutions for homelessness and addiction.  Orton joins us to share more about his personal life transformation about how the faith-based nonprofit he now runs is hoping to expand its services in a new facility that will open soon in the Old Town neighborhood.

Information for Public Use, a group that researches public records, found that the Medford Police Department has collaborated with regional and federal law enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.     Medford and other law enforcement agencies in Southern Oregon have shared surveillance technology and tactics, according to a report by Jefferson Public Radio.    In August last year, the ACLU of Oregon sued the City of Medford claiming that the police broke state law by monitoring the social media accounts of local organizers. That litigation is ongoing.    When asked to comment about the latest findings from Information for Public Use, Medford Police Lieutenant Geoff Kirkpatrick responded that due to pending litigation, the department cannot comment on questions on this topic at this time.    We learn more about what’s happening in Medford from Kelly Simon, the legal director of the ACLU of Oregon.  

Ketamine is an anesthetic that has been growing in use as an off-label prescription to treat depression. Individuals can access the drug through telehealth appointments and clinics in person. But new reporting from Undark shows that many of these providers face few regulations, and much is still unknown about the drug. Dawn Fallik is an associate professor at the University of Delaware and a freelance medicine and science reporter. She covered this story through a grant from the Pulitzer Center and the University of Delaware and joins us to share more on what ketamine clinics look like in Oregon and around the U.S.

A new high school program in Oregon teaches students the ins and outs of seafood butchery and the state’s "blue economy." The program was in the pilot stage last year at six schools but has grown to 15 and now has a new curriculum that focuses on seafood caught in the Pacific Northwest. A major goal of the program was to get local seafood in the hands of students, as a study commissioned by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association found that 90% of Oregon-caught seafood is exported. Maggie Michaels is the program coordinator for the program. James Byrne is a science teacher at Clatskanie Middle and High School. Cora Evenson is a sophomore at the same school and took the class last year. They all join us to share more about what students are learning in the program.V

Artist Fred Grandy grew up in Oregon with five sisters and one brother. The family also lived in Washington for a time. As an adult, Grandy moved around the country, with stints in California, Louisiana, Kentucky and Virginia. But his last days were spent in Ukraine, volunteering with a group that helped to clear up debris after Russian bombings. His sister, Bend resident Sietska Reed, says he had taken off on an open-ended trip to Western Europe but found himself drawn to Poland and then Ukraine. Reed said her brother felt he was where he needed to be to help Ukrainians in a small but tangible way. Grandy was angry, she said, about President Donald Trump’s embrace of Russia, which invaded Ukraine, and also wanted to represent the many Americans who are horrified by Trump’s actions and demonstrate support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. She says the family was notified last week by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine that her brother was among those killed in one of the heaviest Russian attacks on Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Reed joins us, along with her son Kennith Reed and her brother Jim Grandy to remember Fred and tell his story as they think he would want it told.