Think Out Loud

The owners of Tradewinds Charters in Depoe Bay recently won a statewide award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

It's been 20 years since the first student poetry slam at Portland's McDaniel High School. That one slam eventually evolved into Verselandia, the citywide youth poetry competition.

Under ideal conditions, the agency says it would be able to replace 27 bridges per year. But with its current resources, it’s only on pace to replace three.

We talk about what state lawmakers are considering and more with Carl MacPherson, the executive director of Metropolitan Public Defender, and Kevin Barton, district attorney for Washington County.

The Yamhill Community Action Partnership has reached “functional zero” for unsheltered families with children.

We hear from the creative team behind a rock opera about the Columbia River Gorge which is kicking off in a series of sold-out performances this weekend in Hood River.

Leslee Barnes, director of the Preschool and Early Learning Division at Multnomah County, and Patrick Earnest, director of the St. James Child Development Center, join us to talk about the program.

The Southeast Portland home was the first of its kind in Oregon and served as a model for similar facilities across the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon's Indigent Disposition Program has seen huge demand in reimbursement claims. We'll hear from the state and from the Oregon Funeral Director's Association to learn about the program.

Since its launch in 2022, Portland nonprofit Wildly Kind has been working to expand its mission of providing acts of kindness to strangers, from buying a cup of coffee to handing out gift cards or flowers to brighten someone's day.

We'll learn more about Elk v. Wilkins and the lasting impact it’s had on relations between tribal and federal governments.

It has been five years since lockdowns hit Oregon. We'll hear from a University of Oregon professor to learn how the pandemic has, and hasn't, changed our cities.

A bill in the Oregon Legislature would establish a board overseeing labor standards for agricultural workers. We'll hear from two people, one who supports the bill and the other who opposes.

We talk with four Oregonians from three different communities about how the protests they attended went and what motivated them to spend their Saturday demonstrating.

A National Endowment for the Humanities grant that funded humanities councils across the U.S. was abruptly rescinded on April 2.

Portland author and illustrator Aron Nels Steinke joins us to talk about his latest book, "Speechless," a graphic novel that explores social anxiety and friendships from the perspective of a sixth grader who suffers from social anxiety.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality seeks to add PFAS, which are synthetic chemicals commonly used in manufacturing, to its list of contaminants the agency regulates.

The law allows families to commit loved ones facing a severe mental health illness.

Last year, the group Disability Rights Oregon brought a lawsuit against Washington County, alleging that when 911 is called for people in mental health crises, it’s often law enforcement officers who respond.

Since the start of his second term, President Trump has taken sweeping actions targeting immigrants of all kinds in the U.S. From challenging birthright citizenship to lifting bans on immigration arrests in schools and churches. We'll hear from a researcher to learn how this could effect Oregon schools.