Think Out Loud

Earlier this year, Grant County agreed to look into the idea of “invoking coordination” with federal and state agencies. Proponents say it will bring more local control back to the county, and allow them to protect community interests during planning for projects on public lands. Baker County invoked coordination several years ago, and Baker County commissioner Bill Harvey recently gave a talk in Grant County to explain the process. Bill Harvey shares how coordination is working for Baker County.

Oregon's unique "kicker" law gives money back to taxpayers when the state collects more tax revenue than it budgeted for. The next kicker could be the biggest in state history. Some people want to change the law so that the extra money can be spent on schools and public services. Others say this is the people's money, and it should stay that way. We hear opposing views on the kicker from Oregon Center for Public Policy executive director Alejandro Queral and Cascade Policy Institute research director Eric Fruits. What questions do you have about the kicker?

The rural area in Clackamas county once known as the city of Damascus, may become a city again, after the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled this month that a 2016 vote to disincorporate was invalid. The plaintiff, Jim De Young, a former city councilor and others are meeting to try to figure out the way forward. In the meantime, land use questions — not to mention roads, infrastructure and taxation questions — abound. We get help laying out the issues from long-time land use attorney and PSU professor, Ed Sullivan, and hear from one of the leaders of the campaign to disincorporate, Chris Hawes.

We meet Vancouver-based stylist Abibat Durosimi (Uh-BEE-batt Durrah-SEEM-ee). She’s been a hairstylist and makeup artist for the last 20 years, with a past client list that includes musicians from Esperanza Spalding to Prince and corporate clients from Nike to KATU TV. She is combining her love of music and high fashion to create the Rip The Runway show this weekend in Portland, highlighting a variety of body types as well as people of color.

Last Week, President Donald Trump increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods imported from China. On Monday, China said it would retaliate with tariffs on American products. We talk to an Oregon company that sells goods in China about how these tariffs will affect them. Austin Peterson is Parts and Service Director for SSI Shredding Systems in Wilsonville.

We take up some of the biggest news of the week with Art Alexander, Julie Parrish, and Jim Moore.

We hear from a developer, a realtor, an academic and two elected officials on Oregon's bill to allow middle housing in single-family neighborhoods.

Portland Meadows race track is set to close for horse racing at the end of June, but that doesn’t mean racing is over in Oregon. Grants Pass Downs now has a commercial racing license, and will host 9 days of racing this summer, with more commercial races planned in the fall. Rebecca Anderson, Vice President of Southern Oregon Horse Racing, tells us what horse racing could mean to Grants Pass.

Oregon’s school lunches are wholly paid for by federal dollars. At least they were until 2011, when Oregon passed legislation creating the Farm to School Grant, establishing a State fund for schools to purchase fresh, locally-produced food. That law is now up for renewal and expansion. For 12 years, Whitney Ellersick, the Senior Director of Nutrition Services at Portland Public Schools, has been working to keep students fed and ready to learn every day. Lola Milholland is the CEO of Umi Organic, which has developed a new yakisoba noodle specifically to meet USDA requirements to be included in school lunches.

This weekend fans of the band Phish will be coming from around the country to Corvallis. They’re not coming for a concert, though. Oregon State University is hosting the first ever academic conference on the band. Philosophy professor Stephanie Jenkins is coordinating the conference.

Oregon senators negotiated an end to the standoff that started when Republicans refused to show up to vote on a school funding bill last week. Without a quorum, senators couldn’t vote on anything, and they were most focused on the Student Success Act, which would raise $2 billion for schools through new business taxes. In order to get Republicans back for the vote, Democrats made some concessions. They agreed to kill two high profile bills dealing with gun safety and vaccines. State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Portland, and OPB political reporter Dirk Vanderhart join us. We also reached out to Senate Republicans, but they said no one was available.

Portlander Bill Oakley may be most famous for the joke he wrote about hamburgers in his time writing for the Simpsons. So perhaps it makes sense that he has spent the last year focusing on hamburgers in a different way. He’s been reviewing fast food on Instagram.

We discuss the latest regional business news with Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal.

Samuel Shin has been pursuing his passion for animation for the past seven years, which means he’s been at it since he was 7 years old. He started out doing stop motion animation with Legos and moved on to Minecraft computer animation. Now he’s balancing his school work at Oregon Virtual Academy with professional animation work for Black Plasma Studios.

Caseworkers for Oregon’s child welfare system say they have too many cases to provide adequate care to the state’s most vulnerable children and families. They rallied recently at the state capital to bring attention to the problem, which they say is long-standing and severe. Sandi Springer was a frontline Oregon child welfare caseworker for eight years, and she now works to train and support those workers in the field. She says many more new caseworkers are needed — not to solve all the problems with child welfare, but as a necessary first step to begin to make the system work as intended.

A bill in the Oregon legislature would establish a fund to support sheriffs’ search and rescue teams by selling a $10 card. Matt English is the Hood River County Sheriff.

Summary: We talk to Linda Garcia, who just won the Goldman Environmental prize — also known as the Green Nobel — for her work to stop the Tesoro Savage oil export terminal in Vancouver, Washington.

Eric Fruits, Robin Ye and Camilla Mortensen join us to provide insights and analysis on some of the biggest regional news stories from the past week.

Portland freelance writer Courtenay Hameister has suffered for most of her life with general anxiety disorder or GAD. Despite that she spent nine years as the host of the radio variety show “Live Wire” before stepping down for the sake of her mental health. Her new memoir, “OK, Fine, Whatever,” details her subsequent quest to confront her fears head on — resulting in experiences ranging from immersing herself in a sensory deprivation tank to a date with a polyamorous man at a sex club.

We listen back to an interview with Leon Speroff, who plays in a senior softball league in Vancouver, Washington. He’s 83, and had shoulder surgery in February. He’s already back to batting and says he expects to be able to throw a softball again in June. We spoke to him two years ago when he was headed to the Huntsman World Senior Games to defend his team’s gold medal.