Think Out Loud

The Portland group PopMob, or Popular Mobilization, was very visible at Saturday’s counter-demonstration to the Proud Boys rally downtown. We talk with PopMob spokesperson Effie Baum about how the group uses whimsical costumes (like a brass band in banana suits) and an inclusive message to combat far right ideology.

We get opinions and analysis on some of the biggest news stories from the past week from Lisa Bates, George Rede and Jim Paser

Are you in the market for niche cult memorabilia? For just $8,000, you could be the new owner of a small building formerly used by the Rajneeshees as a guardhouse on their Wasco County 1980s commune. Jake French, whose family owns the guardhouse, tells us how he discovered it belonged to followers of guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and why he wants to sell it.

The Karuk Tribe is the second largest Native American tribe in California, and its ancestral lands extend into southern Oregon. The tribe’s Leaf Hillman explains the Climate Adaptation Plan it just launched this month, restoring ancestral prescribed forest fires into the land management practices to protect ecosystems and help prevent the kinds of catastrophic fires that endanger communities and fuel climate change. We’re also joined by University of Oregon Sociology and Environmental Studies professor Kari Marie Norgaard.

Negative narratives about the way girls of color look, speak and act can impact their self-confidence and career goals. The yearly “Why I Rock” conference for Oregon middle school girls of color aims to give girls tools and connections to achieve their dreams. We hear from a founder and a 13-year-old participant about how girls get inspired at the conference

Oregon will begin requiring school districts to start teaching about genocide in 2020. But the state’s curriculum standards and guidelines won’t be in place until 2025. We talk with an Oregon high school English teacher Carrie McCallum who has taught a Holocaust and genocide literature class at St. Helen’s High School since 2011 and is part of national teacher training effort.

We continue our series about Interstate 5 with Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle. She has been a vocal proponent of a new Interstate bridge between Vancouver and Portland.

The Canton Grill has been a fixture on Southeast 82nd Avenue in Portland for 75 years. The restaurant was opened in 1944, and has been owned and operated by the same family for three generations. We sit down with the current owner, Cindy Louis and her father, Fred Louis as the restaurant celebrates its 75th anniversary this month.

The Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative has come out with its first official deep dive into homelessness and housing insecurity. Director Marisa Zapata says the hope is that by analysing the social and economic factors related to homelessness and laying out the resources that could be used to tackle them, the report can will help spur a region-wide effort to address the growing problem.

The Oregon Lottery is getting ready to launch sports gambling in the state. We’ll hear how it will work, and what longtime oddsmaker and sports betting consultant James Murphy thinks the state should be doing differently.

The Trump Administration wants to loosen regulations around apprenticeship programs. Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle is concerned. She’d like to see the apprenticeship model applied to more industries, but says high standards must protect workers from exploitation and unsafe working conditions. We hear from Hoyle about how apprenticeships work in Oregon, and what new federal rules could mean for the future.

The highly anticipated clash between right-wing groups affiliated with white supremacy and left-wing counter protesters this weekend was mostly nonviolent. Portland police were successful in preventing the group of approximately 200 Proud Boys and supporters away from the counter-demonstrators — who outnumbered them by several fold. We’re joined by Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw and Portland mayor Ted Wheeler.

The oldest species in the Northwest is at the Oregon Zoo for the first time. The Pacific lamprey is a native species that has survived more than 400 million years until declining significantly in the early 2000s. After a long effort to increase populations, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Oregon Zoo and U.S Fish and Wildlife Service have collaborated to introduce five Pacific lampreys to the zoo in hopes to raise awareness of their crucial role. We talk with Aaron Jackson, Lamprey Project leader for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation about why lampreys are ecologically and culturally important and how they are adapting to their new temporary home.

U.S. beef producers are accustomed to uncertainty, but ranchers are concerned about recent fluctuations in beef prices due to tariffs from China and other Pacific Rim countries. A recent fire at one of the largest American beef processing plants has only added to the uncertainty in the beef market. We talk with Jerome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association about how Oregon ranchers are faring.

A former staffer for the conspiracy theory website Infowars is organizing a gathering in Portland this Saturday, along with members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that attracts white supremacists and has engaged in violence. OPB reporter Amelia Templeton brings us the details.

Community oversight is a required part of the Portland Police Bureau’s settlement agreement with the federal government. That community oversight has taken several forms over the years. Currently, it’s led by the 13 member Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, or PCCEP. Andrew Kalloch and Lakayana Drury explain what PCCEP does, and how they hope to improve relations between the police and the public.

We hear opinions and analysis on this week’s news from Christy George, Doug Badger and Kalpana Krishnamurthy.

Children of migrant farmers in Eastern Oregon do not always have access to college and career planning tools. Oregon Migrant Leadership Institute, a week-long summer camp serving migrant students in the area, wants to change that. We hear from OMLI Project Director Greg Contreras and student Cindy Quezada about how the camp creates opportunity for immigrant families.

Though reported hate crimes in Oregon rose125 percent between 2013 and 2017, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that two-thirds of hate crimes go unreported. Portland United Against Hate is working to improve the way that the city responds to hate incidents, and launched an online reporting system to track hate incidents in Portland. We hear from two people involved in the group, Shweta Moorthy and Page Smith.

Tessa Hulls is a cyclist, a visual artist, a writer, a feminist historian and more. This week she’s riding her bike to Vernonia to join about 150 women for a gender-inclusive cycling summit. We talk with Hulls from the road about what she calls the “150-year story of the bicycle as a tool for social activism.”