Beat Check with The Oregonian

Beat Check with The Oregonian

A weekly look inside Oregon's biggest news stories with the journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive.com.

Episodes

(2023 Replay) The Unidentifieds Episode 1: Remains found along the Redwood Highway

September 1, 2025 • 34 mins
There are so many unidentified human remains in the United States that the ⁠National Missing and Unidentified Persons System⁠ calls it “the nation’s silent mass disaster.” Roughly 4,400 human remains are found every year, and nearly one-quarter of those remain unidentified after one year. Some people were never reported missing. Some went missing decades ago. Some remains are incomplete, parts of them still out there like missing ...
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(2024 Replay) The backstory to the mystery of ‘Cosmo the talking crow’

August 25, 2025 • 20 mins
Any newspaper editor will tell you readers love animal stories. The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Samantha Swindler took that axiom to the next level this spring with a 12-part video series on the mysterious disappearance of Cosmo, the talking crow. She joins Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to discuss the narrative, which also was published on Instagram, Facebook and, of course, OregonLive. Cosmo first came to...
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(2024 Replay) The mysterious shadow economy around winning Oregon Lottery tickets

August 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger published ⁠an in-depth article ⁠examining a loophole in the Oregon Lottery’s rules. In Oregon, it is perfectly legal to re-sell your winning lottery ticket at a discount, allowing the buyer to claim the prize. Why would anyone do this? Well, if they wanted to avoid having the state seize part of their winnings for taxes or back child support, for example. And why would the state allow this? Lottery...
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(2024 Replay) Why heat waves are growing more frequent, and what’s being done

August 11, 2025 • 31 mins
Environment reporter Gosia Wozniacka joined host Elliot Njus to discuss this dangerous effect of climate change and how the Portland region is preparing for more frequent, more severe heat events. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Fiona Conneely & Shelley Schuler: Food hubbing emerges as a solution for feeding us all (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

July 28, 2025 • 39 mins
This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication. Listeners producer Kristen Mico speaks with Fiona Conneely  and Shelley Schuler about how food hubbing models offer solutions to small farms, markets and food assistance programs.  At a time when programs that support access to fresh food and livelihoods of small farmers have been dramatically cut, and food assis...
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More than words: Language and belonging in rural Oregon (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

July 21, 2025 • 22 mins
This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication. For this episode, we invite listeners into the realities of rural Oregon, where questions of identity, belonging, and resilience are part of everyday life. In this episode, Kristina Path and Leif Olsen travel to Monmouth to meet Amanda Laister, a longtime high school Spanish teacher, whose classroom reflects the ...
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Adam Davis: Humanities resilience (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

July 14, 2025 • 30 mins
This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication. Listeners producer Daniel Bloomfield speaks with the Executive Director of the Oregon Humanities, Adam Davis, about the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities and how they’ve impacted the work of the Oregon Humanities. At a time when having respectful and diplomatic conv...
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Beat Check is taking a short break for the summer, stay tuned

July 7, 2025 • 2 mins
Beat Check with The Oregonian is taking a short break for the summer while we work to bring you our next exciting project and reimagine the format of the show. In the meantime, you can look forward to several episodes of “Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment,” a limited-series podcast from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. We’ll also bring around some of our most listened to episodes from the ...
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Duncan Hwang: Advocacy in organizing and politics (Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment)

July 7, 2025 • 30 mins
This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication. Producer Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine speaks with Duncan Hwang about the importance of local organizing and turning inward to sustain our communities. Duncan reflects on his experience as the Community Development Director at APANO, as well as his role as an elected official for the Metro Council. Show notes & links...
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Therese Bottomly on four decades in Oregon journalism

June 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Therese Bottomly, editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive and a frequent host of Beat Check with The Oregonian, is retiring next month after 42 years in the newsroom. On this episode of Beat Check, Bottomly reflects on the stories that shaped her career, and Oregon. She discusses how the newsroom rose to the challenge of covering some of the most significant news events of the era, her decision in 2022 to apologize personally for the ne...
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The charm and gossip in reporting in rural Oregon

June 23, 2025 • 22 mins
Features reporter Samantha Swindler talks about the hidden gem stories she finds in some of Oregon's smallest towns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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How the Trump immigration crackdown is impacting Oregon

June 16, 2025 • 42 mins
The Oregonian’s investigative reporter Yesenia Amaro talks on Beat Check about the recent immigration enforcement ramp-up, Trump’s approach to immigration and the impact on Oregon communities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Does Oregon’s cherished Bottle Bill compound Portland’s fentanyl crisis?

June 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece. Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old. Does Portland and some other pockets of the state have a cash-for-cans crisis? What should city and state officials do a...
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Fact vs. speculation: How true crime podcasters approach the Kyron Horman case (Part 4: Guest podcast: Bookies with Your Besties)

June 6, 2025 • 28 mins
In the digital age, true crime content has exploded in popularity across podcasts, social media and streaming platforms. But with this growth comes a troubling trend: The blurring of verified facts and speculative theories.   On a recent episode of Beat Check with the Oregonian, guests Emily Reeder and Ashley Desanno from the Books with Your Besties podcast discussed this challenge while reflecting on their coverage of the Kyron ...
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Long hours, daylong stakeouts: How reporters pursued the Kyron Horman story in 2010 (Part 3: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh)

June 5, 2025 • 27 mins
In 2010, digital tools for journalists were emerging, but the gritty, time-intensive methods of traditional reporting still dominated newsrooms. The disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman from his Portland elementary school thrust The Oregonian’s journalists into a high-stakes investigation that demanded old-school techniques now increasingly rare in today’s fast-paced media environment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...
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How a critical time gap derailed the Kyron Horman investigation (Part 2: Maxine Bernstein)

June 4, 2025 • 26 mins
When a child goes missing, the first hours can be critical. In Kyron Horman’s case, investigators didn’t even know he was missing until about six hours had passed — a devastating delay that may have forever altered the trajectory of one of Oregon’s most haunting unsolved cases. In a recent discussion on the Beat Check with The Oregonian podcast, veteran crime reporter Maxine Bernstein highlighted this critical timeline as perhaps ...
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15 years later: The haunting disappearance of Kyron Horman (Part 1: Noelle Crombie)

June 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Fifteen years after 7-year-old Kyron Horman vanished from Skyline Elementary School in Portland, his disappearance continues to haunt not just the Pacific Northwest, but parents everywhere. In this special episode of Beat Check, engagement editor Julie Evensen and social media producer Destiny Johnson talk to investigative reporter Noelle Crombie about recent news about the case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...
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Five years on, Portland journalists reflect on 2020 protests

June 2, 2025 • 31 mins
A trio of journalists joined Editor Therese Bottomly on Monday’s episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about the 2020 street protests that started in Portland after the police killing of George Floyd. Multimedia journalist Beth Nakamura, social media producer Ryan Fernandez, and reporter Zane Sparling (who covered protests for the Portland Tribune) join the conversation. On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:...
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The Trail Blazers are for sale. What’s next, who might buy them and will they stay in Portland?

May 26, 2025 • 29 mins
When Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen died in 2018 from complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it was matter of when, not if, his beloved professional sports team would be sold. Seven years later, that time has finally arrived. Allen’s estate announced on May 13 that is has initiated a formal sales process for one of Oregon’s most cherished institutions. Even though the sale has been anticipated since Allen’s...
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Behind The Oregonian/OregonLive’s headlines about a trucker licensing scheme

May 19, 2025 • 21 mins
Watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger joined Editor Therese Bottomly on this episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about his extraordinary reporting into Skyline CDL School, which operated in Oregon and Washington. On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about: --How the alleged bribery scheme operated, according to regulators --How the newsroom got onto the story --How regulators in Washington went on stakeouts to make t...
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