Think Out Loud

Should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote? We’ll talk to Oregon State senator Shemia Fagan (D-Portland) about why she wants to refer that question to the ballot in 2020. And we’ll hear from 17-year-old Amira Tripp Folsom, who spoke in favor of the bill at a recent press conference.

Following last year’s damning audit of Oregon’s foster care system, we conducted a series of interviews with those directly involved, including parents, children and caseworkers. This year, in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network, we’re exploring different approaches to child welfare. We traveled to Tennessee late last year to learn about Youth Villages, which focuses on help for biological and adoptive families to keep kids out of foster care. Youth Villages now operates in more than a dozen states, including Oregon. Last month, we talked with the organization’s Memphis-based CEO, Pat Lawler. Today, we sit down with Andrew Grover, the head of Youth Villages in Oregon to find out how its Intercept program is being used here. And we meet a Portland mom, Wendy Warren, who says she and her two adopted daughters found the counseling and support invaluable when they found themselves in crisis.

The Vancouver school district recently announced it needs to cut 23 teachers and 33 full time staff positions to make up a deficit. The Evergreen school district is also struggling to cut up to $18 million from its budget. Joel Aune, the Executive Director of the Washington Association of School Administrators, gives his take on the source of the problem.

The Portland Business Alliance released its annual economic report. It showed eastern Multnomah County faces unique challenges. Those challenges include high costs for home renters, lower average wages than the rest of the region and wage disparities by race.

The Oregon town of Oakridge got an unusual amount of snow this week. The town of 3200 is located in the Willamette National Forest, about an hour and a half outside Eugene. Some residents have been without power since Sunday and the main road leading in and out of town is only open to emergency vehicles. We’ll hear from Oakridge City Council President Chrissy Hollett about what life is like there right now.

We get opinions and analysis on this week’s news from Christopher McKnight Nichols, Julie Parrish, and Aaron Mesh.

Oregon lawmakers want to see if they can solve the state’s cannabis oversupply problem by finding a legal way to share with our neighbors in Washington, Nevada and California. We’ll hear from State senator Floyd Prozanski (D-Lane & Douglas Counties) about the possibilities and legal limitations of his proposal.

We’ll learn about the lives of Chinese immigrants in Oregon in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That’s what Chelsea Rose has been digging up recently. She’s a historical archaeologist at Southern Oregon University.

A performance by the Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble tells the story of Maxville and Vanport, two African American communities in Oregon during the 20th century. “From Maxville to Vanport” was written based on interviews with the communities’ residents and their descendants. Writer and educator S. Renee Mitchell wrote the lyrics for “From Maxville to Vanport,” and Pearl Alice Marsh is the daughter of a Maxville logger. They join us.

Today Governor Brown will sign a law adopting statewide rent control and making it harder for landlords to evict tenants without a reason. Oregon will be the first state in the nation with such a law.

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson passed away February 26, 2019 following a battle with brain cancer. We talk with OPB's senior political reporter Jeff Mapes about Richardson's life and legacy.

Cattle rancher Ted Birdseye tells us about his experience with wolves both on and off his ranch. He’s one of the first Oregon ranchers to use inflatable tube men — like the ones seen at car lots and other commercial businesses — as scarecrows to keep wolves from coming near farm animals.

The Oregon College of Art and Craft recently announced its impending closure, not long after Marylhurst University shut its doors. Other private colleges in the area are experiencing cuts to faculty and freezing enrollment in certain liberal arts majors. We talk with OPB editor Rob Manning and Jon Marcus, higher education editor for The Hechinger Report, about the crisis in liberal arts institutions here and around the country.

Two years after a Portland Police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Quanice Hayes, his grandmother Donna Hayes has become a regular attendant of Portland City Hall meetings and an advocate for police reform. We talk with Donna Hayes about how her grandson’s death has spurred her activism.

For every childcare slot available in Oregon, there are at least eight infants and toddlers who need care. A new report from OSU finds that every county in the state is a ‘childcare desert.’ We talk to Megan Pratt, the author of the new report, and Miriam Calderon, Early Learning System director at the Oregon Department of Education.

In her new novel, Portland writer Karen Thompson Walker explores the terrifying possibility of a world altered by a highly contagious disease. The disease causes people to fall into a seemingly endless sleep. We’ll talk to Thompson Walker about her book, The Dreamers.

In her new novel, Portland writer Karen Thompson Walker explores the terrifying possibility of a world altered by a highly contagious disease. The disease causes people to fall into a seemingly endless sleep. We’ll talk to Thompson Walker about her book, The Dreamers.

Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney wants to make a major change to the structure of higher education in the state. Earlier this week, the state senate unanimously passed Courtney’s bill allowing community colleges to offer four-year degrees. We talk with Courtney about the proposal, and then with Dave McDonald, associate vice president at Western Oregon University, about how the state’s public universities are reacting to this idea.

We listen back to an interview with Kimberly Melton, the author of the essay “Good Hair” in Oregon Humanities Magazine. Wearing her hair naturally meant wrestling with societal expectations and her grandmother’s disapproval.

We talk with Danielle Moreau, co-author of the latest audit of Oregon’s home care program for aging and disabled people. The state audit says the Department of Human Services has implemented some of its 2017 recommendations for improvement, but some work still needs to be done to improve the program.