Episódios
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Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece.
Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old.
Does Portland and some other pockets of the state have a cash-for-cans crisis? What should city and state officials do about the drug, crime and livability problems surrounding some BottleDrops? And will these revisions to the Bottle Bill make the issue better or worse?
On the latest Beat Check, reporters Aimee Green and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh discuss Green’s four-part series that digs deep into these questions and many more.
Read More:Oregon loves its Bottle Bill, but is it dragging down Portland?‘At the grocery store, we’re looked down upon,’ say people who collect cans on Portland’s streetsFentanyl use, drug deals cluster around a few Portland Plaid Pantry stores. Chain’s boss worries it’ll get worseDo you return cans for 10 cents apiece? Oregon’s Bottle Bill is set to change
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In the digital age, true crime content has exploded in popularity across podcasts, social media and streaming platforms. But with this growth comes a troubling trend: The blurring of verified facts and speculative theories.
On a recent episode of Beat Check with the Oregonian, guests Emily Reeder and Ashley Desanno from the Books with Your Besties podcast discussed this challenge while reflecting on their coverage of the Kyron Horman case, the 7-year-old Portland boy that went missing in 2010.
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In 2010, digital tools for journalists were emerging, but the gritty, time-intensive methods of traditional reporting still dominated newsrooms.
The disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman from his Portland elementary school thrust The Oregonian’s journalists into a high-stakes investigation that demanded old-school techniques now increasingly rare in today’s fast-paced media environment.
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When a child goes missing, the first hours can be critical. In Kyron Horman’s case, investigators didn’t even know he was missing until about six hours had passed — a devastating delay that may have forever altered the trajectory of one of Oregon’s most haunting unsolved cases.
In a recent discussion on the Beat Check with The Oregonian podcast, veteran crime reporter Maxine Bernstein highlighted this critical timeline as perhaps the most consequential element of the 2010 disappearance.
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Fifteen years after 7-year-old Kyron Horman vanished from Skyline Elementary School in Portland, his disappearance continues to haunt not just the Pacific Northwest, but parents everywhere.
In this special episode of Beat Check, engagement editor Julie Evensen and social media producer Destiny Johnson talk to investigative reporter Noelle Crombie about recent news about the case.
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A trio of journalists joined Editor Therese Bottomly on Monday’s episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about the 2020 street protests that started in Portland after the police killing of George Floyd.
Multimedia journalist Beth Nakamura, social media producer Ryan Fernandez, and reporter Zane Sparling (who covered protests for the Portland Tribune) join the conversation.
On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:
--The physical dangers journalists faced on the streets from tear gas, munitions, crowding
--Direct police violence against journalists
--The three chapters of the 150-plus nights of protest
--The role of live streamers
--The fatal shooting in downtown after a pro-Trump caravan arrived in the city
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When Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen died in 2018 from complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it was matter of when, not if, his beloved professional sports team would be sold.
Seven years later, that time has finally arrived.
Allen’s estate announced on May 13 that is has initiated a formal sales process for one of Oregon’s most cherished institutions.
Even though the sale has been anticipated since Allen’s death, it has sparked widespread curiosity — and concern — among the Blazers’ passionate fan base, fueling speculation about the future of the franchise.
How long will the process take? Who might be interested in buying the team? And are the Blazers safe from relocation?
On the latest episode of Beat Check, The Oregonian/OregonLive’s sports columnist, Bill Oram, dissects the looming sale of the Blazers and the future of the franchise.
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Watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger joined Editor Therese Bottomly on this episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about his extraordinary reporting into Skyline CDL School, which operated in Oregon and Washington.
On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:
--How the alleged bribery scheme operated, according to regulators
--How the newsroom got onto the story
--How regulators in Washington went on stakeouts to make their case
What role the Higher Education Coordinating Commission has
--How the school seemed to make efforts to appeal to Russian and Ukrainian immigrants
--What the impact of the reporting has been
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For this week’s episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, education reporter Julia Silverman tackles a series of burning questions from readers and listeners who are weighing how to vote on the $1.83 billion bond.
Have a listen, and don’t forget to turn in your ballot.
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It is a bleak time for mass transit all throughout the U.S. The challenges here in the Portland metro area are many and pronounced.TriMet is providing about 30 million fewer rides each year than it did in 2019 — and the recovery appears to be slowing way down.
Rider safety has been a persistent concern since the pandemic. Fare evasion is rampant.
Meanwhile, TriMet’s subsidy per ride has soared by more than 400% in the last decade. And the regional transit agency is now raising the prospect of staggering service cuts over the next few years.
On the latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Mike Rogoway examine this perilous moment for public transit in the Portland region.
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In recent months, climate and environmental work have been under threat in the U.S., with the Trump administration dismantling climate legislation, freezing funds and intimidating universities, states and nonprofits.
Despite the chaos, there’s still a place for hope, says award-winning environmental journalist Alan Weisman, author of the new book Hope Dies Last. The book profiles scientists, engineers, activists and environmentalists in the U.S. and around the world who are doing extraordinary work to repair our planet’s most devastated ecosystems and prevent climate disaster.
Weisman spoke on the Beat Check podcast about how we can persevere despite all odds, how to pass on hope to our children and which four world emergencies need visionary ideas.
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When President Trump raised tariffs against China and other countries earlier this month, stock markets plunged, chaos rippled through the global economy and anxiety hit business owners across the United States.
The specifics of the tariffs — which soared as high as 145% on China and affected virtually every country on earth — have been changing weekly, if not daily.
And the helter-skelter nature of it all has sent businesses scrambling to adapt to Trump’s trade war.
In Oregon’s trade-dependent economy, the tariffs are particularly tough on the footwear and apparel industry, which uses factories in Asia. And while business giants like Nike and Columbia are plotting to stay afloat, the dramatic shift in policy is potentially crippling for thousands of small businesses in the state, which don’t have as much financial flexibility and muscle.
What’s the mood among Oregon’s small business owners? How are they coping? And what does the future look like?
On the latest episode of Beat Check, reporter Matthew Kish, who covers business for The Oregonian/OregonLive, breaks down the impact of Trump’s tariffs on Oregon small businesses.
Related reading:
• How Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have rattled Oregon small businesses
• ‘Tariff tantrum’ will squeeze Oregon’s sneaker business
• Oregon food industry facing extreme uncertainty again, this time from Trump tariffs
• As trade war heats up, here are Oregon’s largest trading partners
• Trump puts 90-day pause on most new tariffs but an increase on Chinese imports
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With wildfire season approaching and southern California still reeling from the January wildfires, Portland leaders are making sure the city can withstand a major urban wildfire.
Forest Park, the city’s crown jewel and one of the largest urban forests in the U.S., has been identified as one of the areas most at-risk for wildfire in the city.
Kim Kosmas, a senior public education officer with Portland Fire & Rescue who also manages the wildfire preparedness program, talks on Beat Check about what the city is doing to prevent large fires in Forest Park and what homeowners can do to protect their homes.
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First-class airfare to Hawaii. Five-star hotel stays. Lots and lots of food.
All of it footed — directly or indirectly — by customers of a large Portland-area utility.
A recent Oregonian/OregonLive investigation found that executives with Clean Water Services, Washington County’s sewer agency, have spent years enjoying fancy business trips to Hawaii and meals on ratepayers’ dime.
None of the lavish travel spending is accounted for in the agency’s annual budgets. And, despite months of probing questions and public records requests, officials have not yet disclosed the total cost of four Hawaiian trips or provided the receipts on hundreds of thousands of dollars in food spending.
On the latest Beat Check, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh talks to Jamie Goldberg about her rigorous watchdog reporting led to this month’s series on Clean Water Services.
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A series of headlines has brought bad news about the management of Oregon’s Department of Corrections and Oregon Youth Authority to public attention. Numerous leadership changes have also resulted at the two departments.
The agencies are separate divisions in Oregon’s state government but share the responsibility to care for people incarcerated for criminal convictions. The Oregon Youth Authority takes offenders who committed crimes before age 18 (from 12 to 24) and the Corrections Department houses adults.
Senior reporter Noelle Crombie, who specializes in criminal justice journalism, wrote about problems of medical neglect in Oregon’s prisons.
Prison officials placed on leave
Prison medical care under scrutiny
Prisoner lost sight in eye
Doctor warned about problems at prisons
Top officials dismissed
Prison medical care plagued by turmoil at the top (with watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger)
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When the Mt. Bachelor ski resort abruptly went up for sale in August, a couple of Central Oregon mountain enthusiasts had an audacious thought:
Maybe we should buy it.
Before they knew it, the me — who had not met beforehand — put in motion a plan to purchase one of Oregon’s most cherished landmarks. They organized a GoFundMe and formed a company. They hobnobbed with Oregon politicians. They sought out big-pocket investors.
They knew the challenge would be daunting.
Bachelor is a coveted property, after all. So the corporate titans of the ski industry would be swarming, likely offering bids in the neighborhood of $200 million.
But the movement was quickly celebrated as a potential win for the underdog, drawing national attention for its effort to keep the United States’ seventh-largest ski resort out of the hands of corporate America — and in the hands of local ski bums.
The group made a major announcement last week regarding their quest to buy Bachelor. Where do things stand? And how did we get to this point?
On the latest episode of Beat Check, Jonathan Bach, who covers housing and real estate for The Oregonian/OregonLive, discusses the backstory — and the latest news — surrounding the bid to buy Mt. Bachelor.
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But will it be a home run?
The Portland Diamond Project has so far struck out on its years-long efforts to bring Major League Baseball to Portland.
But now they’ve got a new site on the South Waterfront, fresh energy from city leaders and a pitch to the Oregon Legislature, not to mention swoon-y renderings of a new stadium along the Willamette.
Sports columnist Bill Oram and ECONorthwest economist Mike Wilkerson join Beat Check with The Oregonian to make sense of the numbers behind the proposal, the unknowns (who is behind that ownership group?) and what comes next. Wilkerson, a consultant to the Portland Diamond Project, says building a new stadium downtown could be a game-changer for Portland, the city that he recently and regretfully said was on the verge of a “doom loop” thanks to downward trends in population growth, the commercial real estate market and more.
Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear Oram and Wilkerson make it very clear where their own personal baseball allegiances land.
Related coverage:
Is a picture worth almost a billion dollars?OHSU responds to South Waterfront ballpark proposalEconomist warns of Portland ‘doom loop’
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Preliminary results from a new state survey on wood combustion show more people are using fireplaces and woodstoves in urban areas in Oregon, despite efforts by state and local governments to decrease their use.
Why the increase? And just how dangerous are wood stoves and wood-burning fireplaces to our health and the health of the planet?
John Wasiutynski, the director for Multnomah County’s Office of Sustainability, talked on the Beat Check podcast about the pollution impacts of wood combustion and about why it’s so difficult to get people to stop using wood burning devices.
READ MORE:
Budget cuts jeopardize program providing heat pumps for low-income Oregonians
Oregon attorney general’s office joins lawsuit against the EPA over wood-burning stove standards
Limiting winter fires helps Portland’s toxic air, and it’s the law
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It’s undeniably good news that deadly violence in Portland continued to tick downward last year.
The city recorded 71 homicides in 2024. That’s six fewer than the year prior and a 30% drop from the record-shattering 101 killings Oregon’s most populous city saw in 2022.
Reported shootings, meanwhile, fell below 1,000 for the first time since 2020.
Despite these positive trends, annual Portland homicides are still more than double what they were pre-pandemic. And other large, more populous west coast cities like Seattle and San Francisco continue to see far fewer killings than here.
So what gives?
On The latest Beat Check, Oregonian/OregonLive reporters Shane Dixon Kavanaugh and Zaeem Shaikh discuss Portland’s stubbornly high homicide numbers — and why there are signs of continued of improvement.
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