OPB's Think Out Loud

We get the latest regional business news from Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal.

The Portland Police Bureau recently announced they’d stop designating people as gang members in October, in part due to community advocacy. PPB Captain Mike Krantz joins us to discuss the shift and how gang enforcement is changing. Also, Unify Portland gang outreach worker Dontae Blake shares his experience and perspective as a former gang member working to reduce violence.

We talk with Joey Gibson about the Patriot Prayer rallies he’s organized around the country — most recently this past weekend in Vancouver, WA — the motivation behind his activism, and what he thinks about the violent clashes among members of his group and counter-protesters.

We get the latest regional business news from Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal.

Violence and persecution in Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya [ro-HIN-ja] Muslims to flee from the Buddhist-majority country. Oregon has a growing community of Rohingya refugees - we hear from local Rohingya Muslims about their personal experiences and their reaction to the current humanitarian crisis overseas.

Public schools have long offered free and reduced-price lunches for students experiencing poverty, but a University of Oregon professor believes we should go further. Assistant Professor of Education Studies Sarah Riggs Stapleton recently wrote that public schools should offer free lunches to all students as a means of addressing student hunger, lunch shaming, and even food quality issues. She joins us to lay out her case.

Before the embers were even cold on 2015’s devastating Canyon Creek Wildfire, the Forest Service was planning for recovery. Two years later, what does the forest look like? What does it take for forest ecosystems to recover from wildfire, and how long does it take? Malheur National Forest Supervisor Steve Beverlin fills us in.

OPB news director Anna Griffin, former Portland city commissioner Steve Novick and former Oregon state representative Jason Conger discuss some of the biggest stories of the week.

Project Erase, a medical program of low-income service agency Outside In, offers reduced-cost tattoo removals for low-income clients. The service focuses on people with crime, hate or domestic violence related tattoos, who can face barriers as a result. We hear from Outside In’s associate medical director and a former Project Erase client about what the service means for people.

As wildfires rage all across the west, and Hurricane Irma barrels towards Florida, we’ll hear about another potential disaster. As Willamette Week reports, the levees that keep the Columbia River from flooding into Portland might be vulnerable. Jules Bailey is the convener of a coalition called Levee Ready Columbia, which is working on assessing the levees and what it would take to bring them up to federal standards.

Oregon retirees share the experiences they’ve had going from paid employment to other meaningful, though largely unpaid, endeavors.

The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s annual time arts festival, TBA, brings a range of artists, dancers, and filmmakers to participating venues throughout the city. Aaron Scott of OPB’s “State of Wonder” tells us about some of the most anticipated shows.

The right wing group Patriot Prayer has its next rally planned for Portland on Sunday. We get some context and background from Jason Wilson, who’s covered events in Charlottesville and right wing rallies on the west coast for The Guardian.

Ongoing controversy around an officer misconduct case in Clackamas County has spurred the creation of a group of current and former Oregon law enforcement officers called Police Professionals For Law Enforcement Accountability. PPROLEA for short, the group is calling for better police oversight and training, as well as protections for police whistleblowers. Group spokesperson George Dominy, a retired police officer, joins us to talk about their reform efforts.

The Eagle Creek and Indian Creek wildfires have merged and are burning about 31,000 acres as of Wednesday morning.