The Jefferson Exchange: Recent Episodes
Geoffrey Riley, John Baxter, Angela Decker, Robert Goodwin
JPR's live interactive program devoted to current events and newsmakers from around the region and beyond.
(Author photo by Kelli Rad / Memoir Land Substack)Marian Schembari is a prolific writer who was diagnosed with autism in her 30s.
In her book, "A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole," she shares how her life was before and after the diagnosis, and how the diagnosis profoundly changed her life ... in positive ways.
Marian joins the Exchange to offer a broad range of insights into the world of autistic adults and how the people in the world around them can gain a deeper understanding.
( Google maps)What happens when there are more people in the county jail who need court dates and public defenders than there are public defenders available to accommodate the need?
The constitution guarantees due process, but when budgets cannot support the constitutional mandate, a crisis in the system of justice occurs.
This is the current state of affairs in Jackson County, which is experiencing a severe shortage of public defenders. But it isn't the only region in the state enduring such a challenge.
Joining the Exchange to shed light on the current state of affairs and possible solutions are Alyssa Bartholomew, a senior deputy defender in Jackson County, and Jessica Kampfe, Executive Director, Oregon Public Defense Commission.
FILE: A member of the Wolf Creek Hotshots uses a drip torch to ignite the forest floor during a prescribed burn near Sisters, Oregon, in 2018.(Jes Burns / OPB/EarthFix )Joining the Exchange is State representative Pam Marsh. She championed a new Prescribed Fire Liability Program to address the insurance concerns.
Reintroduction of fire to Oregon’s landscapes is essential to improve forest health and ecosystem function, and to increase resilience to wildfire. Landowners, nonpublic entities, and cultural fire practitioners are seeking to increase the use of prescribed fires to accomplish these objectives.
But the lack or affordability of insurance, and concerns about liability and responsibility for payment of suppression costs, or for material damages resulting from escaped prescribed fire are major barriers.
Because prescribed fire is recognized as an essential and necessary tool to address the threats of catastrophic wildfire in Oregon, intervention from the state can help address concerns and remove barriers for increased use of prescribed fire.
The Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) released the final report on Oregon’s first-ever Statewide Housing Plan (SWHP).
The five-year housing plan was launched in July 2019 with a bold, shared vision: to ensure every person across Oregon has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
The report’s Letter from the Director, Andrea Bell says the agency and its partners exceeded many of the goals outlined in the plan’s six priorities while navigating economic uncertainties, devastating wildfires, and a global pandemic.
Andrea Bell (OHCS), Mike Green (JPR host) and Melanie Doshier (Jackson County ACCESS)(JPR Senior Producer, Natalie Golay)OHCS Director Andrea Bell joins the Exchange to discuss the plan, the report, and the progress. ACCESS Support Services Director, Melanie Doshier, also joins the conversation as a local partner.
Andrea Bell (OHCS), Mike Green (JPR host) and Melanie Doshier (Jackson County ACCESS)(JPR Senior Producer Natalie Golay)
( ORPARC)It's National Adoption Month. Joining the Exchange are Kendra Morris Jacobson, Director of the Oregon Post Adoption Resource Center (ORPARC) and Liana Soifer, Co-Founder and Executive Director of BIPOC Adoptees. We discuss the extraordinary work of adopting families, as well as the challenges they adoptees face and the support they all need.
Dr. Geneva Craig joins the Exchange to share details about the Vital Aging Conference that took place at the Smullin Education Center in Medford, sponsored by AARP. This year's theme was "Your Money, Your Future."
Dr. Geneva Craig and JPR Host Mike Green(JPR Senior Producer Natalie Golay)
Cows roam a field along Highway 30, just south of Baker City, Ore., in this July 30, 2024 file photo. (Anna Lueck / OPB )It is widely believed that cows contribute significantly to greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere through the methane they expel. That belief has led to a lot of research on the problem, which led to a better understanding of how to address it.
Research by OSU reveals that cows actually do produce a ton of methane gasses, but not through their rear ends. Rather, through their front ends. Cows burp out a lot of methane as a byproduct of their fermentation-based digestion process. Natural compounds found in seaweed can inhibit the production of methane in cows.
So, OSU is feeding cows seaweed to cut down on their methane emissions, which leads to less greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to climate change.
The USDA has funded the research project with a $1M grant. OSU Asst. Professor Juliana Ranches joins the exchange to discuss the project and her research.
( Lomakatsi)Lomakatsi is a forest restoration nonprofit organization based in Ashland. On the eve of its 30-year anniversary it received $21.25M from the USDA, which is the largest award in its young history.
Marko Bey, Executive Director of the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, joins the Exchange to provide details of the funding and the projects it will support. Lomakatsi collaborates with other organizations in building forest and community resilience in the Rogue Valley, including a new 83,000-acre project area spanning the wildland urban interface and adjacent woodlands west of Medford and north of Jacksonville, within and around the communities of Gold Hill, Rogue River, and Jacksonville.
The project aims to implement ecological thinning and prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest health on 8,500 to 10,000 acres of private land, building on complementary efforts on private, municipal, and federal lands. Collaborations include the connecting West Bear All-Lands Restoration Project and the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project to the southeast.
Lomakatsi will work closely with the NRCS, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Forestry and others—including Rogue Forest Partners—to plan and implement the project, building on nearly two decades of collaboration.
( Oregon Public Broadcasting)Taylor Stewart, Director of the Oregon Remembrance Project, joins JPR news reporter Roman Battaglia to discuss the work of his organization and an upcoming free community event in Ashland titled, "Finding Post-Election Common Ground."
Taylor will moderate the event alongside Tara Houston, the Community and Engagement Manager for OSF, which is hosting the event at Carpenter Hall from 6:30 to 8pm on Nov. 12 in partnership with the Ashland Sunrise Project.
Jefferson Exchange host, Mike Green, and his wife Emily, are featured speakers.
Taylor's organization works with truth and reconciliation projects in communities across Oregon. His work includes guiding local communities in adopting new identities as "sunrise communities," which is the flip side to the former "sundown town" monikers of many Oregon cities for generations.
OPB recently released a short film about the Oregon Remembrance Project.
( Mark Oliver)"Voices of the Golden Ghosts – African Americans in the California Gold Rush" is a unique book introducing previously unknown historical material documenting African American history in far northern California during the gold rush period.
This book brings together authors for the first time who have independently told these stories. They now appear in a collection for the first time.
Author Mark Oliver joins the Exchange to talk about his work (art, book and film) and how a small group of community members created the Golden Ghosts project to reveal this history to the public.
MARK OLIVER Voices of the Golden Ghosts discoveries started in 2010 while Mark Oliver was working on a documentary about black workers migrating to Northern California logging towns in the 1920s. During that work he discovered many African Americans in the 1850-1870 census records in Siskiyou County, California. Siskiyou County was considered the “Second Motherload” of the California gold rush, according to Mark's research.
“I was aware of Alvin Coffey’s story from Shasta County arriving as a slave and purchasing his freedom, but researching further, reading Rudolf Lapp and Delilah Beasley, it was apparent that information about far northern California has been absent from the contemporary record of the African American experience and contribution during the gold rush.”
(Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB )The JPR news team joins the Exchange to discuss election results from across the states of Oregon and California. We'll dive into which candidates and ballot measures from both states and local races across southern Oregon and northern California emerged victorious.
Jeanne Kuang of Calmatters joins the Exchange for a deep dive into the election results on California's many propositions and how the victories will impact residents. Jeanne is an accountability reporter who covers labor, politics and California’s state government. Previously, she wrote about homelessness and economic inequality as part of CalMatters’ California Divide team. Her reporting for a series examining long waits and low payouts for workers who claim they are victims of wage theft was honored with awards from the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California chapter and the Best of the West.
Dirk Vanderhart of Oregon Public Broadcasting joins the Exchange to discuss the impact of the winning Oregon candidates and measures across the state. Dirk covers Oregon politics and government for OPB. Before entering the radio industry in 2018, he spent more than a decade as a newspaper reporter—much of that time reporting on city government for the Portland Mercury. He’s also had stints covering Southwest Missouri, Ohio, and all things Texas on Capitol Hill.
Dirk’s byline has appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, The Houston Chronicle, The Columbus Dispatch, The Oregonian, and more.
Science journalist and author Lisa Baril traveled the world studying ice and its effect on humans. In her new book, "THE AGE OF MELT: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future without Ice," she explores the shifting view that humans have long held of glaciers—from fear, to awe, to conquest.
Baril begins with the story of Ötzi, a 5,000 year-old well-preserved ice mummy discovered in 1991 by a pair of European hikers in the Alps. She joins the Exchange to explain what scientists learned from their mummy.
Lisa speaks with Chelsea Rose, host of Underground History, JPR's collaborative podcast with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology.
Audiences may be forgiven for assuming fight scenes in plays are real, considering that actors do an excellent job of bringing them to life. In reality, fight scenes are meticulously choreographed and repeatedly practiced to ensure safety, and to ensure the fights come across as realistically as possible. That task requires a dedicated fight choreographer.
Fight choreographer Rocio Mendez(kal studios/kal studios)In this edition of the Creative Way, Vanessa Finney sits down with the fight choreographer from OSF's production of Macbeth, Rocio Mendez. They also discuss Rocio's role as an intimacy director on Jane Eyre.
( Ryan Hampton)"Fentanyl Nation: Toxic Politics and America's Failed War on Drugs" exposes the underbelly of America's complicit institutions of power, wealth and influence in a manufactured drug war on American citizens.
Author Ryan Hampton reveals in well-resourced detail the history of fentanyl's impact, which continues to cause an average of 300 deaths per day across the nation. He chronicles his own history of fentanyl abuse and offers insight into the roles that law enforcement play, along with doctors, journalists and elected officials, in the ongoing tragic saga that still rages across America as a deadly endemic plague. He concludes with a list of specific actions to address the tragic ongoing saga of fentanyl in America.
( Pacific University)Dr. Jim Moore is a professor at Pacific University and Director of Political Outreach at the Tom McCall Center for Civic Engagement. He earned his doctorate in political science at Northwestern University in 1995 and has been one of the most quoted political analysts in Oregon in the 21st century. He plans to retire this year.
He joins the Exchange to share his perspective on the current state of political affairs in Oregon and across the nation.
Underground History explores the origins of spooky stuff on this special Halloween episode.
Mike Green, host of the Jefferson Exchange, with Chelsea Rose, host of Underground History(Photo by Jefferson Exchange Senior Producer Natalie Golay)Tina Sharp Reuwsaat and Marion Held join the Exchange to discuss how the historical relationship Americans have with collectables, costumes and the iconography of Halloween, and how it has evolved over the past century plus.
Tina Sharp Reuwsaat is a retired curator with the Southern Oregon Historical Society and Baroness of Darkwing Manor, one of Southern Oregon's most beloved haunted houses.
Marian Held is curator of the Devil-ish Little Things Museum in Vancouver, Washington.
Jefferson Exchange host Mike Green with Underground History host Chelsea Rose(Photo by Jefferson Exchange Senior Producer Natalie Golay)
A plaster cast of a "ghost turnip" carving from Donegal, Ireland.(© National Museum of Ireland / Smithsonian Magazine)From sunset on October 31 to sunset on November 1 is the traditional celebration of Samhain, (pronounced sow-in). It is a Wiccan holiday, first celebrated by Celtic pagans, and is one of their eight major holidays, or Sabbats. Joining the Exchange to discuss the Celtic tradition of Samhain (SOW IN) is Rebeca Spirit.
According to resources from the Boston Public Library, all Wiccans share some common beliefs. They love and respect nature, and try to live in harmony with the earth. One of their main beliefs is "Harm None." This includes animals, humans, and nature. Samhain was first observed by Celtic Pagans. Samhain marked the Celtic New Year, the end of summer, and the end of the harvest season. It also signaled the beginning of winter, which they associated with death. On this day, the Celts believed the veil between the living and the dead was especially thin. This allowed spirits of the dead to visit the living.
Día de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead” as it translates in English, began in central and southern Mexico. At that time, mourning the dead was seen as disrespectful. Instead of grieving, it was more important to keep the memory of those who have passed alive. Those who celebrate the holiday believe that at midnight on October 31, the souls of deceased children come down from heaven and reunite with their families on November 1.
The festivities surrounding Dia de los Muertos are filled with calaveras (skulls) and calacas (skeletons). Celebrators wear colorful makeup and costumes, hold parades and parties, sing and dance, and make offerings to lost loved ones. People also create altars in honor of loved ones who have passed. They are decorated with pictures, flowers, candles, the deceased loved one's favorite food, and pan de muerto (bread of the dead).
Note: Despite the painted faces, costumes, skulls and skeletons, it is important to note that this holiday is not a Mexican version of Halloween. Dia de los Muertos is not intended to be a spooky holiday like Halloween. While Halloween is dark and scary, the Day of the Dead is a bright and colorful celebration of life. Both holidays share the theme of death, but the point of Dia de los Muertos is to celebrate the memory of those who have died.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, November 1st is also All Saints Day. They believe the souls of deceased adults come to visit on November 2, which is also known as All Souls Day in the Catholic religion.
Four local booksellers give their recommendations for some chill-filled Halloween reading.
OSU researchers gathered lineage data about a local population of Chinook salmon for over 13 years.(Courtesy of Oregon State University)The first sighting of wild Chinook salmon in a stretch of the Klamath River that had been blocked by dams for over a century marks a pivotal milestone in the river's ecological restoration. Wild Chinook salmon have returned to waters upstream of the site where the Klamath River’s Iron Gate Dam once stood. The removal of a total of four dams in the Klamath River Basin was part of the largest river restoration project in U.S. history.
Joining the Jefferson Exchange to discuss the latest evolution in the process are three guests: Ken Brink, Vice-Chairman of the Karuk Tribal Council, Ren Brownell, Public Outreach Officer for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, and Damon Goodman, Director of the Klamath, Mt. Shasta and Lassen region of the California Trout organization.
The sighting of Chinook in such a short time following removal of the four Klamath dams, an effort that took several decades, could serve as a model for future restoration projects across the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
( Shasta Economic Development Corporation)The 9th Annual Shasta Startup Games, produced by the Shasta Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will be in Redding, CA on Nov 1-3.
Katie Janiszewski, Director of Startup Redding, will join the Exchange to discuss.
SHASTA EDC DESCRIPTION: If you’ve started a business or want to — the Startup Games is for you! This is a guided, collaborative, and high-energy event where participants:
- Practice the most important things to do with any new idea
- Meet like-minded people and collaborate during the event
- Engage in friendly competition while learning
- Enjoy a unique experience you’ll talk about for years
Coast Range fog settles on the Elliott State Forest near Coos Bay.(Jes Burns / OPB/EarthFix )Oregon’s leaders decided for the first time to dedicate an entire state forest to storing harmful greenhouse gases to combat climate change while generating revenue from selling carbon credits.
Ali Ryan Hanson (she/her), Director of Communications, Oregon Department of State Lands joins the Exchange to discuss.
The fate of the Elliott State Forest near Coos Bay has been the subject of intense negotiation for years, but on Tuesday morning the three members of the State Land Board – Gov. Tina Kotek, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade and state Treasurer Tobias Read – voted unanimously to support a proposed forest management plan for the Elliott’s future that prioritizes research, protecting animal habitat, increasing forest carbon storage to combat climate change and produce income from the sale of carbon credits.
Logging would still be allowed in parts of the forest, but would be significantly reduced from previous decades. The decision makes Oregon the second state nationwide to enroll an entire state forest in a plan focused on storing harmful emissions in exchange for carbon credits, after Michigan.
Ellen Dee Davidson is author of The Miracle Tree, a bilingual illustrated children's book about a true story of climate resilience.( Ellen Dee Davidson)The Miracle Forest is a true story of one man’s dream to revitalize a desert plain and grow a forest. And from that forest emerged a community that nurtured and expanded the forest, which evolved into a sustainable ecosystem with a local economy that supported the community. It’s a story of resilience, imagination, creativity and the profound impact of collective action. And best of all, it’s an illustrated storybook for children.
The author, Ellen Dee Davidson, joins the Exchange from her home in northern California.
(Book illustrated by Carolan Raleigh-Halsing | Translated by Mariela Paz Caceres).
Read review
Gabriella Callicho(American Theater / American Theater)The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) announced the appointment of Gabriella Calicchio as its new Executive Director on Sep. 17. Calicchio's career spans more than 25 years in the arts.
OSF will launch its 90th Anniversary Season next year under Calicchio's leadership. Her appointment is the result of a national search led by Arts Consulting Group (ACG), in partnership with a Search Committee comprised of OSF board members and executive staff.
Calicchio will officially begin her tenure as OSF’s fifth Executive Director in November. She joins the exchange to talk about her new role and vision for the direction of the OSF.
A banner from ACLU Northern California, urging No on Prop 36 (ACLU Northern California )Claire Simonich, Associate Director of the Vera California Institute joins the Exchange to talk about why the institute, and other groups working for equity and justice, opposes California's Proposition 36.
According to California's Legislative Analyst's Office: Proposition 36 makes several key changes to the law (Prop 47 passed in 2014) related to punishments for theft and drug crimes. First, it increases punishment for some of these crimes. Second, it creates a new treatment-focused court process for some drug possession crimes. Third, it requires courts to warn people convicted of selling or providing illegal drugs to others that they can be charged with murder if they keep doing so and someone dies.
But a recent poll shows that Californians strongly favor Prop 36 by nearly 58%.
Californians for Safer Communities' logo (Californians for Safer Communities )Lesser sentencing and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of illegal drugs were the result of California's Prop 47, which passed into law in 2014. Now, a decade later, proponents of Prop 36 believe it will address several problems that came out of Prop 47 and the growing fentanyl crisis in California.
Mark Mezzano, a Redding city councilmember, joins the Exchange to offer insight into why increasing sentencing measures and empowering the courts to compel drug users to engage in treatment plans are reasonable solutions.
The OHRA Center in Ashland on September 26, 2024. (Jane Vaughan / JPR )JPR's Jane Vaughan interviews Cass Sinclair, the outgoing executive director of Opportunities, Housing, Resources and Assistance (OHRA).
Sinclair recently announced she's leaving OHRA after three years in her role. She talks about her successes and challenges as executive director, what's next for her and the problems still facing the region in finding solutions to homelessness.
Rogue Community College in downtown Medford( RCC)Rogue Community College (RCC) is experiencing a surge in student enrollment, reporting a nearly 19 percent increase in fulltime enrollment from the fall of 2023 to the fall of 2024. At the same time, RCC is seeking support from the residents of Jackson and Josephine counties for a $60M bond measure to support its growth.
County residents would be taxed at .13 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. If successful, the bond would bring a new automotive program to RCC's White City campus, new diesel technology and emergency medical technician programs to its Grants Pass campus, plus improvements to classrooms across the two counties it serves.
RCC President Randy Weber joins the Exchange to discuss.
Oregon night sky(Bird Alliance of Oregon / Bird Alliance of Oregon)From hummingbirds and warblers to sparrows and geese, millions of birds migrate across North America every year, covering hundreds to thousands of miles. Most of these birds, some that weigh as little as half an ounce, make this remarkable and perilous journey at night, visualizing the magnetic pull of the earth and using the moon and stars to set their course.
By reducing sky-glow over our cities, we can help them make it to their destinations safely. Mary Coolidge of the Oregon Bird Alliance joins the Exchange to talk about their Lights Out Messaging Campaign help us better understand how light pollution from cities disrupts the natural migration process of birds.
Ashland City Councilor Gina Duquenne speaks at a Pride celebration(Photo by Bob Palermini / Ashland News - Bob Palermini)Tens of millions of Americans do not conform to the dominant cultural perspective of heterosexual relations inherited from previous generations and past eras of American history.
The stigmas and hostilities faced by nonconforming Americans are challenged by peaceful celebrations of the freedom to love. Nationally, these celebrations are demonstrated in Pride Parades.
Oct 1 is the annual Southern Oregon Pride Parade and celebration. The theme this year is Freedom. Ashland City Councilor, Gina DuQuenne joins the Exchange to talk about the SO Pride Parade.
A statue on the left side of the photo features drinking fountains at the bottom, and a pioneer-era man on top looking into the distance. On the right side is a small booth painted mustard and blue. Lettering on the awnings of the booth say "information"(The Ashland Plaza, including the information booth and the Pioneer Mike statue / Roman Battaglia)Mike Connolly joins the Exchange to discuss Ashland's recruiting efforts for its Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
An upcoming training in October opens a door of opportunity for new volunteers to join CERT and receive training by Ashland Fire & Rescue to assist first responders during fires, floods and earthquakes. CERT training provides vitals skills that people can learn to help themselves and their neighbors in times of trouble or in the event of a natural disaster.
Alice Driver is the author of "Life and Death of the American Worker"(Simon and Schuster / Photo by Luis Garvan)Author Alice Driver exposes the underbelly of the meatpacking industry's abuse of poor and migrant workers in her explosive book, "Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company."
Through years of investigative reporting, Driver provides details leading up to a deadly chemical accident inside the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant and the company's coverup of the impact on employees in its wake.
Alice Driver is the author of "Life and Death of the American Worker"(Simon and Schuster / Photo by Luis Garvan)Author Alice Driver exposes the underbelly of the meatpacking industry's abuse of poor and migrant workers in her explosive book, "Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company."
Through years of investigative reporting, Driver provides details leading up to a deadly chemical accident inside the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant and the company's coverup of the impact on employees in its wake.
Irene Daria, author of "I Didn't Believe Him"(Irene Daria / Cyrus Webb Books)For decades, elementary schools all across the United States have been employing a flawed method of reading instruction known as balanced literacy. This method essentially teaches children to guess at words using context clues rather than sound them out with systematic phonics.
Irene Daria knows the ineffectiveness of this method first-hand. While she is currently a developmental psychologist who specializes in teaching children to read, she was once the parent of a child who did not learn to read in school. Her new book, "I Didn't Believe Him," traces her son, Eric's, journey through kindergarten and first grade as a representation of the thousands of children who failed to learn to read in school.
(HIV.gov / HIV.gov)The purpose of the National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day each year on Sept 27 is to raise awareness of the HIV epidemic's disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men, and to encourage HIV testing, prevention, and treatment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), racism, poverty, stigma, and homophobia serve as barriers to care and prevention, and continue to drive inequities that cause gay and bisexual men—particularly Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino men—to be overrepresented in the HIV epidemic.
Michael Kharfen, Director of the Division of Policy in the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration, joins the Exchange.
Author Bob Creamer holds his book, "Nuts and Bolts"(Bob Creamer / Bob Creamer)Author Bob Creamer spills the beans in his new book, "Nuts and Bolts: The Formula for Progressive Electoral Success."
With detailed precision, Bob Creamer provides background information on electoral processes designed to promote progressive issues and candidates, with a step-by-step formula for running successful campaigns at every level.
(Wikimedia )School districts are important to the communities they serve. Not only because of student academics, sports and social events, but schools also support of community health and wellbeing.
Grants Pass School District has moved the Adult Community Transition (ACT) program to a new building. The program serves young adults with disabilities and supports their transition to adulthood and independent living.
The ACT program, which serves individuals aged 18 to 21, is designed to support young adults who have completed high school but require additional guidance in preparing for adulthood. ACT representatives Bob Simonson and Tiffany Reynolds join the Exchange .
This type of wave-energy device is moored in the open ocean, where it is submerged. Units like this from CalWave will be used in a project off the coast of Oregon that will provide power to the grid.(Courtesy of CalWave )The power of the ocean, above and below the water, can be harnessed to create electric power. So far much of the attention is focused on generating electricity from ocean winds. But ocean waves may also have potential to generate electricity. And Oregon State University's work in this realm is taking a big step forward.
The PacWave South wave energy test site is in the process of running cables from land near Newport, Oregon to sites offshore. We learn more about the cable-laying, and what comes after, in a visit with Burke Hales, Oregon State University professor and Chief Scientist at PacWave.
A new duck hospital is part of a broad community effort to help waterfowl experiencing a massive avian botulism outbreak in the Klamath Basin.
Ducks Unlimited has partnered with BirdAlly X to curb the spread of botulism in the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge. Conditions in the region are improving through the partnership, which includes Tribal Nations and federal partners. Ducks Unlimited Regional Biologist Amelia Raquel joins the Exchange to discuss along with Marie Travers, Co-Director of BirdAlly X.
Cal Fire firefighter Bo Santiago observes a backfire as the Rocky fire burns near Clearlake in 2015. (Josh Edelson / AP Photo )Cal Poly Humboldt and the California Insurance Commission have teamed up to form a strategy group that will make recommendations to the state for developing a Public Wildfire Catastrophe Model.
When completed, the model will be the first of its kind in the nation. Professor Eric Riggs is Dean of the College of Natural Resources and Sciences at Cal Poly, Humboldt. He will serve as the chair for the strategy group and invite experts in climate science, forestry, and wildfire safety education from across the California State University system and other universities and non-profits engaged in wildfire safety.
(Crescent City Longboard Festival / Crescent City Longboard Festival)Watching wipeouts will be one of the many activities for fans at the annual Crescent City Classic Longboard Competition and Festival on Sept. 28-29 at South Beach in Crescent City, CA.
The competition and festival is produced by the Redwood Parks Conservancy (RPC) as a fundraiser to support essential projects in the Redwood parks and public lands.
Kurtis Shaul, Event & Community Engagement Director at RPC joins the Exchange.
(Jon Sullivan / Wikimedia/Public Domain )Pollinator Project of the Rogue Valley (PPRV) produces a Pollinator Pals program that works with students throughout the Rogue Valley to connect them with native plants and pollinators in the Southern Oregon Bioregion.
Pollinator Pals develops hands-on lessons and activities developed in accordance with Oregon Science Standards. Kristina Lefever, President of the Pollinator Project and Pollinator Pals education coordinator Ethan Robison, join the exchange. PPRV has a Fall Native Plant Sale on Sunday, Oct 6 from 10am to 2pm.
How to Raise a Citizen: And Why It's Up to You to Do It" by Lindsey Cormack(The Politics Guys / The Politics Guys and Wiley Publishing)Lindsey Cormack is the author of "How to Raise a Citizen: And Why It's Up to You to Do It." She joins the Exchange to discuss the increasingly sparse civic knowledge and widespread dread of politics spreading across the nation.
Author Lindsey Cormack provides important information for parents, educators and anyone else interested in civic participation. Her book provides a how-to process for engaging in participatory democracy and teaching children to do likewise. She explains why schools can no longer be the sites of civic education that they used to be, and why it is important for civic education to happen at home.
Edenvale Winery in southern Oregon(Southern Oregon Wine Scene / Southern Oregon Wine Scene)Edenvale Winery is hosting the Oregon Honey and Mead Festival on September 21 (10am to 5pm) as a fundraiser in support of the Cascade Girl Organization, whose mission is to educate people about food system pollinators of the Cascade region and their impact on planetary survival via science, culture and the arts.
Sharon Schmidt, president of Cascade Girls joins the Exchange along with mead maker Lilly Weishberger. Festival attendees will learn about pollinators, botanical aspects of honey production, native plants and bees, research findings on honey bee health, youth involvement in tribal beekeeping, soil, seed, healthy flower forage and other components of habitat health.
DEQ's Community Air Action Planning Pilot Project(Oregon Department of Air Quality / Oregon DEQ)A community-led action approach allows the lived experience of the community members to prioritize ways to improve air quality and address activities that cause air pollution. This approach forms the basis for the Department of Air Quality's Community Air Action Planning (CAAP) pilot program.
See the DEQ description here.
Joining the Exchange are Community Innovation Strategist Ryan Bellison, who leads the program, and Jennifer Mylenek, Executive Director of CASA of Jackson County. DEQ has selected four communities for the pilot program. Medford, Oregon is one.
Jacksonville Wine & Dine festival(Southern Oregon Magazine / Jacksonvillewine.com )The Jacksonville Wine & Dine Festival will be at Bigham Knoll in Jacksonville on Sept 21 from 1-6 pm.
Profits from the event will go to support the local projects by the Jacksonville Rotary, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and the local police department.
The festival will feature 11 wineries and 11 restaurants along with live music from the bands Neon Velvet and the Danielle Kelly Soul Project. Chef Skye Elder and Delando Pegan, owner of Rellik Winery, join the Exchange to offer insights.
Jacksonville Wine & Dine festival(Southern Oregon Magazine / Jacksonvillewine.com )The Jacksonville Wine & Dine Festival will be at Bigham Knoll in Jacksonville on Sept 21 from 1-6 pm.
Profits from the event will go to support the local projects by the Jacksonville Rotary, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and the local police department.
The festival will feature 11 wineries and 11 restaurants along with live music from the bands Neon Velvet and the Danielle Kelly Soul Project. Chef Skye Elder and Delando Pegan, owner of Rellik Winery, join the Exchange to offer insights.
A Greater Applegate region will host a week-long fundraising series of events called "A Week in Jacksaphine Count(r)y." It runs from Sept 21-29th. The "Jacksaphine" moniker refers to the overlapping of the Applegate region across Jackson and Josephine counties.
The celebration is a reflection of the spirit of unity between the counties in the Applegate Valley. Megan Ferhman, Executive Director of A Greater Applegate joins the Exchange along with Christina Ammon, a former paraglider. A complete calendar of events is available here.
A peer-reviewed special report on Land Return to Tribes in Northern California is now available to the public. The report is an outcome of the 2023 Northern California LandBack Symposium, which was hosted in partnership with CalPoly Humboldt’s Native American Studies Department.
A draft report was released at the conference and a period for peer review followed. This past summer, on the 5th anniversary of the state’s apology to California Native American peoples, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s support for the return of over 2,800 acres of ancestral land to the Shasta Indian Nation.
This return of land is one of the largest in state history and part of the state’s ongoing efforts to right the historical wrongs committed against the Native communities of California. Regina Chichizola, Executive Director of Save California Salmon joins the Exchange.
(Princeton University Press / Princeton University Press)Co-authors Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum trace the deliberate efforts to dismantle the capacity of government to do it work in their book, "Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos."
Democracy depends on a government that can govern, and that requires what’s called administration. Ungoverning chronicles the reactionary movement that demands dismantling the administrative state. The demand is not for goals that can be met with policies or programs. When this demand is frustrated, as it must be, the result is an invitation to violence.
John Haroldson was the first Hispanic District Attorney in the state of Oregon.(Benton County, Oregon / Benton County, Oregon)Benton County District Attorney John M. Haroldson is a trailblazer in Oregon’s legal community. As the first Hispanic or Latino District Attorney in the state's history, Haroldson's career has been marked by his dedication to justice and his commitment to community service.
Raised in both the Pacific Northwest and Monterrey, Mexico, Haroldson’s bilingual and bicultural upbringing has been a defining influence in his legal career, a role he has approached with a deep understanding of diverse perspectives. Haroldson enters retirement leaving behind a legacy of justice, education, and service—a legacy that has paved the way for future generations in Oregon’s legal community.
( W.W. Norton and Company)The battles over our republic are ingrained in history ... if we can remember it.
Author Corey Brettschneider offers detailed reminders in his book. "The Presidents and The People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It." He joins the Exchange in a riveting interview with Geoffrey Riley.
(© Steven Pavlov / http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Senapa )A federal report about forced boarding schools and abuse of Native children includes California schools.
The state of California established the Governor's Office of Tribal Affairs to oversee a Truth & Healing Council which is paving a path forward toward addressing the present-day impact of the boarding school legacy.
Tribal Affairs Secretary, Christina Snider-Ashtari joins the Exchange.
Six guests embark on a wilderness tour. Only two survive.
Devil's Island is home of the Tasmanian Devil and the setting for a page-turning whodunit. This novel is co-authored by Midge Raymond and John Yunker. They join the Exchange to talk with Geoffrey Riley about their debut collaboration.
Over the last few years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has seen a significant increase in government scammers targeting people for cash payments. In just the first quarter of 2024, people reported paying government impersonation scammers $20 million dollars in cash.
Last year, $2.7B was lost to impersonation scams, and with new technology have become increasingly more complicated. We talk with Jennifer Tourje, Asst Director of the FTC's regional office in Seattle about what to do to avoid being victimized and what to do if you've been scammed. FTC scam report hotline - 877-382-4357
A playground sits empty at Greer Elementary School, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022.(Andrew Nixon / CapRadio )Children are more susceptible to the impacts of high temperatures and climate change. CAL FIRE recently announced $27 million in additional funding for a program that hopes to help alleviate that impact.
The Green Schoolyard grant program provides funding for nonprofit childcare centers in California to plant trees, convert pavement to green spaces, and complete other projects to help improve the wellbeing of California children. We speak with Julia Gowin and Walter Passmore from CAL FIRE about the program.
Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) with a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)(Simon Koopman / Wikimedia Commons)The First Annual Phoenix Flower Festival is a celebration of community and the beauty of the region's natural resources: flowers.
Flower Festival coordinator, Branddy Walter of the Phoenix Grange joins the JX along with Calena Reeves of the Swing Society of Southern Oregon to talk about the celebration scheduled for Sept 7.
Maybe being the daughter of a former member of Congress helped Alexandra Petri develop a sense of humor. She uses it to great effect in her regular columns in the Washington Post, and gets a much bigger field to play on (the whole United States) in her take on the country's past.
It's a big country, so it's a big book: Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up). From the founding fathers arguing about a narrative arc for the Federalist Papers to Dick Nixon's un-deleted expletives, there's plenty to enjoy. That includes some documents NOT made up by the author, but which definitely add to the weirdness. Alexandra stops by to talk about her take on our history.
Dying at Home, published by Johns Hopkins Press(Johns Hopkins University Press / Johns Hopkins University Press)The authors of Dying at Home: A Family Guide to Caregiving offer insights and tips for families caring for loved ones in their final days. Andrea Sankar and CM Cassidy talk about the book with Geoffrey Riley.
South Slough - Coos Bay, Oregon(Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons)The first of 30 National Estuarine Research Reserves around the nation, South Slough Reserve is a leader in improving understanding of estuaries and coastal watersheds.
Research and stewardship projects conducted by the Reserve contribute to cleaner, healthier surrounding coastal waters and inform coastal management practices throughout the world.
Additionally, the Reserve provides educational programming for adults and students and training for coastal decision makers.
The John C. Boyle dam is one of four that are planned to be removed from the Klamath River.(Bobjgalindo/Wikimedia)Update on the status of the Klamath Dam Removal Project. The last cofferdam on Iron Gate Dam is scheduled for removal this week.
Across the nation there's a dam removal movement. Ann Willis, PhD is the California regional director for American Rivers with a decade of experience working in the Klamath watershed. She joins the JX with the latest report on the Klamath Dam removal project.
Horse hug(Merens Calin / Wikimedia Commons)Riding Beyond is an Ashland-based nonprofit providing horse therapy for breast cancer survivors and those impacted by the Almeda fire and COVID-19.
The organization connects horses with people suffering from the effects of trauma to promote healing and restoration through a natural process.
Former Oregon Congressman Les AuCoin shares his experiences from 18 years in Congress. Unlike your typical member of congress, Les offers behind-the-scenes insights from meetings inside the Kremlin, how he helped rescue a Jewish family from the former Soviet Union, the role he played in opening up China to the world during the Nixon administration, his experience visiting a nuclear war bunker deep beneath a Colorado mountain and why he was compelled to get into the ring with a professional wrestler, a woman.
He wrote about it all in his memoir, "Catch and Release: An Oregon Life in Politics." Pacific University, AuCoin's alma mater, is naming a building in his honor. The dedication ceremony is Sept. 27 at the campus in Forest Grove.
The Oregon Health Authority plans to provide opioid overdose reversal kits to schools across the state. The kits naloxone, shown in this 2020 file photo, a drug that helps someone overdosing from fentanyl or other opioids.(Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
)A new study published by Oregon State University and Johns Hopkins reveal disturbing data that show patients seeking prescribed medications for recovering from opioid use may have a difficult time at the pharmacy depending on where they live.
In counties that have the highest rate of racial and economic segregation, pharmacies were more than two times more likely to restrict dispensation of prescribed treatment drugs than in counties where more economically privileged patients lived. We'll talk with the researchers to learn more.
Jefferson Exchange host, Geoffrey Riley(Angela Decker, photographer / Angela Decker)We interview Geoffrey Riley about his upcoming retirement and past experiences hosting the Jefferson Exchange since he became fulltime host in 2009.
Geoffrey says goodbye to his audience...and offers insight into what's next on the horizon.
Oregon State Capitol building, May 18, 2021. Oregon's unique tax law sends money back to taxpayers whenever personal income tax revenues come in at least 2% above initial projections during a two-year budget cycle.(Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB )Decriminalizing drug addiction was the original purpose of Measure 110 when voters put it on the ballot in 2020. The state legislature revised Measure 110 earlier this year and gave offenders a choice of jail or treatment for addiction.
State Representative Pam Marsh and Dr. Kerri Hecox join the JX to talk about the current impact of the law's revision in the Rogue Valley. Both will facilitate a free public Q&A on the issue on Sept. 3 in the Gresham Room at Ashland Public Library from 4pm - 5pm.
The discussion is part of their Big Ideas Talk Series: "Milestone, Mistake or Some of Both?" LINK
[Tues 9:25 | From kooky cults, dumb criminals, and a seriously gross way to sell milk, public historian Finn, J.D. John offers another collection for the Offbeat Oregon series. John visits with Underground History host Chelsea Rose to discuss his aptly titled book and the antics, laws, and sometimes terrible behaviors that helped shape the state.
Traffic in Sacramento on Sept. 20, 2021.(Andrew Nixon / CapRadio)You could easily come to the conclusion that Wes Marshall does not like traffic engineers. This is not true. In fact, Wes Marshall IS a traffic engineer, and one highly critical of the work of his profession.
He's particularly critical of the work done in the name of easing "traffic congestion," because it usually results in wider, straighter roads that people drive really fast on. And that makes them less safe, a point Marshall supports at length in the bookKilled by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies our Transportation System. We hear details of his critique, and possible corrections, in Wes Marshall's visit to the JX.
A sample of the tools used for the hand mapping of the site. CREDIT: CHELSEA ROSE(CHELSEA ROSE)Grab a shovel and start digging. That's how archaeology works, right? Wrong, and we have a few people willing to talk about the correct way to go about it. Southern Oregon Historical Society and our partners at the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology team up for Archaeology Night at Hanley Farm near Medford on August 29th.
It's an evening of demonstrations and explanations and lessons in thinking like an archaeologist. Chelsea Rose, our Underground History host from SOULA, joins in a conversation about the event, accompanied by SOHS Curator Anna Sloan.
FILE - Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaks during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Oct. 19, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington.(MANDEL NGAN / AP)The conventions are over, and now the election campaign season hits full throttle. Economic issues got a lot of mention at both of the major party national conventions, with the Democrats mentioning multiple times that they will seek legislation raising income tax rates on the most wealthy Americans.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is at the center of that kind of activity, since he chairs the Finance Committee in the Senate. He took some time away from the Democratic Convention in Chicago to share his thoughts on what billionaires paying "their fair share" might look like in law.
(Collective Eye Films)It's a story as old as the west and as recent as the last drought: a fight over water allocations when there's not much water, period.
In the summer of 2022, the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District south of Redding got just a fraction of its normal allotment of Sacramento River water. The story is told in the film "ACID Canal" by local film producer T.L. Greene. He and director Tyler Faires talk about the water shutoff and the reaction to it.
By the way, it's not as corrosive as it sounds: ACID stands for Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District.
(courtesy photo / Sleep in Heavenly Peace)The growth of free meal programs at public schools comes from the knowledge that children do not learn well when they're hungry. Or sleepy, for that matter.
The national nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace works on that issue, providing beds for kids who otherwise sleep on floors or couches or chairs. And the chapter serving Josephine County and Glendale just landed a grant that will allow a major building party, what SHP calls the “Bunks Across America Bed Build of 2024”.
AllCare Health provided the grant; the information about what it will do is provided by SHP local president Nathan Olson and local community advisory council vice-chair Andy Coye.
BLM's "checkerboard" land ownership shows up in a map of the Last Chance project area.( Bureau of Land Management)It it not unusual for the federal Bureau of Land Management to run into opposition when it proposes selling trees to be cut down and hauled away. So no one is surprised to see complaints about the Last Chance Forest Management Project, planned for BLM land North of Grants Pass in Jackson, Josephine, and Douglas Counties.
Environmental groups find plenty to dislike, including clearcuts. We heard from them in a recent interview, and now we take up the response from the timber industry.
Two guests join us from the American Forest Resource Council: Federal Timber Program Director Andy Geissler and Western Oregon Field Coordinator Corey Bingaman. BLM extended a deadline for public comment on the project to August 29th.
High voltage post or High voltage tower(bohbeh - stock.adobe.com / 182646517)A power plant makes electricity, and wires carry the power to users. Simple, right? Actually, many things can complicate power transmission, including storms on the surface of the sun, as well as issues with geomagnetic currents under the surface of the Earth.
Oregon State University is home to the National Geoelectromagnetic Facility, which recently completed a project to map those currents in the ground, across the Lower 48 states. The knowledge can help protect electrical grids from disturbances.
OSU Professor and the project's principal investigator, Adam Schultz, walks us through the details of the map and who benefits from it.
( Wikimedia Commons)The last fifteen years have been a time of great upheaval from the Democratic Party.
The story in The Trucebegins in 2008, when factions in the party furrowed amidst the tumultuous primary between progressive Barack Obama and centrist Hillary Clinton. These factions deepened amidst the 2016 and 2020 elections in both presidential primaries and Congress.
Charlie Zimmermann sits down with political reporter Luppe Luppen to discuss the history of the Democratic Party and what we might expect from the future.
( Massachusetts DOT)It's nearly time for kids to be headed back to school. That means more more children walking and biking local streets.
The Oregon Department of Transportation wants to help ensure kids make it to school and home safely.
Oregon Safe Routes to School Program Manager Heidi Manlove joins the JX to discuss ODOT's grants to help communities throughout the state make school routes safer and more accessible.
Release the doves! Talent Gallery opens to the public on June 28, 2024(Geoffrey Riley / JPR News )Downtown Talent has had a rough couple of years. The Almeda Drive fire in September 2020 burned down hundreds of homes in the city, and hopskotched its way through downtown, sparing some buildings while scorching others.
The old Malmgren Garage was among the unlucky ones, losing all of its flammable parts while the exterior concrete walls remained standing. That gave the owners something to build upon, and the Talent Gallery now occupies the renewed space, after a well-attended grand opening in June.
Bruce Bayard, the co-founder of the gallery, visits the JX with the story of its birth.
Margaret Evans at the controls of the pipe organ.(courtesy photo / Southern Oregon University)We can play music on our phones now. Not recorded music... we can MAKE music with apps on our hand-held gadgets.
Now contrast that with a pipe organ, a musical instrument that takes up an entire wall of a large room. Southern Oregon University owns a pipe organ, and is making plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the instrument's installation, on August 23rd.
Margaret Evans, Professor Emeritus of Music at SOU, and the organ's principal player over the years, visits with details of what it's like to play such a machine.
(JESHOOTScom / Pixabay )Co-authors Louise Story and Ebony Reed connect the dots of racial inequities ingrained in today's economy with historical records that reveal how the U.S. economy was established on a foundation of systemic racism. In their new book, "15 Cents on the Dollar," the authors offer research and data that reveal the wealth of the average Black American family amounts to .15 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by the average White family.
In an interview with Mike Green, the authors unfold the story of America's economic past through present-day experiences of a handful of Black people whose lives and families have been shaped by the systemic inequities we all inherited.
Southern Oregon University Economics Professor Travis Campbell (Travis Campbell / Southern Oregon University)America is arguing itself blue in the face over transgender people. And there's a particular focus on the people who decide when they're young that their identities do not correspond with the sex organs they got at birth.
Some research can only help, and a Southern Oregon University economist is the lead author on a recently published article on the subject. Travis Campbell and his team explored gender identity milestones in young people, and one of the major takeaways is that a supportive family is a major help in maintaining mental health. Dr. Campbell talks about the research with JPR's Jane Vaughan.
An area the BLM is proposing a commercial treatment for the Late Mungers project. The orange rings around some of the trees signify those won't be cut down.(Roman Battaglia / Jefferson Public Radio)The federal Bureau of Land Management plans a timber sale that is drawing opposition. The sale north of Grants Pass is called the "Last Chance Project."
The project would remove more than 3,400 acres of spotted owl habitat, target nearly 1,300 acres of riparian areas for logging, and allow dozens of miles of new logging roads, including through critical coho salmon habitat and old-growth stands.
KS Wild has concerns over the impact of the project on animal and fish habitat, as well as the potential increased risks of wildfire. KS Wild Conservation Director George Sexton and Attorney John Persell from Oregon Wild join the JX to offer their insights.
A representation of a hydrogen molecule( Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association)The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association is a nonprofit aimed at developing a network of clean hydrogen energy in the Pacific Northwest.
The association recently received Phase 1 status from the Department of Energy, which will grant them access to funds to begin to develop hydrogen energy systems.
We'll speak with PNWH's president, Chris Green, about what this will mean for our region.
A syringe in a tent in downtown Portland. Facing an escalating addiction crisis, Oregon lawmakers are considering new laws to help crack down on drug trafficking. (Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB )Ballot measure 110 sailed to victory in Oregon, but getting it to work as intended--to reduce drug penalties and increase drug treatment--has met with challenges, complaints, and legislative revisions.
Oregon Health Authority just named Abbey Stamp Executive Director of OHA's Measure 110 program. She will oversee implementation of Measure 110 and the Behavioral Health Division's collaboration with statewide service networks to expand services fo people actively seeking help and recovery options.
The Oversight & Accountability Council will hold a public meeting on Aug 14 while the next Measure 110 rules hearing will be held on Aug 16.
Students make their way to class for the first day of school at Tustin Ranch Elementary School in Tustin on Aug. 12, 2021.(The Orange County Register / via AP Photo)Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Jackson and Josephine Counties provide specially trained community volunteers to advocate for abused and neglected children in pursuit of safe and permanent homes.
Volunteers are needed and training starts in October.
Jackson County CASA Program Manager Cristina Petrone joins the JX, along with Josephine County CASA Program Director Heather Brown, to discuss the details.
To reach either organization:
Jackson County CASA 541-734-2272
Josephine County CASA 541-474-5486
Southern Oregon University Class of 2023 graduates celebrate at their commencement ceremony. ( SOU)The Last Mile Education Fund helps support the financial needs of students pursuing STEM fields through a unique "Pay It Forward" model.
Students in need can receive immediate assistance. They eventually become ambassadors of the fund, and finally, investors, when their career income allows.
The founder and CEO of the Last Mile Education Fund, Ruthie Farmer, shares details about the fund on the JX.
(Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
/ CalMatters; iStock, Midjourney)A new report from the Oregon Health Authority details the ways climate change impacts the health of Oregonians in 2023, including an increase in heat-related deaths and hospital visits. The impacts were more significant for communities of color, low-income residents, and rural communities.
We'll get the details of the report from OHA Environmental Public Health Section Manager Gabriela Goldfarb.
The ACCESS food pantry has been run out of Talent's old Town Hall. A fire caused the building to be shut down for renovations.(James Kelley)The Talent Food Projectorganizes bimonthly food drives and distributes the food to locals in need. They recently lost access to their storage space in the Talent Town Hall following an electrical fire. They are ready to resume food drives, but urgently need a storage space to allow them to continue feeding the public.
We'll speak with food project volunteers Judy Richards and Jordan Pease about what they need and how folks can help.
For more ways to help even beyond Talent, you can also visit theNeighborhood Food Project, which has information about all the 40+ food projects in the Northwest.
Gov. Tina Kotek said she isn’t comfortable with the state issuing $1 billion in general obligation bonds over the next eight years to pay to replace the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Portland and Vancouver. ( Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr)The status of Oregon's roads, bridges, energy production and drinking water are among a number of critical infrastructure items featured in a new report card for the state. A growing population and increasing commercial activity are among a number of factors testing the capacity and resilience of Oregon's aging infrastructure.
Tijerino Esquino, chair of the 2024 Report Card for Oregon's Infrastructure joins the JX to discuss the current state of critical systems.
Alan Townsend, author of This Ordinary Stardust(Boulder Book Store Eventbrite image)The same stuff that makes up all of the creatures on Earth is also present in all of the stars in the sky. Which can make us feel very small in the universe, but also provide some comfort: We are not eternal, but parts of us are. These are the kinds of thoughts that sustained Alan Townsend, a scientist, when he faced some major health challenges to his daughter and his wife.
His book on that phase of his life is This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist's Path from Grief to Wonder. We talk about the stardust and more Earthbound concerns in the author's visit to the JX.
Northwest dairy cattle eat rations out of a feed bunk.(Karla Salp / Washington State Department Of Agriculture)People and their activities take the vast majority of the blame for the accumulation of greenhouse gases that warm the planet. But people are not the only culprits. Cows get some of the blame, too. Burps from Bossie and her sisters release large amounts of methane, and methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more potent than carbon dioxide.
An environmental group got together with some of the major players in the dairy business to address the issue, leading to the creation of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance. The Environmental Defense Fund is the instigator for the alliance, and EDF's Katie Anderson lays out the details of the alliance and its methane-curbing goals.
More than half of the counties across America have limited access to reliable news and information, according to researchers at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The State of Local News 2023 report, produced by Northwestern's Local News Initiative, paints a dim outlook with 204 counties that have no local media and a trending pattern of an average of 2.5 local news media lost every week, up from an average of two per week a year ago.
But Andrew DeVigal, Director of the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon, and Maya Chupkov, who manages the Media and Democracy program at Common Cause California, remain undaunted by the task of saving local media. We'll explore the future of local media and learn why they are optimistic.
Most of us are totally dependent upon power, the electric kind. And when it goes away, even for a minute, an hour or a day, it can create chaos in our lives. Out of four major sectors in society residential, industrial, commercial and transportation, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) data show that the residential sector consumes the most electricity, at nearly 40%.
So what should we do when the power goes out? We'll talk with Heide Caswell of the Oregon Public Utility Commission and Erin McMahon with the Oregon Department of Emergency Management about how to prepare for the inevitable.
Link to Oregon Alerts: ORALERT.GOV
TheKlamath River dam removal project, removing four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, was always about fish. And fish passage was recently restored at the site of the J.C. Boyle Dam, allowing fish to swim past the site for the first time in decades.
The dam destruction is the largest project of its type in the nation. It is expected to be completed this year. Michael Belchik, Senior Fisheries Biologist with the Yurok Tribe, and Mark Bransom of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation join the JX to offer an update on the progress.
Public school is free, but what comes before it is generally not. That changes when the coming school year starts inGrants Pass, where the school district just announced the beginning of free preschool for four- and five-year-old children.
It is free but not unlimited; there are only 36 slots available, and the students will be chosen by lottery. The district gets no state funding for pre-Kindergarten programs, so funding came from several grants, including one from Southern Oregon Education Service District.
We get further details on the plans from Annie Blanchard at Grants Pass Schools and Shannon Bilbao at SOESD.
Trees are good. They provide many benefits: from giving oxygen, to stabilizing the soil, to providing shade. But are tree planting efforts effective in the fight against climate change?
A team of researchers, including Jacob Bukoski from theOSU College of Forestry, analyzed data from thousands of reforestation sites across 130 countries. The results show that roughly half the time it's better to let nature take its course.
(Courtesy photo / YouTube )Sometimes actors are called upon to play multiple characters in a play ... but what happens when one actor plays them all?
"Sweaty Thots" is the play directed by Julie Oda-Grantham. Actor Matthew Reynolds plays all the characters that explore a wide variety of experiences, emotions and perspectives revealing insights that resonate with audiences.
Both join the JX with a preview of the performance.
(adege / Pixabay)Nature can often provide the greatest entertainment experiences. It's a 24 hour performance.
But every so often it offers a special encore, like a fantastic meteor shower. On Aug 11-12 the Perseids Meteor Shower will flood our skies.
John Mulchaey, Director of The Carnegie Observatory, will provide tips on the best places in our region to pull up a seat and enjoy the show.
Where you start in life can often determine where you end up. But not always.
Author Tom Seeman experienced an unusual journey to a distant destination and shares insights in his book; Animals I Want to See, a Memoir of Growing Up In the Projects and Defying the Odds. Seeman's identity, ambition, religion, and friendship—often across racial and social lines— are the touchstones of his journey from a child janitor with big dreams to a teenage petty criminal to a student at Yale and Harvard.
Seeman's shares some of those moments, aspirations and inspirations with us on the JX.
Comunicable diseases are always on our minds since COVID. Now Oregon is experiencing a sudden rise in cases of measles.
Dr. Paul Cieslak from the Oregon Health Authority visits the JX to discuss what is causing the increase, what's being done about it, and what you can do to protect yourself and your family.
The September 2020 fires in Oregon and California destroyed many things, but they also created some. The creations include several organizations geared to help communities and individuals get back on their feet after the smoke cleared.
One of those was the Community Rebuilding Fund, housed at the Oregon Community Foundation with support from several large donors. A recent report shows how the fund helped fire victims, and spurred the creation of other supports in the aftermath. United Way of Jackson County and the Oregon Disaster Funders Network are both involved in continuing post-fire efforts.
We visit with Dee Anne Everson who is on theBoard of Directors for OCF and with the United Way, and Kristin Monahan from ODFN.
LINK: Jackson County Dashboard for Almeda fire damage and recovery... https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/888491b7ccc949a7a98554a14aa8bf82/
We've gotten used to checking the air quality index (AQI) numbers when wildfire smoke hangs in the air. If the numbers get into the unhealthy range, we may limit our activities. But the limits may be different for children, whose developing lungs are potentially more susceptible to damage from smoky conditions.
University of Oregon researchers experimented with various graphics to share the information with the public, to better protect children from smoke exposure.
Catherine Slavik led the team that designed new infographics communicating smoke risks to kids. She joins us to talk about the graphics and the responses to them. The interview also includes Ellen Peters, director of UO's Center for Science Communication Research.
The government response to the COVID pandemic included legislation keeping people on Medicaid as long as the health emergency lasted. Once it ended, millions of Americans would potentially lose their Medicaid coverage, and many have.
But Oregon appears to lead the nation in keeping people on its version of Medicaid, the Oregon Health Plan. OHP is still the health insurer for four out of five people who were insured during the pandemic, according to a study out of Georgetown University.
We explore the numbers and the reasons for the high rate of OHP renewals with Vivian Levy, Deputy Medicaid Director at the Oregon Health Authority.
LINK: If you're seeking Oregon Health Plan or other health insurance coverage, here's the address: https://healthcare.oregon.gov/Pages/index.aspx
Talent Maker City is oddly quiet of late, but there's a good reason. A space that usually hums with the activity of people making things is in transition, as TMC moves from its old quarters into a brand-new building in the heart of downtown Talent.
The larger space will allow TMC to serve more people of all ages who want to work with their hands. Grants from several sources, including the Collins Foundation in Portland, have allowed Talent Maker City to grow.
We check in on the moving process and the future goals with TMC Executive Director Alli French and Jackie Murphy from the Collins Foundation.
When people talk about vanishing forests in our part of the world, it's usually a reference to collections of trees on land. Not this time. There is another vanishing forest of great concern, under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The kelp forests in the shallow waters have been vanishing in recent years, and recent research from the Oregon Kelp Alliance puts some numbers to the loss: about two-thirds of the kelp canopy have been lost in the last decade, generally munched down by sea urchins.
We get details on the kelp loss and possible remedies, in a chat with Tom Calvanese and Dr. Sara Hamilton from ORKA.
Plumes of smoke are seen from miles away as a rangeland wildfire burns outside of the small town of Antelope in Wasco County, Oregon.(Emily Jane Davis, Oregon State University)We've heard many times in recent years how unpredictable wildfires have become, in addition to them getting just plain larger. Anything that can help fire managers figure out where and how fires burn gives a boost to fire prevention and firefighting.
The Fire Program Analysis Fire-Occurrence Database, created more than a decade ago, collects all kinds of information on fire ignitions and fire behavior. Erica Fleishman directs the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, and she was a member of the team that added many more attributes and numbers to the database.
She explains in a visit to the JX.
The actual database: https://zenodo.org/records/8381129
The research article about the additions to the database: https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/3045/2024/essd-16-3045-2024-discussion.html
There's no substitute for experience when you're doing something difficult. And you can't get experience overnight when doing something like starting a business from scratch. But what you CAN do is call upon the experience of people who've been down that road, and that's why there's SCORE, originally theService Corps of Retired Executives.
SCORE volunteers donate their time to give entrepreneurs starting businesses some guidance. Southwest Oregon is served by a SCORE chapter based in Central Oregon. We visit with two of the regional board members, Don Blaser and Bruce Kelling.
Look at the maps of current fires in our part of the country, and all the red dots look like a major case of the measles. Hundreds of thousands of acres lit up in the latter part of July, after the heat wave baked the landscape in the first part of the month.
As usual, many of the fires are burning on U.S. Forest Service land. We check in with Ed Hiatt, the Pacific Northwest Assistant Fire Director for Operations. He gives us a view of the overall fire picture, and just what it takes to get people and equipment assigned to all the fires.
We're taking risks if we get to the end of July in our region and we have not prepared a "go-kit" in case of evacuation. The dry landscape is actually on fire in many areas, bringing firefighters in and forcing nearby landowners out.
Local and state governments have put in some work in recent years, identifying evacuation zones and distributing information about which zones people live in, and what routes to take if an evacuation is ordered.
It's a lot of information to convey, and still a work in progress. We take some extra time with both the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) and with Jackson County's emergency operation. Patience Winningham from OEM and Holly Powers, the Jackson county's emergency manager, are our guests.
Signing up for alerts:
Oregon: https://oralert.gov/
California: https://calalerts.org/signup.html
Finding your evacuation zone is trickier, because it is county-by-county and city-by-city.
In Jackson County:
https://www.jacksoncountyor.gov/departments/emergency_management/know_your_zone.php
Not every part of our region is as flammable as the next. There is some variation, meaning wildfire risk is just higher in some places than in others. And when the state of Oregon said so with the release of a wildfire risk map in 2022, landowners in high risk areas complained, loudly.
The state withdrew the map until just recently, offering in its place the Wildfire Hazard Map. It does not differ greatly from the previous map, but the state has put more work into contacting landowners and holding public meetings. And input will be taken until August 18th, input that could lead to changes in the map.
Tim Holschbach from the Oregon Department of Forestry joins us for an overview.
There are many places on the map where people once lived and worked that faded into history. But Maxville, Oregon may be one of a kind. It was a timber town, and there were plenty of those, but Maxville was integrated: Black and white workers inhabited the town and worked in the mill.
The Maxville Heritage Interpretive Centerworks to preserve, interpret, and enhance the historical record. AndSouthern Oregon University sociology and anthropology program gives a boost to MHIC's efforts.
We revisit the Maxville story, with guidance from SOU Professor Mark Tveskov and Gwen Trice, MHIC Executive Director.
We expect things to move on highways; that's what they're for. But not the highway itself, which has long been the problem at Last Chance Grade on U.S. 101 in Del Norte County.
The highway is located in a landslide-prone area, and frequent work is required to keep the highway from sliding down the hill. Caltrans, the state department of transportation, chose a permanent fix. It'll be long and expensive, requiring a tunnel more than a mile long, and potentially a couple of billion dollars.
Jaime Matteoli is the Project Manager for Last Chance Grade, and our guest for an exploration of the steps that led to the decision.
Any community of a reasonable size has a few people with some dollars to give, and some places that will gladly take them. Josephine County--and western Jackson County--have an entity that helps collect givers with receivers.
The Four Way Community Foundation is closing in on its 50th birthday, having spent nearly half a century now helping givers make philanthropic donations, and helping guide those donations to organizations that can use a few bucks.
Kate Dwyer is Executive Director at the Foundation; she visits with details of who gives and who gets.
[Tue 9 AM | Keeping journalism alive by staying truly local in coverage] Staying in business in the journalism field has grown tougher in recent years, with newspapers taking the loss of paid subscriptions and classified advertising especially hard.
For some journalism entities, the key to survival has been to go hyper-local: focus heavily on the news created in town or nearby. Case in point: Ashland.news, which local news consumers created to take the space created by the end of the Daily Tidings newspaper. There are other examples in the region, including The Chronicle, which describes itself as "HYPER-LOCAL NEWS for Springfield, Creswell, Cottage Grove, & Pleasant Hill."
We hear about the approach and the results in a chat with Editor Bert Etling of Ashland.news and Chronicle owner/publisher Noel Nash.
The recent saga of the efforts to protect the forest around Pipe Fork Creek in Josephine County ended with a whimper, not a bang. But it may not be over.
Fans of the forest, led by theWilliams Community Forest Project, worked to protect the land currently owned by Josephine County. They even lined up a buyer in The Conservation Fund, which planned to buy it from the county and then sell it to the Bureau of Land Management, which owns adjacent forest land.
But Josephine County commissioners, after attaching several additional conditions to the sale, left the property unsold by a deadline to commit. Chas Rogers and Cheryl Bruner, board members at WCFP, talk about next steps.
Maybe it's a rare writer who gets rich at the craft... but writers can find other kinds of rewards like inspiration and technical growth in their work by taking part in residencies and retreats for writers.
The Lost in Place Nature Writing Intensive, held at Summer Lake Lodge in the Lake County (Oregon) backcountry is that kind of opportunity. It includes both sessions devoted to writing better and excursions into nature around the lodge.
Renowned poet Ellen Waterston is the organizer of the event, and the High Desert Museum in Bend is a partner. We get further details on the event (August 8-11) from Ellen Waterston and Hayley Brazier, curator of natural history at the museum.
(Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons)He's the Republican candidate for Vice President now, but last time we talked to JD Vance, he not only had his doubts about Donald Trump, he did not think Trump would win the election.
That was in 2016, and many things have changed. The occasion for Vance's appearance on the JX was a conversation about his highly-regarded book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.
It's the book that made him famous, the tale of his upbringing in Ohio's Rust Belt, by parents who had left Appalachia in search of greater economic opportunity.
We provide a rerun of the Vance interview, for comparison with the current statements of a man now on the cusp of great power.
Sculpture by Hank Thomas Willis: "Raise Up"(Ron Cogswell / Wikimedia Commons)Activism and community organizing are generally about getting people to move: move to demonstrate on an issue, move to vote on an issue, move off dead-center in thinking.
One way to move people is by inspiring them, through art. And there's a long history of the intertwining of art and activism, a story told by Ken Grossinger in his book Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together.
Maybe you remember the words from older campaigns, but the pictures may have stuck with you as well. We get examples from the author in a visit to the JX.
Suicides by young people in Oregon hit a peak in 2018, with 129 deaths. And while the overall numbers have dropped a bit in the years since, the rate of youth suicide remains high when compared with the rest of the country. And there's another note: youth suicides by white people are dropping, while deaths by people of other ethnicities are on the rise.
The Oregon Health Authorityruns several programs and approaches to track and prevent suicides by young people, with increasing attention to non-white groups. Ebony Clarke, OHA Behavioral Health Director, joins the JX with numbers and causes and details of intervention and prevention programs.
The Supreme Court had its say, and then the residents of Grants Pass weighed in.
The SCOTUS ruling that rousting people from camping on public property is NOT cruel and unusual punishment gives the city--any city--more tools to clear encampments of homeless people from public property. And a council "listening session" after the ruling featured dozens of Grants Pass residents saying how they'd like the city to deal with homeless people.
Oregon state law passed in recent years also plays a role in city responses to encampments. Grants Pass Mayor Sara Bristol joins us once again to talk about the options facing the city and all of its residents, with and without houses.
As a society, we're deeply invested in rocks and minerals, whether we realize it or not. From engagement and wedding rings, and many others kinds of jewelry, to building materials, countertops, landscaping, and just the fun of skipping rocks across a lake, we seem to be obsessed with rocks, minerals and gems.
Crater Rock Museum in Central Point boasts one of the finest displays of gems, minerals, rocks, and fossils on the West Coast. Crater Rock Museum Board Member Jim Bosley and Museum Curator Jillian Kettley join the JX to chat about the wonders of rocks, minerals, gems and fossils... and what we can learn from them.
Maybe it's a rare kid who misses school in the summertime, but there are plenty of kids who would miss meals in the summertime without school-based nutrition programs. The programs ensure that children don't go hungry because the meal they normally get at school come to an end.
The Oregon Department of Education Summer Food Service program provides free nutritious meals at sites all over the state. ODE child nutrition specialist Cathy Brock offers insights on two state education programs: Summer Food Service and Summer EBT, which provides $120 for groceries per eligible child.
The storms of winter are long forgotten by now on the Oregon coast. And the summer heat (usually) doesn't get as severe as it does inland. So it's a great time to take in some music, and several organizations are lined up to provide the tunes.
Oregon Coast Music Festivalis in the middle of its two week run (July 13-27), and Redfish Music Festival gets started just as the other is ending (July 26-August 4). We get details on this year's events in a visit with Christine Moffitt, OCMA's president, and Fritz Gearhart, the founder and executive director at RMF.
The Internet has made searching for family history far easier than it used to be. Still, the gobs of records and documents and papers--or the absence of them--can make it necessary to ask for a little help now and then.
The Rogue Valley Genealogical Society offers that kind of help to its members. And it is throwing an open house (July 20) to get more people acquainted with the society and its library and what it can do.
RVGS officers Kim Thurman, Ann Baracker, and Mary Robsman join us for a chat about searching for relatives, and their quests for freedom in the United States.
College or not? The question tends to be focused upon students graduating from high school, but there are many more people out there who can answer it. Older students could provide a large portion of the enrollment at community colleges, as the high school-straight-to-college pipeline delivers fewer students.
The Oregon Community College Association is talking about better serving the population of older students, those already holding down jobs and often caring for families, too.
The Student Success Center at OCCA is designed for this purpose. We learn more about the center and its work in a visit with Elizabeth Cox Brand, the center's director.
Pride month just ended, but there are other celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community scattered throughout the year. Those include Southern Oregon Pride, celebrated in October in and around Ashland.
Even before that series of events, there are others to raise money and get people reconnected with the queer community. The events include an "Everybody's Out" party planned for Ashland on July 20th.
SO Pride founder Gina Duquenne and the drag queen "Lady Redd" visit with details of the buildup of pride events.
Claudia Chotzen has lived in several places, but she also lived for a time outside of her own body. That's how she describes the way she coped with sexual abuse in her childhood.
It was a deep, dark family secret, one Chotzen brings into the light in her book The Dark Room: A Memoir of Triumph. Claudia Chotzen is a former resident of Ashland, and she'll present her book at an event at Bloomsbury Books on July 17th.
We get a preview in her conversation on the JX.
WARNING: there are graphic descriptions of sexual abuse in the interview.
Maybe you have days when it feels like the whole world has gone crazy. Maybe it's more than days, as it is for Jon Mills. He's a Canadian philosopher and psychologist who has thought many times that humans were losing their grip, either on reality or the fate of the world, or both.
Mills takes up the challenges and how we've responded to them, and how we might yet rescue human society. His recent book is End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate.
We can report that the book is not sunny, but neither is it without hope for positive change.
(Eric Slyman Photo by Johanna Carson.)Artificial Intelligence has caused concerns in the abstract since the first "Terminator" movie, and maybe before that. We'll put aside the end-of-the-world stuff for a bit and focus on the biases that can show up in AI... because AI is set up by humans, and they have biases.
An Oregon State Universityresearcher, working with the software company Adobe, created a training technique for AI that can filter out some biases. The conversation can go way over our heads, but Eric Slyman keeps it down-to-Earth and understandable in his chat with the JX.
Yes, it gets hot in our part of the world. But the relentless heat wave set high temperature records day after day after day; Redding did not get a high temp UNDER 110 for more than a week. It won't let up for a few days more, and it's likely not the only heat spike of the summer.
You may be battled-hardened by the heat at this point, but we can always get more ideas on coping with the hot weather. American Red Cross is familiar with good ways to cope with high temperatures... we bring in Darrell Fuller from the Red Cross Cascades Region to share some of the ways with us.
Williams-Whalen Dam removalBy one person's description, Evans Creek went from "a hot bathtub to a flowing stream." The key was the removal of a dam, more than a century old, more than 100 feet long, and six feet high. Evans Creek is a Rogue River tributary and important spawning habitat for fish.
The removal of Williams-Whalen Dam was the third such removal from just Evans Creek in the last couple of years, carried out in part through the efforts of WaterWatch of Oregon and the Rogue River Watershed Council. We catch up with the groups on their stream restoration work, in the persons of Jim McCarthy from WaterWatch and Brian Barr from RRWC.
LINK
Talent Avenue 1951It's the last thing you want to have happen on a very hot day when you're sitting by the air conditioner: the power goes out. But it happens, and it happened several times over the course of less than a week in the Rogue Valley City of Talent.
The outages did not last long, but any interruption of electric power at the very least inconveniences someone. And the interruptions are coming more frequently for a variety of reasons related to safety and fire prevention. Pacific Power is the electricity supplier and the supplier of details on what's happening.
Simon Gutierrez from the power company visits with those details.Talent Mayor Darby Ayers-Flood talks about the city's efforts to provide information and support to local citizens.
How would you describe yourself and your general political attitudes? Party-aligned? Disengaged? Alienated? These terms and many more come into use in the recently released typology study from the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center.
OVBC spent two months last fall compiling data on the political feelings of Oregonians. One of the major findings: despite breaking into eight types, people are people... they believe people with whom they do not agree politically can still work with them for the common good.
We explore the findings and the groups--from "party-aligned progressives" to "modern conservative loyalists"--in a chat with OVBC Executive Director Amaury Vogel.
It's been almost 30 years since all spending on healthcare in the United States topped a trillion dollars in a single year. Now it's well over four trillion dollars, and rising every year. We have greater healthcare needs, and so a greater need for people to provide services.
Ashland Community Health Foundation, which once focused on supporting Ashland's hospital, expanded its focus over the years to other communities and services. One of those is a scholarship fund to help students finish school and get working in healthcare.
We get more details on the Allied Health Scholarship program from Stephanie Roland, ACHF Executive Director.
Scientists thought they knew a lot about forests and how they functioned decades ago. Then the spotted owl and salmon and other forest creatures--and climate change--helped point out the limits of our understanding. Yet there are people in the region whose ancestors helped manage forests for thousands of years on the landscape.
The Traditional Ecological Knowledge--TEK--of the region's indigenous people has been given center stage once again. Lomakatsi Restoration Project has long relied upon TEK and its practitioners.
We get an overview from Lomakatsi Executive Director Marko Bey, and Belinda Brown, the organization's Tribal Partnerships Director.
In a perfect world, forests could produce timber for industry and still provide wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration, and all the people who care about forests would be happy.
The Conservation Fund is working on it. TCF buys at-risk private forests and gets them into conservation easements, which protect the land from fragmentation in perpuity. TCF admits it needs to scale up its operation, to have a greater impact in a warming and changing world.
We get an overview of how the process works from Matt Purdy, TCF's Director of Forest Investments, based in Portland.
There is general agreement that the best way to reduce the threat of large intense wildfires is to reduce the fuel loads in western forests. But the U.S. Forest Service does not have the money for all the forest restoration work needed.
Partners can help, though... including theNational Fish and Wildlife Foundation. NFWF recently announced a package of grants totalling $53 Million, to be spread among several national forests in California. The grants trigger additional outlays of money from other sources.
We get a sketch of where the money will go and what it will pay for, in a chat with Jonathan Birdsong, Western Region Director for NFWF.
The business of rescuing animals may start from the heart, but it has a huge impact on the wallet. Just ask the people at Rescue Ranch in Yreka, a no-kill shelter for dogs of all shapes and sizes.
The ranch buys dog food by the pallet, but veterinary care is another major expense, and the cost is rising all the time. On top of that, there's a shortage of vets, forcing Rescue Ranch to take dogs to Ashland and Klamath Falls for spay/neuter and other vet services.
Laura Finley from the ranch returns to the JX to tell the story of many dogs and few vets, alongside a hard-working vet in the person of Dr. Aiden Costello.
Once you think beyond the walls of the market(s) where you buy your food, you can go on a long journey indeed. The sources of the things we eat can be endlessly fascinating (and occasionally gruesome, let's be honest).
Nina Guilbeault, both sociologist and vegan, approaches the journey of food discovery from the perspective of a non-meat eater. She examines the food system of today, the greater acceptance over time of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, and places where mistakes have been made by people pushing for still greater acceptance.
The result is the book The Good Eater: A Vegan’s Search for the Future of Food. The author's visit does include some discussions of the protein industry, covering both current animal operations and potential future "lab meat."
Grab a snack and listen.
After the earliest presidential debate in generations and a controversial Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, voters have turned their attention to politics and the election sooner than usual.
In our continuing series, we're diving into the persistent trend of polarization of women voters along racial lines. Shari Dunn is the author of Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work. S
he joins Mike Green to offer her insights into why the majorities of Black and White women have consistently voted polar opposite in nearly every election.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson will make it easier for cities to move homeless people along, and penalize them when they don't move. Further details have to be worked out in the courts, but that's the basic effect.
The ruling provides relief to cities and frustration for the advocates of homeless people, including WRAP, theWestern Regional Advocacy Project. Executive Director Paul Boden is an outspoken advocate, with some homelessness in his own past. We get his take on the ruling, along with thoughts from Helen Cruz, who was homeless in Grants Pass for five years.
Warmer weather has arrived, and millions of Oregonians and visitors are eager to hike, climb, camp, boat, and explore the beauty of our state. On average, more than 1,000 Search and Rescue (SAR) missions are conducted each year across the state. Unsurprisingly, 99% of the people needing SAR assistance over the last decade lived outside the county where they were rescued.
Lack of preparedness was often the common denominator. In recognition of Search and Rescue Month, several state agencies are sharing best practices on how to keep outdoor adventures fun for people and protect Oregon’s scenic landscape. Oregon State Search and Rescue Coordinator Scott Lucas and Jackson County Sheriff Sergeant Shawn Richards, the head of Jackson County Search and Rescue, will offer key insights for safely enjoying the great outdoors.
Whatever your feelings about old growth forests and their protection, you have until late September to tell the federal government what you think.
The USDA Forest Service recently published the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for a national old growth amendment that would guide preservation and creation of old growth in national forests across the country.
Just having the process itself is welcome news to conservation groups and scientists, including the Rogue Valley's Dominick DellaSala. He is the chief scientist at Wild Heritage and a researcher of old growth forests for decades. DellaSala visits once again to talk about what he sees in the DEIS, and how to comment on it.
Jacksonville's Chan Bush is spending his days enjoying retirement, mostly. But his long career as a photographer trained his eye to notice things, like the large numbers of people sleeping on the streets of our communities.
Bush decided to talk to some of them, and take their pictures, and that led to a book, The Homeless: A Living Gallery of Hope. People living on the streets in both Oregon and California tell their own stories in the book, with no editing from the guy holding the camera.
Chan Bush visited the JX studio to talk about his project, and the wealth of knowledge he gained from people who have little material wealth.
Oregon needs homes, there's general agreement on that point. And the need is just that much more urgent, because of the thousands of homes lost in just a few days in the September 2020 fires.
HOPE Community Corporation--HOPE for Housing Options Production Enterprise--set up shop in a vacant factory space in Eugene. The plan: to produce prefabricated manufactured homes, with a goal of four completed homes rolling out every day. The first one is nearly ready for delivery to Talent Mobile Estates, which burned in the Almeda Fire.
Terry McDonald, who guided St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County into multiple efforts to help people needing homes, is the founder of HOPE Community Corporation. He talks about the progress toward that goal of cranking out the homes.
It's not just that the federal endangered species list is long, there is also a long list of living things that probably SHOULD be on the list. And in the eyes of many conservation groups, that list is far too long. Another case is now in the courts, with groups suing the federal government for not moving fast enough on deciding if the tope shark deserves protection.
The shark lives in temperate oceans, and is highly prized for its meat--it is also known as the "soupfin shark." Population numbers have been plummeting, and the National Marine Fisheries Service said more than two years ago that it might warrant protection.
Center for Biological Diversity and the Defend Them All Foundation brought the suit to speed up the decision. We get details from the filing attorneys, David Derrick at the Oceans Program of CBD and Lindsey Zehel at Defend Them All.
Like father, like son. Don Black believes wholeheartedly in the supremacy of the white race, and in a wide of array of threats to that supremacy. His son, R. Derek Black, went right in line, following dad's creation of the neo-Nazi website Stormfront with Stormfront for Kids. But over time, Derek came to think differently, and realized that people he really cared about did not think the way he did. Not even close. After considerable soul-searching, R. Derek Black converted from his old ways, in a big way. He tells the story of that journey in the bookThe Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism: A Memoir. The details are both fascinating and occasionally revolting. We visit with Derek Black for the shorter version of his change of heart.
Maybe it just makes intuitive sense: heat equals heat, so the planet getting hotter would naturally lead to more heat waves and wildfires. And sure enough, recent research out of Oregon State University shows that a sample of the population had no problem connecting extreme heat and destructive fires to climate change.
Tornadoes and hurricanes, on the other hand? Those scored lower in peoples' confidence that climate change is a factor. Rainfall/flooding made the list, too... we explore what questions were asked, and how people's experiences and affiliations track with the answers. Our guests are the two of the four study authors, Hilary Boudet and Philip Mote.
Helen Hong has built quite a career as a comic actor and standup comedian, but she may be most familiar to public radio listeners through her appearances on the panel on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me."
The weekly quiz show got her exposed to new audiences, and she'll face one in person in the Rogue Valley. Hong is booked for an event at Ashland's Belle Fiore Winery on Friday, July 5th.
We get a chance to ask her some advance questions about life and comedy and public radio.
The primary concerns about growing old used to be about mobility and sight and hearing. These remain, but keeping our minds intact as we age has zoomed up the list, as dementia affects more of the population. June isAlzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month, a chance to face the fears and learn more about how to cope with memory loss. Right at Home in Medford is in the business of helping older people stay in their own homes, by linking them with in-home caregivers and assistants. Brooke Fredericks is the owner of the Medford franchise, and gives us some guidance on the warning signs of dementia and how to respond to them.
We keep having the conversation about the future of journalism, because the reality of journalism in the current moment is rocky indeed. Nearly 2,900 newspapers have closed in the United States since 2005, and the rate is ticking up over time.
The Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism--FORJournalism or just FORJ for short--is a nonprofit set up to help rural newsrooms secure training and people and money to stay open. It was set up by EO Media Group, which recently announced cutbacks at all of its newspapers, including the Rogue Valley Times.
So FORJ clearly has its work cut out for it. We explore that work and what it takes to fulfill the mission, in a visit with FORJ Executive Director Jody Lawrence-Turner.
College is not for everyone, and a high school education geared to preparing for college is likewise not for all students. Federal and state laws in Oregon have expanded the number of career and technical education
(CTE) programs offered in high schools in recent years. Now schools in Southwest Oregon are taking another step, with the creation of Team Oregon Build. A grant shared by Lane Education Service District and Southern Oregon ESD will train CTE teachers to teach hands-on construction projects to their students.
We get details on the TOB projects and the overall vision, in a chat with Karla Clark at SOESD and Jesse Quinn at Lane Workforce Partnership.
It's a media spectacle and a competition unlike any other, two giants going at it in the arena. No, not Yankees vs Mets, but the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. It is far earlier in the year than usual, and some aspects of the debate format have changed.
We take up this and other media happenings with the resumption of our Signals & Noise podcast.
Two of our regulars return: Erik Palmer and Chris Lucas from Southern Oregon University's Communication faculty.
Here are their PICK THREE lists for this month:
Chris
- Ghostlight (a charming microbudget family drama at The Varsity this week) - only in town for a few more days.
- Tour de France Unchained (Netflix docuseries on the 2023 Tour) - TdF starts Sunday!
- Ren Faire (a Max docuseries about the dramatic and outlandish battle for control of the Texas Renaissance Festival, the largest Ren Faire in the US).
Erik
- Alex Cox Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexcoxfilms/my-last-movie
- Julian Assange - https://www.npr.org/2024/06/26/nx-s1-5020122/assange-wikileaks-arrives-australia-pleads-guilty-espionage
- Woman Life Freedom by Marjane Satrapi: https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Life-Freedom-Marjane-Satrapi/dp/1644214059/
Bette Davis is remembered for a long and illustrious acting career. But she also is remembered for a famous quote about aging: "Getting old ain't for sissies." Even people in good physical and mental health in their later years may notice a lack of friends and family around, and wonder where to turn for services and support.
Oregon's Office of Aging and People with Disabilities, in the Department of Human Services, works to keep older Oregonians informed of their service options, and to help them navigate many choices. We get a sketch of services, and eligibility for those services, in a visit with Rodney Schroeder and Deb McCuin from A&DS.
Jet boats traverse several stretches of the Rogue River, delighting their passengers but annoying some other rivers users. They are not "on board" with jet boat use, in either sense of the term.
The state of Oregon is taking input on uses of the Upper Rogue River for a while longer, to gauge public opinions about all river uses, jet boats included. We talked generally about the process in a recent segment, now we hear from the "Say No to Jetboats" camp.
Michael Parker and Don Blaser lay out the case for restricting the use of the tour boats on the Upper Rogue.
One of the region's many musical ensembles is planning a road trip. And not just to some other part of Oregon or California... Siskiyou Violins are packing for a trip to Vienna. The town where Mozart once thrilled audiences will host the young violinists in the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival.
The event is July 5-10, and the violinists have been tuning up with some pre-trip concerts, including one this week (Wednesday) in Ashland. We get details on the big journey from Artistic Director Faina Podolnaya, Board Member Kelly Pastrano, and Brooklynn Robbins, one of the violinists.
People had to work for a long time to be able to marry each other in America. That is, if they wanted to marry people of the same gender.
Now that same-sex marriage is the law of the land, queer couples abound. And some notable pairs are celebrated in the book Queer Power Couples: On Love and Possibility. These are people who are trailblazers in various fields, captured in words by Hannah Murphy Winter and in photographs by Billie Winter. We meet the Winters and talk about their book.
Maybe it's not something you think about when you're shopping for food, but there is a great concentration of money and power in the food industry in the United States. And that's true of the ENTIRE food chain, from the farm to the grocery stores.
How did we get here, and what are the implications for what we choose to put in our bodies? Austin Frerick, an expert in both agricultural and antitrust policy, shows the timeline in his bookBarons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry.
From the farm to your fork, there are many big players that get involved. The author visits the JX to lay out the story.
Black and White women voters are aligned on many societal concerns and key issues, yet a majority consistently vote polar opposite, along racial lines, in each election cycle.
Common Ground Conversations is exploring the reasons why in this series with host Mike Green.
In this episode, community leader and Ashland City Councilor Gina Duquenne offers her perspective from the viewpoint of a Black woman community activist.
Black and White women voters are aligned on many societal concerns and key issues, yet a majority consistently vote polar opposite, along racial lines, in each election cycle.
Common Ground Conversations is exploring the reasons why in this series with host Mike Green.
In this episode, community leader and Ashland City Councilor Gina Duquenne offers her perspective from the viewpoint of a Black woman community activist.
California allocated 2,800 acres of land to the Shasta Indian Nation. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors hired a former deputy district attorney as its new county clerk. And a wildfire map now categorizes some communities in Jackson County as "high hazard."
That's among the stories JPR News covered in the week spring slides into summer. There's plenty more going on, including a hike in fire danger as temperatures climb.
JPR News Director Erik Neumann assembles the reporting staff for a new lookback, in The Debrief.
Summer is here, and things should be growing in area gardens, growing like gangbusters. Except there are a few things that might get in the way: It might get very hot very fast, which was a feature of early June. And even when the plants are not very active, the bugs sure can be.
We take up these and other early-summer gardening issues in a new edition of Garden For Life. Grace Florjancic, who coordinates the Master Gardener program in Jackson County, returns for more answers to our questions about how to make things grow well, and what to do when they don't.
Maybe you don't like sauerkraut much, and figured that means you don't much like fermented foods. You could well be wrong about that, since bread and beer and wine and even coffee go through some fermentation.
Kirsten and Christopher Shockey from the Applegate Valley have long sung the praises of fermented foods, calling themselves "fermentistas." In the latest edition of Savor, our food segment, food stylist and host Will Smith visits with the Shockeys anew. The occasion: The tenth-anniversary printing of their book Fermented Vegetables, which has been translated into six languages.
The Shockeys share their thoughts on where they've been, and where fermentation is going.
June 4th could be called Black Monday in Oregon journalism. That's the day two chains owning multiple newspapers across the state announced changes, and not the kind companies are proud to announce. Pamplin Media Group in Portland announced the sale of its entire collection of newspapers to a Mississippi company, and company operators said they expected some "belt tightening."
The story goes beyond tightening to actual cutting atEO Media, which owns the Rogue Valley Times and other newspapers across Oregon. All of them will be reducing print frequency, and 28 layoffs are expected, with the company potentially up for sale.
Heidi Wright, Publisher and CEO at The Bulletin in Bend, EO's flagship, visits the JX with details of the plans and the reasons for them.
The Internet, and social media particularly, made it easy for anyone with a web connection to talk to the entire world. Kind of like what local terrestrial broadcasters do, but with a potentially much greater reach. Somehow, broadcasting has survived, both the professional and the amateur kind.
Amateur radio operators--it's okay to call it "ham radio"--are still numerous, with 20,000 or so hams in Oregon alone. They practice communicating with each other, in emergencies and not, and get to celebrate Amateur Radio Week in Oregon this week.
A big Field Day exercise over the weekend caps the celebration. We talk to Oregon hams Charlie Boening (K7AKT) and Cyndi Albro (KK7AZD) about their work.
Ashland-based Anima Mundi Productions has gained a reputation for staging new, original operas based on the stories of real people. The latest work from AMP goes a step further, coming out as an opera on film.
Dreams Have No Borders is a story of Latino immigrant families in the Rogue Valley, fictionalized but based on interviews with real people and the circumstances--like the Almeda fire--they have encountered. It is sung in English and Spanish and shot on stages in the Rogue Valley, and it premieres at Ashland's Varsity Theatre on Saturday (June 22nd).
We get details on the creation of "Dreams" from AMP co-producers Ethan Gans-Morse and Tiziana DellaRovere, with Virginia Camberos from Unite Oregon, the social justice group.
(Sharona Jacobs)Juneteenth finds the JX crew taking the holiday, and we devote today's program to reflections on life in Black skin.
Louis Chude Sokei is the guest, in an interview from 2021, talking about his amazing journey from child of celebrities in Biafra to the streets of Los Angeles--with Jamaica in between. He learned that "acting Black" means different things in different places, a story he tells in his book Floating In A Most Peculiar Way: A Memoir.
Hear the details in this encore interview.
Once upon a time, advertisements of Medford claimed "a mountain spring in every home." That's not quite the truth, but the water supply for Medford and surrounding towns does come from Big Butte Springs in the Cascade.
A fire in that area would be devastating, so plans are in the works to thin the forest and reduce the danger of catastrophic fire. The Snowy Butte Forest Restoration Projectjust got an infusion of cash from the Oregon Department of Forestry.
We hear how the money will be spent, and get a handle on the overall progress of the project, in a visit with Bill Kuhn from the US Forest Service and Arlo Todd from the Medford Water Commission.
A recent ranking of how well the states care for their children put Oregon in the "best" category for health (at number 12; California is 10). But the same ranking put Oregon in the "worst" category for education (number 43, California at 35).
Clearly there is some work to do in improving lives for children in both of our states. Our Children Oregon takes a number of approaches to pushing Oregon higher on any and all lists. OCO Executive Director Jenifer Wagley talks about the recent report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and what's being done to improve Oregon's standing.
Type "pride month" into Google and watch what happens. Last time we did it, there was confetti and flags and celebration: June is Pride Month around the country, a chance for LGBTQ+ people to celebrate who they are and who they love. It wasn't always possible, especially when homosexuality could get a person arrested.
Medford celebrates on Saturday, June 22nd, at Pear Blossom Park downtown. SO Health-E is the main organization behind Medford Pride 2024. We get details of the event and its links to health in a chat with Payton Henderson from SO Health-E and Savannah Randall from the Pride Planning Committee.
A couple of facts are indisputable:
1) Jackson County suffered greatly from the fires of early September 2020, and
2) Hard-hit communities are still rebuilding.
Where things get complicated is in the process of rebuilding, and the federal government put a lot of money into that. But the state of Oregon distributes the money, through OHCS, Oregon Housing and Community Services. And the agency and Jackson County leaders have crossed swords over rebuilding money and processes of late, with county commissioners requesting an audit of OHCS's processes.
Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer talks to us about the finer points of the disagreement.
Most of the time--especially in our part of the world--we're grateful for rain. Unless it just keeps on coming, soaking the ground and making rivers rise. Which happens more and more as Earth's climate changes. So plenty of people are questioning the wisdom of consistently rebuilding communities ravaged by flood, without moving away from the source of the water.
Tim Palmer, an outdoor writer living in Port Orford, is one of them. He looks back at the American approach to "taming" mighty rivers and other bodies of water, and sees where we might do things differently. Palmer's latest book is Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis. We get into the details in the author's visit to the JX.
It's a rare college student today who can afford to pay for college without the aid of student loans. And it should come as no surprise that interest rates on the loans have risen, as the Federal Reserve pushed up its rates, and most others followed.
So what WILL a student loan cost over time, at an interest rate of 6% rather than 5%? Brian Walsh has some answers in that realm. He works for SoFi, the online bank with a long history in student loans. We talk about current rates, and what options students have as they consider taking on debt for higher education.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday now, but why celebrate for a single day, when you can celebrate for several? That's the spirit in Coos and Curry Counties, as the South Coast Equity Coalitioncelebrates Juneteenth 2024--dubbed The Family Reunion--from June 18th through the 21st at multiple sites.
Some of the events take note of the infamous 1902 lynching of Alonzo Tucker in Coos Bay, including commemoration along with celebration. Jayden Ruff with South Coast Equity and Jennifer Knight with Coos Bay Library share details of an extended coastal Juneteenth.
Take this quick quiz: In what TV show did a character with a German accent frequently say "I know NOTHING!"? Bonus points if you can identify the character, Sergeant Schultz, but you win the prize if you guessed "Hogan's Heroes."
American prisoners of war in a German camp may seem like a tricky subject for a comedy show, but it lasted six seasons, starting in 1965. One man, Brian Young, even wrote a book, Hogan's Heroes: The Definitive Episode Guide. Young takes his book tour to the Rogue Valley this week for two events, accompanied by Marlyn Mason, a guest star in a few episodes.
Rice was white, and it came out of a box. That's the way it was for many American households... until the hippies of the 1960s came along. The counterculture also countered the prevailing food culture, embracing organic foods and vegetarianism and brown rice.
Applegate Valley residentDiana Coogle was a true hippie, living on several communes. Her writing and speaking includes a chapter on how hippies helped change American eating habits, a conversation she'll present June 13th at the Talent Historical Society. Diana Coogle returns to the JX studio to talk about food.
Our resident anthropologist, Chelsea Rose from the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology, co-hosts the chat.
The jet boats get a lot of attention, but they represent just one of many issues regarding the use of the Rogue River between the old Gold Ray Dam site and Lost Creek Dam (roughly 30 miles of river).
State agencies have been gauging public opinion on recreation and conservation activities on that section of the Rogue, a process managed by the groupOregon's Kitchen Table.
The final of several planned community conversations is set for June17th at the Medford Library. We bring in Ashley Massey from the Oregon State Marine Board and Dani Padilla from Oregon Parks and Recreation to talk about the public process, and what will be done with the input.
The Oregon State University Extension Service presence in Josephine County has been hanging by a thread. Services are still provided, but largely from money in the bank.
Josephine County Commissioners, unhappy with the 4-H program, did not collect the property tax that provides the regular income for extension in the county. A budget hearing Tuesday gave supporters and opponents of the program a chance to discuss its fate in the fiscal year starting July 1st.
We hear about the session and the aftermath in a conversation with Kris Elliott, Interim Director of OSU Extension, and Southern Region Director Jamie Davis.
(qimono / Pixabay)The problems in Oregon's foster care system for children are numerous and long-running. Too many children are taken from their homes and placed into a foster care system that has too few available foster homes.
The situation has led to children being taken out of state to be housed, children being put up in motels while awaiting placement, and ultimately, a class-action lawsuit filed against the state. The state and Disability Rights Oregon, which brought the suit, recently agreed to settle out of court.
So changes are coming, but what will they be, and what is the timetable? We have these and other questions for Emily Cooper, the Legal Director at DRO, who joins us for an extended interview. She is accompanied by Anastasia Benedetto, the attorney for ABC, A Better Childhood, and Steve Rizzo, an attorney with a lot of experience taking on the state in foster care suits.
What are you up to this summer? For Peter Bay, the answer to the question was something like "I have a little time open."
So Bay, who spent two decades conducting the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, is coming back for half of this summer's orchestra concerts. He'll also help in the search for a permanent music director, a position left open by the departure of Teddy Abrams.
Peter Bay visits with details of his brief Rogue Valley homecoming.
The rich history of the Willamette Valley, home to the tribes of Kalapuya, Chinook, Molalla, and more has been largely unrecorded or incomplete.
In his book, Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley, Oregon Indigenous historian David G. Lewis highlights Native perspectives about the region. The book is a challenge to the historical trend of ignoring or minimizing the impact of colonization in Oregon on its Indigenous residents, and a challenge towards the tendency to homogenize all Native American tribes.
As a Grand Ronde tribal member, Lewis is able to connect the past to the present and tell the story through the current day. Charlie Zimmermann interviews the author.
Unhealthy kelp forest. (Photo courtesy GEMM Lab, Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University.)There is supposed to be kelp growing on the ocean floor, close to the Oregon coast. But many a kelp forest has been decimated by purple sea urchins, munching away on the leafy greens, with no predators in sight.
It's not a good situation for creatures that depend upon the kelp forests, and it turns out those include gray whales. Less kelp means less whale food, Oregon State University researchers report.
Lisa Hildebrand is the lead author on the recently published paper laying out the findings. Hildebrand, a doctoral candidate, joins us with details.
If you want a picture of how the working poor are doing in our country, go ask ALICE. It's not a song, it's a term used by the United Way, and ALICE stands for stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed... meaning the people who work for a living but don't make enough money to live on.
United Way in the Pacific Northwest shows about a third of Oregon households in the ALICE category in a recent report.
Jim Cooper, President and CEO of UW of the PNW, talks to us about the measures of ALICE, and why so many working people don't get enough from work to pay for life.
A recent list of the best places to live in the USA put pointers on both Redding and Medford. Livability.com puts out the list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in US, taking a number of factors into a formula that shows optimal places to live.
For Redding, the combination of plenty to do, indoors and out, plus an average home price lower than much of California, led the list of attributes. We get a response to the listing from Rebecca Baer, the CEO at the Shasta Economic Development Corporation.
Herbivores in the Rogue Valley waited a long time for a "veg fest" to arrive. Now the case can be made that it's annual, since Southern Oregon Veg Fest marks a return to Tikkun Olam Farm Sanctuary, Sunday June 9th.
The farm is an appropriate place for the gathering, since it is a place of refuge for animals that will not be eaten. Vegans and vegetarians and anyone else is welcome to come celebrate eating and growing vegetables. Hadassah DeJack-Reynolds runs the sanctuary; she and Johanna Talley are the co-founders of Veg Fest and our guests.
Casinos owned and run by Native American tribes are common today, with more than 500 across the country. But there was not a single tribal casino until the Seminoles opened one on Florida in 1979.
Liquor distilleries are now a growth business for tribes, after the repeal of a federal law from the 1830s that forbade any distilleries on tribal land. California and Washington now have tribal distilleries, and the Coquille tribe is on the glide path to open Oregon's first, at The Mill Casino site in Coos Bay.
We get details on the plans from The Mill Vice President Michael Laffey.
Pretty much every nonprofit we talk to on the JX talks about the importance of cash grants to keeping the organization afloat. We get a sense of the grant landscape in examining this year's spring flock of grants from the Oregon Community Foundation.
OCF is scattering nearly $5.3 Million, with grants landing in every one of the state's counties. Not quite $400,000 will end up in Southern Oregon, including a grant to Healthy U in Cave Junction.
We hear more about the grant awards and their uses from Kurt Hildebrand, OCF Regional Director for Southern Oregon, and from Sarah Kitting, Executive Director of Healthy U.
Snowpack was good, reservoirs are up, and spring was fairly cool and moist. No matter, because fire season was bound to start sometime, and it started in Southern Oregon on June 1st, by the calendar of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Despite a host of destructive fires in recent years--2020 as the prime example--reminders are still in order. And the Oregon State Fire Marshal and Oregon Department of Emergency Management are already making those reminders. For one thing: the warnings about safe use of July 4th fireworks have already begun. We get further preparation advice from Kassie Keller at the OSFM and Patence Winningham at OEM.
Anybody who spends time growing plants on purpose knows the term "hardiness zone." It's a general gauge of the climate in an area, letting gardeners and farmers know which plants will grow well in their zones.
The federal Department of Agriculturemade changes to the hardiness zones late last year, with plenty of input from Oregon State University. Medford, for example, switched from zone 8a to 8b.
Lucretia Weems is a Master Gardener and a member of theNative Plant Society of Oregon. She unpacks the impact of the hardiness zone changes, and what they mean for plants and the people who grow them.
(Jenny Cepeda / Pixabay)There's a reason "hysteria" and "hysterectomy" sound so much alike: scientists used to think that agitated women would settle down if their troubled and troubling uteruses were removed. We've come a long way since then... ...haven't we?
Maybe not, as Dr. Elizabeth Comen reports in her book All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today. Comen is a practicing MD, and still sees examples of medical treatment differing in quality by gender, and sees differences in the way female practitioners like her are treated, both by patients and by fellow doctors.
We visit with the author about the road already traveled, and the distance yet to cover in putting full gender equity into medicine.
(Jorono / Pixabay)When Russia began its war on Ukraine, large numbers of Americans might have had trouble finding Ukraine on a map. Its history is both very old and very young, and very un-taught in American schools.
Groups of educators have gathered to develop curriculum for teaching American students about Ukraine. And Ashland High School teacher Paul Huard is involved in the process.
A program at Harvard University chose Huard to participate in the curriculum project. He's got first-hand knowledge of Ukraine, and he shares that and details of the project in a visit to the JX.
( Pixabay)If phrases like "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" make your eyes glaze over, you may have concluded Shakespeare plays are not for you. But the same play with more modern words might entice a few more people into the Shakespeare fold.
That is the essence of Play On Shakespeare, a long-term project to rework the works of Shakespeare in today's vocabulary. The latest work to emerge is a modern-verse translation of "Hamlet" by the theater company UNIVERSES, which presented several works at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Ashland New Plays Festival presents selected scenes from the new translation, onstage at Southern Oregon University this weekend (June 1-2). We get a preview in a visit from ANPF Artistic Director of Ashland New Plays Festival Jackie Apodaca and Steven Sapp, co-founder of UNIVERSES, and Lue Douthit from Play On Shakespeare.
If you get carsick, Oregon Highway 66--Greensprings Highway--is a logical place to get that queasy feeling, with its many hills and curves. Now imagine getting from west of the Cascades to Klamath Falls when there was no such road.
It was a fact until just a century ago, and now it's time to celebrate the highway that made Klamath Falls less isolated from Western Oregon.
Southern Oregon Historical Societyand the Klamath County Museums are teaming up for some commemorations of the centennial of the Greensprings Highway, including an on-the-road party on June 1.
Anna Sloan from SOHS and Todd Kepple at the Klamath Museums join us with details of the events.
Trails abound in our region, but it's not like you can get from every place to every other place via hiking trail... yet. Siskiyou Upland Trails Association has long worked on connecting trails in the high country west of Interstate Five.
The main goal is the completion of the Jack-Ash Trail, connecting Jacksonville and Ashland by a trail far removed from the main paved roads.
Joy Rogalla is the President of SUTA, and our guest, accompanied by Jameson Whitehead, a park ranger with the Bureau of Land Management. We explore the overall trail network vision, and what it takes to execute it.
June 1st is National Trails Day, with a 9 AM ceremony planned to celebrate the opening of five more miles of trail in the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system.
The looming end of the school year also signals the approach of a new fiscal year, and it is not a happy new year for many districts. Medford School District alone is looking at $15 Million in budget cuts over the next two years.
The district joined with other large districts around the state to make a video presentation to the state, urging legislators to improve funding for all Oregon schools. The districts making the plea are Medford, Bend-La Pine, Salem-Keizer, and Portland. We bring in half of the participants to explore the issues; our guests are Medford Superintendent Bret Champion and Bend-La Pine Superintendent Steve Cook.
Roughly 30 million American children get meals at school for free, or at least at a reduced price. So the end of the school year disconnects kids from the places and programs that keep them fed.
Summer food programs for young people abound, and the federal government just revamped its program under the banner of SUN Programs: Summer Nutrition Programs for Kids. The branding is extensive, including SUN Bucks, SUN Meals, and more. Stacy Dean, the Deputy Under Secretary of USDA Food Nutrition and Consumer Services, joins us with details of the offerings.
Mike Green Common Ground ConversationsDiscrimination is, in theory, illegal in America. But that doesn't stop people from thinking of themselves as parts of identity groups... and thinking of other people as not belonging to their group.
Mike Green fromCommon Ground Conversations in Medford has been exploring why white and Black women voters often take opposite votes on candidates and issues, despite sharing some very important values. Mike's latest conversation is with Gabi Johnsen, who is both active in the Christian community in Grants Pass and a leader in the local campaign of theOregon Remembrance Project, confronting the city's past as a "sundown town."
There are many red dots on the map of Oregon K-12 schools and their vaccination rates. The red dots show that fewer than 80% of children in a school have received all of their required vaccinations. Oregon Health Authority recently noted that non-medical exemptions from vaccines among kindergarteners in the state are at a record high.
So who gets to claim non-medical exemptions, and for how long? We get a refresher course on why people request exemptions from vaccinations, and the resulting effects onpublic health, in a chat with Stacy Matthews, immunization school law coordinator at OHA, and Dr. Paul Cieslak, Medical Director of Communicable Diseases & Immunizations.
Oregon is famous for its fish, and now people have a chance to gain some level of fame by fishing for trout in several corners of the state. The Oregon Native Trout Challenge is the creation of the nonprofit Basalt to Breakers, and it encourages anglers to try their luck fishing for three kinds of trout in eight separate ecoregions of the state.
It's catch-and-release, so all the anglers need to do is pay the $35 fee, go fishing, catch a fish, and provide some documentation of their catch before releasing it. Things gets a bit more complicated after that, and so we get further details from Basalt to Breakers Executive Director Max McCool and Chief Marketing Officer Nick Sino.
We have more than people living on the streets, we also have pets living with many of those people. It's hard enough to care for a pet in a real home, harder still without such a home. So Rogue Valley Street Dogs works with pet owners living homeless, to provide some care and food and spay/neuter for the pets who are their companions.
RVSD is a nonprofit that accomplishes its work with volunteers and a tight budget. We visit with Laurie Cuddy from the project to get a sense of what it takes to provide a boost to pets who have people, just no permanent homes to share with them.
Memorial Day is about honoring the people who have died while serving the country in the military. So we dug into the archives for a JX segment appropriate to the day. The result: a chat from 2021 about events of a century before.
Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith are the guests, the authors of the book War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War. The book is set in the fall of 1918, when World War I was still raging, and the Spanish flu was also killing people in large numbers.
Three major figures of the time in Boston are featured, and Babe Ruth is one of them. Enjoy this glimpse into an America that our great-grandparents would recognize.
Weight, heart rate, blood pressure... these are all measures for our health. But there are plenty more health measurements that do not directly affect the human body, like how much it costs to rent housing. It's expensive in much of Southern Oregon, and a continuing problem in recruiting new workers to the region.
AllCare Health, which provides Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) services in Jackson and Josephine Counties, puts money into housing in its service area. And it recently granted $177,500 to the Ashland School District, to help the district build and renovate housing for education workers.
Julie Akins, AllCare's Senior Director of Housing, returns to talk about the plans for the grant, and where other grants might go. She is joined by Krista Palmer of the Sunstone Housing Collaborative.
Have Steinway, will travel. Hunter Noack is highly proficient on the piano, and he wants to share his music with places that might not get a lot of musical performances. So he tows a Steinway grand piano across the West, performing his music in front of breathtaking scenic backdrops like Mount Shasta and Applegate Lake.
The series is called In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild. The Applegate concert--sold out, sorry--is coming up Sunday, and we take a few moments to visit with Hunter Noack, an Oregon native, about his journeys.
A couple that lost a child to a drug overdose is determined to prevent other families from sharing their fate. The nonprofit Song for Charlie is the result, and its campaignThe New Drug Talk now has an Oregon component.
As the name implies, the campaign is a guide for parents to talk to their children about the drugs on the streets now, with a heavy emphasis on fentanyl. We get further details on the campaign and its approaches from Jennifer Epstein, The New Drug Talk Oregon Program Lead, and Heather Jefferis, Executive Director at the Oregon Council for Behavioral Health.
The really close races won't be decided for another week, when final ballots arrive. But the general shape of the results of Oregon's primary election will be clear by Wednesday morning. The lack of suspense at the presidential level is the inverse of the excitement over some of the local results, particularly the ballot measures meant to change government structures in Jackson and Josephine Counties.
The JPR News team worked a late night, and we call them in for an early morning, discussing the election results in a special post-election edition of The Debrief.
If you are determined to expand your musical horizons, theRogue World Music Festival can help. A lot.
Sounds from all corners of the Earth will be featured over Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27), at venues in Ashland, Talent, and Medford. There's a huge variety in rhythm and melody and language among the featured artists.
Ana Byers, Executive Director of Rogue World Music, returns to the JX with details of the sprawling festival.
It took years just to get the program started. Now Oregon's legal hallucinogen therapy program is marking its first anniversary in actual practice.
The regulation is tight; psilocybin therapy must be guided, and the therapy centers have all kinds of requirements to meet.
We get a sense of the landscape in "magic mushroom" therapy after the first year, in a visit with two supporters. Heidi Pendergast is the Oregon Program Director for the Healing Advocacy Fund. Drew Snyder provides the therapy at Omnia Group Ashland.
Our guests share thoughts on the road traveled, and on what lies ahead.
Sprague River Bridge Connection is a small food pantry and clothing closet that serves Klamath County's Sprague River Valley. The building they operate out of is now for sale and the all-volunteer staff don't yet have an affordable alternative. To avoid shutting down and depriving up to 200 families of monthly access to food, the Sprague River Bridge Connection volunteers are trying to raise money to purchase the building and to draw attention to the importance of local food banks in depressed regions. SRBC President Trish Herndon and volunteer Vera Carson join the JX.
Everyone has an opinion, and in the Internet age, everyone has a platform. We say the worst things about each other, on a regular basis.
Have we given up on living together, in a society? John Pavlovitz sincerely hopes not... in fact, he offers some ideas on how to make hate and anger with love, to find the things we share as humans that can, perhaps, connect us.
Pavlovitz is a pastor and author, and his latest book is Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending. The author shares his thinking, and his hopes, in this interview with the JX.
Everyone has an opinion, and in the Internet age, everyone has a platform. We say the worst things about each other, on a regular basis.
Have we given up on living together, in a society? John Pavlovitz sincerely hopes not... in fact, he offers some ideas on how to make hate and anger with love, to find the things we share as humans that can, perhaps, connect us.
Pavlovitz is a pastor and author, and his latest book is Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending. The author shares his thinking, and his hopes, in this interview with the JX.
(Oimheidi / Pixabay)Those stiff winds on the Pacific Ocean could potentially generate a lot of electricity, but we're several steps away from the installation of wind turbines out there.
Meanwhile, the scientists at the conservation group Point Blue have been examining the areas designated for potential windfarm development off the California coast. They are trying to find a sweet spot where power generation looks good, while not degrading the environment or human activities.
We get an overview of what Point Blue found, in a conversation with California Current Group Director Jaime Jahncke and Senior Marine Ecologist Cotton Rockwood.
A rendering of the Coquille Indian Tribe's new casino(Courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs)It's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille Indian Tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land that the tribe owns in South Medford. The denial did not stick, and in spite of some opposition from other regional tribes, the process has resumed.
Earlier this month we spoke with representatives of the City of Medford, which was once opposed to the casino, but now are neutral.
Next up, Judy Farm, CEO of Tribal One, the Coquille tribe’s economic development arm, and Jen Procter Andrews, the vice-chair of the Coquille Tribe join the JX to talk about the project going forward.
A rendering of the Coquille Indian Tribe's new casino(Courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs)It's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille Indian Tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land that the tribe owns in South Medford. The denial did not stick, and in spite of some opposition from other regional tribes, the process has resumed.
Earlier this month we spoke with representatives of the City of Medford, which was once opposed to the casino, but now are neutral.
Next up, Judy Farm, CEO of Tribal One, the Coquille tribe’s economic development arm, and Jen Procter Andrews, the vice-chair of the Coquille Tribe join the JX to talk about the project going forward.
A rendering of the Coquille Indian Tribe's new casino(Courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs)It's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille Indian Tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land that the tribe owns in South Medford. The denial did not stick, and in spite of some opposition from other regional tribes, the process has resumed.
Earlier this month we spoke with representatives of the City of Medford, which was once opposed to the casino, but now are neutral.
Next up, Judy Farm, CEO of Tribal One, the Coquille tribe’s economic development arm, and Jen Procter Andrews, the vice-chair of the Coquille Tribe join the JX to talk about the project going forward.
A rendering of the Coquille Indian Tribe's new casino(Courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs)It's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille Indian Tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land that the tribe owns in South Medford. The denial did not stick, and in spite of some opposition from other regional tribes, the process has resumed.
Earlier this month we spoke with representatives of the City of Medford, which was once opposed to the casino, but now are neutral.
Next up, Judy Farm, CEO of Tribal One, the Coquille tribe’s economic development arm, and Jen Procter Andrews, the vice-chair of the Coquille Tribe join the JX to talk about the project going forward.
Oregon has had a Bias Response Hotline since 2020. But even though reports have increased over time, more than doubling between 2020 and 2023, many Oregonians still don't know it exists. A new campaign by the Oregon Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit aims to change that. The linguistically and culturally inclusive "You Belong" campaign aims to spread awareness about the hotline, which is a critical resource in the fight against bias. Oregon DOJ Director of Civil Rights and Social Justice Fay Stetz-Waters joins the Exchange.
Oregon has had a Bias Response Hotline since 2020. But even though reports have increased over time, more than doubling between 2020 and 2023, many Oregonians still don't know it exists. A new campaign by the Oregon Department of Justice's Civil Rights Unit aims to change that. The linguistically and culturally inclusive "You Belong" campaign aims to spread awareness about the hotline, which is a critical resource in the fight against bias. Oregon DOJ Director of Civil Rights and Social Justice Fay Stetz-Waters joins the Exchange.
The book, "A Forest of Your Own: The Pacific Northwest Handbook of Ecological Forestry," by Seth Zuckerman and Kirk Hanson is a comprehensive guide to all things forest stewardry in the Pacific Northwest, covering topics from enhancing wildlife habitat, to protecting watersheds, to building resilience against forest fires and climate change, and everything in between. Co-author Seth Zuckerman joins the JX to discuss the book and an accompanying event on the topic of ecological forestry June 3, at 7 pm at the Northwest Nature Shop in Ashland.
The book, "A Forest of Your Own: The Pacific Northwest Handbook of Ecological Forestry," by Seth Zuckerman and Kirk Hanson is a comprehensive guide to all things forest stewardry in the Pacific Northwest, covering topics from enhancing wildlife habitat, to protecting watersheds, to building resilience against forest fires and climate change, and everything in between. Co-author Seth Zuckerman joins the JX to discuss the book and an accompanying event on the topic of ecological forestry June 3, at 7 pm at the Northwest Nature Shop in Ashland.
( Rogue River Watershed Council via Facebook)We've got steams and other natural areas within our region that are the envy of the world. But they can be better still.
One example is Bear Creek, that major Rogue River tributary that flows from Ashland to Central Point, through the heart of the Rogue Valley. Bear Creek already had water quality issues, then the 2020 Almeda Drive fire burned a lot of the trees that shaded the creek.
Rogue River Watershed Council is embarking on a major restoration project in the area of Lynn Newbry Park in Talent. Project Manager John Speece andCommunity Engagement Project Manager Beth Boos visit the JX with details of the project and objectives.
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2019, file photo, a bud tender shows a top cannabis strain at a dispensary in Portland, Ore. Two major cannabis trade and lobbying groups in Oregon are merging.
(Richard Vogel / AP )Recently, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration recommended reclassifying cannabis into a less dangerous category. Add to this new classification, a bulky and confusing list of rules and regulations such as those in Trinity County, and the reclassification impacts could be surprising. The Trinity County Agriculture Alliance is the official trade association of Trinity County’s licensed cannabis industry and works to support cannabis farmers and businesses. TCAA Executive Director Karla Avila and Policy Director Adrien Keys join the JX to talk about the reclassification and what it means for the cannabis industry.
This May marks the 10th anniversary of successfully passing Oregon’s Measure 15-119, creating Jackson County’s GMO-free Seed Sanctuary. Jackson County is one of the only places in this country to have created and successfully defended a county-wide ban on GMO crops. Our Family Farms is hosting its first annual Save Our Seeds Day to celebrate local, GMO-Free seeds. Elise Higley, President of Our Family Farms, joins the Jefferson Exchange.
( National Park Service)Waterways under beaver management create vibrant and healthy habitats for wildlife. Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is partnering with Project Beaver to lead a citizen-scientist project to look for beavers throughout the Monument. They want to find out where the beavers are now and what they are doing. The data gathered during the event will help inform how to increase beaver populations. Project Beaver's Executive Director, Jakob Shockey, and Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, Executive Director, Collete Streight join the JX to discuss the critical roles beavers play in ecosystems and put out a call for all beaver believers to help with the research.
(darksouls1 / Pixabay )It's just one of those stories: a guy leaves home to avoid his potential death, gets in a shipwreck, enters a jousting tournament in his new land, and wins the tournament and the hand of the king's daughter.
Wait, there's more... a lot more. A new production of Pericles at Southern Oregon University's Oregon Center for the Arts is also set to music.
David McCandless from the SOU faculty directs; we hear from him and from one of the student actors in the show, which runs May 16th through 26th.
One of the two coastal redwood trees in Lithia Park, April 19, 2023. This type of redwood is native to the Northern California coast and a small part of southwest Oregon(Roman Battaglia / Jefferson Public Radio)Do you have a favorite tree? Or could you even name a dozen that are the most important to the world?
That's the task environmental historian Daniel Lewis took up, in search of stories about trees of critical importance to the world (hint: they are not all alive today). His list and the supporting argument for including each tree appears in Lewis's book Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future.
Redwoods and California's ancient bristlecone pine made the list. The author visits to talk about the stories of the trees, and the larger stories they tell about the environment and our use of it.
The so-called "O&C lands" of Western Oregon have long been a focus of contention. They are lands once given by the federal government to the Oregon & California Railroad (O&C), taken back by the feds, then managed under law by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The bone of contention comes from the sharing of timber receipts from those lands with the 18 O&C counties, which puts pressure on those lands to produce timber.
The nonprofit Forest Bridges proposes bringing the multiple sides of the debate together, to agree on timber cutting methods, and--more importantly--which land to include in the timber base. Forest Bridges Executive Director Denise Barrett gives us an interview with an overview.
County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen asks the board of supervisors to choose a vendor for their voting system at their meeting on March 28, 2023( Shasta County) Shasta County has been arguably the most politically contentious community in our region in recent years, and County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen has been the voice of stability keeping elections going.
Citing health issues, she's stepping down from the role after nearly two decades. Allen speaks with JPR News Director Erik Neumann about Shasta County, her time on the job, and what's next.
A performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's showcase stage at the Allen Elizabethan Theatre(Kim Budd / Oregon Shakespeare Festival)The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has relaunched its school outreach program, which takes actors and teaching artists to schools across the West Coast to perform and teach young people about theatre and Shakespeare. OSF founder Angus Bowmer started this program over 40 years ago with one simple goal: to bring Shakespeare into as many schools as possible. The program was paused during the pandemic. Associate Director of Education, Kirsten Giroux and actor Tyrone Wilson join the JX to talk more in depth about the program and its importance in shaping how young people perceive Shakespeare and theater.
Ashland has long been the site of many film projects and was once named the “best place to live and work as a moviemaker, by MovieMaker Magazine. It's the home of the Ashland Independent Film Festival, Southern Oregon University's Digital Cinema program, and the location of films such as Wild and Coraline. Above the Trees, a new film set in Ashland, not only features some recognizable Ashland locales, but some recognizable Ashland faces and voices. The film's director, Gary Lundgren, and its star, JPR's Danielle Kelly join the Exchange to talk about the movie's upcoming premier and its many ties to the community.
( Pixabay)The air may fairly crackle with excitement when the latest edition of the Creativity Conference convenes at Southern Oregon University next week (May 16-19).
Creativity is examined from many angles, from the physiological sources to the applications in arts and science and more.
One example: the keynote speaker, Indre Viskontas, is both a neuroscientist and a musician/opera director.
We get a preview of the events of the conference from Co-Executive Director Daniel DeNeui.
Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical AreaEight Dollar Mountain in the Illinois Valley has features that make it unlike just about anywhere else. On the one hand, it contains potentially valuable minerals. On the other hand, it is home to some rare plants that grow only there. So the plant defenders, including members of the Siskiyou Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon, are concerned about the recently announced mining claims covering much of Eight Dollar Mountain's west side.
Kristi Mergenthaler is the stewardship director with Southern Oregon Land Conservancy (SOLC) and leads the stewardship team in monitoring conservation easements and caring for preserves. Dave Garcia is a member of NPSO who recently wrote a letter to the editor of The Daily Courier in Grants Pass about the impacts of nickel mining.
They share their concerns about the the Canadian Company's mining plans, described in a separate interview.
The Oregon Coast is known for its abundant seafood, but most of the fish that's caught is is shipped out of state. Oregon Ocean Cluster Initiative (OCI) is looking to keep more seafood local and help local entrepreneurs build seafood processing operations. To do this work the Oregon Coast needs to ensure there is a strong and skilled workforce for the future of this industry.
The OCI High School Seafood Butchery Pilot Program is a major step towards this goal. With funding help from the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County, the program is now being deployed at six coastal high schools.
Maggie Michaels, the program director, and Lynee Jacks, Industry Communications Coordinator for the Oregon Coast Visitors Association join to talk about the program.
There is a history of nickel mining in the region, and there may be a future as well. Several would-be miners and mining companies have expressed interest in different parts of the region, generally west of the I-5 corridor.
Now a Canadian company, Spruce Ridge Resources, has staked 115 mining claims on Eight Dollar Mountain near Selma. Nickel laterite is present on the mountain, and the claims cover much of its west side.
Steven Balch is the President and CEO of Spruce Ridge; he visits with details of his company's plans, and where they go from here.
We hear concerns about the plans in the next segment of the JX.
The Oregon Coast is known for its abundant seafood, but most of the fish that's caught is is shipped out of state. Oregon Ocean Cluster Initiative (OCI) is looking to keep more seafood local and help local entrepreneurs build seafood processing operations. To do this work the Oregon Coast needs to ensure there is a strong and skilled workforce for the future of this industry.
The OCI High School Seafood Butchery Pilot Program is a major step towards this goal. With funding help from the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County, the program is now being deployed at six coastal high schools.
Maggie Michaels, the program director, and Lynee Jacks, Industry Communications Coordinator for the Oregon Coast Visitors Association join to talk about the program.
Coquille Tribe Medford Casino site planIt's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land the tribe owns in South Medford. But the denial did not stick, and the process has resumed.
Why? What would have been a lengthy process involvingenvironmental impact statements and other paperwork was cut short by the earlier denial. And then the Interior Department--under a different president--opted to at least complete the process.
The Coquille proposal for a Medford casino has plenty of opponents, including other tribes with casinos in the I-5 corridor. The Medford City Council, once on the record opposing the casino proposal, is now officially neutral. Councilors Nick Card and Jessica Ayres talk about the view from city hall.
Coquille Tribe Medford Casino site planIt's been nearly four years since the federal government said no to the Coquille tribe, denying its request to put a casino on land the tribe owns in South Medford. But the denial did not stick, and the process has resumed.
Why? What would have been a lengthy process involvingenvironmental impact statements and other paperwork was cut short by the earlier denial. And then the Interior Department--under a different president--opted to at least complete the process.
The Coquille proposal for a Medford casino has plenty of opponents, including other tribes with casinos in the I-5 corridor. The Medford City Council, once on the record opposing the casino proposal, is now officially neutral. Councilors Nick Card and Jessica Ayres talk about the view from city hall.
It's that time of year again. Just as there's a promise of April showers and May flowers, there's also the promise of a fire season this year. Some parts of the region are already putting industrial fire precautions into place in the forests.
May is Wildfire Awareness Month, and the Oregon Department of Forestry is putting out its annual warnings to get people and their property ready for the dry, hot days ahead. Public Information Officer Rachael Pope joins the JX to talk about wildfire prevention, safety, and creating a defensible space around your home.
It's that time of year again. Just as there's a promise of April showers and May flowers, there's also the promise of a fire season this year. Some parts of the region are already putting industrial fire precautions into place in the forests.
May is Wildfire Awareness Month, and the Oregon Department of Forestry is putting out its annual warnings to get people and their property ready for the dry, hot days ahead. Public Information Officer Rachael Pope joins the JX to talk about wildfire prevention, safety, and creating a defensible space around your home.
People were generally not using the term "Asian American" when Corky Lee started taking pictures of that community, in New York City's Chinatown. Over the next five decades, he documented Asian Americans celebrating life and countering racism all over the country.
Lee died in 2021, and now some of his best work is highlighted in the book Corky Lee's Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice. Columbia University history professor Mae Ngai, one of the book's editors, visits the JX to give radio descriptions of the work, and to talk about Corky Lee's impact.
People were generally not using the term "Asian American" when Corky Lee started taking pictures of that community, in New York City's Chinatown. Over the next five decades, he documented Asian Americans celebrating life and countering racism all over the country.
Lee died in 2021, and now some of his best work is highlighted in the book Corky Lee's Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice. Columbia University history professor Mae Ngai, one of the book's editors, visits the JX to give radio descriptions of the work, and to talk about Corky Lee's impact.
There are many choices in life that tend to be presented as binary: Regular or decaf? Democrat or Republican? Chocolate or vanilla? To that last one, we add: How about swirl?
That's the basic shape of what Samuel T. Wilkinson took up in his own life. He is both a scientist--a psychiatrist--and a believer. There's room for God AND evolution in his mind, and he suggests there could be for many people. He lays out the thinking in his book, Purpose: What Evolution and Human Nature Imply about the Meaning of Our Existence.
Join us for an exploration of thinking about where we all come from... and where we're going.
It's not every week we start with an interview about ancient Egypt, but this is a rare treat: a book from maybe 4000 years ago, translated by a high school junior.
Michael Hoffen is the high school student, and he learned several years ago how to translate hieroglyphics. With the help of a pair of Egyptologists, he took a text written from an adult's viewpoint to a young man, and turned it around for today's young readers.
The result is Be a Scribe!: Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt. Think of it as a guide to the work of the exciting field of scribe(ing). We chat with Michael Hoffen about how he became a latter-day scribe.
Three county commissioners, all elected from political parties, all earning six-figure salaries. Jackson County's legislative branch could see changes in all three attributes as a result of the May 21 election.
The group Jackson County For All proposes three separate ballot measures, one expanding the board to five members, one making commissioner races non-partisan, and one lowering the commissioner salaries to five figures ($75,000 annually). The set of ballot measures is one of the more highly visible items on the ballot in Jackson County in this election cycle, and we explore the pros and cons in a pair of interviews.
The first features David Gilmour, a Democrat and former commissioner, who speaks in favor of the proposed changes, along with former commissioner Peter Sage.
(Geoffrey Riley / JPR News )A non-partisan group called Citizens for Responsible Government in Josephine County aims to change the number of county commissioners with a new ballot measure.
Measure 17-116 would shift the three full-time commissioner positions to five part-time positions, putting forward a new county charter divided into four districts. Four commissioners would represent each of the county’s four districts, with one commissioner at large.
Larry West, President of CRG, and outreach coordinator Jane Slama discuss the measure.
Canoe, kayak, or paddleboard, there are lots of places you can go and things you can enjoy with a paddle in your hand. If you need more ideas, you can watch the films presented at the 19th annual Paddling Film Festival. It'll be held Saturday, May 4th, at Chetco Brewing Company in Brookings.
The Oregon Coast Visitors Association is the presenter of the event. What kinds of films are there about paddling? That's one of our first questions for Dave Lacey, the coordinator for the event.
Fill in the blank: __ days since an injury at my workplace. Maybe not at your job, but people do get injured at work. Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Oregon OSHA) works to keep people as safe as possible, and part of the OR-OSHA efforts include the annual "Safety Break."
The annual event, held on May 8th this year, gives workplaces and workers a chance to pause for a bit and consider potential safety issues on the job. Aaron Corvin, a public information officer at Oregon OSHA, talks to the JX about the two decades of the Safety Break program, and how workers and bosses can make use of the day.
Check out the website for the Ashland Schools Foundation, and the first picture you see is of students playing music.
Music is an important part of a well-rounded education, and the foundation takes advantage of offers to beef up musical instruction. Like the recent offer from the nonprofit Free Guitars for Kids to provide dozens of guitars and basses to the foundation in Ashland.
And as the name implies, the instruments come for free. We get into the details of the partnership and how the guitars will be used, in a chat with Erica Thompson, ASF Executive Director, and Ivan Olinghouse, the Band and Choir Director at Ashland High School.
The Klamath River of 2024 is remarkably different from the Klamath River of last year, because of the massive dam removal project now well underway. When the project is finished, there will be no dams on the Klamath anywhere in California.
The story is a bit different on one of the major tributaries of the Klamath, the Trinity River. The Trinity just showed up on American Rivers list of Most Endangered Rivers for 2024, because of water diversions (into the Sacramento River system) and remaining dams that raise water temperatures.
Regina Chichizola, Executive Director of Save California Salmon, and Danielle Frank, a Hoopa Valley Tribal youth, provide a conservation view of the issues facing the Trinity.
The Klamath River of 2024 is remarkably different from the Klamath River of last year, because of the massive dam removal project now well underway. When the project is finished, there will be no dams on the Klamath anywhere in California.
The story is a bit different on one of the major tributaries of the Klamath, the Trinity River. The Trinity just showed up on American Rivers list of Most Endangered Rivers for 2024, because of water diversions (into the Sacramento River system) and remaining dams that raise water temperatures.
Regina Chichizola, Executive Director of Save California Salmon, and Danielle Frank, a Hoopa Valley Tribal youth, provide a conservation view of the issues facing the Trinity.
Avengers assemble! And while we're at it, let's assemble the Justice League and the Teen Titans and the Fantastic Four.
If you know anything about comic books, you get the references. Characters from these groups and others will be in evidence when the old Medford Comic Con emerges from the Phantom Zone and returns to life asRogue Comic Con. Watch out for super frenemies May 4th at Pear Blossom Park in downtown Medford.
Sandy Winters, a board member at Friends of the Medford Library and Rogue Comic Con Co-Director, and Lanessa Pierce, Executive Director of Rogue Comic Con
visit to talk about what the day holds in store for heroes, antiheroes and just plain folks.
Avengers assemble! And while we're at it, let's assemble the Justice League and the Teen Titans and the Fantastic Four.
If you know anything about comic books, you get the references. Characters from these groups and others will be in evidence when the old Medford Comic Con emerges from the Phantom Zone and returns to life asRogue Comic Con. Watch out for super frenemies May 4th at Pear Blossom Park in downtown Medford.
Sandy Winters, a board member at Friends of the Medford Library and Rogue Comic Con Co-Director, and Lanessa Pierce, Executive Director of Rogue Comic Con
visit to talk about what the day holds in store for heroes, antiheroes and just plain folks.
Living on Oregon's South Coast absolutely has its charms, and the lack of population density is one of them. The flip side to the sparse population is limited options in health care and transportation. And then there's the additional matter of inequitable distribution of those options.
South Coast Equity Coalitionjust received a grant fromSeeding Justice to work toward reproductive justice in Coos and Curry Counties, examining and hopefully dismantling barriers to access to health care for pregnant people.
Jayden Ruff, Director of the South Coast Equity Coalition, talks to us about the work.
Living on Oregon's South Coast absolutely has its charms, and the lack of population density is one of them. The flip side to the sparse population is limited options in health care and transportation. And then there's the additional matter of inequitable distribution of those options.
South Coast Equity Coalitionjust received a grant fromSeeding Justice to work toward reproductive justice in Coos and Curry Counties, examining and hopefully dismantling barriers to access to health care for pregnant people.
Jayden Ruff, Director of the South Coast Equity Coalition, talks to us about the work.
If this year's elections set your teeth on edge, maybe you need a diversion, like back to an earlier election. But hmm... that one may also have set your teeth on edge.
We travel back to the elections of 30 years ago, and our guide is Jack Miller, who teaches politics and political philosophy at Portland State University. He uses the real themes and players of the 1994 election, the Newt Gingrich/Contract with America Republican romp, and adds some characters and circumstances. The result is 1994, a novel of politics.
The book offers some insights into the minds of political operatives, and Jack Miller shares those in his chat with the JX.
SOU President Rick Bailey wants to switch up the university's revenue structure for long-term stability.(Courtesy of SOU / OPB)If you grow up poor or in a minority/underserved community, your chances of attending college are slimmer than for the general population. Which is why many campuses have federal TRiO Student Support Services programs, geared to help people enroll in college and work up to graduation.
The program helped Ricki Ruiz get through college, and Rep. Ruiz is now a member of the Oregon House.
Rogue Community College President Randy Weber, was also a first-gen student.
Ruiz and Weber are in Ashland for an Oregon TRiO conference, and join SOU President Rick Bailey to talk with the JX about being TRiO and their own first-gen experiences.
Lisa Wolpe in performance.(Jenny Graham / Oregon Shakespeare Festival)You know how, back in Williams Shakespeare's time, ALL of the parts were played by men, no matter the genders of the characters?
Lisa Wolpe has been working for a while now to turn that on its head. It is entirely possible that Wolpe has played more of Shakespeare's male characters than any other woman in history.
And she strings together several of Shakespeare's male monologues into a one-person show, "Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender," running through next week at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Wolpe is Vanessa Finney's guest in a new edition of our arts segment, The Creative Way.
Five days. That's all the time Oregon voters have to get their voter registrations in order, if they wish to vote in the May 21 primary election. If nothing has changed for the voter since last election, no action is required. But people who want to vote in the closed primaries for the two major political parties have to get their ducks in a row and pick a party by April 30th, three weeks before "Election Day." Jackson
County Clerk Chris Walker is always up for answering questions about election process; she returns to the JX to talk about things voters should know as the May primary approaches.
You can make changes here, at My Vote. When you land, click "Go to My Vote Now."
The Huwighurruk Post Baccalaureate ProgramCal Poly Humboldt's home in Arcata is near many Native American people from several different tribes. The University of California-Davis has a medical school. So the two schools are combining obvious strengths and starting a program to get indigenous students pointed toward, and through, medical school.
The Huwighurruk (a Wiyot word for medicine, pronounced hee-way-gou-duck) Tribal Health Postbaccalaureate Program at CPH is designed to bring in pre-med students, give them culturally appropriate training and science courses, and support them with living and tuition costs. If it all works as planned, the students will emerge from UC-Davis with MDs in hand, ready to work in rural and tribal communities.
We get further details in an interview on the JX.
One of the hot phrases of the moment is "Christian Nationalism," generally attached to the belief that the United States was founded as a Christian country, and meant to stay that way. People who are non- or barely-Christian have cause to disagree, and the disagreements are frequent and frequently heated.
Producer Rob Reiner and director Dan Partland take up the controversy in their documentary film God and Country. An Ashland church,First Presbyterian, hosts a screening of the movie on Friday, April 26th.
Pastor Skip Strauch, currently leading the flock at the church, talks about the film and why Christians (and not) need to see it.
The stories keep coming about students missing school, and a lot of it. Stay-at-home school during the COVID pandemic appears to be a factor in students and their parents not feeling a need to be in class on a regular basis. Chronic absenteeism--missing 10% of class time in an academic year--has zoomed across the country.
In Oregon, it was nearly double in 2023 what it was pre-pandemic. The Medford School District is actually doing a little better than the statewide average, but absenteeism is still a concern.
We talk to Natalie Hurd and Marisa Poling at MSD about trends and responses to chronic absenteeism.
Park Music Beauty Daniel SperryOne man and his cello have now provided thousands of hours of musical enjoyment in Ashland's Lithia Park. Daniel Sperry plays his cello in the park for several hours at a time, usually five days a week. And now he's looking to launch a new generation of people providing music in public spaces, through the nonprofit Park Music Beauty.
Several younger musicians are in training to follow Sperry's footsteps (bowing?) in this musical calling.
Daniel Sperry visits the studio to talk about PMB, its people, its goals, and its funding.
The people who walked out of the Oregon Legislature most recently say they did it because their voices were not being heard and acknowledged. It's a common complaint from the rural parts of Oregon, especially east of the Cascades, in the state's vast high and dry country. That area may get drier still with the advance of climate change, and work is underway to address it.
Filmmaker James Parker looked east of the mountains for his documentary Other Side of the Hill, airing this week (April 25th) on Southern Oregon PBS. James Parker and co-producer Juliet Grable check in to talk about what they found out there, in the way of people taking on big issues, often in concert with people and groups that know little of rural Oregon.
What started as a project turned into an entire organization. Rogue Climate sprang from an effort to highlight how local action can have an impact on climate change, and it has stayed on the job for more than a decade now.
But founder Hannah Sohl is leaving her role as Executive Director of the group, two weeks after Earth Day. With her at the helm, Rogue Climate has figured in some major events, like the blocking of the Jordan Cove LNG project and the passage of climate-conscious state legislation.
Hannah Sohl visits the studio to recount the highs and lows, and talk about what comes next.
Little Hyatt Dam John SchuylerJust because a chunk of land is protected does not mean it is untouched, pristine wilderness. A great case in point is the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, straddling the state line southeast of Ashland.
There's been plenty of development inside what is now the monument boundary, including the building of dams and other water diversions. John Schuyler, a retired forester, will give a talk on "Plumbing the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument" as part of Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou's Hike and Learn series.
He adds details in a visit to the JX, accompanied by Collette Streight, Executive Director of the Friends group.
The comments have flowed pretty much nonstop since President Clinton first proposed creating the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Clinton created the monument under the Antiquities Act in 2000, and President Obama expanded the monument under the same law in 2017.
Creation and expansion have both survived legal challenges, and now the Bureau of Land Management has put theResource Management Plan for the monument out for public comment. The plan covers many aspects of the management of the area, and the comment period will stay open until July 5th.
BLM District Manager Elizabeth Burghard and Public Affairs Specialist Kyle Sullivan talk about the RMP contents, and how they differ from previous management approaches.
They're plenty cute when they're off in the distance, just being fuzzy bears. They're less cute when they come into your neighborhood and start turning over trash cans. And the cute is gone when you come face-to-face with a black bear.
With spring warming up and people getting outside more, some bear-human interactions are all but inevitable. So the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlifeis refreshing its warnings about staying away from bears, and how to act if you've ended up close to one anyway. An ODFW rep joins us for tips on keeping bears cute.
One week to the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, the president signed the Fair Housing Act into law. The date is commemorated annually by the naming of April as National Fair Housing Month.
The federal government itself contributed to discrimination and segregation in housing, and it's been a hard legacy to undo. Just how hard is detailed in Richard Rothstein's 2017 bookThe Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. There's good reason for wanting to forget the history, but we explore it in an extended live conversation with Richard Rothstein.
It's a dirty, sweaty job, but somebody's got to do it. And you might be surprised by how fulfilling those dirty, sweaty people find the work to be.
Siskiyou Mountain Club takes its Wilderness Corps crew into its namesake mountains to perform maintenance on trails in very remote areas, and now a documentary film shows just what the work is like. "A Long Way to Nowhere" spends half an hour showing days of hiking and toiling in the wilderness.
The movie is making the rounds of regional theaters, with events this week in Gold Beach (April 17th) and Coos Bay (April 18th) yet to come. We hear more about the project from SMC Executive Director Gabe Howe and SMC staffer and filmmaker Vincent DiFrancesco.
You can attend a concert or visit an art gallery anytime. But the edgier stuff? That's a rarer treat, and the Oregon Fringe Festival returns to deliver the treats in the Ashland area, April 24th through 28th.
OFF celebrates freedom and experimentation in the arts, even in the places where art is delivered. We get a quick rundown of this year's events in a visit with Fringe Festival Executive Director Russell Copley and Marketing Director Gianna McCardell.
When you think about it, every day on our planet is technically Earth Day, but we make the official designation on April 22nd. Billions of people across the country will celebrate our birth planet and the need to take better care of it.
Earth Day Oregon brings together dozens of nonprofit groups and legions of volunteers, combining them with businesses focused on sustainability. Together, they work to improve Earth and to raise money for future efforts.
Umpqua Watersheds and the post-incarceration group Freedom Farms in Gold Hill are among the many groups tied to Earth Day Oregon. Janice Reid from Umpqua Watersheds and Sean Kelly from Freedom Farms tell their organizations' stories.
The City of Grants Pass wanted its day in court, and it will soon get it. On April 22nd, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Grants Pass vs Johnson, one of several federal lawsuits over whether cities must allow homeless people to camp on public property if no shelter space is available.
There's a lot at stake, both for the homeless people and for the cities. JPR's Jane Vaughan has been covering the steps that led up to this moment. She visits the studio to unpack the details of the case, the parties to the suit, and what observers will be looking for when SCOTUS takes up the case.
Us and them. Red and blue. Yankees and Red Sox. Americans are good at figuring out the differences between them, and they've been accentuating those in recent years.
Rogue Valley resident Marla Estes has long worked to find the places where people and groups of people overlap, and continues the work through the organization Building Bridgers. It will host a showing of the documentary film "Undivide Us" at the Medford Library (April 17th), with an audience discussion.
We welcome Kendall and Marla Estes to the JX for a chat about the topic of polarization, and how it can be un-polarized.
"Let me tell you about the birds and the bees," begins a song from the 1960s. We can go one step further: Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University presents "Birds, Bees, Electric Fish," a new work for a flute and percussion quartet.
Two of the members of the quartet are well-known to JX audiences: Terry Longshore and Tessa Brinckman, who perform as Caballito Negro. They return to the Exchange to talk about this week's concert (April 17t), and the commissioning of the work by Princeton composer Juri Seo.
Vicki Sokolik had her own teens living at home when she first realized that other teens were living without permanent homes. She took the education in stride, and began helping young people living homeless.
Sokolik also discovered some of the problems and challenges unique to young people living on the streets, and worked to address them, eventually setting up an organization to help homeless teens. She shares the details in her book If You See Them: Young, Unhoused, and Alone in America. We spend some time with Vicki Sokolik, hearing some of the stories of people helped... and the many who still need help.
James Collier's philanthropy and personality are remembered on the JX as we welcome Eric Strahl, Development Director at the Craterian, and Tammi Pitzen, Executive Director at the Children's Advocacy Center.
Oregon Coast Visitors Association came up with a Travel Impact Calculator for visitors to use to gauge the carbon impacts of their coastal journeys. Finn Johnson, North Coast Destination Management Coordinator for the OCVA.
"Artists in the Amphitheater," a joint project of the Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra and The Children's Museum of Southern Oregon. .
Brian Hendrix is the Fire Adapted Communities Coordinator for the city of Ashland, Oregon
Rogue Valley wines did very well in the recent 2023 Oregon Wine Competition. Gina Bianco is the Executive Director.
Pierre Mérel and Richard Sexton, agricultural economists, about UC Davis research on suicide among farmers.
The federal Department of Agriculture combined forces with the nonprofit Sustainable Northwest, to put $5 Million into small woodland rehab projects. Dylan Kruse from SNW.
(Southern Oregon University)The students are not back in class yet, but there's no rest for the leaders of Southern Oregon University. SOU went through a budget-cutting process earlier this year to get expenses in line with income. And then further runs of the numbers showed that some more adjustments were required; the Board of Trustees had to vote on an updated budget in late August.
Are things stable now? SOU President Rick Bailey says yes. He sits down with JPR's Jane Vaughan to explain why the budget needed some further housekeeping.
It used to be a dream job in American theater: being named the boss at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In the current moment of financial troubles in the live theater industry and at OSF, it may be less than a dream.
But Tim Bond took the job, returning to the theater company where he once worked directing plays and overseeing other productions. Bond is the new Artistic Director at OSF, picking up where Nataki Garrett left off, before she departed last spring.
We visit with Tim Bond about plans for a 2024 season--still not announced--and about getting one of the country's premier regional theater companies back on track after a rough few years.
The departure of the worst of the summer's heat and smoke gets people thinking about outdoor activities anew. And The Nature Conservancy and the federal Bureau of Land Management have an idea for you: take a hike.
Not just any hike, but a hike up one (or both) of the Table Rocks, along the Rogue River north of Medford. TNC and BLM offer a series of educational hikes--all free--during September and October. Molly Allen, an Education Specialist at BLM, stops by with details of the plans.
Registration is required, and available at this site.
September 8th remains a red-letter day in Oregon, and will probably stay that way for a long time. That's the date, in 2020, of the wind-driven fires that burned down thousands of homes in Western Oregon. Those include the Almeda Drive fire, which destroyed 2500 homes between Ashland and Medford.
We're taking several sessions this week to look back on the fire and on the current status of recovery. OEM, Oregon Emergency Management, played a role in the aftermath of the fire, one it has yet to relinquish. Stan Thomas is Deputy Director and Mitigation and Recovery Section Division Director at OEM, and is our guest.
OEM recently put out an after-action report on the response to the 2020 fires, and that is part of the discussion.
Well more than half of California voters said yes to legal marijuana in the 2016 election. But the law left the question of whether to legalize cannabis businesses up to local jurisdictions. And to date, more than half the cities and counties in the state do not allow any cannabis shops or other businesses within their boundaries.
The California legislature took note of the impact on medical marijuana users and passed a law that will override some of the prohibitions, effective January 1, 2024. Which means Yreka and other cities that banned dispensaries will now have to allow some kinds of cannabis businesses.
City Manager Jason Ledbetter explains what will be required of the city and of cannabis businesses when the law takes effect.
We go see doctors and other medical professionals when we need to. But the pros are not the only people who take part in our overall health. And the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI, pronounced "catchy") aims to put greater emphasis on people and communities to work for better health.
Grants are being scattered to ACH--Accountable Communities for Health--around California. In Shasta County, the grant goes to Shasta Health Assessment and Redesign Collaborative (SHARC), which has already taken steps to highlight health and health care, through programs like Shasta Health Rock Stars.
Melissa Janulewicz, the facilitator of the program in the county and the former Director of Shasta County Public Health, visits with details of how the money will be spent to improve health.
Homes burned down in several parts of western Oregon in the Labor Day fires of September 2020, but most of them burned down in and around just two small cities: Phoenix and Talent.
Most of the 2500 homes lost to the Almeda Drive fire burned down within or down the road from those two cities. They have faced the challenge of keeping services going while many residents were driven out of town, and property tax income dropped as well.
We get some perspective on the rebuilding process, in a visit with Talent City Council members Ana Byers and Colette Paré-Miller.
The eclipse is approaching. On October 14, the moon will move in front of the sun, but will not block the sun's light anywhere on Earth... not completely. But the places where the greatest degree of this annular eclipse will be visible include Oregon.
Klamath County is right in the path, and plans are in the works for viewing parties, one near Fort Klamath, the other at Running Y closer to Klamath Falls.
County Commissioners are bracing for an influx of visitors, potentially in the tens of thousands. It's an opportunity, but also a potential headache. Commissioner Dave Henslee has been appointed Incident Commander by his fellow commissioners; he joins us to talk about how the county can encourage people to have a good time, but safely.
Every time we talk about fire hardening a home, we learn a little more. There are many things we can do to make it harder for burning embers and other fire starters to get a toehold in our homes. And the state of Oregon not only supports the process, it has extended its grant program to get money to homeowners to make the changes.
The state Building Codes Division is in possession of the pile of money, and the applications go through the building apparatus in each county. Development Services Director Ted Zuk oversees the grant applications in Jackson County. He checks in with details of the use of the fire hardening program so far, and what people can do to take part.
The wind, blowing heavily before the sun rose, was the first clue that September 8, 2020 was no ordinary day. Things only got worse for people in several parts of western Oregon, as fires spread in the gusty winds, ultimately damaging a million acres of land and burning down thousands of homes. Most of those were in Phoenix and Talent in the heart of the Medford-Ashland area, and the process of rebuilding--though well underway--is taking quite a bit of time.
We begin a series of interviews catching up with the progress of rebuilding, starting with State Representative Pam Marsh of Ashland. House District 5, her district, contains all the areas that burned in the Almeda Drive fire. We talk to the legislator about where the state has helped, where it has not, and what still needs to be done.
Jacksonville just can't help talking about its history: there's a lot of it still standing. The downtown looks like it was frozen in the 1880s, and has been declared a National Historic Landmark. Historic Jacksonville, Inc. helps preserve the history and tells the stories of the past.
The events change as summer comes to a close, but they do continue into the autumn, including a "Haunted History Tour" of the small city. Carolyn Kingsnorth is the President of Historic Jacksonville, and our guide to the history and the telling of it in town.
(Roman Bataglia)School is just getting started for the year in the Medford School District, with all the usual efforts to get students and teachers and staff on the same page. One of those pages concerns security, a much bigger issue in our time of multiple and deadly school shootings. Now schools and students practice what to do if a shooter attacks.
A major drill took place in June, just after the last school year ended, and it took the district until this month to deliver an after-action report on how well it worked, and what it showed. We get details of the report from Superintendent Bret Champion and Safety/Security Director Ron Havniear.
The point of going to community college is generally to get a better job and make more money. It works for communities as well as individual students, to the tune of $9.6 Billion a year in Oregon. That's the finding of a recent report from the Oregon Community College Association totalling up the economic impacts of the state's 17 community colleges.
Jackson and Josephine County get more than $300 Million a year from Rogue Community College, according to the report. Randy Weber is the President of RCC; he visits with further details of the school's economic impact and plans to make it grow over time.
Alexandre Family Farm near Crescent City, CA had to improvise during power outages to keep up with cow's milking.
Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn tells the full story in her book Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farming Community.
Social Security Administration encourages eligible earners to apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
Cal Poly Humboldt acquaculture program from Rafael Cuevas Uribe in the Department of Fisheries Biology and Rick Zechman in the College of Natural Resources and Sciences.
Ahmed White tells in his book Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers.
Annette Smith, who works at Public Defender Services of Lane County and represents many foster kids in court. She shares her thoughts on the less-popular practices of Oregon's foster care system.
Dwight Wilson thinks about this kind of thing all the time, because he's a medical professional and the Executive Director of Southern Oregon Friends of Hospice.
Rescue Ranch Executive Director John Golay discussion of a special fund at the ranch to help pay the cost of expensive surgeries for beloved dogs. Kitu's Fund--Kitu IS a dog, and IS still living--occasionally runs dry helping dogs who might otherwise be put to death.
Todd Kepple was already living in the Klamath Basin at the time; now he's the Director of the Klamath County Museums. He visits to talk about quake memories and legacies.
The Campaign for College Opportunity, shows a big increase in some graduation rates, but slower progress in meeting the equity goals. Vikash Reddy, Vice President of Research at The College Campaign.
Hannah Hilson from SaveOnEnergy about basic options in getting into solar energy, and incentives that can be found in our region.
The average pay for caregivers in Siskiyou County is $15.50 per hour: minimum wage. Fernando Torres-Gil is Director at the UCLA Luskin Center for Policy Research on Aging.
The Native Plant Society of Oregon provides a wealth of information and research into native plants, and holds regular programs to get more people involved in promoting the growth of native plants. Rachel Werling is President of the Siskiyou Chapter.
Toni Wheeler is a longtime seller of books at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah with the end of Summer Reads.
Patrick Smithwick on his book War's Over, Come Home: A Father's Search for His Son, Two-Tour Marine Veteran of the Iraq War.
Mayor Trish Callahan and Forest Commissioner Don Hamann talk about acquisition of the Butte Falls Community Forest.
new legislation helps get old electronics recycled. Michael Lee from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Plant ecologists Adrienne Edwards and Rachel Schleiger write about the plants, home hardening, and more in their book Firescaping Your Home: A Manual for Readiness in Wildfire Country.
The Southern Oregon Success program is built around trauma-informed care. Manager Peter Buckley, and Bob Lieberman.
Scientists from agencies and universities use data from past dam removals to estimate future dam removal costs.
Psychologist Ellen Braaten's book Bright Kids Who Couldn't Care Less: How to Rekindle Your Child's Motivation.
The U.S. Forest Service offers a series of webinars and in-person events in the region to help communities get up to speed on the Community Wildfire Defense Grants application process. Duane Lyon from the Forest Service.
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking a permit to use the red slurry under the Clean Water Act, the result of a lawsuit filed against the agency by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. Steve Ellis is the board chair of National Association of Forest Service Retirees.
The Siskiyou Music Project has been presenting both concerts and musical education in Ashland. Ed Dunsavage, a guitarist himself, is the Executive Director.
Yurok Tribal Police Department is gathering nearby law enforcement agencies for a weeklong session in Crisis Intervention Training. Kelly Johnson is the Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator at the Yurok Tribal Police.
Grassroots Wildland Firefighters President Luke Mayfield and Vice President Riva Duncan talk about reauthorizing federal wildland firefighter pay.
Kids design their playground at Madrone Trail Public Charter School in Central Point, Oregon.
Postal workers against closing Medford processing center. Jeremy Schilling is the President of the Rogue Valley chapter of the union, American Postal Workers Union Local 342.
Jackson County's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Mahan, is a psychiatrist by trade, and therefore well-versed in medications, with additional training in addiction psychiatry. JPR Roman Battaglia interviews.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson is the longtime President and CEO of the Urban League of Portland; she talks about the issues the League is focused upon, and the events coming up.
Susan Ahearn from La Clinica about a residency program to help train nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Vincent DiConstanzo local series on Southern Oregon PBS, "All Across Oregon." His on-camera adventures taking him from notable farms and kitchens to ziplining near Crater Lake.
Stephanie Kruse, Facilities Engineer with the Oregon Department of Energy about making money available for the installation of heat pumps--for heating and cooling--in rental housing.
The City of Redding teamed up with affordable housing provider AccessHome and the company Emergent, which formed to address housing losses from the Carr fire in 2018 is constructing 3d printed homes.
Oregon has provided grants to communities for drinking water source protection, but the recent legislative session kicked in another $5 Million. Daniel Wear is Sustainable Northwest's Community Forest Lead.
The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) reports an uptick in such fires heading into the middle of summer, and is refreshing its reminders about prevention. Everyday activities that you take for granted can start fires if you're not careful. Natalie Weber, Public Affairs Officer for ODF's Southwest region.
Tara Brock, Oceana's Pacific Counsel talks to us about whale entanglements, reporting, and remedies.
Jackson County Health and Human Services is trying to get ahead of the smoke season by reminding people of ways to stay healthy when smoke does roll in. Tanya Phillips is Health Promotion Program Manager for the department.
Journalist Eli Francovich explores those feelings, from wolf lovers to wolf haters to the very big space in between, in his book The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator's Struggle to Survive in the American West.
Health Care for All Oregon, HCAO. The vice-president of HCAO's board, Dr. Antonio (Tony) Germann, gives an interview about overall efforts to get health insurance to more people from a new Oregon program. Michael Collins, also on the board, joins in.
Port Orford's Redfish Music Festival provides intensive musical training for students of stringed instruments, and delivers a set of classical concerts to the public, with the teachers taking center stage.
Dr. Ivory Lyles, who runs all of OSU Extension Service in Oregon, has agreed to meet regularly with Josephine Board of Commissioners Chair Herman Baertschiger about funding cuts based on political perceptions.
California Creative Corps, a vehicle for putting money into the arts all over the state. Rush Sturges, the founder of the project, Paul Robert Wolf Wilson, a Klamath Tribe member and Chief Storyteller, and Danielle Frank, a Hupa Valley Tribe member, Paddle participant, and artist.
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics have issues with the constant use of fire retardant dropped from tanker planes. Boss Andy Stahl explains.
KS Wild wants people to know and understand local forests better, through its Forest & Fire Toolkit. Forest and Climate Coordinator Alexi Lovechio is our guest.
Canadian writer John Vaillant writes of the fire and the many contributing factors--Fort McMurray is in the heart of the Canadian tar sands--in the book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World.
New rules govern streams in private forests. Thomas Whittington and Josh Hanson from the Oregon Department of Forestry.
America's Agenda has plenty of experience with reforming PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers. Exec Director Mark Blum visits.
Oregon State University is surveying coastal visitors about their knowledge of the reserves and their uses, along with questions about ocean acidification and climate change. Lindsay Aylesworth is the Program Leader for the Marine Reserve program.
Richard Sniezko is a geneticist with the U.S. Forest Service will host a workshop on resistance to disease for tree experts across the country (July 24th).
Dr. Kevin Shao, a researcher at UCLA, is part of a team feeding information about landslides into a neural network, in the hope that artificial intelligence can help human minds understand the most important contributing factors to the ground giving way.
Karen Campbell tells her story in her memoir Falling: Hard Lessons and the Redemption of the Woman Next Door.
Even a health writer can be confused by menopause and its onset. This one, Jancee Dunn, wrote her own book about it.
Economists looked at cap and trade and found it missing on both emissions cuts and economic growth
The writer David Gessner made a book out of wondering what the world will be like in 2063, when his daughter is as old as he is now. He toured climate hotspots is called A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World.
Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment requires states to make a five year plan. Oregon Broadband Director Nick Batz visits with details of the next steps.
Rogue Valley Farm Tour provides that course on Sunday (July 16th) visits 28 farms and ranches in Jackson and Josephine Counties.
Oregon State University's president, like many others, restated a commitment to diversity on campus post SCOTUS opinion that race and ethnicity cannot be used as part of the process of choosing students
Avista Gas is seeking a 7% rate increase and receiving pushback over money spent fighting regulations.
A new agreement signed by California Trout, the Farmers Ditch Company, and the Yurok Tribe with Mike Belchik of the Yurok Tribe, Gareth Plank from FDC, and Damon Goodman from CalTrout.
Yreka is in the process of converting an inn into transitional housing under the program. A city council member joins us to fill in the details
Michael Lind critiques the top earners in America for their approach to the people making the least money
Liv West and Skye Hillgartner from Bloomsbury Books in Ashland share summer reading lists
The federal EPA runs a brownfields program, and it recently announced $8 Million in funding to clean up seven sites in Oregon.Casey Sixkiller and Margaret Olson at EPA's regional office, along with Karen Homolac at the Business Oregon Brownfields Program and Mary Camarata at Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality.
Oregon Health Authority's report points out disparities in climate change effects, along with programs to correct them
We visit with the organizers of Celebrating the Siskiyou Crest, plus David Rains Wallace of The Klamath Knot fame
Dorothy Wickenden wrote The Agitators, about Harriet Tubman and two key women supporters
Two past interviews fill today's show, on church/state separation and the influence of the Internet on language
Rogue Valley-based Puppeteers for Fears "Cthulhu: the Musical!" leads the group out on the road for a post-pandemic tour of the West, Josh Gross and Alyssa Matthews.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision leaving the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) intact drew responses of relief from tribes across the country. Tribal Affairs Director Adam Becenti and Senior Indian Child Welfare Act Manager Ashley Harding talk to us about the implications.
The Oregon House completes a revision to Measure 110 designed to get more people into drug treatment
SOU communications professor and one of the founding members of Signals & Noise, Precious Yamaguchi visits to discuss big stories and media events
You can't find recordings, but you can take in "Sonoluminescence" live for a one-of-a-kind musical experience
You can't find recordings, but you can take in "Sonoluminescence" live for a one-of-a-kind musical experience
Sudden oak death is present in parts of California and Curry County in Oregon, from Central Forest Nick Morris at Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Sarah Navarro, Regional Sudden Oak Death Pathologist with the Forest Service join us.
Science writer Jaime Green catches us up on our exploration of the universe and what it takes just to understand it, in the book The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos.
The National Coalition for the Homeless includes many formerly homeless people on its staff and board, and tracks the contributing factors. Among them: federal law that caps public housing. NCH Executive Director Donald H. Whitehead, Jr.
Bureau of Land Management wants to take in ideas on how to manage the Cascade-Siskiyou Monument. BLM Medford District Manager Elizabeth Burghard
Lynn Kunstman. Lynn is a Jackson County Master Gardener and our partner in a recurring segment we call Garden for Life.
Rogue Valley Farm to School turns its attention to summer camps for elementary school students... and to a fundraiser called "Turnip the Beet," June 25th.
Tyler Hokama, longtime festival attendee, recent Ashland transplant, and now the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Interim Executive Director of the operation.
The film "Land of Gold," now streaming on Max, takes up some of the issues of our time, like immigration, and being a member of a marginalized group. Producer Rose Harwood.
6PPD, a chemical used to stabilize the rubber in vehicle tires, can be toxic to fish, and the Center for Biological Diversity says the transportation departments in Oregon and California are not taking any action to keep it out of streams.
A recent paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives about how much of a factor humidity has on human health. Jane Baldwin at the University of California-Irvine brings the disagreement between the physiologists and the epidemiologists, as the lead author of the report.
A series of 16 open houses--from Astoria to San Francisco--to gauge interest and take input on sea otter plans. Today (June 20) is the start of the series, and Michael Zwartjes from the Oregon Coast Field Office of the USFWS adds detail to the basic facts.
A mobile tour of All of Us Research Program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) brings the program to ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum in Ashland for a day (June 21st), and we get further details from Patrice Robinson of Montage Marketing and Alan Oppenheimer of the Ashland-based Alan & Priscilla Oppenheimer Foundation.
Elmer Dixon talks about his Black Panther days in Seatte, as recounted in his memoir. And an earlier interview with Bobby Seale.
Juneteenth celebration organized by Black Humboldt, set for Saturday Noon to 10 PM in Halvorsen Park in Eureka.
BASE Southern Oregon--BASE standing for Black Alliance and Social Empowerment--plans another Juneteenth celebration at Pear Blossom Park in downtown Medford, to be held two days early, on Saturday, June 17th. Ashland's shorter gathering will be Sunday, June 18th.
County Commissioner Brad Alcorn about the ransomware attack--basically, "pay us or we break your system"--that hit the Curry county's computer systems back in April.
Automated License Plate Reader, ALPR, can come in handy for law enforcement. But it can also convey information about the movements of vehicle owners, and that's where the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union have issues, FF Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz.
Grants Pass High School has already decided to embrace the 8:30 start time for the next school year, giving students another 40 minutes to get awake and get to class, thanks to student Anika LaFrance-Hernandez,.
Director Gerry Flock Rogue Valley Chorale, the concerts of June 15th and 16th are called "Hops and Pops." They'll feature music ranging from The Beatles to Adele and beyond, and adult beverages.
Oregon Department of Emergency Management provides a wealth of information on preparing for fire emergencies, everything from where to get lists, to how to pack a bag for evacuation. April Davis is a Public Information Officer at OEM.
City Councilor Kevin Stine discussing the city's work for homeless residents, and what the first few meetings have produced.
Brooke Ellison was 11 years old when a car hit her and paralyzed her from the neck down. Look Both Ways is about her life's achievements.
Help wanted: farmers. Oregon Farm Link works to attract BIPOC farmers, and Silvia Cuesta is out in front, doing the recruiting.
Three students from Southern Oregon University made it through the preliminary rounds of Invent Oregon Collegiate Challenge and will display their invention at the competition in Portland on June 22nd.
Holly Powers, Emergency Manager for Jackson County about the separation of Jackson and Josephine Emergency Management.
All things vegetarian and vegan will be celebrated at Veg Fest, coming to Tikkun Olam Farm Sanctuary in Phoenix on June 11.
Eliot Feenstra is LGBTQ Listening Project Organizer for Rogue Action and Finn Franklin is Listening Project Steering Committee Member. They are working right in the middle of the pushback after May elections.
A myriad of efforts go on to connect children and food during vacation, including the efforts of Food for People in Humboldt County. Anne Holcomb, the longtime Executive Director of Food for People, visits with details on what it takes to keep people fed, now and the rest of the year.
Klamath County Museum Curator Matt Voelkel and a representative from the Klamath tribes join us for an overview of the Modoc War of 1872-73 anniversary events.
Maybe you were one of those people who got identified in grade school as "different." Kids have a way of being blunt, before they are taught not to criticize people for standing apart from the crowd.
Writer Meg Eden Kuyatt felt different from other kids growing up, but didn't know she was on the autism spectrum until she was an adult. Her latest book, a Young Adult novel, focuses on a girl growing up fast, and coming to grips with the way her brain works.
Good Different is the book, and we learn more about it, and living on the autism spectrum, in a visit with Meg Eden Kuyatt.
ANYBODY can make a film these days. The smartphones that many of us carry contain high-quality cameras, higher quality than the big professional cameras of just a few years ago.
It's no wonder Southern Oregon University started a Digital Cinema program a few years ago. Students get to show their wares at the annual SOU Student Film Festival, coming to the Varsity Theatre in Ashland on June 7th. Since no film can be longer than 15 minutes, there's a wide variety of offerings.
We learn more from SOUSFF Program Directors AJ Carter and Blythe Lloyd and Digital Cinema professor Christopher Lucas.
It really wasn't THAT long ago that Oregon's major economic activity involved extraction: taking trees out of forests, taking minerals out of the ground. It's a very different place now, but the evidence of the work of past generations remains scattered across the landscape.
Archaeologist Tatiana Watkins has explored mining camps in Southern and Eastern Oregon as part of the Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project; many gold mine workers were Chinese.
Watkins presents some of her info in one of the "Windows in Time" lectures of the Southern Oregon Historical Society.
We get a preview when the archaeologist visits the JX.
Getting people to buy and eat food from nearby is the whole basis for the Rogue Valley Food System Network. RVFSN brings together the makers and the takers and the distributors and anyone else who plays a part in getting food to tables.
And the coming together of all those entities becomes a real thing in real time during the event Brews Bluegrass & BBQ, a fundraiser set for Saturday (June 3rd) at RoxyAnn Winery in Medford.
We get details on the event and how the money gets used, in a chat with RVFSN Executive Director Alison Sexauer.
LINK: to Rogue Flavors, RVFSN's guide to where to find local food. Direct link here.
Few cities were as hard-hit by the September 2020 fires as Talent. The Almeda Drive fire burned a swath from the south end of town into the heart of downtown, taking out hundreds of homes and businesses.
Rebuilding has long been underway, and city staff and city council came up with a comprehensive recovery plan, and a way to pay for it, by designating the burn scar as an Urban Renewal District.
The plan ran into fierce opposition from Fire District 5. In an effort to compromise, the recovery plan was reduced drastically and put on the May ballot for an advisory vote. The Fire District waged a well-funded campaign against the plan and voters responded with a no vote.
So what now? Talent Mayor Darby Ayers-Flood visits to catch up on what's happened so far, and what might happen next.
(Abhi Sharma / Flickr)Those of us not working or attending school over the summer have a little extra time on our hands... for things like reading. Libraries around the country encourage people to pick up books, and the Coos Bay Public Library has several programs for readers of different ages.
They include reading challenges that can net prizes for young people who read lots of books. And the CBPL is also bringing on a squadron of teens for its Summer Youth Corps Program, to help guide other reading programs.
Jennifer Knight is the Youth Services Librarian and our guest with the answers to our questions.
If you didn't live in the region when "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" premiered, you might have thought the Forest Moon of Endor was an exotic place. If you DID live here, you realized: yeah, it's the redwoods.
The movie is 40 years old this year, and the occasion has not gone unnoticed in the real place that gave us the make-believe Ewoks. Del Norte and Humboldt Counties will celebrate the Forest Moon Festival this weekend (June 2-3), with film screenings and other activities.
We grab two of the people involved with the festival for details on the festivities. We are assured no Ewoks (or storm troopers) will be harmed.
When you don't have a regular place to live and don't have regular friends around, a pet can fill some of the void. And some homeless people do travel with dogs and cats by their sides.
The Street Dog Project in Jackson County works to make life a little better for the pets, and hopefully for their human companions as well. Services range from pet supplies to medical services to food.
It takes a few bucks to deliver for the dogs and cats, and Street Dog Project is in constant fundraising mode. SDP President Laurie Cuddy and staffer Nancy Lyon visit to talk about street dogs and cats and seeing to their needs.
Links mentioned during show:
- Pro-Bone-O in Eugene
- Feeding Pets of the Homeless, a national program
An Ashland criminal case that started with controversy reached its final disposition with controversy as well. Aidan Ellison, a young Black man, died at the end of a gun fired by Robert Keegan, an older white man. Keegan never disputed the shooting, but claimed self-defense. And a Jackson County jury found him not guilty of 2nd degree murder, but guilty of manslaughter, a lesser charge with a lesser sentence.
Demonstrations followed.
We assembled a panel from Ashland to respond to the closing of the case and the opening of a pathway to the future, and what that might look like. Our panelists: Gina Duquenne, an Ashland City Councilor speaking for herself, not the council. Emily Simon, co-chair of the Social Equity and Racial Justice Advisory Committee in Ashland--but also speaking for herself--is another guest. And we bring in Isadora Millay and Simone Starbird from the Truth to Power Club at Ashland High School, which researches and reacts to this and other issues.
(Harris.news/Wikimedia)We observe the Memorial Day holiday on the JX the way a lot of people do: we take the day off. But we pulled some gems from the archives to put together a show for the day.
Our first-half offering is a visit on Sister Resisters: Mentoring Black Women on Campus, about white women stepping up for people who need support in academic settings. Authors Janie Victoria Ward and Tracy L. Robinson-Wood are the guests.
Midway through the hour, we shift over to a chat with Greg Melville about his book on graveyards: Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries. His longstanding fascination with burial practices and places led to a rich trove of material.
We had a good winter in our two states. That's one. It will take more to be able to say we're really out of a drought. And even though California has lifted many of its water use restrictions, the recent deal made by the states that use Colorado River water shows how much water needs to fall in the west.
Save Our Water, created by state and local agencies in California, is staying on the job, continuing to show people ways to conserve water around the home. The methods include growing native plants that do well in dry conditions.
We get a visit from Dr. Jun Bando, Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society, and Landscape Architect Kate Hayes.
If nothing else, Andrew Gast should get credit for timing his entry. He arrived to manage the Mount Ashland Ski Area in a huge year for the resort: the fifth snowiest winter on record produced the most days open ever recorded, the latest closing date ever recorded, and the largest number of visits ever.
And the place has not gone silent for the summer, either... the Mount Ashland Lodge will open for visits and food and drink sales on weekends through the non-ski season, starting Memorial Day weekend.
GM Gast was really busy during the winter; he finally joins us in a quieter moment for a chat about the ski area's phenomenal season and summer ahead.
Jewish Americans celebrated 350 years of history on the continent in May of 2004. In the years since, the month of May has been designated Jewish American Heritage Month, a time to observe and celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of American Jews.
AJC, the American Jewish Committee, is heavily involved in the commemorations, including through its Pacific Northwest office in Seattle. Regional Director Regina Friedland talks to the JX about key events for the month and the region.
Note: a technical problem forced us to spend time away from Regina and come back; we have edited to remove that interlude.
It started as Options for Homeless Residents of Ashland, but the acronym became a name, and now most people just call it "Aura" (OHRA).
The organization has rolled out several different services for people homeless or nearly so in the Ashland area. And it took a big step up with a state grant from the "Turnkey Program" passed by the legislature, allowing OHRA to take over an Ashland motel as a shelter and headquarters.
It's a constant challenge meeting the needs of clients and bringing in the money for it. Cass Sinclair, OHRA's Executive Director, talks to us about the work and the progress.
Long before there was "Everything Everywhere All at Once," there was "Everyman," a morality play from a time before Shakespeare ever picked up a pen.
The journey through life told in that play has some staying power, and gets a 21st-century reworking as Everybody, by the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. It is presented by Southern Oregon University's theater department, the final production of the academic year.
Vaun Munroe is the director and our guest on the JX.
You've heard of "food deserts," places where grocery stores selling healthy food are rare. We've also learned the hard way about "news deserts," where local news sources are hard to come by. Now we get to explore "child care deserts," with sparse options for working parents to have their children supervised.
Recent research out of Oregon State University shows much of the state would be a child care desert, if public funding had not helped increase child care options, largely because of the 2019 Student Success Act.
Bobbie Weber is a retired research associate in OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences, and the co-author of a previous version of the report. She visits to add details to the research.
The ongoing issue of finding places for homeless people to sleep led the City of Ashland to create such a space.
Call it "Dusk to Dawn" or "Night Lawn;" it's a grassy space next to the building that houses the city council chambers and police department, available for camping every night from 7 PM to 7:30 the next morning. The move is intended to keep campers out of other public spaces in town by providing a hassle-free sleeping space nightly.
The offer comes with some rules governing timing and behavior. Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara lays out the story of the city's move, and how the site has worked in the first few days of its existence.
It's a distinctly American holiday, but Memorial Day weekend gets a few foreign accents in the hands of Rogue World Music.
RWM presents the annual Ashland World Music Festival over the weekend (May 26-29), with performances in Lithia Park, but also workshops and talkbacks with some of the performers. It's the eighth edition of the festival, which relies on donations instead of tickets: it's free.
Ana Byers, the Executive Director of RWM, stops by with news of the four music-filled days, and how they'll unfold.
Both of our states jumped in with both feet when the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") gave all states an opportunity to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor.
Texas held out, and continues to do so. But don't mistake the politics for the practice: Texas DOES provide health care to people without money or insurance, a lot of it through a huge teaching hospital in Houston.
Ricardo Nuila is an MD practicing and teaching there, a story he tells in The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine. The stories of several patients are intermixed with the overall story of the hospital and its mission--and its remarkable record of success.
There is the term "magic mushrooms," and a wealth of jokes about people taking psychedelic drugs, but Oregon's psilocybin-assisted therapy law has a serious goal behind it: to help people who have not been helped much by other kinds of mental therapies.
Voters passed the measure into law and the state spent two years preparing for its use. Now the first certified therapists are ready to work, providing psilocybin and monitoring through guided sessions with clients.
JPR's Juliet Grable talked to four people who signed up for the training about their goals for the therapies to come.
( City of Ashland)For four bucks, you can drive an electric car around Ashland for an hour. That's the base price for the newly-established GoForth electric carshare program announced by city government, Southern Oregon University, and Forth Mobility.
It's a modest carshare to start: a single Chevrolet Bolt stationed on the SOU campus.
We get further details of the operation, and what enabled it, from GoForth Program Manager Connor Herman and SOU Sustainability Director Becs Walker.
Roughly 33 million acres. That's how much old-growth forest exists on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land across the country.
The figures come from the first-ever comprehensive inventory of such lands (full report here), released in April by the Biden administration. Add another 80 million acres of "mature" (as in: not old growth yet) forests.
Rogue Valley resident Dominick DellaSalla, chief scientist at Wild Heritage, has studied such forests for a long time, often in tandem with Richard Birdsey from the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
The two scientists give an extended view of what they find in the inventory... and do not find.
( TerryLongshore.com)We've marveled at the musical creations of Terry Longshore over the years, even if some of the processes are hard to describe: is that a piano string he dragged across the strings in a piano?
A recent sabbatical from his day job at Southern Oregon University opened Longshore up to new sounds in new places. He returns to campus for a solo "intermedia" recital titled "balance | flow" on Friday evening (May 19), and visits our studio beforehand.
And you've heard us say it before: the theme music of the JX is a composition by Terry Longshore with son Mackswell.
(US Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia Commons)The monarch butterfly may get the king's share of attention, but there are many other varieties of butterflies in the region. Over time, scientists add to the body of knowledge about which butterflies live where.
Entomologist Jeffrey Miller, retired from Oregon State University, has been painstakingly adding data points to the existing maps of Oregon butterflies.
He'll share his process and findings in an upcoming session with Pollinator Project Rogue Valley (May 20th). He and Kristina Lefever, President of the Pollinator Project Rogue Valley, join us on the JX.
(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)After the long winter and a long, cool spring, a lot of us are ready to head outdoors and hang out on/in some water. But beware: not only is a lot of that water shockingly cold, some of it may be toxic.
As the weather warms, things like harmful algae blooms will become more common. Consuming or playing in water with toxins present can sicken and even kill pets and people.
Oregon Health Authority keeps an eye on conditions and spreads the word about waterborne toxins. OHA toxicologist David Farrer talks to us about warning signs, effects, and options when exposed.
(Kyle Sullivan / BLM)An artist who gets inspiration from natural beauty could find much to be inspired by, at the Rogue River Ranch. The historic ranch, deep in the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue, takes a long time just to reach.
And it will be a temporary home for lucky artists for part of the summer, as the Bureau of Land Management establishes an artist-in-residence program. Applications are open now for the residency, to be served in one- or two-week increments.
Tony Saunders is BLM's coordinator for the AiR program and our guest.
(Kyle Sullivan / BLM)An artist who gets inspiration from natural beauty could find much to be inspired by, at the Rogue River Ranch. The historic ranch, deep in the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue, takes a long time just to reach.
And it will be a temporary home for lucky artists for part of the summer, as the Bureau of Land Management establishes an artist-in-residence program. Applications are open now for the residency, to be served in one- or two-week increments.
Tony Saunders is BLM's coordinator for the AiR program and our guest.
The regional arts scene is firing on all cylinders as summer approaches.
There's a particular flurry of activity as the school year ends, and school-based musical groups present their final concerts of the year. The Southern Oregon University Chamber Choir sings a final time in a spring concert set for June 11th, just days before the end of term.
Director Jerron Jorgensen returns to talk about music, students, and the concert.
When you're trying to save the world, saving artifacts from the process may not be at the top of the list of priorities. But Humboldt Area Peoples Archive collects items that tell the story of activism in the area, and the results of that activism. It's not just about preserving history; it's also about telling the story of local organizing and its potential effects on democracy.
The collections include artwork created as part of the activism. Some of that goes on display at the Clark Museum in Eureka starting this weekend (May 20th). HAPA Executive Director Nicole Riggs tells the story of the organization and the organizing. And the artwork.
It's fun to travel the country seeing the sites, but it's also fun to spend a night in your own bed after a long trip. You can have both if you travel in a recreational vehicle.
That's one of the benefits Bonnie and Grant Sinclair noticed early in their RV days. Now they are veteran RV road warriors, and co-authors of a book in the Moon Guide series: Moon USA RV Adventures: 25 Epic Routes. The book describes some spectacular scenery and routes to access it, but also gets into the nuts and bolts (and gas mileage) of traveling with the comforts of home and a big engine to move them around.
Grant Sinclair drives solo in a visit to the JX.
The police make a lot of news, simply because they're in the business of stopping and catching people whose actions make news. But even the most fervent "Back the Blue" supporter has to admit that police do make news with mistakes, sometimes frequently.
Neil Gross worked for a time as a police officer, before going back to school to become a sociologist. He combines past and present occupations in a book, Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture.
The chiefs profiled serve different communities with different circumstances, and took different approaches. But they all bore some progress in changing views of the police, both within and without the departments. Neil Gross adds detail in this interview with the JX.
Your granddaughter calls, says there's been an emergency, and she needs you to send money now now now! First... are you sure it's your granddaughter?
Impersonator scams were the top scam of the year 2022 in America once again, says the Federal Trade Commission. FTC keeps statistics through its Consumer Sentinel Network, and the stats show that the money lost to scammers continues to rise, up to $8.8 Billion last year.
Kerry O'Brien is the Western Regional Director for FTC, based in San Francisco. She visits with stats for Oregon and California, and with strategies for NOT getting scammed.
The laughter would have been loud and long around 1970 if anyone in Oregon suggested that a two-pound bird would stop the powerful timber industry in its tracks. Twenty-years later, no one was laughing when the northern spotted owl joined the endangered species list, providing a mechanism for a wholesale change in federal forest management.
Experts pointed out, then and still, that the issue is far bigger than the bird. Three of those experts joined forces to tell the story once again in a new book, The Making of the Northwest Forest Plan: The Wild Science of Saving Old Growth Ecosystems.
K. Norman Johnson, Gordon Reeves, and Jerry Franklin all played key parts in detailing the fate of old growth forests and the implications. Some combination of the authors join us for an extended look back.
It's a rare person who doesn't know what fentanyl is. The powerful opioid painkiller is blamed for an increasing number of opioid overdose deaths across the country.
Oregon leads the way in teen deaths by drug-related causes, and the Democrats in Congress (both senators and four of the six house members) are asking the federal Department of Education to help. The Congress members asked the ED Secretary, Miguel Cardona, to work with Oregon schools, to help spread the message to avoid opioids.
Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Val Hoyle from the 4th Congressional district appear together on the JX to lay out the vision for the federal assist to Oregon educators.
Dr Rebecca AlbrightOne of the effects of global warming is the acidification of the oceans... the trend of our big bodies of salt water to get more acidic over time. Not enough that you'd notice it swimming or surfing, but enough to make it hard for some sea creatures with shells to form those shells in the first place.
The California Academy of Science is one of several institutions signing onto a letter proposing something like a checklist for governments to follow in preparing for acidification. The items on the list range from public awareness to mitigation measures.
There's clearly some ground to cover: for example, coral bleaching, which is very well known, is not the same. Rebecca Albright is the California Academy's Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and founder of the Coral Regeneration Lab (CoRL). She visits with some details of the ocean acidification framework.
It took a tremendous effort to keep California condors from sliding into extinction. All the known surviving birds were collected long ago for a captive breeding program to allow the condor to be reintroduced.
The project worked and has been expanded over time: the Yurok Tribe now leads a project bringing condors back to the Redwoods. But condors in Arizona have been falling ill to avian flu in recent months, raising concerns that the more northerly populations could eventually be infected as well.
The Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Oregon State University has been involved in identifying what's been killing the birds. Kurt Williams is director of the lab and our guest.
The rap on classical music is that is largely the work of dead white men. But not ALL composers fit the description... many women and people of color have contributed substantial works, and Ashland-based Anima Mundi Productions is determined to give them a place in the sun.
The celebration continues on Sunday (May 7) in Ashland with Honoring My Sister’s Beauty: A musical and poetic conversation between diverse traditions.
Hildegard von Bingen, Florence Price, and other composers provided the pieces, with interpretation by singers Lindsay Patterson Abdou and Brooke Iva Lohman, and violinist, scholar, and poet Dr. Lesa Terry, plus pianist Joseph Williams and Anima Mundi Productions’ resident poet Tiziana DellaRovere.
Lesa Terry, from Santa Monica College, joins us with an overview.
Farming can be a challenging line of work on its best days, so it doesn't have the allure of say, being an "influencer" on social media. And where that line of work skews young, farming skews much older, and many farmers are due for retirement. S
o efforts continue around the country to attract new farmers to the business, including several small farm incubation projects in Southern Oregon. Those include Rogue Farm Corps and the Growing Veteran Agripreneurs program of Oregon State University Extension.
We get a peek inside these programs when GVA Coordinator Diane Choplin visits. There are two other guests: Edward Night of Oak Mountain Farm and a Farm Corps alum, and Greg Pavellas, an alum of GVA.
By several measurements, the people of Earth are not meeting the goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to curb the more serious effects of climate change. But plenty of entities are on the job, looking for ways to nip and tuck what we release into the atmosphere.
The entities include the Oregon Global Warming Commission, which recently released its Climate Action Roadmap to 2030. That report includes the Transformational Integrated Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Project Report. Call it TIGHGER, or "tiger."
Catherine McDonald, the Chair of the Global Warming Commission, discusses the contents and intentions.
The Almeda fire of 2020 spared the Talent Historical Society by a little more than a city block. But the physical near-miss also inspired THS to help its community record the fire and its wide-ranging effects for the historical record.
What began as a blogging project has grown in new directions, and new includes a book, Talent, Oregon: The Almeda Fire, which brings together pictures, interviews, and stories of what was possibly the worst day in the small city's history.
Debra Moon, Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator for THS, joins us with details, joined by THS Board President Willow McCloud.
Maybe being the daughter of a former member of Congress helped Alexandra Petri develop a sense of humor. She uses it to great effect in her regular columns in the Washington Post, and gets a much bigger field to play on (the whole United States) in her take on the country's past.
It's a big country, so it's a big book: Alexandra Petri's US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up). From the founding fathers arguing about a narrative arc for the Federalist Papers to Dick Nixon's un-deleted expletives, there's plenty to enjoy. That includes some documents NOT made up by the author, but which definitely add to the weirdness. Alexandra stops by to talk about her take on our history.
Most governments have disaster plans of some kind, including designating places where people can take shelter in an emergency. But situations that require shelter or some other kind of refuge come in different varieties.
The Oregon Legislature is considering House Bill 2990 to expand the scope and scale of such refuges. HB 2990 would fund the creation of community-designed and operated centers known as community resilience hubs. Uses could range from sudden, sharp emergencies to lingering periods of wildfire smoke in the air.
Oregon Rep. Pam Marsh of Ashland is a sponsor of the bill and Oregon Just Transition Alliance is a supporter. Rep. Marsh and OJTA Executive Director Joel Iboa talk about the vision and the potential path ahead.
Burlesque shows have been around for a long time, but BIPOC burlesque? That adds another dimension, and THAT has an actual birthdate and place: in Seattle, in August 2019.
Kia Puckett, known in burlesque as "Mx. Pucks A’Plenty (pronounce Mx. as 'mix')," founded BIPOC burlesque under the headline "What the Funk?!" A documentary by the same name, about the birth of the tradition, is among the offerings at this year's Oregon Fringe Festival, screening Friday evening in Ashland. Mx. Pucks and Rebecca Davis--Ms. Davis--join us to fill out the story.
What had been a relatively quiet 2022 fire season got a noisy coda with the Mill fire in Weed in September. The fire destroyed much of Lincoln Heights, historically a majority-Black part of the city.
The federal Small Business Administration recently set up to channel disaster assistance to residents and business, and in several counties surrounding Weed, on both sides of the state line. But there's a short application window closing on June 5th. Louise Porter, a Public Information Officer with SBA, takes some time to describe available programs and application procedures.
We can count on wildfires and wine grapes in summertime in the region, and they do NOT work well together. Wildfire smoke and ash settling on wine grapes can add an unpleasant taste to the grapes and any wine made from them, a situation known as "smoke taint."
The wine industry has scrambled for solutions, while science got busy delving into the specifics. Oregon State University recently announced research showing the chemistry behind smoke taint, which might offer some clues to avoiding it. Elizabeth Tomasino, Associate Professor of Enology at OSU, visits with details of the findings.
When you've lived through a disaster and you don't have the words to describe it, what's next? Art might be an answer.
Plenty of people who have been traumatized can work it out through drawing or painting or other forms of visual art. Rogue Valley art therapist Delaine Due set up the REcreate/REcrear community art studio after 2020's Almeda fire, to provide just that kind of outlet for people affected by the fire.
We learn about the program and the setting up of art hives in a conversation with Delaine Due and outreach volunteer Rachel Griffin.
The White House said it would forgive a big chunk of student loans for some former students. Then a court said no, the president does not have that power. Confused yet?
The student loan forgiveness issue is really only a sideshow to the main event: how much a college education costs, and how many people need to secure some kind of financial aid to pay for it. If you're trying to track down a scholarship, there are roughly 1.7 Million of them. Confused now?
Kristen Gast is the Director of Financial Aid & Scholarships and Veterans Affairs at Southern Oregon University.
We spend some time learning some rules of thumb that can de-mystify financial aid.
Since the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, it stands to reason that reducing fossil-fuel powered transportation will go a long way toward meeting climate goals. But Oregon is still off track in getting there, so the state is moving toward implementation of the Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities program.
The basic idea is to create parts of Oregon cities that do not require people to own cars to get to work and school and shopping. The current vision calls for big changes in relatively small cities, like pushing apartment buildings higher and closer together.
James Schireman is part of the team working on climate-friendly communities through his job at Rogue Valley Council of Governments. He stops by with details of the overall vision, and the steps to implement.
Health workers and police have been warning about fentanyl for some time now. The concern ratcheted up a few more degrees in early April, when police calls, medical emergencies, and fatalities involving fentanyl rose quickly.
That prompted Jackson County Health and Human Services to issue a public health alert about the drug. One of the issues with fentanyl, beyond its large damage from small doses, is that it is often disguised as other drugs, or mixed in with them.
Tanya Phillips is Health Promotion Program Manager for the county. She talks to us about the incidents that prompted the alert, and the public reception to it.
It's not just that Oregon Fringe Festival brings together art and theater and music and film. But the different threads of OFF frequently overlap, with sculpture that can be played like musical instruments, and other meldings of art forms.
The Fringe Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with this year's return, presenting arts events over five days on the Southern Oregon University campus, and some off-site in Ashland.
We spend some extra time on the JX getting familiar with the offerings at this year's OFF, with performers Dean Kyle, Destery Epling, Cash Wickert, and Rosemary Kesseling. We use the radio as best we can to describe art that really must be seen.
Nancy Hopkins was an accomplished scientist surrounded by men. She assumed that the slights and snubs and signs of discrimination were the exceptions, not the rule. But the evidence continued to mount over time, and finally Hopkins had enough. She and fellow women scientists at MIT blew the whistle, and the university was forced to admit it had held women scientists back and down, in everything from salary to lab space.
Kate Zernike broke the story for the Boston Globe, and she returns to the issue in book form, with The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science.
We visit with the author about the story, and the years it took to unfold.
Oregon already puts everyone who gets a driver's license on the voter rolls, but conditionally... the voter registration is not official until the person turns 18 years old. People drive starting at age 16, and some of them want to cast ballots at that age, too.
Devon Lawson-McCourt in Lane County is one of them. They propose a statewide vote to lower the voting age to 16 for most elections.
The bill in the legislature is House Joint Resolution 20, and it is supported by groups like Next Up Oregon. Devon Lawson-McCourt visits to talk about their political activism, and their desire to channel it onto a ballot before reaching age 18.
Teachers have to talk to a lot of students at one time. But there's great value in those moments when a teacher spends time one-on-one with a student. Those encounters should be encouraged, say educators Tiffany Burns and Erika Bare, both of whom work in the Ashland School District.
They collaborated on a book about quality chats between teacher and student, called Connecting Through Conversation: A Playbook for Talking with Students.
Learning is only part of it; there's plenty in the book about avoiding power struggles and taking student traumas into account. The authors join us for an extended conversation about what they provide in the book, and how they learned it themselves.
Earth Day is on the way. April 22nd marks the 53rd anniversary of the first Earth Day, and people around the world will be observing the good things we do for the planet... or should be doing, anyway.
Oregon's celebrations include the organization Earth Day Oregon, which brings businesses and nonprofits together in a quest for sustainability. We visit with EDO about events in Southern Oregon, in a visit with Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts Executive Director Kelly Beamer. The chat also includes Dawn Haight, Executive Director of the Klamath Lake Land Trust.
There are many places in the region to celebrate the wonders of the Earth. Mount Shasta is still an exception among exceptional places. So it stands to reason that Earth Day gets a big celebration in the city of Mount Shasta, this and most years.
Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, long dedicated to preserving and protecting the mountain and its surroundings, hosts a series of events on Earth Day. We get a rundown on the happenings from Bianca Garza, MSBEC's Communications and Development Director.
1966 EV made by Eureka Williams Corporation. Photo by PhotoQuest / Getty ImagesEven if you don't drive an electric vehicle, you're probably getting used to having them around. They make those humming sounds at low speeds on neighborhood streets, to warn pedestrians who are expecting engine noises. We're bound to hear more of that humming, as consumer tastes and government mandates move us toward fewer petroleum-powered vehicles.
Earth Day is a big day for EV drivers, a day to celebrate the nice things electric transportation does for the planet. Drive Electric Earth Day is spending the entire month touting the benefits of EVs, something the Southern Oregon Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Association (SOHEVA) has been doing for years.
Pete Jorgensen and Susan McGrath from SOHEVA talk to us about their adoption of electric driving, and SOHEVA's Earth Day plans.
We talk a lot about how human activity could be driving global declines in pollinator species like bees, but we don't often consider the impacts of land management practices on wild bees outside of agricultural systems. Two Oregon State University researches have been studying the issue.
We'll speak with graduate student Rachel Zitomer and Dr. Jim Rivers, an animal ecologist in the OSU College of Forestry about their research and what it means for forest management.
Southern Oregon University alum and Ashland New Play Festival 2021 New Voices playwright, returns to ANPF with an immersive new play.
Inspired by Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Our Utopia, takes a deep look at the dark side of an idealistic community. The play asks big questions about belonging, community, and our place in this world. We'll discuss the play and its themes with Trujillo and dramaturg Lue Douthit.
Dance, Dance, Dance!
The Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU is highlighting movement and music in its upcoming show, Connections. The show
will feature a myriad of genres: jazz, musical theatre, drag, and more.
Dancer and director Suzanne Seiber taps into the the spirit of dance that crosses boundaries and connects performers, technicians, and the audience. Seiber joins the Exchange to talk about the show and the delight taken in music and dance.
Generations of Americans lived in fear of The Bomb, the nuclear bomb attack that would end life as we know it. The weapons still exist, but the fears have largely abated. Now a major concern in international relations is cyber-warfare: countries waging war on each other through computers, turning off power or jamming key government systems.
It's not science fiction, it's fact, and has already happened in parts of the world. Nicole Perlroth, who covered digital espionage and sabotage for the New York Times, gives us a lot to think about in her book about the realities. The title does not inspire hope: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race. The author visits with highlights, if they can be called that.
You learn quickly here that not all fish are the same. There are several different kinds of salmon, and even within species--like chinook salmon--there are different runs, like spring chinook and fall chinook. Then there are physically isolated populations of fish, like the redband trout of the upper McCloud River on the California side.
Recent research proves the McCloud River Redband Trout is a distinct subspecies of redband trout, genetically different from other redband trout. Matthew Campbell led the team that did the research, out of the University of California-Davis. He talks to us about the process, down to the molecular level, to prove the point.
What's the point of having a National Poetry Month if you can't hear a poem, in a hurry? That might not be a question you've ever pondered, but it crossed the mind of Oregon's Poet Laureate, Anis Mojgani.
So he did something about it, and the something--the Tele-Poem Telephone Line--returns for the month of April. It does what the name implies; call 503-928-7008 to hear a poem from Mojgani or another Oregon poet. It started last year and quickly became a hit. The Poet Laureate joins us again to talk about poems and their creation and celebration.
We're approaching the part of the year when more people will head for the Oregon coast to enjoy the beaches and dunes and more. But this is also the part of the year when a cute little bird called the Western Snowy Plover makes nests and rears its young.
Nesting season runs from mid-March to mid-September, and some restrictions on beach activities are in place during that time. We get an overview of the cautions, and of the bird's progress, from Laurel Hillman at Oregon State Parks.
We're reasonably certain the Rolling Stones will not show up at the Britt Festival, but you never know... one of the Beatles made an appearance a few years back (and is scheduled this year--Hi, Ringo!).
Summer evenings feature concerts outdoors on the Britt hill in Jacksonville, delivered by many notable names in the music business. Britt rounds up the acts and makes a season announcement all at once... and the list is out.
Festival CEO Abby McKee calls into the JX to discuss who's playing this year.
It's not a big or impressive boat, but it does have an incredible story to tell. The boat is Kamome, and it showed up in Crescent City ten years ago, after drifting across the Pacific following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March, 2011.
The people of Crescent City figured out how to get the boat back home, and formed a bond with their counterparts in Rikuzentakata, Japan.
On Friday (April 14th), Crescent City observes the ten-year anniversary with the first Kamome Festival, with trail walks, a documentary screening, music and dance, and more. City Councilor Blake Inscore and Del Norte School Superintendent Jeff Harris visit to talk about the celebration and all it represents.
One of the advantages of living in a region with no really big city is that we're close to nature. And that means we are also close to where food is grown and raised. There is an abundance of food producers, farmers markets, and other amenities that connect us with local, healthy foods.
There is constant work to make sure people know about the opportunities, and constant work to improve the connections. The Rogue Valley Food System Network has long been dedicated to get people who eat (so, all of us) connected to healthy, locally produced foods.
Alison Hensley Sexauer is the Executive Director of RVFSN; she visits with details of the many details of getting good food to people, and the obstacles that get in the way.
Even if you didn't know the Rogue Valley, you could probably figure out quickly where the Table Rocks are. The two big and highly visible landforms--Upper and Lower Table Rocks--are flat-topped mesas just north of the Rogue River, not far from Medford.
They are famous features of the valley, and they are open for public exploration. And you don't have to wander around by yourself, because guided tours are available, through a combination of the Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy.
The guided hikes are all different, ranging from geological and historical emphasis to a ukulele jam session (really!). Molly Morrison from TNC and Molly Allen from BLM join us to frame the sessions.
One day is not enough to celebrate trees in Oregon, which is known far and wide for its trees. So the state now observes Arbor Month, and has for several years now. Yes, there is plenty of tree planting, but also some deeper discussions about what to plant and where, especially since trees and fires are constant companions over the warmer months in the state.
State Forester Calvin Mukumoto is heavily involved in the Arbor Month celebrations. He talks to us about urban forestry generally, with some specific information about Arbor Month activities.
Ashland Independent Film Festival is back, in a greatly reduced form. Most of the staff and board departed after last year's events, so the abbreviated "showcase" of this year is advertised as something like a seed for the growth of future festivals.
The showcase features 20 documentaries available for viewing starting April 14th, including one--Subject--that revisits the subjects of previous documentaries.
Lorraine Vail, a true film believer, has a lot to do with AIFF pulling off a springtime festival this year, even if a reduced one. She stops by the studio to talk about the films and what it took to secure them, along with board chair Kirkaldy Myers.
If your only knowledge of the Siskiyou Crest is that you sometimes have to put chains on your car to get over it in winter, you're missing a lot. Beyond the freeway, the Siskiyou Crest is a place of wondrous beauty and biodiversity, with some plants and animals that exist only there.
A party is planned for this July, Celebrating the Siskiyou Crest: A Festival of Arts, Culture, and Science, and submissions for the festival face a deadline of May 1st.
We get an overview of the festival and its potential contents from organizers Diana Coogle and Rose Gerstner.
The warnings from scientists and the United Nations get more urgent all the time: we are missing our chance to keep the rise in Earth's temperatures within "acceptable" levels. And beyond the reactions, from despair to derision, are the facts: more hot days, more destructive storms, more weather extremes of all kinds.
Andrew Boyd is the co-creator of Climate Clock, which counts down to a deadline for meaningful action. He does not hold his breath that we'll make it, but he does lay out several ways of thinking about this moment in history, in the book I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor.
Whether you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist, there's plenty to think about; we visit with the author for an overview.
Oregon voters said yes to new regulations on guns in last November's election. Then opponents sued, and courts (federal and state) said no, the regulations can't go into effect until trials have been held.
The Oregon Legislature is not waiting for the results. Many of the provisions contained in Measure 114 are found in bills working their way through the legislature in the current session. The principal bill is Senate Bill 348, offered by Senator Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, which tweaks some of the components of Measure 114. The bill is in committee, with a possible floor debate and vote pending.
Sen. Prozanski checks in to talk about guns and efforts to further regulate them.
Do we truly know about all of the things in the environment that can do harm to people and other living things? No, but we can measure. And when that's not possible, we can send in bees.
It's not only true, it happens already: A Belgian company called BeeOdiversity uses bees to assist in collecting information from the landscape, by collecting pollen from the bees when they return to the hive. The pollen can yield a wealth of information about pollutants, biodiversity, and other factors in the environment.
A recent project focused on the Klamath Basin. We get details on the information it yielded from Lorena Corzatt, who heads the Klamath Basin Beekeepers Association, and David Strelneck, who heads the company Nourish(n). He is the US coordinator for the project.
People keep talking about "It's a Wonderful Life," and it's not Christmas. Why? Because it's the freshest memory most of us have of a run on a bank... until lately. The recent troubles of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank showed once again that banks and their regulators have not planned for every contingency.
15 years after the subprime mortgage crisis and the Great Recession, we're looking anew at the places and people that store money. Medford-based People's Bank of Commerce, like many banks, has been answering more than the usual number of questions from customers about solvency and other issues.
CEO Ken Trautman and President Julia Beattie visit to answer our questions, and to talk about seeing their bank to its recent 25th birthday.
Challenges to the authority of the government, claims of a stolen election, and the death of a police officer. True, these are all recent events, but the story is much older.
The early 1930s were short on money and long on anger about it. It was a fertile climate for the growth of extremism, and grow it did in the Rogue Valley, coalescing around an organization called Good Government Congress.
Jeff LaLande, long a student and teacher of Rogue Valley history, tells the story anew in the book The Jackson County Rebellion: A Populist Uprising in Depression-Era Oregon. The events are gripping, the figures colorful, and the parallels with our time often too close for comfort.
Jeff LaLande shares details of a turbulent time in the region.
Del Norte County is blessed with weather and soil that can make just about any plant grow like crazy. But the area is not blessed with an abundance of either money or grocery stores. So local people encourage friends and neighbors to grow their own food, one of the goals of the Community Food Council for Del Norte and Tribal Lands (DNATL).
The council runs a number of programs, including one focused on the creation of food forests: similar to food gardens, but different in important ways. We learn more about the food forests and other features of the CFC in a visit with Food Forest Manager Angela Gray and fellow organizer David Salmon.
NOTE: a technical problem on our end created feedback on the air. We apologize, and figured out a way to prevent this from happening again.
(pareerica / Flickr)Spring is here (sort of), but some vestiges of winter remain, including concerts in the Tutunov Piano Series at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.
Polish pianist Joanna Trzeciak will play the final concert in this year's series on Friday, April 7th.
The series is named for Alexander Tutunov, a professor and artist-in-residence at SOU. He visits the studio once again to talk about the remarkable players gathered for the series, and the wide range of pieces of music they play.
There are multiple organizations set up to help military veterans obtain the benefits they are entitled to, for serving their country. But many vets still fall through the cracks, leaving money and services on the table.
Geoff Geness is a veterans service officer (VSO) for the UDT/SEAL Association, and a former Navy SEAL himself. He not only helps vets find benefits, he hosts a podcast on that very subject. Five episodes of the Veterans Access Podcast are already out there for listening; we listen to Dr. Geness describe the work in a visit to the JX.
You're not good at ball games, you're not very fast, but you don't mind contact sports.
Roller derby might be the sport for you. There's no ball, the speed comes from the skates, and oh yes, there's lots of contact.
Southern Oregon Derby (you can call it SO Derby, it was once Southern Oregon Roller Girls) is gearing up for another season of... meets? Bouts? Games? The action starts with an event at the Medford Armory on Saturday, April 8th.
Tiffany Maude (skate name: Naughty Maudie) drops by the studio to increase our knowledge of roller derby, along with Rachel Patstone (Madame Morticia).
It can be a tough thing to admit you're anxious or depressed when you live in a rural area. The code of rural living tends to favor the silent sufferer, or did in the past. No thanks, says Canadian rural-dweller Lewellyn Melnyk. She worried about her mental health long enough, and then chose to take steps to address it.
Melnyk tells the story in a book, Rooted: How I Stay Small-Town Strong When Life Gets Hard and How You Can Too.
As you might guess from the title, the book is part memoir and part self-help book; Melnyk claims no mental health expertise other than living through some tough times. She visits to talk about the challenges and her responses to them.
It's easy to say "the weather didn't used to be like this," but it's hard to be right about it. For one thing, humans don't live that long, at least when compared to climate cycles.
Our climate is changing now, and it has changed in the past. Recent research shows that just a few thousand years ago, the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest were the opposite of what they are now: PNW was drier, SW was wetter.
The research out of the University of California-Davis shows the differences between then and now, and the many influences upon climate. Lead researcher Hannah Palmer joins us, along with her former professor, Tessa Hill.
Here's what to do: Email a written and audio version of your original poem to JXProducer@SOU.edu . Include your name and the town you live in. The audio doesn’t have to be fancy, your phone’s voice recorder or any digital form is fine. All month, we’ll update our JX web page with a sampling of the poems we receive and we’ll choose some to air on the Exchange.
If you need a little nudge getting started, Amy Miller, the poetry editor for JPR’s Jefferson Journal offers the following tips:
- Keep an ongoing list of poem ideas, even kooky-sounding ones. “That time a gopher chased me.” “The smell of pizza and the memories it triggers.” That way you won’t forget good ideas, and later, when you’re stuck for something to write about, you’ll have a whole list of interesting topics to choose from.
- When using similes (this thing is like this other thing), make them as wild and unexpected as possible. If you think of one simile (“his eyes were like mahogany”), reach farther for a second one (“his eyes were like cold Coca-Cola”) and then a third (“his eyes were like Bing cherries in a jar”). Choose one of the more unusual ones. This puts an original stamp on your writing. Surprise the reader.
- Take something that happened in the past, and write it in present tense. Pare out as much explanation as possible, and describe it with sensory images as if it’s happening right now. What do you see, hear, taste? How much information can you leave out and still have an interesting, sense-rich poem?
- Take a cliché that’s been written about many times—“my grandchild is cute,” or “I am at peace in nature”—and add a “but” to it and elaborate on that. Write about that much-used topic, but put some grit in it to make it entirely new and yours.
Whatever you do, have fun with it!
We didn't even use the term "atmospheric river" very much until a few years ago. Then the cooler months of the year began delivering the thin but intense streams of water from the sky on a more regular basis.
As we learn more about them, some more terms may come into use, like a rating scale for them, similar to the way hurricane winds are rated from 1 to 5. Such a scale has existed since 2019, also with a 1-to-5 intensity rating. And recent research shows the value in using such a scale, to know what kinds of impacts may be felt in the places where atmospheric rivers make land.
Bin Guan from UCLA and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory led the research team and visits with highlights.
The first pregnancy was all it took, and Martha Rivera didn't even have to have a baby. She assisted the mother bring her child into the world as a doula, a trained professional who supports the mother through the birthing process.
That led to the creation of Rogue Valley Doulas, which has continued to expand, from Jackson and Josephine Counties into Klamath and Douglas. The old name had to go, so now Martha runs Doulas and Company.
We get information on just how doulas support pregnant women, and how the medical community and government support doulas, in a visit with Martha Rivera and fellow doula Katie Minich.
Forest thinning, such as this work done in the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, may be of value for some purposes but will also increase carbon emissions to atmosphere, researchers say. (Oregon State University)We've been talking for years--through many fire seasons--about the need to reduce the fuel loads in our forests. Now the federal government is putting a big stream of dollars into the efforts, through the Community Wildfire Defense Grants.
The program recently announced a list of funded projects across several states, including a grant for the Klamath Watershed Partnership.
We get the overview from CWDG Program Coordinator Shauna Morris and Leigh Ann Vradenburg at the Klamath Watershed Partnership.
It's a tough and dangerous job, but thousands of people do it: fight fires outdoors. Few of them are women, fewer still women from Native American tribes.
A National Park Service program aims to boost the ranks of women wildland firefighters, and a new agreement with the Yurok Tribe seeks to put indigenous women into those ranks. It's not a huge number at first; the Yuroks will recruit women to fill four slots.
Tribal Fire Chief Rod Mendes will be in charge of recruiting and training. He visits to round out details of the program.
The use of "land acknowledgements" has become common, a way to announce before public events who the first people to occupy that land were. It gives Native American people some recognition, but little else.
The idea of "land back" is a much more comprehensive concept, one that seeks to put lands taken by force and treaty and other means back into the ownership of tribes. Cal Poly Humboldt was the site of a recent Northern California Land Back Symposium, discussing lands already returned, and other goals and targets going forward.
Ryan Reed, from the Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa Tribes, unfolds the details of the movement and what came out of the symposium. We also hear from Regina Chichizola, Executive Director of Save California Salmon.
Our children don't read well. Test scores for both California and Oregon show only about 40% of 3rd graders able to read at grade level. It's a failure of education, and one we've been talking about for decades now.
A documentary out this spring called The Right to Read examines where the system failed, and who it is failing. For one thing, reading scores are worse for children of color and children in poverty (see the report from Our Children Oregon).
We bring in the filmmaker, Jenny Mackenzie, along with Ronda Fritz, who teaches at the College of Education at Eastern Oregon University. Dr. Fritz is also on the board of The Children's Institute in Oregon.
Generations of Oregon children screamed in delight as they went around and around on the old wooden carousel at Jantzen Beach in Portland. The amusement park around it went to the wrecking ball in 1970, but the carved horses still delighted kids at a shopping center until a few years ago.
Now Restore Oregon, a nonprofit, is storing the pieces of the old carousel, and looking for a permanent home for it. The hope is that the carousel will be able to stay in Oregon, but that future is not assured. We get the details from Restore Oregon Executive Director Nicole Possert and Stephanie Brown, Director of Carousel Planning and Education.
It's impressive how much food the world's farmers can crank out for the roughly 8 Billion people aboard the Earth. What's less impressive is how much of it goes to waste. By several counts, more than a third of the food created for people to eat ends up going to waste. And there are many impacts on people and the planet.
Those are observed in April during Food Waste Prevention Week (April 10-16), right up the alley of the Community Compost program in the Rogue Valley.
Now food scraps from several communities can be picked up for compost on area farms. Adam Holtey of Rogue Produce started the program. He and Flavia Franco at Southern Oregon Food Solutions visit to sketch out the food waste issue and how they address it.
Flavia speaks at the Southern Oregon Climate Action Now monthly meeting, Tuesday March 28 at 6 PM.
It's the political figures who make the most noise and headlines about the U.S. immigration system and its flaws. A recent book largely takes the politicians and their views out of the equation. Instead, Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children brings in the words and the pictures--mostly the pictures--of children whose families are part of the immigration picture, legal and not.
Silvia Rodriguez Vega from the University of California-Santa Barbara rounded up the children and their artwork for the book; she spent time with the JX giving us the big picture.
Very few states combine the job of county sheriff with that of the county coroner, and California is one of them. In fact, most of California's counties have a sheriff-coroner enforcing the law and investigating deaths at the same time.
Critics say there could be a conflict of interest when the sheriff has to investigate a death at the hands of police. And recent research appears to back up that view. Brian Finch led a team at the Dornsife Center at the University of Southern California who went through death statistics... and found the combination of jobs leads to an underreporting of police-caused deaths.
Dr. Finch spends some time laying out the research in a visit to the JX.
He not only works with homeless people, he WAS a homeless person once. Paul Boden put that behind him 40 years ago, but he still works hard to see to the needs of people who do not have regular housing, as Executive Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.
One of the major efforts is "right to rest" legislation that will stop homeless people from getting in trouble for being in public spaces and lying or even sitting down. Paul Boden discusses this and many other facets of homelessness in America.
The entire Oregon Legislature is focused on housing now, with a big package of bills heading for the governor's desk and a building boom potentially following.
None of this takes Rep. Pam Marsh of Ashland by surprise. Her Rogue Valley district dealt with tight housing and a sizable homeless population for years, only to see the 2020 fires make it all worse.
We catch up with Rep. Marsh on Housing Week, to hear about older efforts like mobile home park purchases, and her view of the new housing laws just emerging.
It took years for the housing market in Jackson County to get so tight; it got tighter by 2500 homes in a single night. The aftermath of the Almeda and South Obenchain fires is being seen to by the Jackson County Long-Term Recovery Group, among other players.
Rebuilding was already well underway when the state legislature put a new set of efforts and dollars into housing. Matthew Havniear is the Housing Recovery Director for the JCCLTRG; he talks to us about the progress of putting things back where they were before the fires.
Tight housing supply, expensive homes, and homelessness are all part of a continuum: if you've got enough money, you've probably got a home. But other factors have entered the equation over the years, like racism, and those factors linger despite efforts to vanquish them once and for all.
Oregon's Department of Housing and Community Services, OHCS, stays busy with housing issues, and figures to get busier still with the rush to build new housing picking up momentum.
Andrea Bell is the director of OHCS; she takes some time on JX's Housing Week to discuss the issue of racially-just housing and how to ensure it.
The rush to create more housing in a hurry in Oregon includes a few nips and tucks to the state's land-use planning law. For most of 50 years now, the law has led to the preservation of farm and forest land, and confined the growth of cities and suburbs.
1000 Friends of Oregon has been on the scene from the beginning of the law, working to make sure the law was observed. The group is on board with what the legislature is doing in the current session. Our Housing Week sessions continue with a visit with Mary Kyle McCurdy, Deputy Director of 1000 Friends.
Converting what was Humboldt State University into Cal Poly-Humboldt has already met one major goal: increasing enrollment. But that means bringing potentially thousands more students into what was already a squeaky-tight housing market in Arcata and environs.
So the university has been exploring a number of options to expand housing in the near-term and well beyond, including such exotic concepts as barges as living quarters. We get a rundown on the situation and the potential remedies from Stephen St. Onge, the Associate Vice President of Student Success and Chrissy Holliday, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success.
Homes come in all shapes and sizes, and some of them move. Not just manufactured homes, either... people do live in recreational vehicles as permanent homes. And the residents of one RV park in Douglas County bristled when their rents went up steeply, more than 30%.
They more than bristled, they hired a lawyer and filed a class action suit against Rising River RV Resort & River House in Green, near Roseburg. This is a type of suit very familiar to Troy Pickard, the Managing Attorney at the Portland Defender law firm.
He talks to us about issues facing renters generally, and the unique issues of people who live in RVs on rented land.
All eyes are focused on housing in Oregon at the moment. Gov. Tina Kotek took office in January and quickly declared a State of Emergency on housing.
The legislature has followed the path, with the House just passing a pair of key bills to address housing and homelessness. Our Housing Week project spends nearly every segment on the issue, and here we take it up directly with Gov. Kotek.
If we're lucky, we make enough money at our jobs to have a bit left over for when we're done working. For too many people, it doesn't work out that way; that explains why several sources report that seniors are the fastest-growing age group in the homeless population.
Justice in Aging, formerly the National Senior Citizen Law Center, has a long history fighting for the rights and the money seniors are supposed to get by law and by contract. The organization's work on housing and homelessness focuses on getting more units of affordable housing for seniors to live in.
Executive Director, Kevin Prindiville joins the program.
Oregon was already thousands of units behind in having enough housing for all of its residents. Then the fires of September 2020 came along and destroyed thousands of units in the Rogue Valley alone, most of them low-cost units.
Talent Mobile Estates lost all but a single row of manufactured homes in the Almeda Fire, and so far only recreational vehicles have replaced the homes lost. But change is coming, with residents poised to take over ownership of the park itself.
CASA of Oregon, Community and Shelter Assistance Corporation, is a major player in the change. Peter Hainley, CASA executive director, explains.
The ideas for addressing housing shortages and homelessness come fast and furious. The execution takes a bit longer. Redding is in the process of setting up the South Market Micro Shelter Community, a cluster of tiny houses meant to guide homeless people from the streets to permanent housing.
Eight people will get to live in the shelters and receive an array of support services along with the fixed abodes. United Way of California is the lead agency on the project, led by President and CEO Larry Olmstead. Our Housing Week project brings in the CEO for a chat about this and other housing issues in the vast North State.
No matter how you build a house, it takes time and materials and money, lots of money. Or does it? Some construction techniques and materials are cheaper than others, and the low-cost end includes the newer technology of "printing" homes using 3D printing techniques on a large scale.
New Spirit Village is envisioned as a community of printed homes in West Medford. It is the brainchild of Kathryn and Barry Thalden, who have decades of experience planning and building homes. They spend some time on JX's Housing Week talking about the details of New Spirit Village.
They are two sides of a very important coin in our region: housing on one side, and homelessness on the other. The region needs much more of the first to have much less of the second.
We spend a lot of this week's JX on housing issues, beginning with the Oregon Legislature, where the House just passed a pair of major bills over to the Senate. Lauren Dake covers the state capitol for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She visits to talk about the legislative focus on housing, and some of the issues within the big picture.
Americans, Jewish and not, are concerned about the rise of antisemitism in the country. Recent surveys reflect rising concerns over greater numbers of incidents, and some particularly newsworthy and deadly ones.
The Ashland City Council issued an Antisemitism Proclamation in February, and the City of Medford is being approached for a similar move, just a few months after vandals destroyed a public menorah set up for Hanukkah.
We talk about the concerns and the responses with three members of Ashland's Temple Emek Shalom: Emily Simon, who chairs Ashland's Social Equity and Racial Justice Advisory Committee (SERJAC), Dana Kline, who lives in Medford, and Steven Portnoy, the president of the congregation.
All those TV commercials about prescription drugs always end with "ask your doctor if [the drug] is right for you." And that part comes after the long litany of possible complications in ingesting said drug.
Lisa Loomer, who explores issues of health and society and more in her plays and screenplays, takes up the subject in her recent work Side Effects May Include...
Ashland New Plays Festival presents readings of the play next weekend (March 25 & 26). The playwright and ANPF Artistic Director Jackie Apodaca visit with details of the play.
One of the most common questions about climate change is "what can I do?" Here's one answer: sing.
There's plenty of art and music already out there about global warming, and an upcoming Ashland concert presents a few selections. The Southern Oregon University Chamber Choir is the group, and Changing Patterns is the title of its winter concert, coming up Sunday (March 19th).
Jerron Jorgensen is the choir director, and our guest in an exploration of the concert plans.
The approach to drugs and addiction changed in Oregon with the passage of Measure 110. The law removed stiff penalties for drug possession and set up programs for people to get help dealing with their addictions. But there was controversy from the start, and disagreements about how well the law is working.
One major point is the allocation of cannabis tax money that would otherwise have gone to cities, but was diverted to treatment programs. Some cities want the money back, and a bill in the Oregon Legislature would recalculate the formula.
The Health Justice Recovery Alliance brings together pro-Measure 110 groups from across the state, and it is committed to the full implementation of the measure. We visit with Executive Director Tera Hurst and Brandon Kinzel from the Family Nurturing Center in Medford about the progress so far, and the attempts to change the law already.
The needs were different in the fall of 2020: most restaurants were closed by the pandemic, and fires had just destroyed 2500 homes in Jackson County. So Rogue Food Unites formed to address both issues: get people who make food, to make food for people burned out by the fires.
Now with the pandemic lockdowns over and homes being rebuilt, the operation has evolved. But it is still focused on getting quality food to people who are not fully equipped with the means to prepare their own. We get an update on what RFU is doing now, in a visit with Wendy Connor and Amber Ferguson, respectively the Director of Programs and Production and the Executive Director/CEO.
Quick, name a newspaper that has won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. The New York Times? Yep, more than anyone else. Washington Post? Absolutely. The Storm Lake Times? Yes, even if you never heard of it.
The paper serves a small community in Iowa farm country, battling big agriculture and the financial realities of our times. A 2021 documentary, Storm Lake, follows the small group of people who make the paper, fighting for its survival. A screening of the film is set for Thursday (March 16th) in Ashland, a benefit for the nonprofit Ashland.news.
We meet the film's director, Beth Levinson, in a chat with Tod Davies of the Ashland.news board.
You can study the oppression of Native Americans and LGBTQ people separately or together, but you will certainly find some similarities. In neither case is the oppression ancient history; it continues today.
Students at Southern Oregon University take a course called Queer Indigenous Studies in the Native American Studies (NAS) program. The class culminates with the Queer Indigenous Gathering, held this evening, March 14th.
We discuss issues and the event with Brook Colley, NAS chair, and students Ellie Trahern and Raven Reyes, who is also a teaching assistant.
(Jamie Lusch/Mail Tribune)A recent conversation pointed out the many mysteries of recycling... for example, what you can leave at the curb in one town will not be taken in another nearby.
Some of that is changing with an Oregon law that will gradually standardize recycling, but it's still a complex and often confusing process. Which is why we reached out to the Master Recyclers Program in Jackson County to help answer some questions about how just folks can do a better job in preparing their recyclables for pickup.
Denise Barnes heads up the program and returns to field the recycling questions. Get yours in at JX@jeffnet.org.
It all started with a film made in Eugene that the filmmaker had no place to show. No venue, no problem: the filmmaker started a film festival, the one we now know as the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon, showing films long and short, fiction and non, by and about Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
"We Generation" is the theme for this year, the 18th DisOrient, celebrating many generations of people represented in the films. This year's festival features a couple of days of in-person showings at Eugene's Art House, but a week--March 13-19--of offerings that people can stream online.
Susan Hirata, the Programming Director for DisOrient, visits with details of the festival and some of its highlights.
One of the biggest names in American coffee is also one of the biggest names in American union activity these days. Starbucks, which has mushroomed to more than 15,500 locations across the country, is also an employer of union workers at some of its locations (fewer than 300 so far).
Workers at the freestanding Ashland store (there are two others inside supermarkets) are considering whether to jump on the union bandwagon with Starbucks Workers United. Organizing activity is well underway, with a potential vote pending in a few weeks.
JPR's Roman Battaglia talked with workers Naia Duggan and Bart Tveskov about their reasons for wanting to join the union.
Don't get confused by the name of Sunshine Week. It's got nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with letting the sun shine into the business of government.
Journalists and good-government groups spend plenty of energy trying to get access to public records, because they show the carrying out of the public's business. Oregon has a Public Records Advocate to assist efforts to obtain those records.
We get a tour of the duties from PRA Todd Albert, and Deputy Public Records Advocate Yufeng Luo.
The big headlines about liquor thus far in 2023 concern the leadership at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, where the boss stepped down amidst a scandal about expensive whiskey.
The concerns of the Oregon Alcohol Policy Alliance are more related to the prevalence of alcohol abuse and the light touch of taxes on beer and wine. The money part is addressed in a bill in the Oregon House, the Alcohol Harms Reduction Act. At the moment, it's a very short bill, but one with some very big implications. There is also HB 2976, to create a board regulating and promoting spirits.
We explore the bills and the larger approach to alcohol with Dr. Marv Seppala from the Alliance, a former chief medical officer at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
We take printing for granted in our time. Any computer with a halfway-decent printer can slide out sheets of paper with professional-looking text or graphics. But there are still people who do things the old way, creating art through printing--woodblock, silk screen, you name it. And the level of detail and richness of color can be staggering.
Examples are in place now at the Schneider Museum of Art at Ashland's Southern Oregon University. Pushing the Press: Contemporary Printers Redefining the Medium features the work of several artists, including Dennis McNett. He joins us to talk about the painstaking work of making prints using very old methods.
You would be correct in assuming there will be an abundance of cheese available for sampling and purchase at the Oregon Cheese Festival coming to the Jackson County Expo this weekend (March 11/12).
But that's really the tip of a very large... uh, cheeseberg. Because the festival also features all kinds of food and beverages, adult and non, and foods that have nothing to do with dairy fat left to ferment.
Katie Bray is Executive Director of the Oregon Cheese Guild, which supports artisanal cheesemaking all over the state. She gives us a taste of the weekend plans.
Housing is still a big issue in the region, two and a half years since the September 2020 fires. And simple rebuilding is not enough; there's a greater emphasis on building dwellings that will be harder for a fire to burn down.
We have talked about fire "hardening" and money available for it on previous programs. Now there is a deadline approaching for using fire hardening money made available by the State of Oregon; unless reauthorized, it runs out June 30th.
Ted Zuk runs Development Services (planning) in Jackson County. He and Russ Gallegos, who used a grant to harden his business in Talent, talk about the deadline and the ways in which the money can be used.
How to apply: contact the development offices in Phoenix or Talent or Jackson County.
Maybe you can name some women composers of our time, but how far back does that knowledge extend? Despite the preponderance of white guys in the canon, women of all colors have been composing music as long as there has been music.
The vocal group In Mulieribus ("Among Women") celebrates women composers pre-1750 in its works. The group comes to Ashland for a concert on March 12th (Sunday), brought in by Anima Mundi Productions as part of its Heart of Humanity Series.
We learn about the pieces and hear some portions in a visit with Anna Song of In Mulieribus and Ethan Gans-Morse of Anima Mundi.
The future home of the new Medford High School, which was most recently a call center and multipurpose building for Asante(Roman Battaglia / Jefferson Public Radio)"North Medford" and "South Medford" have a certain ring to them. But the third public high school in town is temporarily stuck with the wobbly moniker of "High School of Choice."
A new name is in the works, to be chosen with student input. And students can choose to go to the new school, set up for young people in grades 9-12 who do well with hands-on learning involved with projects. It is expected to open in the fall of this year.
We hear more detail on the new school and its goals in a visit with Medford School Superintendent Bret Champion and Principal Cass Thonstad.
Native American and Alaska Native groups have been trying for years to get law enforcement to focus on missing and murdered indigenous people. They are victims of violence, especially women, at rates much higher than national averages for all groups.
Political and justice figures have taken notice, and now the U.S. Marshals Service is moving into the zone, starting with the Yurok Tribe of California's North Coast. Details are still being worked out, but meetings have been going on since early this year to figure out steps to address the MMIP issue.
We hear details of the goals and the ideas floated so far, in a visit with Jessica Carter, Yurok Tribal Court Director. We also hear from Lori McPherson, Senior Policy Advisor for the Marshals Service, and USMS Northern California Chief Deputy Marshal Mark Kolc.
We met Jeff Hobbs a few years ago, talking about his book on young men heading off for college, Show Them You're Good.
Hobbs covers a different transition in his latest book, following young men into and out of, and sometimes BACK into, the juvenile justice system. It's called Children of the State: Stories of Survival & Hope in the Juvenile Justice System, and it's less about the grim numbers in the school-to-prison pipeline than it is about the personal stories of boys trying to get on the good side of the law.
Jeff Hobbs talks about the people he met, and what he learned from them, in this visit to the JX.
The biggest year of the baby boom, 1957, saw 4.3 Million American babies born. They're turning 66 this year, and that explains the mass retirements of our time. There are other issues with such a huge senior population, including large numbers of them living homeless.
By many accounts, those numbers are growing, and Chad McComas, the founder and former director of Rogue Retreat, is working with that portion of the population now. The new project is called Joy Community, aimed at finding or building low-cost housing for seniors. It's part of McComas's Set Free Services, run out of the church he started in Medford.
We get the overview of the homeless senior situation and the response when Chad McComas visits the JX.
The U.S. Capitol must have been running short of chairs when the House of Representatives capped its membership at 435. If representatives were still apportioned the old way, there would be well more than a thousand of them by now.
Earl Blumenauer of Oregon's 3rd Congressional District does not propose going that far. But he does suggest going up to 585 House members after the next census, to give each member fewer people to represent.
There would also be an effect on the numbers in the Electoral College used to elect presidents. We get an overview and rationale in an interview with Rep. Blumenauer.
Spring has NOT sprung, but it will, someday soon. Now is the time to prepare for it, if you plan to grow plants, especially the kind that attract pollinators.
Pollinator Project Rogue Valley has all kinds of tips on which plants are most attractive and helpful for butterflies. And PPRV offers workshops on cultivating such plants, including one coming up Sunday (March 5th) at the Talent Library.
David Lee Myers, who photographs many butterflies (and other subjects), leads that workshop. He and PPRV President Kristina Lefever are our guests.
Medford native John Frohnmayer has had a long and varied career, including being placed in charge of the National Endowment for the Arts just in time for all hell to break loose over the kind of art NEA supported (remember Jesse Helms?).
Frohnmayer wrote a book about that, he wrote a book about the First Amendment, he wrote a book of poetry about skiing. Now he's shifted genres again, with a novel--his first--on a work of art. Not just ANY work of art, but one revered as holy by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and who actually owns it. Blood and Faith is the focus of a book club run out of OLLI in Ashland.
John Frohnmayer visits, along with OLLI's Andrea Gay.
For years, the animal shelter in Jackson County was identified as a "no-kill shelter," where dogs and cats would go in and come out alive, in most cases. During that time, Jackson County Animal Services received a major and ongoing boost to its work from the Friends of the Animal Shelter, FOTAS.
The county agency and the nonprofit work closely together, but now some distance is being asserted by the county. The physical arrangement of the organizations and their respective roles are receiving scrutiny from county managers, and the shelter is no longer considered "no-kill."
Sky Loos is the Executive Director of FOTAS, and Stacy Brubaker is Jackson County's Director of Health & Human Services, which oversees the shelter. They visit the JX to lay out the redefining of the FOTAS/JCAS relationship and the reasons for it.
It's just a great time to examine journalism in Southern Oregon. Because there have been some serious eruptions on the landscape just in the first two months of the year, headlined by the closing of the Mail Tribune of Medford, and the rise of other newspapers to take its place.
The Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon is focused on helping build journalism that comes FROM the community, FOR the community. AJC Director Andrew DeVigal has been studying the Southern Oregon journalism scene for a while now, and he presents some of his findings at events in the Rogue Valley this week.
We already talked to DeVigal about the Mail Tribune going defunct; we welcome him back to expand the focus on his work. And you can take the survey at this link.
Thank goodness for science; in our time in history, people generally do not blame disease outbreaks and other negative events on witches. But it used to happen, and Christopher Fry's play The Lady's Not for Burning makes a comedy of it.
The play, a 1948 concoction set in the 15th Century, features a woman condemned to burn as a witch, and a weary soldier who volunteers to take her place. Southern Oregon University mounts a production of it opening Thursday (March 2nd), under the direction of Michael J. Hume, a veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
The director visits to lay out the play and the story of its making, originally and now.
The warnings from the climate scientists just keep on coming, because so does the evidence that climate change is deepening.
The same group of scientists that said "humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency" just a few months ago is out with a new paper offering further evidence.
The group, led by a team at Oregon State University, points out that feedback loops, results of climate change that further contribute to climate change, are too many in number to ignore. The scientists were thorough, identifying 41 separate feedback loops.
Jillian Gregg, part of the OSU contingent, joins us to detail the results.
We've traveled some distance in judging people on appearance, but there's plenty of road still ahead of us. Especially when it comes to people who are overweight or obese.
Wendy Willis Baldwin has a story to tell there, about a sister who was morbidly obese and had to make some serious life changes just to live. Wendy and sister Tiffany co-host a podcast called "Life After Fat Pants: True Stories about Transformation."
And Wendy went a step further, writing a fictionalized account of she and her sister, the novel The Sisters We Were." She visits to talk about the many issues the book raises, and why she chose to address them through fiction.
It's worth sticking around to watch the sky after sunset this week. Because two of the brightest objects in the sky, Jupiter and Venus, will appear almost next to each other in the sky, with the closest pairing on March 1st.
Canadian amateur astronomer Gary Boyle, who goes by The Backyard Astronomer in Canada, will be watching for the big event. He watches for lots of big events in the sky, and can explain the movements that make the "conjunction" possible.
We bring Gary back to the JX to tell the story--and to tell us where to look in the sky.
Dams stop salmon from swimming up the Sacramento River to old spawning grounds. No one is talking seriously about removing the dams from this particular river, but some other projects are underway to give fish greater chances for survival.
Young fish can make use of hiding places like tree rootwads, so a partnership of several entities is providing more of them. The Sacramento River Settlement Contractors and the Sacramento Valley Ecological Restoration Foundation (SAVER) just put in a second round of "rockwads," tree parts bound to boulders to provide fish habitat in the Sacramento.
Roger Cornwell, SAVER's president and a member of SRSC, explains the process in a visit with John Hannon from the federal Bureau of Reclamation.
"Just breathe," people are known to say to one another. Important for anyone doing just about anything, but a lot MORE important for people who play wind instruments... yes, they have to breathe, but they also have to TIME their breathing.
Southern Oregon University's Wind Ensemble--woodwinds and brasses and more--presents its spring concert Thursday of this week (March 2nd).
Ivan Olinghouse, normally the director of the band across the street at Ashland High School, leads the program this time around. He visits to share details and music.
You've probably heard of "swatting," that situation where police show up in force--even with a SWAT team--to a home where there is nothing going on.
A variation of that has occurred a few times in the region of late, where threats to students at schools are reported to police, when no such threats exist. Tighe O'Meara is the chief of Ashland Police, who have had to deal with the situation. We talk to the chief about trends in false reports, and how police deal with the situations.
You're not much on sightseeing, and you're not a history buff, so is there another reason for visiting Italy? Maybe... food? Bingo. And public media's European travel expert, Rick Steves, is out with a new book emphasizing the ingestible delights of the peninsula: Rick Steves' Italy for Food Lovers.
We expected all kinds of meaty, tomato-y items, but our eyes locked upon the picture of Rick holding a cannoli. His book is actually a rebirth and reworking of Italy for the Gourmet Traveler by Fred Plotkin, who is a co-author of the new book.
Rick Steves pays another visit to rave about Italian food and how to best experience it. And where.
The world-class pianist Alexander Tutunov revealed in a JX interview that he has perfect pitch. If a car honks on the street, he can tell you what note the horn plays. It may be both blessing and curse, but it certainly helps him play the piano.
And his success led to the establishment of the Tutunov Piano Series at Southern Oregon University, which brings in other extraordinary musicians to play concerts for Rogue Valley crowds.
next two feature Sofya Gulyak on February 28th and Josu de Solaun on March 28th. Tutunov himself returns to the JX to preview the concerts.
The state of Oregon is taking no chances with the emerald ash borer. The insect has devastated populations of ash trees elsewhere in the country, and its arrival in Oregon was confirmed last year.
By then, the state was already collecting seeds from ash trees all over the state... not just to replant when older trees are killed, but also to test resistance to the emerald ash borers.
We get further details on the seed-collecting and other anti-ash borer strategies from Wyatt Williams at the Oregon Department of Forestry and Richard Sniezko at the U.S. Forest Service.
LINK: to the Oregon Forest Pest Detectors program from OSU Extension.
It's one of those stock phrases, usually used in (failed) romance: "there are a lot of fish in the ocean." Fisheries economist Rashid Sumaila makes his living adding detail and context to that fact and others, and he's gaining recognition for his efforts.
Sumaila, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is collecting fellowships and prizes for his work showing the ability of the oceans to feed the people of the world, if properly managed. He visited a few months ago to talk about farmed fish and their shortcomings. He returns to talk about a proposal to ban fishing on the high seas, and about his recent honors.
Those honors include winning the Tyler Prize from USC, for work on the environment. He shares that with UBC colleague Daniel Pauly.
The Almeda Drive fire of 2020 gave a harsh lesson in affordable housing: it tends to be in low-lying areas, and it burns easily.
The fire along the Bear Creek bottomlands took out a huge chunk of the Medford area's affordable housing in one day.
Recovering what was lost is difficult in some cases, impossible in others. A documentary film, The Way Back to Normal, shows the process, and will be screened by Unite Oregon at an environmental justice conference in Ashland this weekend (February 25th).
Virginia Camberos, Rogue Valley Chapter Director for Unite Oregon, shares the story of the film and the efforts it shows.
Since the environmental decisions of today will affect the people who will run the world tomorrow, it makes sense to include them in the decisions. That's the thinking that put Danny Cage on Oregon's Environmental Justice Council, before he was even out of high school.
Graduation is a few months away, but the concerns about the uneven distribution of environmental impacts are longstanding and ongoing. We spend some time with Danny Cage, talking about his concerns about environmental justice, and what it's like to share them on a state board.
It's a crude generality, and a durable one: "the winners write the history books." But obviously the people who lose battles in war have a lot at stake, and research into battles should take note of that perspective.
Mark Tveskov, Southern Oregon University anthropologist, has dug into many a battlefield, joined forces on this topic with a colleague in a new book, Conflict Archaeology, Historical Memory, and the Experience of War: Beyond the Battlefield.
Ashland Ann Bissonnette from Eastern Connecticut State University is Tveskov's co-editor; they join us to talk about doing thorough research on battlefield sites, but also researching a greater context for the people and the causes who collided in battle.
A wolf of the Wenaha Pack captured on a remote camera on U.S. Forest Service land in northern Wallowa County.
(
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
)The wolf known as OR-7 fascinated the world, breaking away from his pack in northeastern Oregon to wander hundreds of miles over hill and dale.
Erica Berry did not get nearly as much attention when she wandered away from her Oregon home in search of understanding about wolves. Well, about wolves and how humans think about and react to them.
Now THAT is a story, and in fact the one Berry tells in her book Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear.
Noble apex predator or willful destroyer of livestock? It depends on where you go and who you ask, and Erica Berry went to lots of places and talked to lots of people. She shares details in her visit with the JX.
File photo. Is this year's fire season the worst it has ever been? New research suggest it is not.(InciWeb)It's not just that we get more and bigger wildfires across the West in the dry season. It's also that some of the places that already burned are burning AGAIN, and more frequently in the last few years.
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory studied re-burns, to try to figure out what factors best indicate a place where a re-burn might happen.
Hydrologist Kurt Solander led the team and joins us on the JX to talk about the findings.
SOU President Rick Bailey has made clear he does not want to balance the budget by raising student tuition rates again. The plan--with input from all corners of SOU--is unveiled at a campus-wide meeting on Thursday (February 16th).
Issues in the supply, distribution, diversity, and resiliency of healthcare workers in Oregon. Lead author Tao Li is an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
two of the companies picking up trash and recycling in the region, Recology and Rogue Disposal (technical Rogue Waste, Inc.). Gary Blake from Recology's Ashland office and Laura Leebrick from RWI in Medford on fixing recycling.
Researchers looked at electric vehicle (EV) adoption by zip codes and found the greater the adoption, the lesser the pollution and the lesser the occurrence of emergency room visits for respiratory issues. Lead researcher Erika Garcia from the Keck School of Medicine at USC.
The Early Educator Investment Collaborative, which is determined to drive up pay scales for people who work educating children early in life. Ola Friday is the Director of EEIC and has information about a new grant program.
Second Street Musicians, so named because they meet at Trinity Church in Ashland, which is on Second Street. Patricia Potter is the leader of this group of string players of many ages.
Oregon State Parks and Marine Mammal Institute weigh in on recent strandings, with Chris Havel from OPRD and Josh Stewart from MMI.
AIFF Board President Kirkaldy Myers and supporter Lorraine Vail describe plans for an April mini-festival
Goldie Taylor's been on NBC, ABC, and other networks providing political analysis. Her success is all the more notable because of some serious disadvantages she had growing up, including sexual abuse before she was even a teenager. Taylor takes the good and the bad and tells the whole story in her memoir "The Love You Save."
Modern playwright Meghan Brown, who wrote "What Happened While Hero Was Dead," to show Hero's side of what comes across as a decidedly un-feminist story. Student actors at Southern Oregon University stage the play later this week (February 16th), under the direction of Holly Derr, visiting from the University of Memphis.
Kimberly Johnson is the Chief Executive of Children's Legacy Center and the Interim CEO of One Safe Place while OSP refines its work and its future plans.
The Rogue Valley is home to Martin Behnke's Timberline Express Big Band (TEBB for short), a band chock-full of good jazz musicians (and a singer).
The Market Street Spawning Habitat Project is dropping gravel--intended spawning habitat for the fish--into the Sacramento river at the Market Street Bridge in Redding. It's a lot of gravel, about 8,000 tons. Josh Watkins, Water Utility Manager for the city, visits with details on the project.
Lisa Mensah is the President and CEO of the Oregon Community Foundation. Dee Anne Everson is a board member; they discuss donations in and grants out.
Quinn Read, Oregon Policy Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, walks us through the legislative priorities of the Oregon Wildlife Coalition.
David Smigelski is the editor of the new Rogue Valley Tribune, and Heidi Wright is the Chief Operating Officer for EO Media, which started it.
Governor and legislative leaders both talk about shoring up education and services for children, and organizations that work with kids in the Oregon state budget. We check in with Kali Thorne Ladd, the founder of KairosPDX and current CEO of Children's Institute, about some of the greatest needs for children.
The Center for Biological Diversity is among the groups seeking another attempt to bring sea otters back, because they are key players in coastal ecosystems. Emily Jeffers, an attorney at the Center, lays out the plan and the request.
The Friends of the Hannon Library (at Southern Oregon University) invited Ellie Alexander the writer of many mysteries with punny titles like "Muffin But the Truth" and "Catch Me If You Candy." She and Ed Battistella from the lecture series.
Andy Lee Roth is the Associate Director of Project Censored and the co-editor of the collection; he takes us on an extended tour of the left-out stories of the last year, and why they got left out--and by whom.
Psychiatrist Dr. Hannah McLane is the founder and director of SoundMind, supervising the training of therapists. She gives the backstory on why she got into psychedelic therapy, and why she sees such value in it.
Some jobs are a bit more accident-prone than others, and SAIF produced a series of videos released in January called "Oregon Odd Jobs." The YouTube videos feature host Corey Jenkins getting something like on-the-job training in skills like glassblowing, chainsaw carving, and unpacking cow guts
The Afroscoutz program of BASE Southern Oregon continues to bring in more young Black people and add to the activities in which they participate. Tiffany Beach and Precious Yamaguchi from BASE fill out the story.
Water League and Southern Oregon Pachamama Alliance have joined to create a "water action community" to keep an eye on water use and on input from the public in its use. The effort for this year kicks off at an event at the Medford library on Saturday, February 4th. Christopher Hall from Water League visits to discuss vision and plans.
Robert Hammer of Homeland Security Investigations talks to JPR's Roman Battaglia about the agency's work to bust human trafficking in illegal cannabis operations.
KF schools hire ZeroEyes to add AI to security cameras, to detect guns approaching schools. Superintendent Keith Brown and ZeroEyes co-founder Dustin Brooks lay out the workings.
The Western Regional Advocacy Project, which works on behalf of homeless people, proposes the Right to Rest Act.Paul Boden and Jade Arellano of WRAP flesh out the details of the proposed law.
Shasta county's Elections Department racked up a victory when it was asked to participate in the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence. The alliance is focused on helping members and other local election operations run elections that are transparent, fair, and supported by the general public.
Ivan Manzanilla came some distance to teach drums and other percussion at Southern Oregon University.
advocates want to see state legislatures pass The Workplace Psychological Safety Act, and are active in the current session of the Oregon legislature. Debra Falzoi from Dignity Together and activist/lobbyist Misty Orlando from End Workplace Abuse
The High Desert Museum in Bend just opened (January 28th) a display of art from and about the people of the Columbia River Plateau. Only indigenous people created the works, which are artistic and functional at the same time. HDM Director Dana Whitelaw explains.
Since the MailTribune shut down, The Daily Courier has since hired two reporters and a photographer from the MT staff, Daily Courier publisher Travis Moore and editor Scott Stoddard.
Domoic acid and undersized crabs has delayed crabbing season impacting businesses. Tim Novotny is Executive Director of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission; he and Caren Braby of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Art students at Southern Oregon University are getting a lesson in this, making sculpture out of things people have tossed in the garbage or recycling bins. Michael Parker, art professor, visiting artist Chella Foster, and Recology Ashland General Manager Gary Blake.
Rockafairy and Randall Theatre join forces for open mic nights and other events. John Wing from Randall is our guest, along with Shane Ross from Rockafairy.
Siskiyou Mountain Club Executive Director Gabe Howe about the opening of hiring for this summer's trail rehabilitation interns.
California is temporarily rolling back some requirements for substitute teaching. Shasta County is one of many putting out the welcome mat for subs, and Kerri Schuette of the Office of Education joins us with details of the local shortage and the benefits for new subs.
Oregon Coast Visitors Association recently reported that 90% of the seafood eaten on the Oregon coast comes from somewhere else. So the OCVA is mounting a campaign to encourage more local consumption of seafood, to reduce carbon consumption and increase local jobs. Marcus Hinz is Executive Director of the OCVA, joined by Max Valentine, Human Rights expert and the Campaign Director, Illegal Fishing and Transparancy, for Oceana.
Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon joined other senators in requesting funding for a new Office of Rural Health within the CDC. Sen. Merkley visits for an overview of what ORH will do.
Oregon State University research shows that the drier air may have a greater effect on Douglas fir trees than lack of rain. Karla Jarecke, a postdoctoral researcher in the OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, led the research and talks about the findings.
Ellie Cosgrove and Vanessa Ogier talk about the elements of the Master Climate Protector training offered by Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN).
Drummer Paul English, a Texas tough guy/artist/best friend and virtual alter ego to Willie Nelson is remembered by his buddy and not-so-ghostly ghostwriter David Ritz in the book "Me and Paul: Untold Stories of a Fabled Friendship."
Woodwell Climate Research Center teamed up with Wild Heritage and the Natural Resources Defense Council for their own inventory of old growth forests, recently published in a science journal.
Doing things more like the indigenous people of North America did for thousands and thousands of years is the subject of the book Respect and Responsibility in Pacific Coast Indigenous Nations: The World Raven Makes written by co-authors Raymond Pierotti at the University of Kansas and Eugene Anderson, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside.
The Rogue River Preserve north of Medford protects more than 300 acres of land, and is generally not open to the public. Open Lands Day on January 21st gives people a chance to visit. From the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, Stewardship Director Kristi Mergenthaler and Education Project Manager Tara Laidlaw.
Pollinator Project Rogue Valley recently received a grant from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians to bolster programs for bees and other pollinators. The grant is earmarked for the Pollinator Pals program, getting kids involved in enhancing habitat for pollinators. PPRV's President, Kristina Lefever, visits, along with Pollinator Educator and Outreach Specialist Ethan Robison.
Coos Bay Public Library Library Director Sami Pierson and Youth Services Librarian Jennifer Knight on Dolly Parton Imagination Library, encouraging children to read by encouraging parents to read to them.
The Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon is focused on helping build journalism that comes FROM the community, FOR the community. AJC Director Andrew DeVigal visits to talk about the death of this journalism outlet, and the hoped-for birth of entities that can replace it in the future.
Jackson County Public Health Officer Dr. Leona O'Keefe about current infectious disease and prevention.
United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals program just starting up in the business school at Southern Oregon University will join SOU students with students from their sister school, the University of Guanajuato in Mexico.
MLK Day events participants include Geneva Craig, who lived in Selma and was tear-gassed on Bloody Sunday, and Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, whose mother died when she went South to help. Both will speak in Grants Pass. We also welcome Precious Yamaguchi from the Ashland celebration, Bittin Duggan and Danny Stoddard from Coos Bay, and Reverend Ryan Scott from Grants Pass, for conversations about what's been accomplished... and what remains.
Evalyn Hansen herself a theater pro, has interviewed hundreds of people in the theater industry, many of them at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. She's compiled some of the best in the book Backstage with Evalyn Hansen.
Kirsten and Christopher Shockey are renowned fermentistas, and the featured speakers at the Brine, Brew & Barrel Fermentation Festival, coming to Ashland this weekend (January 13th).
The Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy (CORE) at Oregon State University formed with an eye to assisting in the development of the outdoor recreation industry and its workers. Lee Davis, the Executive Director.
Cooperation Humboldt offers free introductory workshops on starting coops in legal cannabis. We get details from Shawn Cherry at Salmon Creek Legacy Farms and Tobin McKee, the Program Administrator at Cooperation Humboldt.
Kim Casey, Program Manager for Jackson County Animal Shelter talks aboutthe work to find homes for hard-to-place pets.
Lori Dengler, geophysicist and longtime professor from Cal Poly-Humbold about the data still being collected and what's known already indicates the Ferndale quake is one of the stronger earthquakes in recorded California history.
Jeri Kersten Mendelson is a practicing dermatologist who teaches an olli class on the things that can go wrong when people work and play outdoors .
The Oregon Remembrance Project works to remind the state of its racist past, with an eye toward improvement and reconciliation. Gabi Johnsen and Taylor Stewart are key players in the effort, and in observing the coming birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grants Pass.
Katie Campbell of Pro Publica is the principal creator of a documentary on a family supported by salmon fishing in the Columbia River, which contains far fewer fish than it once did.
Jackie Apodaca is the Artistic Director of Ashland New Plays Festival plans for 2023, the sooner and the later.
Miranda Gray is the South Coast Watershed Council Coordinator. She and Kelly Timchak from the Lower Rogue Watershed Council stop by to fill in some details about restoration and conservation activities.
The nonprofit AGE+ set up shop a few years ago to help rural Oregonians stay connected to community as they age.AGE+ President Stephanie Hooper visits the JX with details of the project.
Religion scholar Bradley Onishi looks into the movement and its aims, partly as researcher and observer, and partly as memoir: he grew up in the American evangelical community. Onishi's book is "Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism-and What Comes Next."
The Jackson County Community Long-Term Recovery Group on the post Almeda and Obenchain Fire rebuilding and partner Rogue Reimagined. Caryn Wheeler Clay, JCCLTRG Executive Director, returns with an update, accompanied by Marta Tarantsey from Business Oregon, one of the partners in Rogue Reimagined.
Peter DeFazio about highlights and lowlights for him and the country over his 36 year career as Oregon's Fourth Congressional District's rep in Washington.
Lisa Napoli on her book "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR. Susan Stamberg and Linda Werthheimer join the discussion.
The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book looks like the old yellow pages but the numbers are for recording or listening to messages about books.
The Understory Initiative, headquartered in Medford. The basic goal is the restoration and conservation of native species habitat, with multiple partners. Kathryn Prive is Board Chair and Executive Director at TUI.
Dr. Michael Stein realized patients don't follow through on medical advice when they can't afford to. So he set about talking them about money, and the conversations led to the book "Broke."
Winter Whale Watch Week, with people staffing state parks to help watchers find whales, December 28th to January 1st Whale Watch volunteer Era Horton and State Parks Communications Officer Stefanie Knowlton.
Oregon's goal of all new vehicles being EV by 2035 is all exactly what the nonprofit Climate Solutions has been advocating for years. Victoria Paykar is Oregon Transportation Policy Manager for the organization.
Ashland.news editor Bert Etling about local journalism after attending Independent News Sustainability Summit.
Jill Fritz is the senior director for wildlife protection with the Oregon Humane Society. We bring her in for a conversation about why coyotes are considered fair game, and how long a process this has been.
Scientist Tim Gregory, in his book Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made Our World.
Children's book authior, Michael Smapson and his wife, Olena Kharchenko, Ukrainian born and raised with artist Polina Doroshenko, crafting a book that tells the story of Ukraine through simple facts, and through the words of its national anthem. The Story of Ukraine: An Anthem of Glory and Freedom.
Cal Fire runs an entire division of Urban and Community Forestry. Walter Passmore and Julia Gowin at Cal Fire for details.
Pulitzer prize winning author Michael Hiltzik takes us a lot further down the track in his book Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern America.
The nonprofit First Story helps families buy new homes with zero-down, zero-interest loans in several communities in the Northwest. Jackson County's community action agency. Joe Vollmarr, ACCESS Housing Director.
The nonprofit Business Network for Offshore Wind works to connect the players in offshore wind and to educate the public about the details of making electricity from floating turbines. John Belaga, Vice President for Federal and State Policy at BNOW.
"Pride of a Nation: A Celebration of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team." There's plenty to celebrate, with the team having won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. Gwendolyn is the book's author and our guest.
Oregon State Parks will happily include you on one or more guided New Year's Day Hikes. Jill Nishball is a regional program coordinator for the First Day Hikes.
Oregon stands to gain roughly $173 Million in opioid settlements over the next decade and a half from those three major chains. It won't bring back the people lost, but what will it do? We explore that in a visit with Kimberly McCullough and David Hart of the Oregon Department of Justice.
Tomáseen Foley's Celtic Christmas returns to Redding and Medford. He and musicians preview.
Science journalist Madeline Ostrander collects the stories of people dealing with the changes in a book of essays, At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth.
Maslow Project started as a project of Mary Ferrell when she was just out of Southern Oregon University, and it has continued to grow for more than a decade and a half. Hannah Borgerson is the Community Engagement Specialist at Maslow.
The company Colossal envisions using gene-editing technology to bring back mammoths and thylacines (Tasmanian tigers) and more.
Rogue Valley artist Gabriel Barrera pays particular attention mentoring BIPOC artists. He's in the process of taking applications for a mentorship program for BIPOC artists, providing mentorship, some financial support, and an art show at the end of the program.
The city of Talent, burned over by the Almeda Drive fire, is working toward restoring lost trees, with help from the federal government. Mike Oxendine chairs TUFC, Jason Clark sits on the city council, and Brianna Truden works for the Park Service.
Dr. Morris spells out his answer to the nation's healthcare issues in his book Care: How People of Faith Can Respond to Our Broken Health System. He urges people of faith to take action, rather than wait for health care debates to resolve.
AIFF's website tells the world the festival is "undertaking strategic review and planning." We get further details in a visit to the JX by two AIFF board members, President Kirkaldy Meyers and Vice-President/Treasurer Sidney Cooper.
How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You're Grown Up guides young people--with words and pictures--toward behaviors and practices that can result in greater organization and happiness by Catherine Newman.
Carl Feagans is an archaeologist for the US Forest Service and a frequent critic of amateur or "pseudo" archaeology... including a new Netflix series on ancient societies vanishing (or maybe never existing).
Music Portland, Music Oregon, and Portland State University want to count people involved in the music business in Oregon. Meara McLaughlin from Music Portland explains.
Andrew Maraniss, on his book Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First US Women's Olympic Basketball Team.
Snowpack has been generally poor in recent years, but the ski areas have mananged to put on respectable seasons despite drought and COVID. We check in with Grace Hornbeak, Marketing Director at Mount Shasta Ski Park.
The documentary "Long Line of Ladies" follows a Karuk woman through coming-of-age ceremony for women known as Ihuk. Pimm Tripp-Allen, Senior Advisor for Tribal and Native American Relations for HAF, talks about the film.
SOU student Abigail Rademacher recently won the rarely achieved American FFA Degree. Her story is this month's Stories of Southern Oregon.
The American Revolution broke out during an outbreak of smallpox, and George Washington ordered inoculation for the entire Continental Army. The riots happened because the inoculation was not available to all the people clamoring for it. The story is told by historian Andrew Wehrman in the book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution.
Erika Hayasaki's Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family about Vietnamese twins separated by adoption and their reunion.
California recently announced a $47 Million package of funding going to tribes around the state, to help house indigenous people. The package includes $14 Million for the Wiyot Tribe, to open the Jaroujiji Youth Housing Project in Eureka. David Cobb with the tribe describes the project.
Fire District 5 Battalion Chief Brian Bolstad and community member Marla Estes about changes in wildfire preparation, evacuation protocols, and emergency alert management.
California recently announced a $47 Million package of funding going to tribes around the state, to help house indigenous people. The package includes $14 Million for the Wiyot Tribe, to open the Jaroujiji Youth Housing Project in Eureka. David Cobb with the tribe describes the project.
Benjamin Lorr explored the food supply chain in his book The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket.
Oregon Public Broadcasting, teamed up with the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica to take salmon samples to a lab. The samples showed mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at levels high enough to cause concern at the high levels of salmon intake of tribal members. OPB investigative reporter Tony Schick visits to describe the unfolding of the story, and where it may lead.
Peace figures prominently in the life of Ashland resident Ron Hertz, and in the novel he recently published, Even Heroes Sometimes Sink.
Oregon voters passed one of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Several groups filed suit to block its implementation, and even the state admitted it wasn't quite ready to enforce it. Ceasefire Oregon and Lift Every Voice Oregon stood squarely behind Measure 114; reps from those groups join us for an update.
Media panel discussion, Signals & Noise Southern Oregon University professors Precious Yamaguchi and Andrew Gay.
Glaciers have long been an important and necessary part of Earth's ecosystems. Just how important and necessary are explained in a new book for younger readers, Meltdown: Discover Earth's Irreplaceable Glaciers and Learn What You Can Do to Save Them.
Portland-based Xerces Society is a major player in the work to restore monarch populations; Emma Pelton visits once again with news of this year's findings.
a curriculum developed by several tribes and released through Save California Salmon is the knowledge of the environment and its proper care used to be passed down from generation to generation, by word of mouth. Charley Reed and Regina Chichizola from SCS visit with details of the learning plan, and the process of getting it ready for schools to use.
Natasha Lance Rogoff, who executive produced the show in its early years, tells of the dark adult situations faced by the staff putting on a lighthearted children's show, in the book Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia.
Steve Weyer solves and designs crossword puzzles. The New York Times has printed one. He also has created a crossword solving app and teaches an OLLI course on the topic.
Jackson County Oregon Medical Director Leona O'Keefe about current contagious disease trends.
The jokes and cartoons from 50 years ago about office workers are shocking by today's standards. A group gathered in Boston in the early 70s to share stories and work for real change. The long process is described by Ellen Cassedy, one of the founders, in Working 9 to 5: A Women's Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie.
Barbara Becker is an ordained interfaith minister who has long thought about the human condition and worked to improve it across national, religious, and cultural boundaries. Becker puts the thoughts on paper in the book Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind.
Talk about what ails your ride, in our regular monthly visit with Zach Edwards, the owner of Ashland Automotive.
'mBC Unspoken' is a website for shared stories about Metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Cynthia Wade is an Oscar-winning director who works with the project; she joins us with an overview, accompanied by Jessica who is living with metastatic breast cancer.
Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter put their business brains to work and came up with analysis and solutions to money in politics, in the book The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy.
Todd Rovak, the co-founder and CEO of a protective service called Carefull keeps an eye on the scam scene.
Lyme disease research out of the University of California-Santa Barbara suggests that knowing where gray squirrels and woodrats hang out could help, since they are frequent carriers of the Lyme disease pathogen.Assistant Professor Andrew MacDonald and doctoral student Samantha Sambado from UCSB describe.
How to write, how to knit, how to manage your money... these and more are topics covered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) courses offered through Southern Oregon University.
The Pirate's Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd by Daphne Palmer Geanocoupoulos.
Josh Gross, music player and creator, is our guide, compiling the list of December 2023 musical events, with an eye to variety.
Stuart Warren and Anna Murphy are making a year round smoke management plan for Jackson County through the Institute of Policy, Research, and Engagement (IPRE) at UO. Stuart Warren tells us of the smoke plan's crafting, and how public input is being included.
The male menopause experience is the subject of our latest Doctor to Doctor segment, hosted by Rogue Valley physician Dr. Robin Miller.
Sam Roberts, who has long covered the city for the New York Times and written books about it, took on the task and delivered a surprisingly short list: "The New Yorkers: 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years, and the Untold Biography of the World's Greatest City
Colt Gill is the Director of the Oregon Department of Education; he spends time with us exploring the many findings of the Oregon Statewide Report Card for 2021-2022, joined by Scott Nine, Assistant Superintendent of Education Innovation and Improvement.
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation ramps up to full speed, with destruction work potentially getting started in the next calendar. KRRC is a transitional agency with one job: get rid of the dams. Mark Bransom, Executive Director, drops in to give an overview of next steps and how the dam-removal timeline unfolds.
Elvis had to travel a lot, and had the jet named after his daughter, Lisa Marie. Ron Strauss was often the one at the controls of the famous plane. We get the full story in the book "Destined to Fly: The Story of Ron Strauss – From Iowa To Elvis." Sally Hoedel is the author.
Paid Leave Oregon already has a director in the person of Karen Humelbaugh and a deputy director in Juan Serratos, who join us to answer the questions about the new system.
Kairos has long looked after the needs of young people with behavioral problems in several parts of western Oregon. Sarah Hollingworth brings an overview of the Kairos approach and the issues being seen currently.
Karen Bakker, a technology entrepreneur, pulls the curtain on sound in the book "The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants."
Julia Turshen, who is so big on dressing up previously-served meals that she wrote a cookbook about them, called Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas for Reinventing Leftovers.
Jackson County Library Executive Director Ginny Auer visits to talk about the mission and the needs still to be met.
Food safety needs to extend beyond the big meal, because you'll probably have those leftovers hanging around for several more days, at a minimum. We chat with a USDA rep about making only happy food memories on this or any holiday.
Nik Wiman is an Associate Professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU about the population of brown marmorated stink bugs exploded this year, possible due to the long, wet spring. Now the insects pose risks to some of the crops that bring in the bucks for Oregon farms and orchards.
RA encourages people to get involved in land-use planning. You never know what the people down the street might want to build.
Britt's residency program brings musical artists to schools. Britt's Abby McKee and Kay Hilton visit, with Alan Meyer from Pacific Power, whose foundation helps fund the residency.
Historical societies and other efforts large and small get a boost from the state through Oregon Heritage, the state's historic preservation office.
Con-Vey, a Roseburg company with a long history of providing automation to the timber industry. It recently branched out with a subsidiary, 7robotics, set up to provide automation to other industries. Dave Larecy is CEO of both companies.
Luke Mogelson got close to the people protesting, reporting what he saw and heard in The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible.
Kathryn Aalto called Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World.
There is a Black rodeo on tour in our time, the Bill Pickett Invitational, and a series of photographs of it are on display now at the High Desert Museum in Bend. Gabriela Hasbun is the photographer, and Heidi Hagemeier, Director of Communications at the museum
Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is the focus of this month's food segment, Savor, with producer/food stylist Will Smith.
Peter Boag tells on his book "Pioneering Death: The Violence of Boyhood in Turn-of-the-Century Oregon."
Sam Quinones wrote the story of America's opioid painkiller epidemic, then came Fentanyl. Quinones relates successes in communities keeping addiction at bay in his new book The Least of Us.
Dr. Rashid Sumaila, the lead author, and UBC's Dr. Muhammed Oyinlala, a pair of researchers from the University of British Columbia say the growth curve in aquaculture is flattening, and will not be able to keep up with the lost of wild stocks... meaning a potential shortage of seafood.
Science writer Elizabeth Weinberg takes note of the disturbing trend of of recently extinct creatures, and the many factors that have led us here.
Dana Thomson, a research scientist at Child Trends, which tracks many figures of child welfare, reports on a steadily dropping rate of child poverty since 1993.
Wilsonville gained infamy for a major bee kill, but now offers city-based programs in bee stewardship.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg writes about how important it is to repent for what we've done to damage other people in the book "On Repentance And Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World."
Clayfolk Pottery Show & Sale is back at the Medford Armory next weekend (November 18-20), bringing ceramic art from around the region to the public.
The Oregonian recently apologized, with an editorial offering the current management's regrets about past behavior. And the editorial was accompanied by a special section, "Publishing Prejudice," which lays out in great detail the many ways in which the journalism of The Oregonian was slanted toward the white side. Rob Davis, the reporter on the project, gives some detail on practices that are simply not acceptable in a mainstream news organization today.
We tell ourselves a heroic story of ""The Greatest Generation"" and its victory, but tend to leave out the Black people who made the victory possible. That's where Matthew Delmont focuses in his book ""Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad.
The famed dancer Martha Graham was a cultural ambassador, even though she insisted she was not involved in politics. The story is told in Victoria Phillips's book Martha Graham's Cold War.
The Reese Bullen Gallery at Cal Poly-Humboldt currently features the exhibition "My Black Is...," which presents artwork from nine artists in the Humboldt Bay area. The art show is a joint venture of the gallery and Black Humboldt. Mo Harper-Desir, one of the artists, gives us an overview of the show.
An incident in Brazil in 1996 is the focus of the documentary "Moment of Contact." The film by James Fox suggests that the Brazilian town of Varghinha is something like the Roswell of Brazil. The movie screens in Ashland in early December (8th & 9th)
Our Children Oregon, which takes a whole-child view of the wellbeing of young people, collects data on that wellbeing and offers policy suggestions for helping children be healthier and happier.Research Manager Jyoni Shuler and Communications Director Sonakshi Dhimal for an overview.
Chris Lucas, Assistant Professor at Southern Oregon University's Communication, Media & Cinema program, and Cal Poly-Humboldt Journalism and Mass Communication Assistant Professor Jessie Cretser-Hartenstein.
Forget the cowboys and all the other boys; Katie Hickman wrote a book about the women of the Old West, in all their diversity and struggles.
Election results with political scientist Christopher Stout from Oregon State University to give some analysis of the results on the Oregon. After 9 o'clock, we call upon the reporters of JPR News to share their analysis of the results and where they point the various governmental bodies affected.
Election results with political scientist Christopher Stout from Oregon State University to give some analysis of the results on the Oregon. After 9 o'clock, we call upon the reporters of JPR News to share their analysis of the results and where they point the various governmental bodies affected.
Election results with political scientist Christopher Stout from Oregon State University to give some analysis of the results on the Oregon. After 9 o'clock, we call upon the reporters of JPR News to share their analysis of the results and where they point the various governmental bodies affected.
Dave Sikorjak, who studies numbers to help build brands, and Ben Valenta, who does similar work for Fox Sports, show their work in the book Fans Have More Friends.
While the extra sensitivity can be distracting and upsetting, it can also lead to some intense euphoric experiences. Alane Freund is a therapist practicing in the Bay Area who works with people with SPS.
Dr. Leona O'Keefe of Jackson County Health and Human Services visits to field our questions about COVID and other current health concerns.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Nataki Garrett talks about OSF returning to the stage this year, and some of the high and low points along the way.
We focus on cemeteries in a visit with Greg Melville, the author of "Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries." Melville talks about American cemeteries through history, focusing on more than a dozen of the notable burial places in the country.
Mac Burns heads up the Oregon Film Museum at the Clatsop County Historical Society; he is our guide for a perusal of Oregon on-screen screamers.
We return to tunnel 13 in a visit with Larry Mullaly of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, who's been researching the event and fielding questions about it for years.
Chris Walker is the Jackson County Clerk, and has worked in elections for more than 30 years. She takes a few minutes out of a busy season to talk about the general conduct of elections, and some changes in laws and procedures for this election.
Diana Hartley, the founder of True Heart Training. It is a program designed specifically for people who are more sensitive than the general population, and blessed (or cursed?) with a high degree of empathy.
Racial justice advocates and Ashland City Council members go on record condemning death threats that prompted the hiring of security detail for OSF Artistic Director
ackson County Master Gardener Association's "Winter Dreams, Summer Gardens" symposium, offering a variety of short courses on gardening and related matters, this weekend (October 28-29) and next.
Doctor to Doctor segment, hosted by Rogue Valley physician Dr. Robin Miller. This time Robin brings in Angie Meeker, a pharmacy doctor (PharmD) who runs Wellness Pharmacy in Medford, a compounding pharmacy.
Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life-Changing Conversations About Race and Racism.by Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman.
Theater and immersive technology--like VR--meet starting next week (November 4-5) in Quills Fest, a project of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Two guests from OSF lay out the offerings: Scarlett Kim, Associate Artistic Director of Innovation and Strategy, and Mei Ann Teo, Associate Artistic Director of New Work.
Judy Collins played to a big audience at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Judy sat down with Vanessa to talk about life and music and living well, well beyond the so-called "prime of life.
Peter Orner, an acclaimed writer of fiction, explores the power of reading in a series of essays and intimate stories that meld his life and writing with that of other writers, collected in the book Still No Word From You.
Wendy Tanner is working with some friends to build a regular swing and Lindy Hop scene in the Rogue Valley, with the Ashland Lindy Swing Society.
SOU offers bachelor's degrees in Music Industry & Production Studies Derek Keller, an assistant professor at SOU, visits with details of the program and its components.
Annie Duke holds the exotic-sounding occupational title of ""decision-making strategist,"" and she shares some of her knowledge in a new book, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away.
Oregon Public Broadcasting, OPB, assembled several podcasts for this election season. This one deals with the four statewide issues, Ballot Measures 111 through 114.
The latest State of the Birds report. Ashland-based Klamath Bird Observatory plays a role in the collection and use of the bird data in the report, and KBO Executive Director John Alexander visits with news of the overall picture.
Sphinx Virtuosi brings together top-flight Black and Latinx musicians in the performance of pieces by composers of many colors and genders. And the group plays Ashland on Friday (October 7th), in a concert through the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.
Southern Oregon Pride celebrates LGBTQ+ people being out of the closet and proud in a series of events through the coming weekend. Gina DuQuenne, SOPride Founder and President and Ashland City Councilor, returns to talk up the plans.
Diane Rosenfeld, a lawyer and expert on gender violence at Harvard University, explores the example in the book "The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution Through Female Alliance."
Josh Gross, music player and creator, is our guide, compiling the list of musical events, with an eye to variety.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Information Center, and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center filed a lawsuit against the federal government for wider protections for the mustelid fisher. Noah Greenwald at CBD, George Sexton from KS Wild, and Thom Wheeler from EPIC
The Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Protection Information Center, and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center filed a lawsuit against the federal government for wider protections for the mustelid fisher. Noah Greenwald at CBD, George Sexton from KS Wild, and Thom Wheeler from EPIC
Rogue Valley scientist Dominick DellaSala of Wild Heritage and Brendan Rogers of the Woodwell Climate Research Institute talk about researchers make a map of all old-growth forest in Lower 48.
Rogue Valley scientist Dominick DellaSala of Wild Heritage and Brendan Rogers of the Woodwell Climate Research Institute talk about researchers make a map of all old-growth forest in Lower 48.
Only 6% of American women said their male partners do more work, in a poll from last year. Gender expert Kate Mangino shows the way to balance the numbers, in her book "Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home." Hear the author's thoughts on aiming for a true equal partnership.
Only 6% of American women said their male partners do more work, in a poll from last year. Gender expert Kate Mangino shows the way to balance the numbers, in her book "Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home." Hear the author's thoughts on aiming for a true equal partnership.
Donald Yacovone's book "Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity." Instead, the author points to the North--no slavery but plenty of bigots--as the major source of a general indoctrination into white supremacy.
Justin Grimmer at the Hoover Institution warns against non-expert 'statistical analysis' of election results.
L. Michelle Moore held a key sustainability position in the Obama White House, and now she runs a nonprofit that boosts energy efficiency and access to clean power. She offers a guide for places outside the cities to tap into the green energy boom, in her book "Rural Renaissance: Revitalizing America’s Hometowns through Clean Power."
Our regular monthly visit with Zach Edwards, the owner of Ashland Automotive. In the segment, The Squeaky Wheel, we discuss vehicle care and repair
Michael Govier, co-director and co-writer of the Oscar winner "If Anything Happens, I Love You" visits to talk about converting the cinematic experience to a graphic novel.
Ellen Currano and Lexi Jamieson Marsh put beards on women scientists and took pictures and video of them. The Bearded Lady Project to make the point that scientists in movies are portrayed by white men.
Ellen Currano and Lexi Jamieson Marsh put beards on women scientists and took pictures and video of them. The Bearded Lady Project to make the point that scientists in movies are portrayed by white men.
Ellen Currano and Lexi Jamieson Marsh put beards on women scientists and took pictures and video of them. The Bearded Lady Project to make the point that scientists in movies are portrayed by white men.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
September is Responsible Dog Ownership Month. Laura Finley from Rescue Ranch in Yreka makes the case.
After a two-year hiatus, the City of Talent and Talent Business Alliance are inviting folks to celebrate the annual harvest festival with artisan vendors, food trucks, and family-fun activities. We'll speak Talent Mayor Darby Ayer-Flood and City Councilor Ana Byers about the event.
After a two-year hiatus, the City of Talent and Talent Business Alliance are inviting folks to celebrate the annual harvest festival with artisan vendors, food trucks, and family-fun activities. We'll speak Talent Mayor Darby Ayer-Flood and City Councilor Ana Byers about the event.
After a two-year hiatus, the City of Talent and Talent Business Alliance are inviting folks to celebrate the annual harvest festival with artisan vendors, food trucks, and family-fun activities. We'll speak Talent Mayor Darby Ayer-Flood and City Councilor Ana Byers about the event.
Cathy Park Hong calls the effects of racism "minor feelings," something she's experienced a lot growing up as an Asian American. She lets the stuff on the inside out in a book of essays, "Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning."
Cathy Park Hong calls the effects of racism "minor feelings," something she's experienced a lot growing up as an Asian American. She lets the stuff on the inside out in a book of essays, "Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning."
Cathy Park Hong calls the effects of racism "minor feelings," something she's experienced a lot growing up as an Asian American. She lets the stuff on the inside out in a book of essays, "Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning."
Rick Steves latest TV venture is a six-part series "Art of Europe," featuring some of the great works to be found on the other side of the Atlantic.
Rick Steves latest TV venture is a six-part series "Art of Europe," featuring some of the great works to be found on the other side of the Atlantic.
Rick Steves latest TV venture is a six-part series "Art of Europe," featuring some of the great works to be found on the other side of the Atlantic.
Paul Huard, an Ashland High School teacher, chose to spend summer vacation helping people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Paul Huard, an Ashland High School teacher, chose to spend summer vacation helping people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Paul Huard, an Ashland High School teacher, chose to spend summer vacation helping people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Tova Friedman says she has a responsibility to tell the world of the Holocaust, because so many other children died. Her memoir is "The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope."
Tova Friedman says she has a responsibility to tell the world of the Holocaust, because so many other children died. Her memoir is "The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope."
Tova Friedman says she has a responsibility to tell the world of the Holocaust, because so many other children died. Her memoir is "The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope."
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
The songs of the late composer, Stephen Sondheim, are celebrated in a concert coming to Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University (September 29th), "LIAISONS: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano." Anthony de Mare is the performer.
Sarah Urist Green explores what makes an artists tick in her work as a curator and as the host of "The Art Assignment" on PBS-TV and now in a book, You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation.
Sarah Urist Green explores what makes an artists tick in her work as a curator and as the host of "The Art Assignment" on PBS-TV and now in a book, You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation.
Sarah Urist Green explores what makes an artists tick in her work as a curator and as the host of "The Art Assignment" on PBS-TV and now in a book, You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Research into microclimates within old-growth forests show a buffering effect for some bird species, a chance for them to escape the challenges of living outdoors in increasingly hotter climates. The research comes out of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University; doctoral student Hankyu Kim led the work, assisted by Professor Matthew Betts.
Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, SOCAN, has been providing candidate forums on its core topic for several election cycles, and does so again this fall.
Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, SOCAN, has been providing candidate forums on its core topic for several election cycles, and does so again this fall.
Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, SOCAN, has been providing candidate forums on its core topic for several election cycles, and does so again this fall.
Travel writer Patricia Schultz has provided extensive lists of where to go in the world and in North America. But her latest book gets beyond the places, to the motivations. The book is "Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World,"
Travel writer Patricia Schultz has provided extensive lists of where to go in the world and in North America. But her latest book gets beyond the places, to the motivations. The book is "Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World,"
Travel writer Patricia Schultz has provided extensive lists of where to go in the world and in North America. But her latest book gets beyond the places, to the motivations. The book is "Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World,"
One copy of a film called "An Equal Chance," a documentary on the 1918 flu pandemic is known to exist, and the Southern Oregon Historical Society owns it. SOHS just got a grant to restore the film for preservation. SOHS Executive Director Ron Kramer talks about the film and its importance.
One copy of a film called "An Equal Chance," a documentary on the 1918 flu pandemic is known to exist, and the Southern Oregon Historical Society owns it. SOHS just got a grant to restore the film for preservation. SOHS Executive Director Ron Kramer talks about the film and its importance.
One copy of a film called "An Equal Chance," a documentary on the 1918 flu pandemic is known to exist, and the Southern Oregon Historical Society owns it. SOHS just got a grant to restore the film for preservation. SOHS Executive Director Ron Kramer talks about the film and its importance.
Siskiyou Outdoor Recreation Alliance scored a Regional Park Program grant from the state to put into improvements to facilities and trails at the Mount Shasta Nordic Center.
Siskiyou Outdoor Recreation Alliance scored a Regional Park Program grant from the state to put into improvements to facilities and trails at the Mount Shasta Nordic Center.
Siskiyou Outdoor Recreation Alliance scored a Regional Park Program grant from the state to put into improvements to facilities and trails at the Mount Shasta Nordic Center.
Bob Krulish spent years coping with bipolar disorder before he finally got a correct diagnosis. Now he coaches friends and family members of people with mental illness in the LEAP approach: Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner.
Bob Krulish spent years coping with bipolar disorder before he finally got a correct diagnosis. Now he coaches friends and family members of people with mental illness in the LEAP approach: Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner.
Bob Krulish spent years coping with bipolar disorder before he finally got a correct diagnosis. Now he coaches friends and family members of people with mental illness in the LEAP approach: Listen, Empathize, Agree, Partner.
Betsy Gaines Quammen visited with the Bundy family and dug deep in the history for her book "American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God & Public Lands in the West.
Klamath Independent Film Festival plans late September September 16-18 at Ross Ragland Theater. Documentaries about death and displacement for the Modoc people, to a toga party to celebrate the making of "Animal House," it's a packed three days. We get further details on the plans from Festival Director Cassidy Quistorff and Klamath Film Board Chair Kurt Liedtke.
California runs ten demonstration forests to try out forestry techniques, and the largest is the Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Mendocino County. Save Jackson Coalition wants more traditional ecological knowledge brought to bear on the forest, and less logging. Matthew Simmons, Staff Attorney at Environmental Protection Information Center, and Michael Hunter, Chairman of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
Larry O'Neill, the Director of Oregon Climate Service, points out that global warming is no longer a future hypothetical, we're feeling the effects now.
Katherine Blunt covers utilities and renewable energy for the Wall Street Journal, so she knows the issues of PG&E well, and sums them up in a new book. California Burning, The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric–and What It Means for America's Power Grid traces the history, from early innovators to modern-day investors concerned primarily with getting greater returns on their stock.
Josh Gross, music player and creator, is our guide, compiling the list of musical events in the region September of 2022.
Medford Water Commission General Manager Brad Taylor. Julie Smitherman, Customer Service and Water Efficiency Manager, fills in the gaps on demand.
We catch up on the proper activities for late August and early September with Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners.
Oregon forestry PIO Marcus Kauffman checks in with details of fire's size and behavior.
Jackson County Community Long-Term Recovery Group, Executive Director Caryn Wheeler Clay visits, with Board President Lucy Brossard, who is also Regional Recovery and Resilience Coordinator for Oregon Housing and Community Services talk about post Almeda Drive fire rebuilding.
Zachary Stocks, the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers about a bus tour of historic sites on the North Coast of Oregon, from Portland to Seaside, in September.
Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe, joins us for a health-and-COVID Q&A.
Elena Lister and Michael Schwartzman, health professionals, team up for a book with the answers. In "Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss
Physician/father Andy Bomback traces the history of parents convinced they are not doing enough for their kids, and urges them to relax a bit.
Oregon State Lands and Marine Board reps lay out details of a new effort to get abandoned boats out of Oregon waterways.
One of many authors of a position paper on rewilding the West adds detail to the plan for creating more wild habitat on federal forest lands.
Dolores Johnson's white mother and black father did not say anything about her mother's family growing up.The book Say I'm Dead: A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love.
Researcher Dylan Sanderson from OSU helped develop computer models for predicting the resilience of transportation systems after a major earthquake, models that can be applied to other infrastructure systems.
Rick Rawlins, who manages Crisis & Therapy Services at Jackson County Health and Human Services. We get an idea of the need for crisis services, and the capacity of the current system for meeting those needs.
Amaury Vogel from Oregon Values and Beliefs Center, explore issues affecting Oregon and attitudes toward "The Great Resignation."
Chelsea and Douglas Wilson and Katie Wynia from Portland State University, who lead the dig team at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, across from Portland.
Obama was the first Black American president, Merkel the first former East German to lead the unified Germany. Claudia Clark tells the story in Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel.
The Rogue Valley Chorale is celebrating two major events: the 50th anniversary of the group, and the appointment of a new Music Director, Jerron Jorgensen. He visits to talk about his role with the chorale, along with the group's Executive Director, Brad Nelson.
Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners joins us for a gardening Q&A, weekly during the growing season.
Harvard Graduate Patrick Schmidt tells the story in his book Harvard's Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science: The Rise and Fall of the Department of Social Relations
Ashleigh Theberge, Juan Carlos Sanchez and Dakota Kennedy from University of Washington collect blood samples to study smoke exposure.
Dr. Jim Shames, now retired as Jackson County Medical Director and Dr. Pat Luedtke, the Lane County health officer on the issues of the moment with our various disease outbreaks and health challenges.
The numbers of climate-displaced people grow into the billions, says science journalist Gaia Vince. She fills out the picture in the book Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World.
PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk talks about recent animal studies, and how they might inspire us to be kinder to animals, even if we do eat them and wear them.
Tanya Lewis, senior health and medicine editor at Scientific American, explores parallels between the slow health response to COVID with the early days of monkeypox.
Leslie Lowe of Klamath Wingwatchers talks about 30 years of the Wingwatchers trail in downtown Klamath Falls.
Phuc Tran's book Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In about life in America for a Vietnamese war refugee.
Urban League of Portland plans a community conversation about needs of Southern Oregon.
Journalist Mike Rothschild's book The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything.
Healthier Together is about halfway through its projected 2020-2024 shelf life, and has some results to report on how well Oregon is keeping up tracking with the improvements suggested in the plan.
Dr. Tracey Marks interviewed about her book, Why Am I So Anxious? Powerful Tools for Recognizing Anxiety and Restoring Your Peace.
Summer Reads, our warm-season visits with independent bookstores, continue with Canvasback Books in Klamath Falls.
Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe, who joins us for a health-and-COVID Q&A.
Haley Campbell talks about her book, 'All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work'
Former smokejumper writes about increasingly more dangerous job in Too Steep and Too Rough.
Un-denting cars and trucks goes into a third generation at this Rogue Valley business, profiled in The Ground Floor.
Investigative journalist Frank Smyth runs from the beginning to the now in his book The NRA: The Unauthorized History.
The Oregon Wine Experience returns to the Rogue Valley August 17-21, for five days of wining and dining AND raising money.
Kayakers are already training for new open water when the Klamath River dams are removed.
Recent testing and other numbers to indicate that students are recovering some of the learning they lost while school was out or online.
Author Kirk Wallace Johnson in the book The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast about When the crab and shrimp industry along the Texas Gulf Coast began to falter in the late 1970s.
Mary Creasman, CEO of the group California Environmental Voters, talks about the political pressure from petroleum... and the back-pressure from groups like hers.
The book Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs.
The anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (August 9th) are observed in Rogue Valley ceremonies this year include the planting of a peace tree, grown from seeds from a tree that survived the bombing.
Mark Yaconelli about his new book, "Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us."
Oregon's big experiment with legalized use of psychedelic drugs has not even officially begun, but moves are afoot to at least delay it further. Jackson County Commissioners just decided to let voters opt out of Measure 109
Peter Gibb of Ashland author of "Mindful Conversation: Speak Openly, Connect Deeply, Live Joyously."
Monkeypox or HMPXV is also on the medical concern radar, plus we had health-threatening hot weather of late. Through the other health challenges, COVID is still with us, and Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe
Western Fire Chiefs Association aims to better understand recent wildfire behavior, and how to counter it.
The Squeaky Wheel, we discuss vehicle care and repair, and invite calls and emails from the public about automotive oddities (and success stories).
The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive. Lisa Lewis writes of the many problems that pile up for teens short on sleep, and how much more they need.
Where the Slater fire burned in September 2020 provided a good example recently. The hills exploded into a "super bloom," with wildflowers of many types bursting from the soil. It's not because anyone scattered seeds, it's just a natural process.
Dr. Peter Adesman, who practices in Medford, a doctor to help us understand hepatitis, the inflammation of the liver.
Rust belt refugees from troubled parts of the world, from Vietnam, Bosnia, Burma, Somalia, Iraq, and other places. The story is told through three of the refugees in the book City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town by Susan Hartman.
The recently-released Oregon Talent Assessment adds some perspective to just how unsettled the labor market is, and starts with the finding that 84% of employers have trouble finding workers qualified for their jobs.
Chelsea Rose from SOULA returns, along with Scott Williams, who works for Washington DOT but also heads the Marine Archaeology Society. They are joined by Robert Kentta, who heads the cultural resources operations at the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners joins us for a gardening Q&A, now weekly during the growing season.
Sociologist Natasha Warikoo profiles competition in a suburban high school with large white and Asian populations, where parents work that much harder to get every advantage for their kids. Warikoo's book is "Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools."
Color expert Keith Recker writes about this in his lavishly illustrated new book "Deep Color : The Shades That Shape Our Souls."
COVID is still with us, and Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe continues to join us for regular COVID Q&A sessions.
Mark Gardner writes of the profound influence of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in "The Earth is All That Lasts"
Maria Goodavage tells the story of dog's sense of smell in the book "Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine."
It's that much harder for a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ community to find a therapist who understands your needs.
Southern Oregon Friends of Hospice opened Celia's House in Medford to serve hospice patients.
Grammar lover Ellen Jovin set up a table to talk about her favorite subject... again and again.
Climate action group explores the claims of the hydrogen industry. Do we really solve the problem of greenhouse gases by getting into a relationship with another gas?
Gay and an environmentalist, Taylor Brorby writes about growing up in North Dakota: Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land.
The California Transportation Foundation named it the Local Street Project of the Year in June 2022. We get details on what it took and what it achieved, in a visit with Redding Public Works Director Chuck Aukland and Deputy City Manager Steve Bade.
The records compiled on you when you take on debt or have a medical emergency stick around. Mary F.E. Ebeling's book Afterlives of Data: Life and Debt under Capitalist Surveillance.
Growing the Southern Oregon minority business base at Microenterprise Services of Oregon.
We visit with Joy McEwan, the owner of Diggin' Livin' in Cave Junction. It's a beekeeping operation coupled with a natural food store and café, with products ranging from honey to medicinal tinctures.
Scientist and historian Matthew Cobb takes us through the various thinking about our thinking organ in the book The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience.
Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and multiple partners teamed up on a program to rent bear canisters to people hiking the Rogue River National Recreation Trail.
La Clinica shares its expertise in equity, diversity, and inclusion, by offering training.
Pulitzer winner, Kathryn Schulz, shifts focus from Oregon quakes to her own life in Lost & Found.
Count the Pollinator Project Rogue Valley among the supporters, providing education and other programming to boost bee populations and habitat.
Covid virus is still a story, and Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe continues to join us for regular COVID Q&A sessions
From the shallow lakes of far Eastern Oregon's high desert to the cleft in the Earth's crust that is Lake Baikal, the diversity boggles the mind. John Richard Saylor, who researches the interfaces between air and water, gives a tour demonstrating the importance of these bodies of water in Lakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death.
Ashland filmmaker crowdfunds for a film about interracial marriage and a remarkable woman - Judge Marlyn Atkins
Oregon and California have some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, and those are not expected to change with the SCOTUS decision.
Bernard Daly did well in Lake County, Oregon, and wanted to make sure that other people who grew up there would have the opportunity to prosper. So before he died in 1920, Daly--physician, rancher, banker, and politician--set up a scholarship fund.
National Alliance on MentaI Illness-Southern Oregon's discussion acknowledges Pride Month and takes up mental health in the LGBTQ+ community, with a focus on coming out, and support for the people who struggle with the process.
GreenState podcast out of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality hosts talk about Ashland's smoke plan.
Book: The Nature of the Beast: How Emotions Guide Us debate over whether emotions are strictly psychological or more complicated actions within our nervous systems.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have coined a new diagnosis: Complex persistent benzodiazepine dependence, or CPBD for non opiod addiction.
A father-son connection re-forged on a long bike ride; Conversations Across America: A Father and Son, Alzheimer's and 300 Conversations along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America.
Senior Health and Medicine Editor for Scientific American Tanya Lewis about the process of getting full approval of vaccines.
Jackson, Lane, and Douglas Oregon Counties slipped up into COVID High Risk Status, then out again. Jackson County's Medical Director explains how to say safe.
Christopher Nichols of Oregon State University, a scholar of the 1918 flu, and with Debra Caplan, a theatre historian who follows the literature--or lack of it--on that last big plague.
Modoc Harvest to increase food production, increase demand for locally-grown food, and make sure local residents have access to it.
Alexandra Brodsky, a civil rights lawyer, about her book Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash
Food from the region,Rogue Artisan Foods, based on a seven-acre farm in the Applegate Valley.
Matt McCaw, Crook County Move Oregon’s Border Captain, visits The Exchange to talk about Greater Idaho movement.
How 'Star Trek' managed to come back from the dead, over and over again in Phasers on Stun! How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) considers the grim possibilities of genocide in America in his book It Could Happen Here: Why America Is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop It.
Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe explains the current variant of the covid virus is an astounding R12--meaning EACH person can infect 12 others.
Music Director/Conductor Teddy Abrams talks about classical music on the Jacksonville hillside begins on June 17th and wraps up before July 4th.
'Garden Marcus' takes his TikTok advice into book form - How to Grow: Nurture Your Garden, Nurture Yourself
Michael Lind on his book The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite.
Janie Victoria Ward and Tracy L. Robinson-Wood write in "Sister Resisters: Mentoring Black Women on Campus."
Lawyer-turned journalist John Bainbridge, Jr. examines that cementing process--fact and myth--in his book "Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them."
Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe continues to join us for regular COVID Q&A sessions.
Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, who turns the prevailing view of anxiety on its head in the book Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad).
Zach Edwards from Ashland Automotive fields car questions and stories via phone and email.
Permaculture and pirouettes part of the picture at Dancefarm coming up (June 10/11), at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show and the next day in Takilma.
A book by Anna Mae Duane, Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation.
60 stories from Pacific Crest Trail in the new book "Crossing Paths: A Pacific Crest Trailside Reader." It's something of an anniversary edition, coming ten years after the original trailside reader, and it includes prose and poetry from many writers.
Electrify Ashland Now proposes to get off the methane train in favor of electrifying sooner.
Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips on her book The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World.
Porchfest returns to Grants Pass on June 18th features a variety of musicians and genres playing in mini-venues along Washington Boulevard, which closes to traffic for the day, and it's FREE.
Signs of long-ago human habitation have been found in both Oregon and New Mexico, and New Mexico currently holds an edge: footprints that may date back to the last ice age.
Rod Tanchanco, a physician, has long been fascinated by the stories of the people who got medical procedures for the very first time. He shares many of them in his book First Patients: The incredible true stories of pioneer patients.
Honey & Mead Festival celebrates bees and their many benefits in Medford on June 4th, 2022.
Mark Oliver has been researching and publicizing his findings on how Black men did some of the hard work of digging fduring the gold rush; now he's out with a book, "Voices of the Golden Ghosts – African Americans in the California Gold Rush."
The State of California put emergency rules in place governing groundwater around those rivers, and the people in agriculture take exception. We hear the environmental side of the issue from Karuk Tribe and Save California Salmon.
Emilia D'Anzica and Sabina Pons are management consultants and mothers on their book Pressing ON as a Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries and Raise the Bar for Success.
California state regulators are working to protect streams in which threatened coho salmon live, including the Scott and Shasta rivers. State regulations do not sit well with members of Scott Valley AgWA (Agriculture Water Alliance), a group of farmers and ranchers.
Journalist Janice Kaplan on her book The Genius of Women: From Overlooked to Changing the World.
The Siskiyou Outdoor Recreation Alliance (SORA) and the Siskiyou Stewardship Corps promote outdoor recreation in the county, with an emphasis on the sustainable kind: good for people and the environment.
A children's advocacy group says research shows that Oregon's elementary school readers are in a literacy crisis.
Senior and Disability Services program, provides certification to builders who meet the standards for creating housing that is friendly to people with disabilities or aging in place.
Discussion of media news and issues with Southern Oregon University and Cal Poly-Humboldt faculty.
Permission to Come Home: Reclaiming Mental Health as Asian Americans. Guest: Jenny T. Wang, PhD. who focuses on the intersection of Asian American identity, mental health, and social justice.
Cascadia Wildlands, which monitors the wolves, says 2021 featured a cessation of federal protections for the wolves in part of Oregon, a spate of poisonings, and the death of an entire pack.
Law Professor and writer Peter Shane on whether presidential powers have become too expansive and if the constitution's separation of power is still intact.
Keanon Lowe's book with Justin Spizman, "Hometown Victory: A Coach's Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home."
Evusheld is a drug--actually two in combination--given as a preventative measure to people who are medically unable to get a COVID vaccine.
A new OSU faculty member with statewide responsibilities for hemp research is located in Southern Oregon.
Journalist digs deep into the story of peanuts grown under French colonialism in West Africa, and how much of the crop was handled by enslaved people.
University of Oregon Architecture Professor helped build campus in Lviv, Ukraine that's part of the defense and refugee center.
The Office of Oregon's Fire Marshall is working in advance of Fire Season offering webinars to get Oregonians up to speed on wildfire preparedness.
The Kieval Lecture Series brings math topics to broad audiences at universities across the country. Southern Oregon University features three lectures in the series on Monday and Tuesday (May 9-10, 2022.
Arts events are popping up all over, and we showcase a bunch of them in our First Friday Arts segment.
Communication professor examines use of comedy on both ends of the political spectrum, with a focus on right-wing America.
Higher-latitude forests hold a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere, so scientists point out that protecting them from fire avoids major carbon releases.
The Oregon Values and Beliefs Center frequently polls the populace for views on what Oregonians think about various issues.
The Rogue Basin Collaborative Forest Restoration Project will get $3 Million to reduce the high fuel loads and restore ecological balance on lands in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
Epidemiologist Dan Werb tells the thousand year old story of coronavirus in The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a Cure.
The Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association opts for using fire to improve ecosystems and reduce catastrophic fires.
Mask mandates are history but Covid-19 isn't gone. Jackson County Medical Director Dr. Leona O'Keefe continues to join us for regular COVID Q&A sessions.
Book by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth: The Epic Hunt for the South's Most Feared Ship—and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War.
In Senior Sociopaths, Donna Anderson provides evidence that sociopaths do not necessarily mellow with age.
Immortality, Inc.: Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever by Chip Walter, a longtime science journalist, talked to people who are putting money and brainpower into extending life.
The Oregon Country Fair is among them, returning to its regular site near Veneta the weekend after the Fourth of July.
National Alliance on MentaI Illness-Southern Oregon talking about art and mental health, and the value of artistic expression to people working through mental illness.
Ashland's Oregon Fringe Festival highlights works both physical and mental April 27 through May 1.
Researchers in the Maryland Department of Transportation believe they have found the site where Tubman's birth family once lived. This is the subject matter for this month's edition of Underground History.
Mother Jones senior editor Michael Mechanic gives us an idea, in his book "Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live—and How Their Wealth Harms Us All."
You Are More Than Magic: The Black and Brown Girls' Guide to Finding Your Voice by Minda Harts is about assumptions about skills based on color or gender.
Vanessa Hua Chinese-American novelist explores life by the side of Chairman Mao in a work of fiction, "The Forbidden City.
Steve Lambert from Jackson County Parks, Oregon, updates a project to plan for the Greenway's future, Envision Bear Creek.
Oregon Fringe Festival with many events to experience, April 27 through May 1 in Ashland, Oregon.
Oregon Fringe Festival with many events to experience, April 27 through May 1 in Ashland, Oregon.
Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick by J. David McSwane.
Douglas Tallamy, an ecologist and entomologist, wrote "Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard."
The atmosphere in part of the country is just generally drier than it used to be, so crops will actually need MORE water than they used to, in order to survive and researchers found big increases in atmospheric thirst across much of the country in the last 40 years.
Oregon Forest Practices Act was not even as strong as similar laws in neighboring states but got an update in the 2022 legislative session.
Oregon State University associate professor Natchee Barnd studies place names, and recently published a paper showing that many of them are not neutral, but derogatory or otherwise dismissive of indigenous people who inhabited those places for thousands of years.
Kate Swenson , mother of a nonverbal austistic child wrote Forever Boy: A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival bosses talk about the big changes in the season just begun.
Marta McDowell, a gardener and landscaper, compiled the poet's writing on gardening in Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet.
April 2022 First Friday Arts arts organizations to phone 800-838-3760 to boost their events on air.
Documentary film about the systemic causes of homelessness, "The Invisible Class," part of the Ashland Independent Film Festival.
You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce asks why people in a diverse country need to sound the same.
A new show at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland called "The Presence of Nature." Claire Burbridge, Naeemeh Naeemaei, and Olga Volchkova, all immigrants who moved into the region, are the featured artists.
Emily Goss focuses on a single abortion in "A Little House in Aberdeen," while Katie Falkenberg tracks lessons from the water in "Life and the Art of Fly Fishing."
"Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets" follows the people who blew up the stock market, on purpose.
Greening Youth Foundation CEO points out how people of color work on saving the environment.
Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright, therapists and creators of The Happy Sleeper, know plenty about getting little children to sleep.
Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners has answers for all gardening questions.
Science journalist John Farrell provides a list of tech gifts from medieval times in his book, The Clock and the Camshaft: And Other Medieval Inventions We Still Can't Live Without.
The Family Fun Series of Arcata Playhouse returns March 31st through April 16th, with a big variety of events held outdoors in a circus tent.
Ashland Independent Film Festival begins April first with a long list of films of all kinds. New artistic director Roberta Munroe director of programming Joe Bilancio.
Mildred Ruiz-Sapp short film about Almeda Dr. Fire at Ashland Independent Film Festival
Investigative journalist Katie Worth discovered climate change education is varied by location. Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America
Floyd McKay covered the state capitol during that period, and he shared his perspective in the book Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State.Floyd McKay, one of the big names of Oregon journalism from the past half-century, died recently.
Ashland Contemporary Theatre "Moonlighting 2022: Passages" features life transitions and passages in works by Rogue Valley playwrights.
National Alliance on MentaI Illness-Southern Oregon illuminate what it means to struggle with mental illness.
Russia is waging war on Ukraine, there are additional warnings to watch out for activity that could mess up your computers at home and at work.
Oregon's salt Lake Abert, just a fraction of its former size will get renewed attention, thanks to Congress allocating money to study the lakes in the Great Basin.
Interview with William Dalrymple, author of The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire. How a British corporation took over India.
Anima Mundi's concert series for this year is titled "We Cannot Walk Alone," featuring seven new works composed by people of color.
Wrap up from Oregon Legislature's 2022 short session from Sen. Golden and Rep. Wallan along with overview from OPB reports.
Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners knows a lot of tips and tricks and just plain science in the soil.
Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) in Jackson County is preparing for the annual onslaught of puppies and kittens.
Oregon's indoor mask mandate came off March 12th, now we get to see what happens with numbers of new cases and other measures of COVID-19.
Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Meyer fortune and a frequent critic of wealth inequality, says rich Russians are also hiding money in American tax havens.
Rodney left the hustling life behind; now he's one of the few Black master falconers in America
HUD earmarks $422 Million for Oregon Labor Day fires, but there's a paper trail to satisfy
Students in the Outdoor Discovery Program at Talent Elementary School built a temporary Drive Fire.
For years Riding Beyond has provided Horses for women healing from surgery or chemo or radiation.
Book To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard by an author who moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod.
Coverage of the Russian war in Ukraine, and the social media involvement in it, figures among the subjects in this month's edition of our media overview, Signals & Noise.
Oregon Department of Forestry and U.S. Forest Service is taking pre-emptive steps by collecting seeds from ash trees all over the state before their killer gets here.
2022 State of U.S. Science and Engineering report to track the commitment of money and people to research and development.
Lynn Kunstman of Jackson County Master Gardeners is making plans for her own garden, and plans to help anyone else tending one.
Deanne Quinn Miller is the daughter of the only guard who died at Attica prison in the 1971 riots. She researched the event and wrote The Prison Guard's Daughter: My Journey Through the Ashes of Attica.
Music and art events for the month of March 2022, from Eugene, Oregon to Mendocino, California.
Happy Camp lawsuit blames Pacific Power's parent company for the Slater fire, for not keeping vegetation cut around its power lines. 150 homes burned down in the Happy Camp area.
Psychologist George Bonanno about his book The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss.
Marquitta Merkison is an audiologist with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) on how to save hearing for a lifetime.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids report NO state is currently funding tobacco prevention/cessation programs at the levels recommended by the federal CDC.
Fed-state-rancher-conservation group plan to keep ranching and preserve coho salmon habitat misses the mark, say other groups.
Matthew Kahn, an urban economist, wrote Going Remote: How the Flexible Work Economy Can Improve Our Lives and Our Cities.
Alexander Zaitchik points out that federal government puts lots of taxpayer money into drug development, while for-profit entities—private ones—often reap the benefits.
Black faculty and staff at Oregon State University ask the question “It’s 2022. Do Black Lives Really Matter?” in a Zoom panel discussion to close out Black History Month (tonight, February 28th, at 6:30). The texts between Ahmaud Arbery's killers may be an indication.
Patrick Strickland writes about an Arizona border town's war between citizens and vigilantes. The Marauders: Conspiracy Theories, Militias, and Violence on the U.S. Border
Stacy Wolf on her book Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America
Pre-season splash for Oregon summer music festival in Gold Beach, Oregon on Saturday - Dueling Violins between Fritz Gearhart and Anthea Kreston.
Monthly interview about mental health with National Alliance on Mental Illness-Southern Oregon.
Oregon State University researchers discover that wildfire ignition starts on private land twice as often as public forests.
Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology digs into the mid-century commune movement in the region.