Think Out Loud Oregon Public Broadcasting

In the spring of 2021, Natalie Mastick, a graduate student in the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, dissected filets from nearly 200 cans of salmon, some of which were more than 40 years old. The cans contained filets from pink, chum, coho and sockeye salmon that were caught in Alaska between 1979 and 2021. Mastick acquired the cans from the archives of the Seafood Products Association, a trade organization based in Seattle that provides quality control testing to seafood processors.

Mastick and her colleagues opened up the cans to look for the presence of a parasitic roundworm embedded inside the filets. The parasite requires multiple hosts, including salmon, to complete its life cycle. Its abundance can serve as an indicator of the health of the marine food web, and how infections are changing over time for species like salmon and killer whales. Mastick is now a postdoctoral associate of student programs at the Yale Peabody Museum. She joins us to talk about her recently published findings. 

Portland Police Bureau spent nearly $68,000 on drones and equipment between April and September of 2023. Some of the drones used by the bureau feature cameras that can closely zoom in on people or cars and are made by a manufacturer based in Shenzhen, China. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have warned companies to be wary of drones manufactured in China because using them can jeopardize U.S. national security. That’s according to a report by independent journalist and researcher Kate Kaye. She covers Portland’s use of surveillance technology and is the founder of RedTailMedia.org. Kaye joins us with more on how the police bureau uses drones

In May, Eugene residents will see a proposal that could change how voting is done in the city. STAR Voting is a system that allows voters to score all candidates on a scale from zero to five. The top two candidates with the highest scores will enter an automatic runoff election and the one with the most number of voters supporting them wins. If passed by voters, city elections for Eugene’s mayor, city council and utility board will be selected using this system for the 2026 elections. Sara Wolk is the executive director of Equal Vote Coalition and the chief petitioner for STAR Voting in Eugene. She joins us to share more on what makes this system different from ranked choice voting and what its adoption could mean for the city if passed.

Earlier this month, Gov. Tina Kotek threatened to veto $14 million in state funding for seven local infrastructure projects across Oregon unless they could clearly show they would result in new housing development. Last week, she announced that no line-item vetoes would be made to the projects state lawmakers had already approved funding for during this year’s short legislative session. Shady Cove, a city of roughly 3,200 residents in Jackson County, was one of the municipalities the governor’s office requested additional information from. According to Mayor John Ball, the city wants to use the $1.5 million it was awarded to develop a municipal water system, which he says is essential for new housing development. Mayor Ball joins us to talk about the status of the project, and to reveal the challenges rural communities in Oregon face to build more housing.  

Records show that since the beginning of this year,  there were 9 druggings of University of Oregon students, and the university failed to alert students about what was happening, violating their own protocols. These incidents were potentially linked to fraternity parties. That’s according to a new story from Eugene Weekly. We're joined by reporter Eliza Aronson, who is also a UO  senior studying Journalism and Marine Biology. 

 “Unrelenting pressure” on the nation’s rural healthcare safety net means more hospital closures and many operating on the brink. That’s according to a new report by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. The center says hospitals have been in crisis mode for the last 15 years, but even in just the last 12 months the situation has worsened further, with the percentage of America’s rural hospitals operating in the red jumping from 43% to 50% in that time.

Some of the report’s other key findings include:Access to inpatient care continues to deteriorate, as 167 rural hospitals since 2010 have either closed or converted to a model that excludes inpatient care.Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals dropped OB services. This represents nearly 25% of America’s rural OB units.Between 2014 and 2022, 382 rural hospitals have stopped providing chemotherapy services.

We get more details about what’s driving these trends from Michael Topchik, director of the Chartis Center for Rural Health. We’re also joined by Dr. Lesley Ogden, the CEO of two Lincoln County hospitals: Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport.