Think Out Loud

Last summer, more than 12,000 of Deschutes County residents received a letter inviting them to participate in a civic assembly, convened by nonprofit groups and with support from the city of Bend and the county. Only 30 were selected in a lottery system, all coming from various ages and backgrounds. They met in the fall to brainstorm ideas to address youth homelessness. Their ideas ranged from changes in the foster care system to financial literacy classes in schools. Katy Kundmueller and Alex Lehman both recently participated in the assembly and join us to share more about the ideas that came out of the meetings and their hopes for the future.

Marion County once burned its trash — and generated some of its electrical power   —  using the Reworld incinerator. But since that facility has previously announced it would be closing and stopped accepting residential waste, the county’s garbage is now going to the Coffin Butte Landfill in Benton County. However, as reported in the Statesman Journal, Reworld is challenging state regulations that it blamed on the closure. Regardless, since space at Coffin Butte is limited, Marion County commissioners have already approved the trucking of some of the waste to a landfill in The Dalles in Wasco County. A spokesman for Marion County told OPB that move is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks. Marion County — like many others in Oregon — faces tough choices about how to environmentally dispose of the unwanted materials its residents throw out. We spoke earlier this month about the environmental challenges presented by both landfills and incineration. Joining us to discuss these policies and the financial considerations involved are Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron and Environmental Services Division Manager Brian May.  

The fentanyl crisis has taken a toll on communities all across Oregon. It has also shined a light on the challenges frontline responders face when trying to get people help for substance use disorder, especially in rural areas and jails or prisons where treatment can be hard to obtain.   But a training program in addiction medicine offered by OHSU is providing help by sharing resources, best practices and collaborative problem solving on complex cases. While most of the people who enroll in the course, which is taught remotely, work in healthcare, it’s attracting growing interest among law enforcement. Enrollment overall in the training program has grown by nearly two-thirds in the past two years. Dan Hoover, an assistant professor of medicine and the director of the Extension for Community Health Outcomes addiction medicine program at OHSU, joins us for more details.

 Oregon has a rich tattoo history, from indigenous practitioners to sailors. And Oregon newspapers have run stories about tattoos since the early 20th century. Within the state you can see all styles represented, from American traditional to fine lines and realism.  There is no shortage of inked skin in the state, but as data obtained by OPB from OHA's Board of Electrologists and Body Art Practitioners show, the number of tattoo artists has skyrocketed since the pandemic. From 2019 to 2024, Oregon saw a 77% increase in the number of tattoo licenses at the state level. What does this increase mean for the industry and what was it about the pandemic that created this spike in numbers? To answer these questions and more we’ll hear from Chris Clark and Alia Bird, co-owners of Birdhouse Tattoo in Portland, and Seth Rowan, owner of the Bend Tattoo Company.

Researchers have long known there was some kind of aquifer in the Cascade Mountains that feeds rivers like the McKenzie and the Deschutes. But they never knew just how big it might be — until now, that is. A new study found that the Central Oregon aquifer holds 80 cubic kilometers of water, roughly three times the size of Nevada’s Lake Mead. Leif Karlstrom is an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Oregon. He led the study and joins us with more details on what the discovery could mean for the region — and why we shouldn’t view it as a water windfall

Democratic Representative Maxine Dexter has begun her first term on Capitol Hill, representing Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. Earl Blumenauer, who represented the region for nearly 30 years, has now joined the faculty at Portland State University. In the first two weeks of her term, Dexter has already voted on bills about immigration and transgender student athletes, and she has been assigned to serve on the House Natural Resources and Veterans Affairs Committees.  Dexter joins us from Washington D.C. to talk about how she’ll work toward her health care and environmental priorities, one day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated to his second term. 

A 23-year-old civil rights activist from Alabama named John Lewis was the youngest speaker at the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by Martin Luther King Jr, delivering a fiery speech to hundreds of thousands of marchers gathered on the Washington Mall. Lewis went on to serve on the Atlanta City Council, and was elected to Congress in 1986, where he has earned a reputation as one of the most liberal members of the House. He has also teamed up with Andrew Ayden and illustrator Nate Powell to write March, a three volume graphic nonfiction series documenting Lewis's life. We listen back to a conversation we had with Lewis in 2014. Lewis died in 2020. We listen back to a conversation with Oregon state Republican Sen. Jackie Winters recorded in 2018 about her  role as Senate Minority Leader. Winters died in 2019.  

Oregon’s legislative session is set to begin on Tuesday. Lawmakers will consider a slew of bills on issues such as housing, infrastructure, mental health care and more. House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, and House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, join us to share their parties’ priorities for the upcoming session.

Kaarin Knudson became the mayor of Oregon’s second largest city, Eugene, on Monday. She delivered her first state of the city address shortly after being sworn in. Knudson says increasing housing capacity and revitalizing the city’s downtown are among her top priorities. But first, she faces a budget shortfall and will need to work with the city council to find a way to fill it.  Last year, a proposed municipal fee to address the shortfall drew a lot of public opposition and the council decided not to vote on the issue. Knudson joins us to tell us more about her first official week on the job and her priorities for her term.

By the early 1900s, the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group founded by former Confederate soldiers after the Civil War, had all but faded from existence in the U.S. Then, in 1915, a second Klan was founded in Georgia, and soon spread across the country. By the mid-1920s, it had as many as eight million members across the U.S., including many chapters in the Pacific Northwest, and a strong base in the Midwest. Seattle writer Timothy Egan’s most recent book, “A Fever in the Heartland,” tells the story of the rise of the Klan in the 1920s and the leader who was brought down by one woman’s deathbed testimony. We talk to Egan in front of students at McDaniel’s High School.