Think Out Loud

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries is facing a massive backlog of wage theft complaints. According to its annual report, the agency saw a 208% increase in wage claims from 2020 to 2024. In response, the agency implemented an income threshold for investigations, meaning investigators are not following up on any claims from workers who make more than $25.34 an hour.

BOLI officials say the agency’s staffing hasn’t kept up with the growth of Oregon’s workforce, and they are asking lawmakers to fund more than 70 new positions. Christina Stephenson is the state labor commissioner. She joins us with more details on the agency’s nearly $18 million budget request.

By 2040 about 78 million Americans will be 65 or older, according to the Administration on Aging. In Oregon, lower birth rates combined with longer life expectancies means that Oregon’s population is rapidly growing older. The shift in population affects sectors like healthcare and affordable housing.

AGE+ is a nonprofit that advocates for older Oregonians. It’s pushing for a statewide task force to plan for Oregon’s changing demographics -- a shift that many of the state's rural areas are already seeing. In 2023, South Morrow County Seniors Matter created a meal program for older residents. Now, the organization continues providing free weekly lunches to adults 60 and older along with classes and help navigating resources.

Stephanie Hooper is the president and CEO of AGE+. Jerry Conklin is the board chair of South Morrow County Seniors Matter. They join us with more about what an influx of aging residents could mean for the state.

Oregon launched a program last summer to pay parents who care for their children with severe disabilities or medical needs. Advocates pushed for the Children’s Extraordinary Needs waiver after a similar COVID-era program ended in 2023. 

But parents say the state program is underfunded and falling short of its promise. It can only serve a tenth of the families that qualify, and only pays caregivers for up to 20 hours of work per week. SB 538, or Tensy’s Law, aims to provide adequate funding to expand the program to all eligible families.

Calli Ross is the legislative director for Advocates for Disability Supports. She’s also the primary caregiver for her 9-year-old son, Tensy, who is the bill’s namesake. She joins us to talk about the Children’s Extraordinary Needs program and the legislative push to expand it.

A new study made national headlines, estimating that in the next three decades, around 42% of adults over the age of 55 will develop dementia. Allison Lindauer is an associate professor of neurology at the Oregon Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at OHSU. She joins us to share what we know about dementia and what people can do to prevent it.

Around 14,000 subscribers read the locally-owned community newspaper Hoodview News every month. Along with community events, feel-good stories about the East County area and advertisements, readers find columns that espouse and encourage a transphobic worldview. Hoodview News is published by longtime Oregon political operative Mike Wiley — perhaps best known for his work as communications director for the Oregon Citizens Alliance, or OCA, an ultra-conservative activist group that pushed stridently anti-LGBTQ+ ballot measures across the state in the 1980s and 1990s. OPB journalist Leah Sottile joins us with the story.

The bridge connecting Oregon and Washington on Interstate 5 has needed replacement for decades. Experts say it would not withstand earthquakes of the size that the Northwest is certain to experience in coming years. Hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars went under the metaphorical bridge when the Columbia River Crossing project fell apart more than a decade ago. Now the I-5 replacement plan that Oregon, Washington and other public agencies have created depends on funding from both states, future tolling, and the federal government coming through with money it pledged to the project long before President Trump began his second term. 

Erik Neumann is OPB’s Southwest Washington Bureau Chief and has been following developments closely. He joins to share the details on where replacement stands and remind us what’s at stake.

 Earlier this month, Stephanie Johnson, a first grade teacher at Pine Ridge Elementary School in Bend, found out she won a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Central Oregon Daily News first reported on Johnson’s achievement. The award is considered to be the highest national honor a K-12 educator can receive for teaching science, technology, engineering or mathematics.  

Johnson was one of five teachers in Oregon who received the most recent award, which was given to educators nominated in 2021, 2022 or 2023. It includes a certificate signed by former President Biden, an invitation to attend the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. and $10,000 from the National Science Foundation. Johnson joins us to talk about her achievement and the joy she gets from teaching math to 1st graders. 

Glyphosate is an herbicide that’s widely used in agriculture in the U.S. and around the world. It’s the active ingredient in Roundup, which is commonly applied to crops like soy, cotton and corn that have been genetically modified to withstand the weed killer. The Environmental Protection Agency maintains that glyphosate is “not likely to be carcinogenic to humans,” although a ruling in 2022 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has prompted the agency to review the chemical’s risks to human health and the environment. 

A new study by economists at the University of Oregon examined how glyphosate may also be impacting the health of infants. It looked at millions of birth records from 1990 to 2013 to see if there were differences in birth weight and gestational length after Roundup use intensified in rural counties that grew genetically modified corn, soy and cotton compared to rural counties that weren’t suitable for growing those GM crops. It found that exposure to glyphosate was associated with lower birth weights and shorter gestations, with those effects being greater for some babies more than others. Joining us to talk about the findings is Ed Rubin, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Oregon.

In 2020, the Almeda Fire ripped through the Rogue Valley and it destroyed about a third of the town of Talent. Among the losses were nearly 90 homes located at the Talent Mobile Estates park. Years later, the town continues to rebuild, including a groundbreaking ceremony for the mobile home park last year. We check in on recovery efforts from Darby Ayers-Flood, the mayor of Talent.       

Oregon lawmakers gathered in Salem on Tuesday for the start of the 2025 legislative session. They’ll have five months to tackle the state’s pressing challenges, including passing a two-year budget. Last month, Governor Kotek unveiled a budget proposal that boosts spending on her top priorities such as building more affordable housing, combating homelessness and funding for K-12 schools. 

Lawmakers are also expected to pass a multibillion-dollar transportation package to shore up the state’s aging bridges and crumbling roads and highways. And although Democrats narrowly won a supermajority in the legislature, they may still face resistance from Republicans who have competing visions on education, public safety and addressing the housing crisis. Joining us to discuss all this and more is OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart. 

Looking at the history of psychological operations, “Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind” is the latest book by author and journalist Annalee Newitz. It explores misinformation, propaganda and how the stories we hear can manipulate us. The book also features a chapter on the work the Coquille Indian Tribe has done to undo damage these operations did to some Oregon tribes in the past. Newitz spoke in front of an audience with “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller at a Powell’s Books event on June 4.

Oregon's reigning – and two time – state champion in chess is a junior at Westview High School in Beaverton. Zoey Tang has been playing since she was 7 years old and joined a chess club at her small charter school. She was hooked. She recently became the first Oregonian ever to achieve the title of “woman grandmaster.” She joined us to share her thoughts on the title and her goals going forward.

One of Mayor Keith Wilson’s main campaign platforms was his commitment to ending unsheltered homelessness in the city. On Wednesday, he presented his $28 million “Blueprint” for how he plans to achieve that goal. OPB Portland City Government Reporter Alex Zielinski joins us to share details about the plan and the reaction of regional officials and homeless experts who have been working to get people off the streets for decades.

President Donald Trump has wasted no time in enacting his immigration policy. On his first day in office, he issued an executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship, the constitutional provision that automatically grants citizenship to children born in the U.S., regardless of their parents’ status. Attorneys general across the country, including in Oregon, have already sued to block the order. The administration will also allow immigration authorities to make arrests in traditionally safe spaces such as churches and schools.

Local and state officials around the country could also be investigated and prosecuted by the Justice Department for refusing to cooperate on immigration enforcement. But Oregon has a longstanding law that specifically prohibits officials from doing just that. Oregon's new attorney general, Dan Rayfield, joins us to talk about all this and more. 

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.

Animals such as grizzly bears and Arctic ground squirrels have evolved the ability to hibernate as a way to survive winter months of extreme cold. During hibernation, their core body temperatures drop and their heart rates and metabolic activities slow to conserve energy. They also consume less oxygen during this inactivity.   

But what if you could make non-hibernating species – including humans - hibernate? How could you control hibernation as a therapy to help people recover from strokes or heart attacks, or administer it to astronauts to help them endure a yearslong trip to Mars? Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have embarked on a first step to exploring these questions by inducing a state of hibernation in rats, which don’t normally hibernate. Joining us to discuss this research is Domenico Tupone, a research assistant professor of neurology at OHSU.