Think Out Loud

This Saturday saw the biggest coordinated nationwide demonstration against the Trump administration to date. In Oregon, Indivisible helped organize protests, among others, as part of the 50501 movement. Many thousands of people turned out in Portland alone, with thousands more out all over the state including in Tigard, Medford, Enterprise other small towns in southern, central and Eastern Oregon.   They protested the dismantling of federal government agencies, mass layoffs and deportations, planned cuts to Medicaid, social security and more. 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. Susannah Graven is a massage therapist in Medford and an unaffiliated voter.  Mike Eng is a retired National Parks employee who lives near Lostine in Wallowa County and is a Republican. And Mary Minor is a retired hospice nurse who helped organize the Tigard protest, along with her husband James, a retired technical writer, both unaffiliated voters.

Last year, the group Disability Rights Oregon brought suit against Washington County, alleging that when 911 is called for people in mental health crises, it’s often law enforcement officers who respond. The lawsuit claims these officers are more likely to exacerbate a crisis than resolve it. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the case can move forward. Dave Boyer, managing attorney for the Mental Health Rights Project at DRO, joins us to lay out their claims.

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, the administration’s plan to deport millions is creating fear among many families and could have significant effects on communities. While schools can not track a student’s documentation status thanks to a previous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe, some states are trying to challenge that. And as first reported in Education Week, deportation efforts could affect school budgets. Ilana Umanksy is an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s College of Education. She joins us to share more on the effects mass deportation could have in Oregon schools.

Joel’s Law in Washington allows a guardian, conservator or loved one to petition a court to force treatment for people who suffer from serious mental illness. Some supporters of the law have called it a lifeline for family members desperately seeking care for a loved one, but others have concerns about stripping away a person's civil liberties. The law has been in place for about a decade.InvestigateWest, the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now recently co-published a deep dive into the law. Conor Wilson is a reporter for the Kitsap Sun and the nonprofit newsroom Gig Harbor Now. Moe Clark is a collaborative investigative reporter for InvestigateWest. Their positions are supported by the Murrow News Fellowship, an initiative of Washington State University that offers early-career journalists the opportunity to report on civic affairs in underserved communities. They join us with more on Joel’s Law.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a class of synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s to manufacture a wide range of products, from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam, clothes and electronics. PFAS have also been described as “forever chemicals” because they easily disperse and persist in the environment, where they’ve been found in drinking water, soil, air and even the food supply. This week, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality opened public comment on its proposed rulemaking to regulate six types of PFAS compounds, adding them to the list of more than 800 hazardous substances the agency already regulates. Exposure to certain levels of PFAS may increase the risk for some types of cancer, lead to developmental delays in children, among other adverse health effects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last April, the EPA designated two PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances and created the first-ever, national drinking water standard for six PFAS chemicals. Sarah Van Glubt is a cleanup project manager for the Oregon DEQ. She joins us to share what the proposed PFAS regulations would allow for, including testing and cleanup 

Ashleigh Flynn is a long time Portland musician who was primarily a solo artist for much of her career. But that all changed in 2015 when a friend introduced her to Nancy Luca, who had an all-female cover band. She and Luca hit it off and drew other women into a new all-female band: Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters, an homage to Rosie the Riveter, the WWII-era icon of female power and can-do spirit. The band is celebrating 10 years of making Americana music that embraces joy and creativity as a facet of resistance with a new album called "Good Morning Sunshine,” which drops this week. The band will play a record release concert at Mississippi Studios in Portland on Saturday, April 5, before they hit the road on tour. Flynn joins us in studio with Luca and other members of the band to play a few songs and give us a sneak peek of the album.

In 2013, Oregon implemented a plan to expand access to home and community-based services for Medicaid recipients with intellectual, developmental or psychiatric disabilities. The goal was to allow more Oregonians to receive care at home rather than in an institution. While programs were established for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, no supports have been created for individuals under age 21 who require inpatient-level psychiatric care. Senate Bill 909 would require the Oregon Health Authority to establish criteria for that program and a pathway to services. Jessa Reinhardt is a parent and mental health advocate pushing for SB 909. She joins us with more details on the bill and what it could mean for families with children who have severe mental health needs.  

Portland economist Joe Cortright says ODOT’s projects have a history of costing much more than initial estimates. He points to proposals like the I-5 Rose Quarter project which has been in the works for nearly a decade and is estimated to cost around $1.9 billion. The estimate in 2017 was $450 million. A Statesman Journal investigation found that ODOT’s projects were over budget and the agency was unable to track some of its funds and how they were spent. Cortright, the director of City Observatory, an urban policy think tank based in Portland, joins us with details of his concerns. In a statement, ODOT writes:Transportation agencies across the state face a structural revenue issue. This issue is driven by three causes: flattening and declining gas tax revenues as cars become more efficient, consistent inflation that eats away at the purchasing power of each dollar, and legal restrictions that prevent ODOT from using available dollars to fund maintenance and operations.While the Legislature increased the gas tax in recent years, revenues are now at their peak and are expected to flatten and decline in coming years. When you account for inflation, the buying power of that revenue source is set to dramatically decrease. ODOT’s major projects in the Portland metro area, supported by city, county, state, Metro and community leaders, have seen costs grow in recent years. However, the funds dedicated to these projects are specifically directed by the legislature to construction projects and cannot be used for day-to-day maintenance and operations of the highway system. We are forced to cut back on critical efforts like plowing snow and fixing potholes independent of funding these popular projects. The public and our partners have consistently told us they want us to do both. We take our responsibility to provide safe travel for all Oregonians very seriously. The last thing we want to do is let the system we built fall into disrepair. But because of how our funding is structured, we are increasingly forced to do so. We are focused on achieving sufficient and sustainable funding for maintenance and operations in this legislative session. We are increasingly optimistic that the legislature will take this opportunity to break the pattern of past legislatures and robustly fund the maintenance, operation and preservation of our transportation system.

Shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975, roughly 3,000 children were flown out of Vietnam in an effort dubbed Operation Babylift. The children went on to be adopted by families in the U.S., Australia and other countries. An initiative of the Ford administration, the operation was billed as a humanitarian effort to rescue Vietnamese orphans – many of them fathered by American servicemen – from advancing communist forces. However, the program has also faced criticism for removing children from their homeland and potentially separating them from living relatives. Thuy Williams and Jodi Willis were both airlifted out of Vietnam as children and adopted by families in Oregon. They join us to talk about the legacy of Operation Babylift 50 years later.

Attorney Julia Olson founded the nonprofit public interest law firm Our Children’s Trust in 2010 in Eugene. Five years later, she filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kelsey Juliana and 20 other youth activists in Oregon and elsewhere. Their contention was simple on its face: youth have a right to a stable climate, just as they have a right to clean water and clean air. It used the public trust doctrine in a novel way at the time. Since the suit was filed in 2015, Juliana v. U.S. has been in and out of district and appeals courts and was cleared to go to trial in 2023. But last year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the federal government's motion to dismiss the case. The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to intervene, but dismissed the case “without prejudice,” enabling the case to potentially be filed at a later time. Olson joins us to talk about what the last decade has shown her and the "Juliana 21" about the most effective ways to challenge climate change policy in the U.S. today.