Think Out Loud

 It’s peak harvest time for sweet cherries in Oregon and Washington. Growers in the Pacific Northwest are anticipating a strong crop this year, with a higher yield than last year’s harvest. But what they weren’t anticipating was a workforce shortage that’s being driven by the fear of immigration enforcement raids. KUOW reported earlier on how this issue is threatening the livelihoods of cherry farmers in Washington.    The immigration crackdown is also clouding the outlook for cherry growers in Oregon, according to Ian Chandler, chair of the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission and the co-owner of CE Farm Management, a cherry orchard in The Dalles. Chandler said he’s not aware of any recent immigration enforcement raids on farms in the Columbia Gorge. But he says the fear of potential enforcement activity led to a 50% reduction in available workers for most cherry farmers in the region at the start of harvest two weeks ago.   Some migrant farm workers whose employers obtained H-2A visas for them have also been stuck at the border in Mexico and unable to help with the harvest in The Dalles, according to Tiffany Davis, business manager for K&K Land and Management. Chandler, Davis and Monica Zipprich, an orchard manager at K&K Land and Management, join us to talk about the toll federal immigration enforcement is taking on the Oregon sweet cherry industry.  

When the gates on The Dalles Dam closed in 1957, Celilo Falls was flooded and a vital salmon fishery for Yakama and Warm Springs tribal people was forever changed. Warm Springs Tribal Elder Linda Meanus was a young girl at the time, being raised by her grandparents, Flora Thompson and Chief Tommy Thompson, in nearby Celilo Village. In that bustling community along the Columbia River where salmon provided sustenance and a way of life, she learned about the importance of first foods, and gained an abiding reverence for her Indigenous culture and language. More than six decades later, Meanus has written “My Name is LaMoosh,” a chronicle of her early life in Celilo Village and a tribute to the legacy of her grandmother to whom the book is dedicated. We first spoke with Meanus in June 2021 about the release of her book which as published by OSU Press in collaboration with Confluence and historian Katy Barber.

Behind the Wok is a new digital archive from APANO that looks at the six historic Chinese restaurants that helped form Portland’s Jade District. These include Hung Far Low, Canton Grill, Chinese Village, New Cathay, Legin and Wong’s King Seafood. The archive explores how these restaurants became community hubs and how early restaurateurs leaned on one another. Suenn Ho is a principal urban designer at Resolve Architecture. Brian Liu is the community development manager at APANO. They both join us to share more on the project.

 Perched high on a ridge in the South American Andes, a new observatory aims to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos and unravel some of the mysteries it holds. Featuring the world’s largest digital camera, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will spend the next 10 years continuously surveying and recording time-lapse movies of the stars, galaxies, asteroids and other objects moving across the southern hemisphere. The ultra-high-definition images will help create a kind of “Google Maps” of the night sky, according to Mario Jurić, a University of Washington astronomy professor and member of the observatory’s international science team.  Jurić and his team are creating an online database that amateur and professional astronomers can access to track changes across space and time and zoom into celestial objects of interest – including asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. Jurić joins us to share more about the observatory’s capabilities and the first set of images it will reveal on June 23.

This week, Portland City Council finalized a city budget totaling over $8 billion in spending for next year. It includes more funding for alternative shelter sites and an expansion of Portland Street Response, but cuts to the office of Civic Life and less funding for the Portland Police Bureau than the mayor had requested. Mayor Keith Wilson joins us to discuss his plans for executing this final budget. We’ll also discuss the Trump administration’s calls for increased immigration enforcement in West Coast cities and the protests at Portland’s ICE facility.    

 In early June, a federal judge found the state in contempt of a court order that requires people with severe mental illness in custody to be quickly admitted to the the Oregon State Hospital.  Now, the state is appealing that decision and has asked the court to pause the contempt ruling. Amelia Templeton is OPB’s health reporter and has been following this story. She joins us to share more on what is happening at the state’s psychiatric hospital.

Eugene accordionist Maria Telesheva won her first competition when she was just 6 years old. Now a rising senior at North Eugene High School, Telesheva has traveled the globe performing and competing as both a solo artist and as a duo with her father, Sergei. As recently reported by KLCC, she’s also a fellow with NPR’s performance program “From the Top” and a 2025 recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.   Telesheva joins us for a performance and to share what she thinks makes the accordion so special.  

By 2050, roughly one in four Oregonians will be age 65 or older. In rural Lincoln County, older adults already make up about a third of the population, representing one of the fastest-aging communities in the state.“Think Out Loud” recently traveled to Newport to talk about healthy aging — the social connections and habits that can help people thrive as they get older, as well as the programs and policies communities should consider as their populations age.Jan Molnar Fitzgerald is the executive director of North End Senior Solutions, which includes an adult day service. Helen Beaman is the older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. Randi Moore is the director of Senior, Disability, and Community Services Programs for the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. And Debby Rhein volunteers for some of the council’s programs, including as a Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent.They joined us in front of a live audience at the Newport 60+ Activity Center to talk about the civic and social infrastructure that can lead to healthy aging on the Oregon Coast.                

This week the board of Prosper Portland votes to finalize a settlement for more than 20 people whose homes and businesses were destroyed in the name of urban renewal from the 1950s through the ’70s. The group of Black Portlanders fought for years to get to this point, and eventually filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the city of Portland, Emanuel Legacy Medical Center and Prosper Portland conspired to destroy a previously thriving Black neighborhood. The original financial settlement proposed to the Portland city council was $2 million. After testimony from a dozen community members recently, all 12 Portland city councilors voted to increase the amount to $8.5 million. As part of the settlement, the lawsuit will be dismissed, and the descendants will get financial and land retribution, in addition to other terms. We hear from plaintiffs Donna Marshall and Byrd, who led the research effort that culminated in this settlement, and from their lawyer Ed Johnson.  

Last week, the Trump administration pulled out of a historic agreement made in 2023 to aid in salmon recovery and renewable energy for tribes. The agreement would have invested more than $1 billion in federal funds for wild fish restoration efforts over a decade and could have potentially led to the removal of the Snake River Dams to help native salmon populations. But, some industry leaders were unsupportive of the deal, including those in the agricultural and port industries who say the dams play a critical role in shipping goods overseas. Jeremy Takala is the chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and worked closely with the Biden administration to reach the agreement. Leslie Druffel is the outreach director for the McGregor Company in Washington and works closely with many in the agricultural industry. They both join us to share their thoughts on the rescission of the deal.