Think Out Loud

We talk with Tank and Britney Dunham. We talked with them and their three children last year and heard about their time in a family shelter, their life at the motel where we first met them, and their move to a heavily subsidized rental in the outskirts of Portland. The subsidy was scheduled to run out at the end of this month, and we’ll hear how they’re doing now, and what their plans are for the future.

Teachers across Oregon are participating in a “Day of Action” Wednesday to show support for increased school funding. We hear from Troy Theriot, an English teacher at Beaverton High School and a building representative for the local teachers’ union and Fawn Perry, a math teacher at Grants Pass High School.

Senate Republicans did not show up for a vote this morning on a $2 billion tax package, thereby denying Democrats a quorum and forcing business to a halt.

After her friend died from a heroin overdose, Morgan Godvin was sentenced to five years in federal prison for selling him the drugs that led to his death. Godvin wrote about her experiences in response to a state bill that would impose mandatory minimums for those who supply drugs that lead to an overdose death.

Oregon lawmakers are considering a proposal that would boost protections for workers suing their employers for discrimination. Among the changes, it would extend the statute of limitations on complaints from one to five years, and prevent employers from asking for nondisclosure agreements related to discrimination in situations involving settlements or termination proceedings. We get perspectives from the AFL-CIO’s Jess Giannettino Villatoro; East Metro Economic Alliance Executive Director, Jarvez Hall; and entrepreneur and former executive manager, Tanya Barham.

With more than 2,000 employees and up to 20,000 fans, the Moda Center is a well-oiled entertainment machine. "Think Out Loud" goes behind the scenes to bring you an audio portrait of everything that goes into making it all work.

Developers say building multifamily apartments in Portland just isn’t penciling out. And that means there may be fewer units built in the next few years, despite the housing crunch. Chuck Slothower, reporter for the Daily Journal of Commerce tells us how inclusionary zoning, rent control, and construction costs are affecting developers.

Schools across Oregon are facing significant budget shortfalls. Beaverton is facing a $35 million deficit. Portland is planning to cut 45 teachers. Colleges are raising tuition. Meanwhile the Oregon House just passed a bill that would bring $2 billion dollars to K-12 funding through new business taxes. And teachers across the state are planning a walkout on May 8 to protest budget cuts. OPB’s education reporter Elizabeth Miller fills us in.

We get opinions and analysis of some of the big stories of the week from Nkenge Harmon Johnson of the Urban League of Portland, former state representative Jason Conger, and Clark College journalism instructor Beth Slovic.

Last April, the Portland Bureau of Transportation lowered speed limits on residential streets to 20 miles per hour. The lowered speed limits were part of the city’s Vision Zero campaign to eliminate deaths in traffic crashes. We talk with PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera about the impact the lowered speed limits have had in the last year.

We talk with the University of Oregon’s Title IX Coordinator Darci Heroy about the changes the campus has made to the process of reporting discrimination, sexual harassment and gender-based violence. UO has just sent out a student survey to inform the how the administration can better respond to and support students.And we get a preview from Jackie Sandmeyer with TIX Education Specialists about the federal rule changes the Trump administration is expected to release within the next few months.

The Oregon State Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make drugs like methadone and naloxone more accessible to people struggling with opioid addiction or to reverse the effects of an overdose. We hear more about medication as a tool for people in recovery from Sean Syrek, a department director at EVOLVE who is in long-term recovery from opiate addiction, and Eric Martin, director of policy and compliance for the Mental Health and Addiction Certification Board of Oregon.

We listen back to a conversation with Oregon native Teva Harrison. In her memoir “In-Between Days,” she blended her drawings and graphics with prose to tell the story of her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis at age 37, her subsequent treatment, and her struggle to find meaning and joy in her day-to-day life. We spoke with Harrison in 2017. She died over the weekend at the age of 42.

Washington lawmakers have wrapped up their 2019 legislative session. We talk with OPB’s Olympia-based reporter Austin Jenkins about some of the significant laws they passed, including changes to affirmative action, renewable energy, healthcare and when the state holds its presidential primary.

The Whitney Biennial exhibition of modern art begins in a month, and they’ve only invited one artist from the Northwest. Marcus Fischer is a Portland musician and artist who has been making music for decades. He constructs landscapes of sound out of repeating tape loops and ambient melodies and turns those into installation art pieces.

For the loved ones of people experiencing a mental health crisis, it can be difficult to navigate the system and know what to do to help. Javonnie Shearn has been struggling for years to provide the right care for her adult son. She’s on the advisory board of the Oregon State Hospital, and she’s launching a new program to help families of people experiencing a mental health crisis or mental illness. It’s called Someone’s Someone.

Portland-based comedian Mohanad Elshieky is making headlines. He’s a rising star in the world of comedy. And he’s also taking the federal government to task over an immigration stop at Greyhound station in Spokane where he says Customs and Border Protection agents racially profiled and disrespected him. Elshieky joins us to talk about his complaint against CBP, his comedy career and his journey from Libya to Portland. He will be performing onstage at the Pop-up Magazine event May 14.

Oregon health officials are spending three days training for an intentional release of plague. Public health workers, volunteers, and tribal representatives will focus on getting antibiotics into communities quickly and efficiently. We talk with Akiko Saito, director of emergency operations at the Oregon Health Authority Public Health Division.

Julia Nielsen and Andy Goebel are co-pastors of the Portsmouth Union Church, which they formed a few years ago when both their separate congregations were struggling in different ways. They two have always shared a passion for helping people experiencing homelessness. And while many churches share that passion, and run food programs, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs for people who are homeless, Nielsen and Goebel are taking it to a new level. They want to build affordable housing on their church property. They were ready to break ground two years ago. But they say, the city of Portland has put up barrier after barrier — intentionally or not — and there’s still no clear end in sight. Meanwhile Portland’s housing and homelessness crisis continues, and they ask, why can’t we do this?