Think Out Loud

Tawasi Soce is a gig driver - of people and packages - for various companies. He sent OPB recordings of what his days are like during the pandemic.

Oregon’s child welfare system was facing any number of challenges before the coronavirus pandemic hit. With Gov. Kate Brown’s stay at home order in effect, schools are closed and caseworker home visits are shut down. Many of the state’s foster parents — and foster children — find themselves in need of more help than ever. In response to the pandemic, the Department of Human Services has launched the My Neighbor program, run by its partner, Every Child. The program aims to provide immediate help for foster families from individuals living in their neighborhoods. We talk with Ben Sand, who helps run the program and with Rebecca Jones Gaston, who directs the child welfare department at DHS.

As the only resident of remote Andrews, Oregon for the past 10 years, painter John Simpkins is used to the solitary quarantine lifestyle. We from Simpkins about dealing with a global pandemic in a ghost town.

The St. Charles Hospital System, based in Bend, is the only acute care facility for a huge stretch of rural Oregon. Officials at the hospital have been preparing for an influx of coronavirus patients by canceling elective surgeries and freeing up available staff. We talk to Joe Sluka, president and CEO of St. Charles Health system, and Dr. Jeff Absalon, Chief Physician Executive.

People who are homeless are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because many are sick or elderly. They're also less likely to be able to take preventative measures like frequent handwashing and social distancing. In Salem, the first homeless person tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Jimmy Jones, Executive Director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, joins us to talk about how homeless service providers are trying to help and the challenges they face.

Last year, three-term Portland city council member Amanda Fritz announced that she wouldn’t be running for re-election. Carmen Rubio, Executive Director of the Latino Network, Portland State student advisor Candace Avalos, and carpenter Timothy DuBois are all running to fill the seat.

As consumers clean store shelves of essentials like toilet paper, experts insist the grocery supply chain remains strong. Scott DuHadway, the Cameron Professor of Supply Chain Management at Portland State University, thinks COVID-19 will have long term impacts on how companies prepare for and respond to disasters. We hear from DuHadway about how different industries are handling unprecedented disruptions on both sides of the supply chain.

Grant County recently launched an informal program for neighbors and friends in the county of 7 thousand to check on each other as the coronavirus continues to spread. Steve Fletcher, with the county’s incident management team, says as the coronavirus spreads, it’s important to have both formal and informal programs like Phone a Friend to get help to those who may need it.

Christy George, Scott Bruun and Naseem Rakha join us to give opinions and analysis of some of the week’s biggest news stories.

The 2020 Census is underway, but the coronavirus pandemic has delayed or canceled some training and field operations. That could make historically undercounted communities even harder to count. Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, campaign manager for We Count Oregon, tells us about the campaign’s outreach efforts during the pandemic.

Before the novel coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, the big story in Oregon legislative politics was the walk out by state Republicans to prevent Democrats from passing a cap and trade bill. Without a quorum, Democratic lawmakers were not able to pass the bill and the 2020 session ended. In response, Gov. Kate Brown issued a 14-page executive order that directs sweeping changes to mitigate climate change. Angus Duncan, who heads the state’s Global Warming Commission, breaks down exactly what’s in the order, the changes it mandates, and how Oregonians will be affected.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans have reported an increase in racist harassment and attacks across the United States. West Linn student Summer Tan recently wrote about experiencing xenophobia in the West Linn Tidings. We talk with Tan and with Duncan Hwang, the associate director of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, about how Asian Americans in the Portland metro area have been affected by the pandemic.

The rural town of Fossil in Wheeler County has a population of about 400. There’s only one health clinic to serve the entire county, which has the oldest population in the state. Fossil Mayor Carol MacInnes tells us how her town is handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week Major League Soccer announced that it is suspending all matches until at least the beginning of May. That means the Timbers are missing games, and the season may have to be delayed. Marco Farfan is a 21-year-old Timbers defender who grew up in Oregon. He tells us what his days are like.

As Oregonians are ordered to stay home as much as possible, some are concerned that stress and isolation is increasing the risk for domestic violence. Crisis workers are anticipating an uptick in calls at the same time that resources to offer survivors are dwindling. We talk with Alexxis Robinson-Woods, who directs programs and services at Bradley Angle, a service provider for domestic violence survivors.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order Monday calling for everyone in the state to stay at home, with some exceptions for essential workers and errands like grocery shopping. We talk with Brown about how she thought about the executive order, how she’ll know when it’s time to lift it and what the future could look like for Oregonians as we all navigate the new normal.

Mobility International USA is aimed at empowering women with disabilities in countries around the world. Susan Sygull, the CEO and co-founder of MIUSA says a lot has changed since the organization started in 1981, and that now she talks less about inclusion of women with disabilities into civic life, and more about “infiltration,” as more women with disabilities work in leadership in businesses and organizations around the globe. MIUSA recently completed a mural in Eugene, where the nonprofit is based, as part of the city’s Urban Mural program. Now Sygall says, they want to make the mural accessible to sight impared people by creating a version that’s raised so it can be experienced in a tactile way.

Last year Portland’s Regional Arts and Culture Council announced a change in the way they distribute money from the arts tax. The idea was to get more money to smaller, diverse organizations. But some organizations say maybe it’s time to re-think the arts tax entirely. We’ll also hear what RACC is doing to support arts organizations hit hard by the global pandemic. Madison Cario is the Executive Director of RACC.

Oregon’s Department of Justice is reporting a rise in fraud schemes related to the coronavirus pandemic. Scammers have set up fake websites, posted false information on social media and are targeting people with calls and emails. We talk with Oregon’s U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams about what people need to watch out for.

More than 3 thousand people live on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Tribal leaders are urging all residents to comply with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s "stay at home" order. We talk with Chuck Sams with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation about how the community is doing and the work being done by the Tribes’ incident command team.