Think Out Loud

Although the fire isn’t yet fully contained, the focus in the Sisters community has shifted to recovery. Those efforts are being coordinated by Citizens4Community, a nonprofit that aims to build community in Sisters by convening opportunities for civic engagement, collaboration and social connection among residents, including helping them become more fire-wise. This past spring, the nonprofit organized community forums to educate residents about fire insurance and wildfire preparedness. The nonprofit has recently created a list of resources for how to help fire victims, emergency responders, local businesses and other nonprofits impacted by the Flat Fire. It also helped another Central Oregon nonprofit, NeighborImpact, set up a Flat Fire relief fund and reached out to other nonprofits to learn from their experiences leading long-term recovery needs for communities devastated by wildfires. 

Citizens4Community Executive Director Kellen Klein joins us to share more details about community building in Sisters and its recovery needs.

 Portland Mayor Keith Wilson made ending unsheltered homelessness central to his policy agenda. He’s leaned into one kind of shelter to do that, overnight-only shelters. And he’s successfully opened five of these this year, as part of his plan to provide an additional 1,500 beds by Dec. 1. Last month, the mayor announced plans to open what will eventually be four centers where homeless Portlanders can access services during the day. But Multnomah County estimates the number of people who are unsheltered in the county - most of them in Portland - to be more than 7,500. Mayor Wilson is also facing skepticism and concerns among homeless service providers, neighborhood associations and Portland city councilors about his plan to end unsheltered homelessness as his December deadline approaches. 

This week, the mayor sent out a plea to an email list of approximately 17,000 people, urging them to donate to or volunteer their time at one of the city’s shelters - and seemed to warn that the Trump administration might choose to send in National Guard Troops as it did in Washington D.C. if Portland did not “address the humanitarian crisis on our streets.”

Reporter Lillian Mongeau Hughes covers homelessness and mental health for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She joins us to share more about the recent opening of another overnight-only shelter despite opposition from a Pearl District neighborhood association, and the progress the city has made toward the goal of ending unsheltered homelessness.

Last year, Oregon ended its three-year experiment with drug decriminalization known as Measure 110. This came when Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 4002 to implement new criminal penalties for drug possession and fund efforts at the county level to deflect drug users away from the criminal justice system and into treatment as a way to avoid charges. Those deflection programs look different in every county across the state. It has now been a year since that program began in Washington County. District Attorney Kevin Barton joins us, along with John Karp-Evans, the deputy director of the Peer Company, to talk about Washington County’s legal and behavioral health responses to drug use.

Class is now back in session for students across Oregon. Schools are navigating a new statewide ban on cellphones in the classroom, as well as the growing use of artificial intelligence among both students and educators. Meanwhile, aggressive federal immigration enforcement tactics have raised fears in some communities that schools could become hotspots for arrests.

Natalie Pate covers K-12 education for OPB. She joins us to talk about these issues and more.

This summer, the Oregon Arts Commission is marking the 50th anniversary of the Percent for Art program, which has helped 900 artists create 3,000 pieces of public art. The 1975 law requires that one percent of the cost of new and renovated buildings go toward a piece of art that’s accessible to the public. The arts commission and Travel Oregon launched a “50 for 50” program in August, highlighting 50 pieces in the collection that span across the state and encourages people to get out to see them. We talk with the Oregon Arts Commission Public Art and Artist Programs Coordinator Ryan Burghard about the campaign, along with artist Christine Clark. She is one of the 900 artists included in the collection. Her piece, “Gathering Panes and Shapes,” is installed at the Eastern Oregon University library in La Grande.

A recently published study from the University of Oregon found that the fear of deportation declines with age among immigrants without protected status. The research is based on interviews with Mexican immigrants over the age of 50 in the California communities of Oakland, Fremont and Berkeley. The interviews were mostly conducted in 2019 and some in 2022, before the second Trump presidency.

The study found several factors that affected the fear of deportation. For example, older undocumented immigrants tend to have children who are now adults, and so family separation was less of a concern than for an immigrant with minor children. The study also found that “life course mechanisms,” such as leaving the workforce because of retirement, and the older immigrants’ own perception that their age made them less visible targets, also shaped their fear of deportation. 

Joining us to discuss the implications of these findings is the study’s author, Isabel García Valdivia, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oregon.

Last Friday, Oregon lawmakers convened in Salem for a special legislative session called by Gov. Tina Kotek to pass a transportation funding bill. The special session will now likely not end until later this month to allow Democrats to muster the necessary votes to pass the bill in the Oregon Senate. On Monday, the House passed a bill that would raise gas taxes by 6 cents per gallon, hike vehicle registration and titling fees, raise costs for drivers of EVs, and temporarily double a payroll tax that funds public transit. The bill contains many elements of one introduced earlier this year by Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham, who is currently recovering from surgery and is seen as a critical vote for the passage of the new transportation funding bill to avert mass layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation and cuts in the agency’s services. That earlier bill failed during the regularly scheduled legislative session which ended in June.

OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart joins us for the latest developments about the special legislative session and the political rifts that have emerged as it nears conclusion.

 Three years ago, Paul Susi launched PDX ID Assistance, a free service to help people replace lost forms of identification, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate. In a recent magazine essay he wrote for Oregon Humanities, Susi says he was motivated to start PDX ID Assistance after working for years as a manager of homeless shelters in Portland where he saw firsthand the frustration clients experienced trying to obtain housing, employment health care or other services without identification documents. 

PDX ID Assistance operates as a kind of free drop-in clinic Susi holds several times a month at locations that are familiar to people experiencing homelessness, like a library or homeless services provider. Susi shows up with a stack of application forms to request a birth certificate in all 50 states, envelopes and stamps for mailing off the forms and checks he fills out to each person seeking his help to cover the cost of replacing an identification document.  

Susi joins us to share his experiences with PDX ID Assistance and how it’s taken on new significance in the current political climate. 

Vaux’s swifts are small, migratory birds that travel from their breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest to Central and South American each fall, roosting in chimneys and hollowed-out trees along the way. For a few weeks in September, huge flocks of the birds have spiraled into the chimney of Chapman Elementary in Northwest Portland. The nightly display has entertained crowds for decades, but as of last year, the birds appear to have abandoned the chimney. 

Joe Liebezeit is the statewide conservation director for the Bird Alliance of Oregon. He joins us to talk about why the birds might be moving and what to expect from the swifts this year.

In Washington, the Flannery decision has caused confusion over when people accused of domestic violence need to surrender their firearms. More recently, another court decision has provided more clarity over the issue.  We dig into this story with Kelsey Turner, an investigative reporter with InvestigateWest. 

The 160th annual Oregon State Fair in Salem wraps up on Labor Day. The 10-day event features live music, monster trucks, carnival rides and competitions that showcase excellence in Oregon art, livestock, agriculture and more. From the tallest sunflower grown to blue ribbons awarded for beef and dairy cattle, the fair is also an opportunity to honor the hard work of future farmers, ranchers or hobbyists who’ve waited months to compete and show off their skills. 

We visited the fair on opening day to talk with folks about what brought them there, whether it was livestock to judge, veggies to show off, deep-fried Oreos to sell or childhood memories to rekindle.

Ledesma says she co-founded Coalición Fortaleza out of that question. It was a long process involving many more community meetings and a partnership with real estate developer CASA of Oregon. But five years later, Jackson county’s first resident-owned mobile home park is thriving. Formerly called Talent Mobile Estates, the residents have decided to rename it Talent Community Cooperative. With larger individual spaces and improved shared facilities, the park is nearing its 84 unit capacity. We talk with Ledesma about the new park and the other community empowerment work the nonprofit is engaged in.

Five years ago, the Labor Day Fires killed 11 people and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, becoming the deadliest and destructive wildfire season in the state’s history. Since then, the city of Phoenix has focused on rebuilding, including housing, rebuilding Blue Heron Park and building a new food truck lot known as the Phoodery. Eric Swanson is the city manager of Phoenix. He joins us to share more on what rebuilding has looked like.

The Flat Fire, which is burning two miles northeast of Sisters in Central Oregon, has grown to more than 23,000 acres and is 13% contained, as of Friday morning. The fire broke out last week, grew rapidly and prompted Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation orders in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. On Thursday, Level 3 orders were downgraded to Level 2 in both counties. According to an update posted Thursday morning, five homes have been destroyed by the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation.  

Jim Cornelius, editor-in-chief of The Nugget Newspaper in Sisters, says that while the community is no stranger to wildfires, efforts have expanded in recent years to make it more fire-wise and resilient to wildfires. The city is considering updates to its development code for new construction and in the spring, a local nonprofit, Citizens4Community, organized community forums to educate residents about fire insurance and wildfire preparedness, from assembling a go bag to requesting a free wildfire home assessment. 

Cornelius joins us for an update about the Flat Fire, its impact on Sisters and how the catastrophic Labor Day Fires of 2020 shaped the community’s fire-readiness.

President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his first day in office in January. Shortly after, he froze federal funding for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees in the U.S. The decisions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration that’s led to arrests and deportations across the country. 

The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, or IRCO, provides education, health, employment and other support services to refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon. Executive Director Lee Po Cha joins us to talk about what it’s like to do that work in the current political climate.

According to the violent crime survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, there were 17 homicides in Portland in the first half of 2025 compared to 35 for the same period last year. That 51% decline is the largest drop in homicides among the 68 city and county police agencies represented in the survey. Aggravated assaults, rapes and robberies have also declined in Portland and nationwide, according to the survey.   

Gun violence, however, continues to be a problem, with three firearm-related homicides recorded in Portland just last month. Ceasefire is one of the initiatives the city is pursuing to break the cycle of gun violence. Launched in 2023, it’s based on a national model that identifies individuals at high risk for gun violence and provides them with supportive services and intensive case management within their communities. Ceasefire director Sierra Ellis and Lt. Israel Hill, who supervises the Portland Police Bureau’s Focused Intervention Team and Enhanced Community Safety Team, join us to talk about Ceasefire and other strategies the city is pursuing to curb violent crimes.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of over-the-counter birth control pills two years ago. The decision has dramatically increased access to contraception, according to a new study from Oregon Health & Science University. 

Researchers found that more than a quarter of participants who were using the over-the-counter pill had switched from using no birth control at all. They also found that members of the over-the-counter group were more likely to be uninsured and live in rural areas than participants who used prescription birth control.

Maria Rodriguez is the director of both the Center for Reproductive Health Equity and the Center for Women’s Health at OHSU. She joins us with more on the importance of removing barriers to reproductive health care.

Over the past few decades, Portland has built one of the most extensive green stormwater infrastructure systems in the country. Instead of relying only on pipes and drains, it has created thousands of rain gardens and green streets to help keep sewage out of the Willamette River. Much of that work has not only involved city engineers but also local community members — from volunteers who ‘adopt’ and maintain storm drains to nonprofits that rip out pavement and replace it with trees and plants.

A new study in the journal Sustainability looks back at the first 30 years of Portland’s green stormwater infrastructure, but questions remain about whether the city is keeping up with climate change and rapid growth. Our guests are study co-author Adrienne Aiona, a civil engineer at the city's Bureau of Environmental Services and Ted Labbe, finance and partnerships manager of the nonprofit Depave. They join us to talk about the city’s work and the role of local stewardship in keeping Portland’s green stormwater system alive and well.

The availability of child care for children ages 3 to 5 in Oregon is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Oregon State University. In 2018, three-quarters of the state’s counties were considered preschool child care deserts, but as of last year, that number dropped to just nine. However, all but two counties are still considered child care deserts for children ages 0 to 2.

Megan Pratt is an associate professor of practice at OSU and the report’s lead author. Alyssa Chatterjee is the director of the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care. They both join us with more details on what the state’s child care landscape looks like today.

Eight years ago, the military in Myanmar launched a weekslong campaign of genocide against the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim ethnic minority. Investigators from the United Nations documented the scale of the “extreme violence” they found: the killing of thousands of civilians; mass rapes of “hundreds, possibly thousands” of women and girls; nearly 400 villages burned to the ground. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they live in squalid conditions in the world’s largest refugee camp.  

Nurul Haque was born and raised in that refugee camp. About a decade ago, he started the Bangladesh Rohingya Student Union, an organization that helps expand educational and leadership opportunities for youth in the camp and advocates to stop child labor and human trafficking by criminal gangs. After being kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death by armed gang members, Haque successfully applied for refugee status in the U.S. for himself, his wife and young son. In December 2023, he and his family arrived in Portland, which he chose for resettlement because a relative lived there.  

Haque joins us to share what his life is like today and his continued advocacy for Rohingya communities here and abroad.