Think Out Loud

A bike garden in Vancouver will have its grand opening next month.   Also known as traffic gardens, these types of spaces help children and adults practice bike and road safety in a controlled environment. Will Grimm is the lead design and project manager for the Heights Bike Garden.   Fionnuala Quinn is the director of Discover Traffic Gardens and consulted on the project. They join us with details.

The Vancouver Master Chorale is in its 75th year of performing a range of choral music with a crew of volunteer singers. The choir has gone through several names and directors since 1949, and has toured across Canada, Europe and Hawaii. Today, the choir has grown to more than 100 members and performs everything from Beethoven to Billy Joel.

Jana Hart is the music director for the Vancouver Master Chorale. Brend...

Whether it’s a walk in the park, hike in the forest or tending to a backyard garden, there’s ample subjective and scientific evidence that being in nature can have beneficial effects for us, from relieving stress to improving our mood. But less is known about what role the scents of nature, from the unmistakable odor of a pine tree to chemicals emitted by plants that are below our conscious awarenes...

Five years ago, the national advocacy group A Better Childhood teamed up with local nonprofit Disability Rights Oregon to file a class action lawsuit against Oregon’s Department of Human Services. The state’s child welfare system had been sued individually many times over the years over horrific outcomes in individual cases. But this class action was the first of its kind, representing all current a...

Oregon strawberries are renowned for their deep-red color and exceptional sweetness. They’re a special fruit, but the high sugar content that makes their flavor pop also makes them difficult to ship and store. Most of the state’s berries go into the processed market, to be used in ice cream, pastries and other goodies. But as reported in the Capital Press, California strawberries account for more an...

Gaza war protesters at two Oregon universities have made progress on their demands after weeks of demonstrations
On Friday, the Associated Students of Portland State University and PSU President Ann Cudd released a joint statement condemning the violence in Gaza and  announcing new initiatives on campus. At the University of Oregon, a deal has been struck to disband the encampment students established m...

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recently recommended the approval of a new blood test that can detect colon cancer. This comes at a time when more young people are getting diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Flavio Rocha is the physician-in-chief at OHSU’s Knight Cancer Institute. He joins us to share more on what this trend means and what new advances in technology can tell us. 

It’s been three months since the main branch of the Multnomah County Library reopened after being closed for nearly a year for renovations. The improvements include new and updated meeting rooms, a new designated teen space, new gender-inclusive and family restrooms, charging and internet improvements and a variety of safety changes, like lowered shelves, new fire alarms and air quality monitoring equipme...

Oregon’s largest school district is facing a $30 million deficit and the prospect of cutting some 250 positions districtwide. Interim Superintendent Sandy Husk has presented her proposed budget, which the school board tentatively approved last week. Schools across the state face budget cuts, citing rising costs, limited state funding, the end of federal COVID relief money, heightened student needs since t...

Author David Grann often writes about obsession. His stories feature people doing extraordinary, and often dangerous or morally questionable things, in pursuit of ambitious goals. He’s the author of the books “Lost City of Z,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and his newest, “The Wager.” Grann is also obsessive about the research and details he puts into his books. We talk...

A new sport could be coming to schools across Oregon. At the beginning of this school year the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make boys volleyball an emerging sport, meaning that it has the potential to become an official sport through OSAA. But how does boys volleyball differ from the girls version of the sport? And how much interest has the game had in schools? To answer these questions and mor...

Earlier this month, the body of a juvenile gray whale was found washed onto a beach in Bandon on the Southern Oregon coast. Bite marks on the body suggested it was likely killed by orcas, which hunt gray whales. Typically, reports of a beached whale would trigger a response from government officials to authorize the collection of samples to determine the cause of death.

But in this case, officials at the Oregon...

Teachers and classified staff at Gresham High School recently held a vote of no confidence against school leadership and called for the removal of Principal Erika Whitlock. The vote follows what teachers have described as two years of growing disciplinary concerns, including students skipping class, bringing weapons to school and getting into increasingly violent fights. It also comes as the union continues to ...

Salem voters appear to have elected a new mayor. Julie Hoy, a restaurant owner and Salem city council member, appears to have defeated incumbent Chris Hoy, although he still has yet to concede. Julie Hoy holds a 12-point lead in the race, according to primary election returns posted on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website Friday morning. The two Hoys are unrelated. 

According to the Salem Reporter...

Wildland firefighters across the West now have access to a large network of cameras monitored by AI to alert them to wildfires when they start.  University of Oregon’s Oregon Hazards Lab, along with collaborators at other universities, have partnered with the company ALERTWest to monitor the cameras 24/7. When an algorithm detects smoke or fire, an operations center will be alerted, and dispatchers w...

The Oregon State Bar has started to license paralegals, allowing them to offer some legal help that previously could only be provided by lawyers. The program is one of a handful nationwide and gives licensed paralegals the opportunity to provide assistance in  housing and family law. Sue Gerhardt is a longtime paralegal who recently received her license through the Oregon State Bar. She joins us with more ...

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt has lost his reelection bid. In a Wednesday afternoon statement, Schmidt said he called to concede his seat to opponent Nathan Vasquez, a longtime prosecutor in Schmidt’s office. As of 7 p.m. Wednesday, Vasquez had won 54% of the vote, with Schmidt trailing at 46%. Nathan Vasquez joins us to discuss his vision for the future of the criminal justice system in...

Oregon voters have now cast their ballots for the primary election. May primary elections tend to draw low turnouts, despite some big items on the ballot, including an open race for the Congressional seat held for nearly 30 years by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland), who announced his retirement last October. We hear from some of the winners of key Congressional, county and mayoral contests that were on the bal...