Unity Center | Colin O'Brady | Burning Trash

• Ever since the Unity Center for Behavioral Health opened in Portland in 2017, it's been plagued with problems. Unity patients have assaulted other patients and staff. Safety concerns escalated to the point that the Center was in danger of losing its ability to receive Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. The Center, which is a collaboration among Legacy, Kaiser, Adventist Health and Oregon Health and Science University, expected to lose several million dollars every year on this kind of specialized care. But a series of factors have compounded the problems, and the Center expects to lose about $20 million in 2020. Portland Business Journal health reporter Elizabeth Hayes has followed this story from the beginning and we talk with her about her latest article detailing the Center's challenges.

• Portlander Colin O'Brady has a new book about his much-lauded solo trip across part of Antarctica in 2018. It's called "The Impossible First." Earlier this week, we talked with Aaron Teasdale who covered the trip as it was happening for National Geographic Magazine and recently wrote an in-depth follow up article digging into the claims O'Brady made before, during and after his Arctic trip. Colin O'Brady joins us to respond to Teasdale's investigative reporting in National Geographic and talk about the detailed letter he sent the magazine, requesting a retraction.

• There is currently one place in Oregon that's burning trash to create energy. Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill that could allow trash incineration in Marion County to be considered a form of renewable energy. Opponents say that a waste incineration facility from 1987 should not be eligible for credits intended for new renewable projects, like wind and solar. We talk with Marion County Commissioner Sam Brentano and Damon Motz-Storey, the healthy climate program director for Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

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