KGW’s Straight Talk

Coming this November, Portlanders will face many decisions on the ballot, including picking the city’s next city mayor. Whoever wins will become the first mayor under Portland's new system of government starting in January 2025.So far, there are three leading candidates in terms of money raised, and they're all current Portland City Commissioners: Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio.Rubio was a guest on this week’s episode of “Straight Talk” to discuss how she plans to tackle Portland’s homeless crisis, public safety and climate crisis.Read the full story at KGW.com

Central City Concern’s President and CEO Andy Mendenhall and Senior Director of Supportive Housing and Employment Sarah Holland join Straight Talk’s Laural Porter to discuss Portland’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The organization has been serving Portland for 45 years as an affordable housing developer and service provider.

As foreign aid and border security remain as hot topics in U.S. Congress, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives unveil a new funding bill to provide aid and security — one week after Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a similar bill.The $66.3 billion bipartisan package, titled the "Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act," a new funding bill includes both aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, in addition to a new border security policy.Read more at KGW.com

The race for district attorney in Multnomah County in the 2024 election is stacking up to be one of the most important races, as crime and homicide rates have spiked in recent years.Nathan Vasquez, a career prosecutor and senior deputy district attorney, is running against his boss Mike Schmidt, who was elected as the district attorney in a lopsided victory in 2020 during racial justice protests.However, Schmidt’s popularity has fallen in many Portlander’s eyes blaming him for the increase in crime, which he denies in a Straight Talk episode with Laural Porter in September.This week, his opponent Vasquez joined Straight Talk to discuss why he’s running for election and what he hopes to do.Read the full story at KGW.com

While Portland leaders have touted recent progress on metrics like crime, new polling shows that many people in the metro area remain deeply pessimistic about their quality of life and how it compares to the area's cost of living.The polling comes from the Portland Metro Chamber, formerly known as the Portland Business Alliance. The group takes an annual assessment of voter sentiments, and they commissioned local firm DHM Research to conduct a survey of 500 voters in the tri-county area late last year. Portlanders made up half of the people polled.On week's episode of "Straight Talk," Portland Metro Chamber's President Andrew Hoan, DHM Research President Michelle Neiss and ECOnorthwest Director of Analytics Mike Wilkerson discussed the recent poll and why Portland has struggled with affordability. To read the full story visit KGW.com

Portlanders will face a large number of decisions on the ballot in November, but one of the most of important and consequential will be choosing the city's next mayor. Whoever wins will take office right when the city switches to a brand new form of government, one completely different from the one Portland has used for more than a century.The new mayor will immediately be tasked with hiring Portland's first permanent city administrator, and they'll also help set the city's agenda and set the tone for the culture of the new city government. So far, there are three leading candidates in terms of money raised, and they're all current Portland city commissioners: Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio.Gonzalez was a guest on this week's episode of "Straight Talk" to discuss how he plans to tackle Portland's challenges with crime, homelessness, addiction and ambulance response times. Public safety and livability were a key part of his campaign when he was elected to the city council in November 2022, and he said he's maintaining that focus in his mayoral campaign."We went from very safe to average overnight, and that's been brutal for Portlanders," he said. "That was a big part of our identity. You could walk to the neighborhood grocery store or to a restaurant and feel safe, that your children could bike to the park. And all of that has been implicated in recent years."

Oregon’s 2024 legislative session got underway last Monday, tackling big state challenges like housing, homelessness and the drug crisis. On this week’s episode of Straight Talk, Gov. Tina Kotek stopped by to discuss her own bill that she hopes will make big gains on Oregon’s critical housing shortage, plus what she would like to see come out of talks to amend Measure 110, a voter-approved bill that decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs.

While the race for Portland City Council has gained a lot of attention as the city transitions the form of government it has used for over a century. At Multnomah County, the four seats on the ballot, have high stakes too. Elected officials will have the responsibility of dealing with some the region's toughest challenges, like homelessness, behavioral health and public safety.Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards, of District 3, was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss her reasons for reelection and hopes for more urgency at the county-level in tackling the communities challenges.

Portland is now less than a year away from abandoning the commission-style form of government that the city has used for more than a century. It's a dramatic change, and the plan that Portlanders approved in late 2022 gave the city only two years to prepare. With half of that time already gone, city leaders are racing against the clock to meet that deadline.The mayor and commissioners function as the city council and also directly oversee city bureaus under the current system, but the overhaul will split up those roles. The council will expand to 12 members — three from each of four new geographic districts — and it will only set policy. The mayor will no longer be on the council and will instead oversee a professional city administrator in charge of all day-to-day operations.Jordan previously directed Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services, and before that he was a Clackamas County Commissioner and worked for 11 years at Pacific Power and Light. Jordan was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to help make sense of the new city government structure and provide an update on the progress of the transition process.

Portland city commissioner Dan Ryan has announced that he will be run for City Council this year. As a longtime resident of North Portland, Ryan said he will be aiming for one of the three seats that will represent District 2 on the expanded 12-person council that will take over city governance at the start of 2025.Ryan is the first of the city's current five council members to make a bid for a position on the new council. Fellow commissioners Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio have all announced plans to run for mayor. Current mayor Ted Wheeler has ruled out running for a third term, but has not announced any further plans.Ryan was rumored to be considering a mayoral run last fall, but said he wanted to wait a few more months to make a decision. He ultimately declared in December that he wouldn't seek the mayor's office, but he didn't rule out the possibility of a council run, declaring only that he didn't want to mount a citywide campaign in 2024.

Four out of five Black Portlanders once lived in Albina, a portion of inner Northeast Portland that includes the Elliot, Boise, King, Humboldt, Overlook, Irvington and Piedmont neighborhoods, but many of those residents were displaced by the construction of Interstate 5, during which Black-owned homes and business were destroyed through eminent domain and urban renewal policies.Albina Vision Trust is a nonprofit that advocates for large-scale restorative development in the area, aiming to revitalize and reconnect the historically Black Albina community.The nonprofit's executive director Winta Yohannes, board chair Michael Alexander and strategic communications lead JT Flowers were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the history of Albina, what Albina Vision Trust has accomplished so far, and the organization's vision and plans for the future."Our dream is to successfully execute that vision and create a brand-new neighborhood where wealth is shared and opportunity is available to all who live there," Yohannes said, adding that if successful, the scale of the project would result in the area adding a whole new ZIP code.

This week, Laural Porter sat down with two key figures organizing the project to replace the Interstate Bridge that links Oregon and Washington. Unlike the last time this happened, the project is making slow but steady progress and appears to have much of the necessary funding lined up. Construction is expected to begin in late 2025.

U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas is nearing the end of her first year in Congress representing Oregon's 6th Congressional District, and she called in to this week's episode of Straight Talk from Washington DC to talk about the ups and downs of her first term so far. Salinas won the first election for the newly-created district in November 2022 after previously serving three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives. She weighed in on two topics that have been dominating headlines in recent weeks: The ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and congressional Republicans' struggle to elect a successor, as well as Hamas's attacks on Israel and subsequent conflict in the Gaza Strip. But she also discussed a range of federal legislation that she's worked on this year that could have and the potential environmental, economic and health care impacts for Oregonians.

When Oregon legalized recreational cannabis use eight years ago, people flocked from all over the country to either use it for themselves or get in on the ground floor of the burgeoning business. Today cannabis is a billion-dollar industry, producing hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year for state coffers.Oversaturation remains a big problem for Oregon's cannabis industry, and product prices have dropped significantly. Regardless, things are looking up on the national level, with huge breakthroughs on the horizon.

On this week's Straight Talk, KGW's Ashley Korslien speaks to three experts about how to identify domestic violence and access resources for victims.

When students of Portland State University head back to class on Tuesday, there will be a new leader at the helm of Portland's public research university, located right in the heart of the city.PSU's board of trustees voted unanimously to name Dr. Ann Cudd the university's 11th president. She takes over from former president Stephen Percy, who retired in July. Dr. Cudd is only the second woman to serve as PSU president in the school's 76-year history.

Portland is about to switch to an entirely new form of government, following a charter reform plan that voters approved last November. The transformation won't happen in earnest until January 2025, when the winners of the November 2024 election will take office as the first mayor and city councilors under the new system. But there's an enormous amount of preparation that must take place first, and it falls to the city's current mayor and commissioners to oversee that work.Commissioner Dan Ryan was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss that process, as well as his thoughts on the decision to end the city's sole-source contract with the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the city's ongoing efforts to resolve its homelessness crisis through projects like Safe Rest Villages and mass sanctioned campsites.

Portland's 2024 election is likely to be the busiest in recent memory. The city council is expanding from four commissioners to 12 councilors, and every one of those seats will be up for grabs at the same time. The mayor's office will be on the ballot as well, and whoever wins will become the first mayor under Portland's new system of government starting in January 2025.The first person to throw their hat into the ring for the mayor's race is current city commissioner Mingus Mapps, who was elected in 2020. Mapps was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk, and he stuck around for a bonus episode to talk about the city's efforts to combat climate change.

Portland's 2024 election is likely to be the busiest in recent memory. The city council is expanding from four commissioners to 12 councilors, and every one of those seats will be up for grabs at the same time. The mayor's office will be on the ballot as well, and whoever wins will become the first mayor under Portland's new system of government starting in January 2025.The first person to throw their hat into the ring for the mayor's race is current city commissioner Mingus Mapps, who was elected in 2020. Mapps was an early advocate for charter reform, but became a vocal critic of the final package of changes that was ultimately sent to voters last year. Nonetheless, he says the new mayor's role is going to be critical to addressing Portland's challenges, and he wants to be part of that change.Mapps was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss his reasons for running, his hopes and concerns for the new system of government and his plans to help Portland meet its many challenges.

​U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden was a guest on this week's episode on Straight Talk to discuss the challenges facing Oregon, including his work on federal legislation to respond to wildfires and combat the spread of fentanyl, as well as his efforts to expand rural broadband internet access and boost opportunities for farmers in Eastern Oregon.Wyden also discussed how he expects the federal C.H.I.P.S. Act to boost Oregon's semiconductor industry, his efforts to bring a WNBA team to Portland and the future of the Trail Blazers without franchise superstar Damian Lillard.He also talked about the ongoing saga of the franchise's ownership and Nike co-founder Phil Knight's repeated — and so far, unsuccessful — offers to buy the team. Wyden said his top priority has been to avoid a scenario where the team gets purchased and then moved out of Oregon, like what happened to the former Seattle SuperSonics. "I've been very vigilant in terms of watching the process for dealing with Paul Allen's estate, staying in touch with the league," he said. "I just want Oregonians to know that as long as I'm the state's senior senator, we are not going to see a fiasco like what happened in Seattle."

Threats against the LGBTQ+ community have been increasing in recent years, both in the northwest and across the country. Law enforcement agencies are tracking a sharp increase in hate crimes, and meanwhile the Department of Homeland Security has issued warnings about the potential for attacks on LGBTQ-friendly events. And the recent Supreme Court decision has many worried about the potential for discrimination.The effects have been seen locally as well, with everything from hate speech to homicides. But LGBTQ+ people and their allies in Portland say they're not giving up on the fight for their rights.Basic Rights Oregon is an organization that works to ensure all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two spirit, intersex and asexual Oregonians experience equality. Basic Rights Oregon statewide engagement manager Gabby Gardiner and communications manager Blair Stenvick were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss how the organization is pushing back against the wave of anti-gay laws and attacks that have been targeting the LGBTQ+ community.

Drivers crossing the Broadway Bridge have surely noticed it in the past few months: Nearly all of the former central post office area next to the bridge ramps has been demolished, wiping the 14-acre site clean and setting the stage for a massive redevelopment project right between downtown Portland's Pearl District and Old Town neighborhoods.The post office site is the centerpiece of the 34-acre Broadway Corridor, which primarily owned by the Portland Housing Bureau and the economic and urban development organization Prosper Portland. The long-imagined redevelopment aims to transform the site to provide high-density employment, mixed-income housing, new park space and signature city attractions and amenities. Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam, Portland Housing Bureau Interim Director Molly Rogers and Twauna Hennessee, leader of outreach for the Carpenters Union, were all guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the vision the future of the Broadway Corridor and what the project will mean for Portland.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer has represented Oregon's Third Congressional District since 1996, and he's become a fixture in Portland over the years, known both for his signature bowtie and for his passion for bikes and public transit in the Rose City. There's even a local bike and pedestrian bridge named after him.Rep. Blumenauer was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the current challenges Portland faces with crime and homelessness, his vision for the future of the city and how his work in Congress will impact things back in Oregon.Asked about the current state of Portland, Blumenauer described the city's outlook as very mixed, with serious problems and community struggles contrasting with good moments."If you go through the neighborhoods, as I do every week, you see people who take pride in their community, who haven't given up," he said. "They're fighting to move forward, to take advantage of opportunities, and to make sure that we're not going to be defeated by these circumstances."

Earlier this year, Mayor Ted Wheeler shook up the bureau assignments for city commissioners. Commissioner Carmen Rubio, then in charge of city parks, was placed across two of the city's most critical issues: building more affordable housing and helping Portland businesses to thrive.Rubio heads the city Housing Bureau, the Bureau of Development Services and the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. She also heads up Prosper Portland, the city's economic development agency.Gov. Tina Kotek has made it abundantly clear that the state needs more affordable housing, and she's looking for ways to speed up housing production.With that in mind, what is Commissioner Rubio's plan and does it, as some critics claim, come at an environmental cost? Straight Talk's Laurel Porter sat down with Rubio to talk about that and reflect on her nearly 2.5 years as city commissioner.

After Portland superstar Darcelle XV, also known as Walter Cole, passed away at the age of 92, Poison Waters and other fellow drag queens at Darcelle XV Showplace hosted a show in her honor, fulfilling Darcelle's wish that the show would go on after her death.Poison Waters, also known as Kevin Cook, is a local legend in her own right, having performed drag for 35 years, and she's set to serve as the Grand Marshal in Portland's Starlight Parade this year, following in the footsteps of Darcelle, who led the parade in 2010.Poison Waters stuck around for a bonus episode after the show, which can be viewed at the bottom of this story.

After Portland superstar Darcelle XV, also known as Walter Cole, passed away at the age of 92, Poison Waters and other fellow drag queens at Darcelle XV Showplace hosted a show in her honor, fulfilling Darcelle's wish that the show would go on after her death.Poison Waters, also known as Kevin Cook, is a local legend in her own right, having performed drag for 35 years, and she's set to serve as the Grand Marshal in Portland's Starlight Parade this year, following in the footsteps of Darcelle, who led the parade in 2010.Poison Waters was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to talk about Darcelle, the Starlight Parade and the importance of celebrating Pride Month, especially in an era when drag queens have come under increasing attack in many parts of the country through drag bans and bad faith protests.Pride is celebrated in June to honor the Stonewall Riots, an uprising in New York City that began on June 28, 1969, when police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village. Protests against the raid lasted for 6 days and served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement around the world.

The murders of Vancouver mother Meshay Melendez her 7-year-old daughter Layla Stewart in March led to an outpouring of grief in the Vancouver community, along with anger and questions about whether more could have been done to protect them. This week's episode of Straight Talk discusses the Tiffany Hill law, why it might not have been used in the case of Meshay and Layla, and what actions can help prevent future domestic violence.All four of this week's guests have previously appeared separately on Straight Talk: Michelle Bart, president and founder of the National Women's Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation; Vancouver police Sergeant Tanya Wollstein, who investigated the Tiffany Hill case; Washington Republican State Sen. Lynda Wilson, who helped write the Tiffany Hill legislation; and Democratic State Rep. Sharon Wylie.The guests stuck around for a bonus episode to discuss the role of bail and other legal tools in preventing domestic violence and protecting victims.

The murders of Vancouver mother Meshay Melendez her 7-year-old daughter Layla Stewart in March led to an outpouring of grief in the Vancouver community, along with anger and questions about whether more could have been done to protect them. This week's episode of Straight Talk discusses the Tiffany Hill law, why it might not have been used in the case of Meshay and Layla, and what actions can help prevent future domestic violence.All four of this week's guests have previously appeared separately on Straight Talk: Michelle Bart, president and founder of the National Women's Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation; Vancouver police Sergeant Tanya Wollstein, who investigated the Tiffany Hill case; Washington Republican State Sen. Lynda Wilson, who helped write the Tiffany Hill legislation; and Democratic State Rep. Sharon Wylie.

Republicans in the House of Representatives narrowly passed the "Parents Bill of Rights," while Democrats introduced their own competing bill.

Current school board members and students say it's important to center the needs and voices of students.

Speaking on Straight Talk with Laural Porter, Governor Kotek says she plans to continue her listening tour of Oregon, and keep up the urgency around housing

Multnomah County notably lost population last year, but on the north side of the Columbia River, Vancouver is still experiencing rapid growth — and it's prompting local leaders to think big when planning for the future.Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss how the city plans to maintain its momentum and tackle the challenges that come with rapid growth.Vancouver's current population is about 200,000 people, she said, but county estimates show that the city will need to be prepared to house 450,000 people — more than double the current population — 20 years from now.

Oregon lawmakers passed $200 million funding package to address homelessness and affordable housing. The two bills now go to Oregon governor Tina Kotek.

Oregon's housing crisis has been front and center during this year's legislative session as the state and its new governor, Tina Kotek, struggle to tackle a problem that has been years in the making.The scale of the shortage makes it difficult for even aggressive solutions to produce quick improvements; it will take a long time to build the hundreds of thousands of housing units Oregon will need to not only make up for the exiting shortfall but stay ahead of future population growth.But there is one approach that can produce additional housing much faster, and without having to build anything at all: home sharing, in which existing homeowners rent out their unused rooms to tenants.Tess Fields, executive director of Home Share Oregon, Margaret Van Vliet, former director of Oregon Housing and Community services, were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the state of Oregon's housing crisis and the immediate impact that home sharing can have.They were joined James Dirksen, an Oregon homeowner who has rented out a portion of his house for more than 20 years, hosting a variety of tenants, to talk about his experience as a home sharing participant.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell joined KGW's Laural Porter for Straight Talk this week for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on issues like police staffing levels and body-worn cameras. He stuck around for a bonus episode to discuss police reform efforts, his working relationship with Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler, and what will happen when Portland transitions to a new form of government in 2025.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell joined KGW's Laural Porter for Straight Talk this week for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on police staffing challenges, Portland's crime and homicide rates, the 2020 protests, gunshot detection technology and the implementation of body-worn cameras for police officers.

The rise in remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic hollowed out downtown Portland, which was heavily-reliant on office workers. Can anything be done to bring the core of Portland back to its former glory?

Data compiled by consulting firm EcoNorthwest shows that thousands of people are leaving Multnomah County, and taking hundreds of millions of dollars with them.

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation officials Heidi Wallace and Carrie Bates were guests on Straight Talk to discuss how people can recognize when drinking has become a problem, where they can go for help to cut back, and the kinds of benefits that can come from reducing alcohol consumption.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler reshuffled some of the city's biggest bureaus at the start of the year in what he described as an effort to consolidate groups related bureaus together under the same commissioners in preparation for the city's transition to a new form of government.One of those changes was to give control of the city's Housing Bureau to Commissioner Carmen Rubio. The previous housing director, Commissioner Dan Ryan, now heads up Portland Parks & Recreation, the Office of Community and Civic Life, the Office of Equity and Human Rights and serves as the city's Arts Liaison under a "culture and livability" unbrella.Ryan was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk, and he said while he's eager to take on his new role, he still wants to make sure the projects he was overseeing at the housing bureau can come to fruition — especially the Safe Rest Villages project.

Multnomah County's new chair, Jessica Vega Pederson and Oregon's new behavioral health director Ebony Clarke join KGW to talk about their plans for the homelessness and mental health care crises.

The societal challenges are showing up in the hallways of our public schools. Administrators say it'll take a community-wide effort to help the kids.

Oregon is facing a drastic shortage of mental health care workers--the state needs as many as 35,000 new workers by some estimates to fill the mental health care needs in the state. But people interested and willing to go into the field are facing high barriers to doing the work. What can be done to change the system, and open up the pipeline of behavioral health care workers?

Dan Rayfield answers more questions about his plans for lawmakers ahead of the 2023 Oregon legislative session

Laural Porter sat down for a one-on-one interview with Oregon house speaker Rep. Dan Rayfield, to talk about his plans for the 2023 session. He says he hopes to foster a culture of respect at the Capitol, where Republicans and Democrats can work together toward affordable housing, health care, and taking care of the state's economy.

Nurses say Oregon's health care system is broken, and too many skilled nurses are leaving health care because they are stretched too thin to be able to provide quality care to patients. Oregon House Bill 2697 would mandate minimum staffing requirements for hospital nurses, and close loopholes around meal and break times.

Extra conversation from our regular Straight Talk episode. The majority of Representatives from both Oregon and Washington in the 118th Congress will be women. The northwest's newest elected leaders say they're well-prepared and ready to serve their diverse districts.

The majority of Representatives from both Oregon and Washington in the 118th Congress will be women. The northwest's newest elected leaders say they're well-prepared and ready to serve their diverse districts.

News editors from The Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Willamette Week, and The Columbian joined KGW to discuss the biggest news from 2022, including the race for Oregon governor, the upsets in Congressional races, and Portland's new homeless plan.