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Connie Chung is an icon. It’s been almost 20 years since she was regularly on air, but she’s still a household name and a namesake for a generation of Asian American women.
Americans remember her as one of the faces of the news, from the 1970s through the early 2000s. She interviewed Nixon and Oregon’s one-time Olympic darling-turned-national villain, Tonya Harding and covered the events that rocked the country from the O.J. Simpson trial to the Oklahoma City bombing.
In “Connie: A Memoir” released Tuesday from Grand Central Publishing, Chung, now 78, tells her own story.
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School is back in session, but September has been warmer than usual. Thousands of students in the Portland area were let out of school early or had classes canceled earlier this month as temperatures reached triple digits and dirty air from wildfires in the region triggered air quality alerts.
With extreme weather events on the rise both during summers and winters, schools are being forced to adjust to the impacts of a warming climate, including by upgrading their buildings, swapping gas-gurgling buses for electric ones and writing new climate-focused curriculums, among others.
Julia Silverman, The Oregonian’s education reporter, talked on Beat Check about how schools are hoping to fund new HVAC systems and other climate-related changes, what approaches rural schools are taking and why climate-related learning disruptions can significantly hamper student success.
Read more about schools’ response to climate change on The Oregonian/OregonLive.com:
Portland-area schools hope city will fund more AC and climate upgrades, via clean energy tax proceeds
How shabby or shiny are your local schools? In Oregon, it depends where you live
6 down, 3 to go as another renovated high school opens in Portland
With extreme heat in the forecast, Portland-area school districts weigh their options
Students, legislators push for school districts to tackle climate change
A Portland high school student has Oregon governor’s ear on environmental justice
Young Somali American brings green Islam movement to Portland
Students nationwide have rebounded after pandemic. But not in Oregon. Consequences could be severe
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Portland City Hall is on the verge of some truly monumental changes, ranging from the radical transformation of how the city’s government operates to an historic election in November that will usher in a new mayor and expanded 12-member City Council.
The work to get here has now been years in the making. Few have followed the twists and turns of this civic saga as closely as Maja Viklands Harris.
A longtime journalist and local government watcher, Harris is the founder of Rose City Reform, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news and research site that’s become a must-read for reporters, political insiders and many of the people seeking local elected office this fall.
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new wave energy test site is nearly complete off the Oregon coast. The site, overseen by Oregon State University, will allow private developers to test devices that can harness the power of ocean waves, a technology that’s still in its infancy. The hope is that wave energy can become another major source of clean, renewable electricity akin to solar or wind power and can help power the world’s clean energy transition. Burke Hales, a professor at Oregon State University and the chief scientist at the test site, talked on Beat Check about why Oregon is at the forefront of this new technology and what the challenges are going forward.
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Last month, watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger published an in-depth article examining a loophole in the Oregon Lottery’s rules. In Oregon, it is perfectly legal to re-sell your winning lottery ticket at a discount, allowing the buyer to claim the prize.
Why would anyone do this? Well, if they wanted to avoid having the state seize part of their winnings for taxes or back child support, for example.
And why would the state allow this? Lottery officials told Sickinger they were aware of the practice of “discounting” and despite the fact other states have moved to close down similar schemes elsewhere nothing had been done in Oregon to prohibit the workaround.
Sickinger joined Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about how he got onto the story and how he tracked down participants willing to talk with him. He also talked about reaction to his piece.
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The 2024 fire season so far hasn’t encroached on as many highly populated areas or forced as many mass evacuations as some recent years.
But it’s been historic nonetheless. More acres have burned across the state than in any year since at least 1992, when officials started keeping a reliable tally.
Sujena Soumyanath and Fedor Zarkin, public safety reporters for The Oregonian/OregonLive, discussed fire damage to date, dispatches from the front lines and the outlook for the rest of the season on Beat Check with The Oregonian.
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Portland, like much of Oregon, is still in the throes of a housing crisis. Rents and home prices continue to squeeze some residents and move further out of reach for many more. Developers who could help reverse these troubling tends are skittish.
Meanwhile, the dream of converting swaths of empty offices in Portland’s beleaguered downtown to apartments remains elusive and unlikely to materialize in the near future — if ever.
On the latest Beat Check, reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Jonathan Bach discuss Portland’s housing crunch and how it could be solved.
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This summer marked the debut of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s first long-form serial narrative podcast with Wondery. “Happily Never After” rapidly climbed the charts and left listeners wanting more about the case of Nancy Crampton Brophy, convicted of murdering her husband, a Portland chef.
Reporter Zane Sparling, who covers Multnomah County Courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive, held an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit to answer burning questions.
For “Beat Check with The Oregonian,” Editor Therese Bottomly welcomed Sparling back to revisit the successful podcast (an excellent diversion for a summer vacation). “Since the 2022 trial, I’ve spent the past two years interviewing dozens of people about Dan and Nancy, reviewed thousands of pages of police reports, listened in on Nancy’s jail calls — and, yes, read through all her novels.,” Sparling said.
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A new state-wide coalition wants to add an environmental rights amendment to the Oregon Constitution. It would enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the Bill of Rights.
Proponents say making the right to a healthy environment a fundamental right is key in the era of human-made climate change. Right now, such a right is not explicitly spelled out in Oregon and only a few states – Montana, Pennsylvania and New York – do include it in their Constitutions.
Nationwide, advocates are pushing to pass similar so-called ‘green amendments’ in all 50 states, with several states working actively on the effort. In Oregon, the amendment could be added through a legislative referral or a ballot initiative.
Linda Perrine, an organizer with the Oregon Coalition for an Environmental Rights Amendment, talked on Beat Check about what a green amendment means, why it’s needed in Oregon and whether it will harm the state’s economic development.
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Few helped define the Portland food scene that would fuel the city’s glowing reputation for innovation and creativity the last two decades than Naomi Pomeroy, the celebrated chef, cookbook author and James Beard Award winner.
Pomeroy died July 13 in a tragic accident while floating on the Willamette River near her hometown of Corvallis. She was just 49.
On the latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive food critic Michael Russell and I talk about Pomery’s indelible impact on Portland and beyond.
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Many consumers want to do their part to slow down global warming and they’re flocking to companies that try to do less harm to the planet. Companies, in turn, love to claim they’re environmentally friendly, sustainable or carbon neutral. Because in a world battered by climate change, it’s not just morally right to fight climate change, it also pays off.
Nike, the world’s largest sports apparel brand, has been at the forefront of environmentally friendly commitments. The company has promised to significantly slash its emissions by 2030. It has touted innovations that would not only lessen its impact on global warming but also become a “powerful engine for growth” and an industry model.
But in December, Nike started slashing its sustainability workforce, leading to doubts about how the company can fulfill its carbon reduction pledges. Nike executives told The Oregonian the company remained committed to its sustainability goals and has made them everyone’s job.
On Beat Check, Matthew Kish, a business reporter who covers the apparel industry for The Oregonian, talked about why apparel companies like Nike are interested in sustainability, how they’re planning to fulfill their promises and why they may have trouble doing so.
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Forecasts for this past weekend called for another lengthy heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees for four days in a row — maybe longer.
This won’t be the Portland area’s hottest stretch. That was a 2021 heat wave when temperatures hit 116 degrees. About 100 people died in Oregon.
But this 2024 heat wave might end up among the longest, which weather officials say could be similarly dangerous.
Environment reporter Gosia Wozniacka joined host Elliot Njus to discuss this dangerous effect of climate change and how the Portland region is preparing for more frequent, more severe heat events.
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Longtime reporter Tom Hallman Jr. retired last week after nearly 44 years at The Oregonian. His byline is a favorite for readers who know he will deliver a feature story well worth their time.
Hallman joins Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about his career and what goes into his style of writing and reporting. Hallman won the Pulitzer Prize for his feature “The Boy Behind the Mask.” He also was a Pulitzer finalist twice.
Other memorable stories include:
The Apology
The Rescue
Saving the music
A Principal’s Gift
Swept Away
Listen to the full conversation.
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Authorities in Oregon have known for over three decades that groundwater in the eastern part of the state, a rural region where many people rely on domestic wells for drinking water, is contaminated with high levels of nitrates and unsafe to drink – yet, until recently, have done little to address the problem.
Until 2022, many people in the region had no idea they had been drinking contaminated water for years. Some still don’t know it because the state has tested only about half the affected domestic wells despite a 2023 deadline to finish the testing.
Research has linked high nitrate consumption over long periods to stomach, bladder and intestinal cancers, miscarriages, as well as thyroid issues. It is especially dangerous to infants who can quickly develop “blue baby syndrome,” a fatal illness.
In May and again earlier this month, three dozen nonprofits and two retired Oregon Department of Environmental Quality administrators sent a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek asking her to make good on her promises to test all domestic wells in the region, find a permanent source of water for those forced to rely on bottled water and take action to clean up the groundwater. Kotek had visited the area after becoming governor.The letter called the nitrate contamination in the Lower Umatilla Basin “among the most pressing environmental justice issues in Oregon.” Most of the population in the region is poor, Latino or Indigenous.
Late on Friday, Kotek sent a response. In her letter, the governor said she has directed the Oregon Health Authority to, among other actions, complete the testing of the remaining wells and the retesting of some households identified as being at high risk by June 30, 2025.Kristin Anderson Ostrom, the executive director of Oregon Rural Action, and Kaleb Lay, the group’s director of policy and research, talked on Beat Check about why the contamination has taken so long to address, what can be done about it in the short and long term and what the crisis says about Oregon’s approach to environmental justice.
The eastern Oregon nonprofit, alongside the Morrow County public health department, has been instrumental in testing domestic wells in the region and pushing the state to do more testing and to limit nitrate pollution.Allowing another full year to test the remaining wells and setting the bar low on retesting is not an adequate response, Ostrom said. And the state needs to take substantive action to rein in the sources of pollution, she added. Much of the nitrate contamination comes from farm fertilizer, animal manure and wastewater that are constantly applied to farm fields.
“This is an ongoing emergency and it needs to be recognized as one – the lives and health of thousands of our neighbors are at risk and it’s the State’s responsibility to protect them from further harm,” Ostrom told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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Across Oregon, county and city leaders say they don’t have the money to maintain their streets and sidewalks.
In the Portland area, a pair of mega transportation projects years in the making remain unfinished and drastically underfunded.
All the while, the Oregon Department of Transportation says will require an annual $1.8 billion boost to meet a growing list of transit needs throughout the state.
The agency’s director recently said the entire system is “hemorrhaging.”
On the latest Beat Check, reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Carlos Fuentes discuss Oregon’s transportation woes, attempts by state leaders to address them and the messy politics in the middle of it all.
Read More:
Oregon lawmakers want to fix roads and beef up transit. Where will they find the money?
ODOT pumps brakes on two major freeway projects amid budget crisis, tolling pause
Gov. Tina Kotek shelves plans for I-5, I-205 tolls in Portland area
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Way back in 2011, policymakers in Oregon set an ambitious goal.
By 2025, 80 percent of the state’s 25- to 34-year-old residents would have some kind of college credentials.
The deadline is next year, and the state won’t come close.
Instead, college-going rates have been on the decline in Oregon for the last decade, particularly among certain groups of high school students, including boys from rural Oregon and students of color. The decline outpaces national averages.
College enrollment matters for more than just students. To flourish in the future, the state’s economy needs highly-skilled workers who can contribute to the tax base. And as communities of color fall further behind in higher education attainment, it hurts the state’s efforts to improve equitable outcomes for all its residents.
Reporter Sami Edge set out to understand the decline. Her work is spotlighted in a seven-part series that continues this week in The Oregonian/OregonLive as students around the state graduate from high school.
In this episode of Beat Check, we’ll talk about:
— The skyrocketing costs of college tuition in Oregon.
— How community colleges do — and don’t — appeal to high school seniors.
— The ins and outs of Oregon’s existing tuition grant programs.
— How one tiny rural school in Klamath County sets the standard for high schools around the state.
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Laura Hill was about 30 years old when she helped create one of Portland’s most-iconic designs.
When the Port of Portland was redesigning Portland International Airport in 1986, architecture and design firm SRG Partnership led the project.
Hill retired from the firm in 2008, but at the time she was a principal interior designer for SRG.
In this bonus episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, reporter Lizzy Acker shares her interview with Hill.
Hill explains how the famous design came to be, the research SRG did at other airports and what other designs were pitched. Here's their conversation.
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True crime is popular in the podcast world, and romance novels are seeing a surge in popularity. The Oregonian/OregonLive’s new podcast, in partnership with Wondery, marries the two topics for a six-part exclusive look at the case of Nancy Crampton Brophy, who was convicted of murdering her husband, Dan.
Reporters Zane Sparling, who covered the trial, and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who reported on her arrest and its aftermath, joined Editor Therese Bottomly on “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to discuss the new podcast, which is available on all major platforms today.
In this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:
--Why investigators zeroed in on Crampton Brophy
--How Crampton Brophy took the stand at trial and it backfired
--Her previous role in the Portland community of romance writers
--Why humans can’t resist anthropomorphizing animals -- that is, attributing human behaviors and motives and emotions to our pets
“Happily Never After: Dan and Nancy,” with Wondery, now has two of the six episodes available.
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In recent years, people have killed increasingly larger numbers of wolves in Oregon as the animals have rebounded in the state. And poisoning has emerged as one of the most common tools used to target wolves. Roblyn Brown, wolf program coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, talked on Beat Check about the poisonings, what they mean in the context of Oregon’s stagnant wolf population and how to bridge the divide between people who love wolves and those who want them gone.
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Portland and Multnomah County voters are casting ballots this week in a number of local contested races. Candidates in each of them have offered competing visions for how to best address some of the most pressing issues facing Oregon’s most populous county — be it crime, livability concerns or the deadly fentanyl crisis.
In particular, the outcome in the race between Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt and challenger Nathan Vasquez, a longtime prosecutor in that office, could have a profound impact on key policy decisions and priorities in those areas — and provide a telling look at where the Portland area stands politically after weathering some of the most chaotic years in recent memory.
On the latest Beat Check, reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Noelle Crombie discuss the state of that closely-watched race.
Read More:
Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt and challenger Nathan Vasquez locked in tight election battle as drug use, crime distress voters
Nathan Vasquez leads in matchup against Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, poll finds
Multnomah County DA race: Fact-checking candidate claims about crime, caseloads and convictions
Multnomah County DA candidates trade barbs, blame in televised debate
Portland protests shape District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s young tenure: Now what? (from May 2021)
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