July/August 2025
Her Miscarriage Showed the Limits of California’s Abortion Protections. Where You Live Matters
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JEFFERSON JOURNAL (ISSN 1079-2015), July/August 2025, volume 49 number 4. Published bi-monthly (six times a year) by JPR Foundation, Inc., 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Periodical postage paid at Ashland, OR and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to The Jefferson Journal, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR. 97520 Jefferson Journal Credits: Editor: Abigail Kraft Managing Editor: Paul Westhelle Poetry Editor: Amy Miller Design/Production: Impact Publications Printing: Oregon Web Press
July/August 2025 FEATURED
6 Her Miscarriage Showed the Limits of California’s Abortion Protections. Where You Live Matters
By Kristen Hwang Catholic hospitals run 20% of California’s maternity wards. Their policies generally prohibit abortion, even in miscarriage, as long as a heartbeat can be detected. California’s constitution protects abortion rights, but religiously affiliated hospitals, clinics and individual providers are not required to provide them if they have moral objections. CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang reports on the experience of Anna Nusslock, a woman who never wanted to be the face of a new kind of reproductive rights battle in California.
11 Why A Contentious Project to Raise Shasta Dam Could Move Forward Under Trump
By Alastair Bland A federal proposal to increase the height of Shasta Dam by more than 18 feet to provide more water to farmers now threatens the Winnemem Wintu tribe’s land and could harm salmon runs. Contemplated for decades and gaining traction among Republican lawmakers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s proposed Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project would boost the capacity of California’s largest reservoir.
5 Tuned In | Paul Westhelle 17 Savoring Local | Natalie Golay 19 JPR News Focus: Technology | Roman Battaglia 24 JPR Radio Stations & Programs 26 News Briefs 31 JPR News Focus: Law & Justice | Amelia Templeton 33 JPR News Focus: Poverty & Homelessness | Jane Vaughan 35 JPR News Focus: Environment & Energy | Justin Higginbottom 37 Recordings | Vanessa Finney 41 JPR News Focus: Science | Jes Burns 43 Inside The Box | Scott Dewing 44 Recipe | Heather Arndt Anderson 46 Poetry | Barry Vitcov cover: Anna Nusslock at home in Eureka on Feb. 14, 2025. Providence St. Joseph Hospital refused Nusslock an emergency abortion after she had a miscarriage at 15 weeks pregnant, despite serious risks to her health.
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
Jefferson Public Radio is a community service of Southern Oregon University. The JPR Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports JPR’s public service mission.
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TUNED IN PAUL WESTHELLE
House Votes to Kill Public Media Funding
O
n June 12th the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025, by a vote of 214-212. This is the bill advanced by the Trump Administration that would claw back funds previously appropriated by the current Congress and authorized by President Trump to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes operating grants to public radio and television stations around the country. I will confess that I haven’t watched the live stream of Congress in action for a long time. But, for this bill I tuned in to watch the full floor debate and the votes get counted in real time. Mostly, Republicans railed against NPR and PBS, cherry-picking a list of the most egregious examples they could find of stories the networks produced that they believed were biased, woke, or unpatriotic ignoring the fact that the vast majority of CPB funding doesn’t support NPR or PBS but local stations. Democrats held up dolls of Elmo and said that Republicans were cruel trying to kill Elmo and Daniel Tiger, a popular PBS kids’ program. As the votes started to be tabulated, six Republicans crossed over to vote against rescinding funds. I raised my fist and thought At JPR, the loss of CPB “we did it” since I knew the tight margins of the House would funding would result in an require only a few Republican votes to kill the bill if all Democrats voted against it as was expected. And then, two Republiimmediate $525,000 budget can votes magically changed to “yes,” which I learned after the vote was the result of House leadership making undisclosed deficit we’d need to navigate “promises” to them if they would switch their vote. Apparentstarting on July 1st. ly, this kind of thing is permitted within the voting window, a practice that I think is sketchy at best during an era we’ve spent so much oxygen talking about the integrity of our voting procedures. Since four Democrats weren’t present or didn’t vote, the bill passed. With its passage in the House, H.R. 4 now moves to the Senate, where it must be passed by a simple majority by July 18th in order to go into effect. If the Senate passes the bill, it will create a seismic shift in the public media ecosystem, falling hardest on rural stations with expensive infrastructures that serve sparsely populated, less wealthy communities. Stations just like JPR. Since the bill would terminate funding in the current fiscal year, stations will have little time to plan and adapt. At JPR, the loss of CPB funding would result in an immediate $525,000 budget deficit we’d need to navigate starting on July 1st. JPR’s service to the region is deeply rooted in the relationships we’ve built over more than five decades – a supportive licensee in Southern Oregon University, a talented professional staff, a committed volunteer corps, and one of the most generous public radio audiences in the nation. As we look forward to a future filled with great uncertainty, we encourage you to stay engaged in the political process by sharing your views about the personal importance of public radio to your life at protectmypublicmedia.org and to support JPR to the best of your ability. We need each other now more than ever.
Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 5
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
Catholic hospitals run 20% of California’s maternity wards. Their policies generally prohibit abortion, even in miscarriage, as long as a heartbeat can be detected.
Her Miscarriage Showed the Limits Of California’s Abortion Protections. Where You Live Matters By KRISTEN HWANG nna Nusslock never wanted to be the face of a new kind of reproductive rights battle in California, but when a small Catholic hospital refused to provide an abortion that would end her miscarriage, Nusslock girded herself for a long and difficult conflict. Nusslock felt her civil rights were being violated, she said, even as she lay in the hospital bed curled in on herself, bleeding and mourning the loss of her twin girls. The doctor had said that her pregnancy needed to be terminated immediately to protect her from infection and other serious complications but hospital policy prohibited it, according to two lawsuits filed by Nusslock and California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “I am planning to fight this for the rest of my life,” Nusslock said in an interview with CalMatters. Both complaints allege that Providence, the Catholic health system that owns St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, illegally denied Nusslock emergency abortion care and discharged her instead.
6 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
A
Anna Nusslock speaks about how Providence St. Joseph Hospital denied her an emergency abortion despite serious risks to her life at a rally for reproductive healthcare before a California v. St. Joseph hearing at the Humboldt County Superior Court in Eureka on Feb. 14, 2025. top: Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka on Feb. 14, 2025.
Religious liberty at heart of hospital’s defense On a rainy day in February, Harvey Rochman, lead attorney for Providence, argued that religious freedoms protect Providence’s alleged actions. “The elephant in the room so to speak on this case is there is no court that has ordered a Catholic hospital to perform an abortion under circumstances that the hospital has determined is contrary to the hospital’s faith,” Rochman said during the hearing in Eureka. The hospital denies that it discriminated against Nusslock or improperly denied care to her. Rochman argued that federal
law allows secular hospitals to transfer patients if they do not have the expertise or technical ability to perform a procedure, which is no different from a faith-based hospital saying it cannot perform a procedure that “contravenes” its beliefs. “The current jurisprudence of the U.S. Supreme Court…is the religious rights have the same significance as the secular,” Rochman said during the hearing.
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
They also allege that multiple pregnant women have been denied abortions at St. Joseph Hospital during medical emergencies. In Humboldt County where Nusslock lives, Providence now owns the only hospital with an obstetrics department. The next closest maternity ward is 86 miles north along a winding, mostly two-lane stretch of Highway 101. Last year, Nusslock arrived at Providence St. Joseph Hospital bleeding and in pain but still hopeful her pregnancy could be saved, according to the state’s complaint. Her water had broken at 15 weeks – too early for the twins to survive on their own – and tests indicated Nusslock had an infection and high blood pressure, the complaint says. Multiple doctors said her condition was dangerous and she needed immediate treatment but Providence refused to intervene because her twins still had fetal heart tones, according to the complaint. Nusslock was discharged with a bucket and towels “in case something happens in the car,” according to the complaint and a declaration filed by Nusslock. Nusslock’s husband drove her to another hospital about 20 minutes away where she began hemorrhaging and underwent immediate surgery, according to court documents. That hospital, Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, has since permanently closed its labor and delivery ward, leaving St. Joseph alone in the county. California’s constitution protects abortion rights, but religiously affiliated hospitals, clinics and individual providers are not required to provide them if they have moral objections. State law, however, requires hospitals to provide emergency services to any person who requests help whose life may be in danger or at risk of “serious injury or illness.” In an unsigned statement, a Providence spokesperson said the hospital is clear about not performing elective abortions but does allow “medically necessary interventions to protect pregnant patients who are miscarrying or facing serious life-threatening conditions” in an emergency. “This is consistent with the California Emergency Services Law and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. It is also consistent with the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives, which include discussion of the importance of the physician-patient relationship as well as the circumstances in which certain medical procedures that could result in fetal death may be allowed in a Catholic hospital,” according to the statement provided to CalMatters. The Catholic Health Association, a trade group representing Catholic health facilities, did not respond to repeated questions about personal belief protections and the expansion of Catholic hospitals.
Anna Nusslock and her husband Daniel Nusslock at home in Eureka on Feb. 14, 2025. Providence St. Joseph Hospital refused Nusslock an emergency abortion after she had a miscarriage at 15 weeks pregnant, despite serious risks to her health.
Catholic hospitals nationwide must adhere to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The directives prohibit abortion in almost all circumstances. Martine D’Agostino, a deputy attorney general representing the state, argued that the case was about Providence St. Joseph Hospital denying women emergency health care “at great risk to their lives.” State law prohibits hospitals from transferring patients for non-medical reasons, such as lack of insurance. D’Agostino argued that St. Joseph Hospital did not stabilize Nusslock and illegally discharged her. “The record details harrowing experiences of several women who were turned away from St. Joseph’s emergency department,” D’Agostino said. “The attorney general brought this case to ensure that St. Joseph Hospital follows the law that emergency health care must be provided to women of this county.” JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 7
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS
An ethics committee headed by a priest or other religious figure at each hospital decides in the moment whether doctors can intervene.
In declarations filed with the court, multiple doctors allege that other St. Joseph patients have experienced close calls similar to Nusslock’s miscarriage. One doctor who delivers babies at Providence St. Joseph Hospital said in a declaration that he has had three patients other than Nusslock who needed emergency pregnancy terminations during miscarriages that he was not able to carry out. The declaration states “…the Chaplain told me, that under no circumstances was I to terminate a pregnancy at Providence Hospital.” Another doctor who later treated Nusslock at Mad River Community Hospital said one to two patients each year would come to the hospital’s now-closed obstetrics department having been turned away from Providence in the midst of a miscarriage. Another woman has anonymously filed a civil lawsuit in Humboldt Superior Court against Providence alleging similar circumstances to Nusslock. In February, lawyers for Providence filed papers asking a judge to dismiss the case.
Differences in how hospitals treat miscarriage Although Nusslock’s case is not unique, experts say patient experiences at Catholic hospitals vary widely. “People always ask me ‘Why are people not dying all over the place?’ And it’s because it’s not exactly that extreme,” said Lori Freedman, a sociologist and bioethicist at UC San Francisco who has extensively researched patient and doctor experiences at Catholic health systems. Frequently, doctors at Catholic institutions, many of whom are not Catholic, find workarounds to prevent patients from dy8 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
ing, Freedman said. An ethics committee headed by a priest or other religious figure at each hospital decides in the moment whether doctors can intervene. They may wait until the woman develops a fever (a sign of infection), until her bleeding increases or until the fetus dies, Freedman said. The Ethical and Religious Directives at Catholic hospitals allow pregnancy termination for a “proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman,” but ethics committees at each hospital can have different interpretations of where to draw the line, Freedman said. This approach, however, is often shocking to obstetricians in non-religious hospitals, Freedman said. “When you talk to someone in a really high-quality obstetric service, their jaw drops because they’re like, ‘Well it’s not just die or not die,’” Freedman said. “What kind of level of suffering and risk are you going to require, before the intervention you know is going to happen is allowed to happen?” The Catholic Health Association states in a policy brief that “Our deeply held religious and moral convictions are the source of both the work we do and the limits on what we will do.” Those religious and moral convictions include a mandate to continue the “healing ministry of Christ,” to care for the poor, and to advocate for marginalized groups like immigrants, according to the Ethical and Religious Directives. They also state that the “Catholic health care ministry is rooted in a commitment to promote and defend human dignity; this is the foundation of its concern to respect the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until death.”
CREDIT: ALEXANDRA HOOTNICK FOR CALMATTERS left and above: People rally in support of reproductive health care outside of the Humboldt County Superior Court in Eureka on Feb. 14, 2025.
Maryam Guiahi, an obstetrician in Santa Barbara who has previously worked in Catholic institutions in Chicago, said that’s where Catholic policies begin to conflict with modern secular medical ethics that place different emphasis on patient autonomy and avoiding harm. In cases like Nusslock’s, in which the amniotic fluid sac breaks before the fetus is viable, terminating the pregnancy is typically the safest option and the standard of care, Guiahi said. Guiahi said Catholic hospitals sometimes don’t allow doctors to tell patients that an abortion is an option. “I’ve been in secular institutions and we can give that information. We can let people decide what they want, and some people will choose to continue and hope and see what happens, but other women don’t want to go through that,” Guiahi said. Not telling patients all of the risks and options compromises their ability to consent and can lead to avoidable complications like infection and hemorrhaging, Guiahi said. Guiahi said she never saw a patient die after being denied an emergency abortion at the Catholic hospital she worked at, but sometimes patients would come back septic and require care in the intensive care unit. “To me, medicine is about ‘to do no harm.’ I don’t know many medical situations where we wait till people get sick in order to intervene,” Guiahi said.
Moving to have a baby Nusslock is making plans to leave Eureka during her next pregnancy. She and her husband still desperately want to start a family, but she can’t drive past Providence St. Joseph Hospital without getting dizzy. She said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I still have that voice in the back of my head just screaming, ‘you’re bleeding to death,’” Nusslock said. Most likely Nusslock said she’ll find a place in the Bay Area to live during her pregnancy. Having few options to give birth reflects a larger loss of maternity services in California. The northern counties, including where Nusslock lives, have lost a third of their birthing hospitals since 2012, according to a CalMatters database on maternity care. Statewide, 59 hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the same time period, creating broad swaths of maternity deserts particularly in rural and low-income communities. Nearly 80% of those closures have been secular hospitals, increasing the influence of Catholic health care. During the February court hearing, Providence lawyer Rochman said that a core mission of the Eureka hospital is to keep labor and delivery services available “when it may not be financially sensible to do so.” In a statement, a Providence spokesperson said “providing high-quality labor and delivery services” is a “top priority” for the organization in Humboldt County and throughout the nation. But having an operating maternity ward doesn’t mean all services are available. The Ethical and Religious Directives also prohibit the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, including sterilization for both males and females, and in vitro fertilization. Josie Urbina, an obstetrician with UC San Francisco Health who specializes in complex family planning, said this creates an unequal patchwork of services in the state. “It’s unfortunate that in rural parts of California, which happen to be dominated by religious hospitals, that the standard of care is not being followed,” Urbina said. “It’s really just detrimental to patient care.” For Nusslock, who moved to Eureka 10 years ago and quickly fell in love with the towering redwoods and small-town feel, the lawsuits are about ensuring her experience doesn’t happen to anyone else, she said in an interview with CalMatters. “These are good people. These are people worth protecting,” Nusslock said. “If they’re going to give me an opportunity to speak for them and fight for them, I’m going to take every opportunity I can.” Kristen Hwang is a health reporter for CalMatters covering health care access, abortion and reproductive health, workforce issues, drug costs and emerging public health matters. CalMatters Data Reporter Erica Yee contributed to this story. Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 9
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Why A Contentious Project to Raise Shasta Dam Could Move Forward Under Trump
SARA NEVIS / CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES
By ALASTAIR BLAND
An aerial view of Shasta Dam. A federal project to enlarge the dam seems to be gaining momentum.
Enlarging the dam would deliver more Sacramento River water to Central Valley farmers but a tribe could lose sacred sites and endangered salmon could lose habitat in wet years.
N
ear the southern flank of Mount Shasta, springs and snowmelt converge to form the McCloud River. This Sacramento River tributary, held sacred by the Winnemem Wintu tribe, teemed with Chinook salmon before Shasta Dam, built in the 1940s, blocked their annual migrations. “The winter run was the main sustenance source for the Winnemem Wintu throughout history,” said tribal member Gary Mulcahy. “We consider them the grandfather of all salmon.” For several years, Winnemem Wintu leaders have collaborated with state and federal officials to reintroduce the critically endangered fish to this wilderness waterway in a historic effort to revitalize the McCloud and reconnect with their past. But a federal proposal to increase the height of Shasta Dam by more than 18 feet to provide more water to farmers now threatens the tribe’s land and could harm salmon runs.
Raising the dam would mean “more water for people and more cold water for salmon.” —U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa Contemplated for decades and gaining traction among Republican lawmakers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s proposed Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project would boost the capacity of California’s largest reservoir. Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the federal government has not mounted any public effort to raise the dam. But Trump has taken several steps in that direction, including signing executive orders instructing federal officials to waive environmental rules and deliver more water to California growers. Last week, the dam project appeared to get a push in the House Natural Resources Committee’s budget reconciliation Continued on page 13 bill, with a designation of $2 billion JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 11
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“for construction and associated activities that increase the capacity of existing Bureau of Reclamation surface water storage facilities.” Though the budget language does not name Shasta Dam, experts say it’s precisely crafted to facilitate the project. “There’s no mystery here,” said Barry Nelson, policy advisor with the Golden State Salmon Association. “That language is designed to push the Shasta raise.” Raising the dam was the “number-one priority” water project for the first Trump administration, Nelson said. However, U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican whose district includes Shasta and who helped draft the budget language, told CalMatters that while he endorses enlarging Shasta Dam, the reconciliation bill’s “funding is not for any specific project.” Last year, a bill that would have allocated funds for enlarging the dam while prohibiting state laws from obstructing the project died in the House. It was sponsored by 12 California Republicans, including LaMalfa. The Bureau of Reclamation estimated in 2014 that enlarging Shasta Dam would cost $1.4 billion — roughly $1.8 billion in today’s dollars. Obtaining the array of state and federal permits for the dam could take years, and is likely to face court challenges. The project would provide an additional 51,300 acre-feet of water per year to recipients — mainly farmers — of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, according to a federal estimate. That would increase the amount they receive on average by less than 1% , which Ron Stork, a policy expert with the group Friends of the River, referred to as “decimal dust.” The dam project would claim some of the Winnemem Wintu’s last remaining territory and could violate the state’s Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which explicitly prohibits constructing reservoirs on the McCloud’s final miles before entering Lake Shasta. State officials have publicly opposed the project in the past. In 2013, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said raising the dam would have “significant and unavoidable impacts” on the Sacramento River ecosystem. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has similarly warned federal officials that the project would restrict high-water flows and reduce fish habitat. State officials declined to comment for this story. Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson Peter Soeth also declined to comment. Stork, a longtime opponent of the dam raise, said the Trump administration is liable to ignore the state law. Trump’s January executive order directed federal officials to deliver more water through the Central Valley Project “by increasing storage and conveyance … notwithstanding any contrary State or local laws.” “We certainly expect some serious mischief here,” Stork said. “The president’s executive order more or less says, ‘Please find ways to accomplish my agenda by trying to get around state and federal law.’” Mulcahy, the Winnemem Wintu’s government liaison, said Lake Shasta flooded 90% of his tribe’s historical territory. “Village sites, sacred sites, cultural gathering sites,” he said.
An aerial view of fall-run Chinook salmon migrating and spawning in the Feather River in Oroville on Oct. 28, 2024.
“The idea that a Shasta raise would benefit salmon — particularly under this set of federal agencies — is absurd.” —Barry Nelson, Golden State Salmon Assn.
Increasing the dam’s height will do even more damage, he said, periodically inundating many important gathering places, including the Kabyai Creek burial ground, where dozens of tribal members were laid to rest after a vicious 1854 massacre by white settlers. It would also flood a cleansing pool for Winnemem men, a riverside dancing mesa and a young women’s coming-of-age ceremony site called Puberty Rock. This, Mulcahy said, will fray some of the last remaining cultural threads holding together the tribe, which he said consists of about 140 members. “We wouldn’t be able to hold the ceremonies that are necessary to fulfill our spiritual and cultural needs,” he said. The Winnemem Wintu are not included on the official list of federally recognized tribes, which could limit their influence over the project.
Polarizing farmers and environmentalists Like many Delta and Central Valley water supply projects, the Shasta Dam raise has polarized farmers and environmentalists in a dispute over how it would affect Chinook salmon. Environmentalists and fishery advocates say it will imperil already declining salmon populations, while project proponents, including the Westlands Water District, say it will help Continued on page 15 the ecosystem. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 13
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Rows of pistachio trees in farmland outside of Mendota. Farmers in this area receive Central Valley Project water from the Westlands Water District.
Westlands provides water, imported mostly from the Delta, to San Joaquin Valley farmers who grow 150,000 acres of pistachios and almonds — their main crops — as well as other fruits, grains and vegetables. But General Manager Allison Febbo said the Shasta project isn’t directly about water supply. Rather, she said, it’s meant to help fish. Febbo explained that increasing the reservoir’s volume will keep its water colder, which is essential for spawning. If the plight of the fish improves, Febbo said, regulations on water diversions might be eased — which would amount to an indirect benefit to water users like Westlands. “We keep getting ratcheted down as the species continues to decline, so our water supply isn’t going to get any better until the species gets better,” Febbo said. LaMalfa also stressed that the project would be “a win-win” by increasing water storage and better insulating the reservoir’s cold-water pool. “More water for people and more cold water for salmon,” the congressman said. But Nelson, at the Golden State Salmon Association, said Shasta Dam has already “been absolutely catastrophic for salmon.” “The idea that a Shasta raise would benefit salmon — particularly under this set of federal agencies — is absurd,” he said. Completed in 1945, the dam blocked Chinook from reaching hundreds of miles of stream habitat. For the winter-run Chinook — whose unique life cycle involves residing and spawning in freshwater through summer — the ice-cold McCloud was their stronghold. “It can be 110 degrees in the canyon there, and you can be standing in the river in waders and your legs are so cold it hurts,” said Rene Henery, California science director with the group Trout Unlimited, as he explained the importance of the McCloud to the future survival of winter-run Chinook.
Today, the fish — which enter freshwater in the winter — cling to existence in a short stretch of river downstream of Lake Shasta, surviving thanks to the release of cold water stored deep in the reservoir. However, this resource frequently runs out in the summer as the fish lay and fertilize their eggs, which can lead to complete spawning failures in lethally warm water. While a more voluminous reservoir could theoretically keep its water colder for longer, Henery said the changing climate is likely to complicate this equation. Filling the enlarged reservoir in a hotter, drier future is the main problem. “Dams don’t make water, so in a low-water year, raising the dam does nothing,” he said. In wet years, he added, the enlarged dam will harm fish by capturing water that would otherwise flood vital wetland habitat downstream, like the recently restored Yolo Bypass, west of Sacramento. “The inundation we get on the Yolo Bypass is what’s keeping salmon populations hanging on in the Sacramento,” Henery said. Jon Rosenfield, science director at the advocacy group San Francisco Baykeeper, added that “expanding the dam will capture more of the high flows (during wet years) that are now the only lifeline those fish have.” Mulcahy said he is hopeful that the project — though currently revving with Republican horsepower — will soon run out of steam. Labor and material costs are rising, he said, and the longer the project goes unbuilt, the more expensive it gets. “They’re going to try and negate state law so that they can proceed however they want,” Mulcahy said. “But if we can last this one out, I think it may bury itself once and for all.” Alastair Bland writes about water, climate, marine research, agriculture and the environment for CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics, and a JPR news partner. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 15
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In the Rogue Valley, food is about identity, sustainability, and a culture of welcome. That’s been the most striking thing about my experience so far.
NATALIE GOLAY
Going Rogue – A Foodie’s Tale knew about the Rogue Valley’s thriving food scene long before I came to live here. I’d spent the better part of two years driving up on the weekends with my dog, exploring the towns, strolling through quiet neighborhoods, and getting a taste of the region’s offerings: its wineries, friendly eateries, natural craft foods, and organic markets. But when I arrived to join the Jefferson Public Radio team, what struck me most wasn’t just the scenic beauty or the food—it was the people. From the newsroom to the markets and festivals to the family-friendly neighborhood brewery where local art hangs on the walls and live music spills out onto the street, there is a deep sense of community woven into everyday life. In my experience, this is how the best food environments are shaped. Food has been central to my life, not just as a culinary experience but as a way of connecting with people, places, and traditions. From my childhood in France, Canada, and Asia to my years living in Mexico, it has been the thread connecting and weaving together events, shaping my appreciation for culture and community. Now, the Rogue Valley feels like another chapter in that journey—one that I’m eager to explore. My parents instilled in me a curiosity about the world, its cultures, and its flavors from an early age. Food was a way to learn about new people and places, while familiar flavors provided continuity amid constant change. My mother was a natural in the kitchen, a skill she no doubt picked up from my French grandparents who were both fabulous cooks in their own right. Food was a frequent theme in her bedtime stories, especially when she recounted events from her own childhood. She often included details about a favorite meal or dessert, made all the sweeter against the backdrop of WWII France and constant food insecurity. Many of my memories are anchored in time by a meal or drink of some kind. It is how I keep track of events —When I ate this, I was here; when I drank that, I was there. I vividly recall the reba yakitori (barbecued chicken livers) bought fresh at the market for the little bento lunch box I took with me to the local Yochien (kindergarten) in Tokyo, when I was four. I remember staying at a Japanese village and going out on the water with my mother where the fishermen grilled the day’s catch right there on the boat—a simple, smoky, perfectly cooked meal eaten in the salty air. A few years later, before the airport and development changed everything, I sat on the unspoiled white sands of Lantau Island, chewing fresh sugar cane. We were always the only ones there, baking under a hot tropical sun, swimming in the warm turquoise waters and playing in the rolling waves. A meal of green curry, rice and fried dough, enjoyed at a Buddhist
NATALIE GOLAY
I
Visitors will want to stop by the Farm stand to sample and perhaps take home their favorite cheese. Also on offer, Rogue Creamery’s famous grilled sandwiches and Rogue Growers spreads and other goodies.
monastery in the hills when visitors were still scarce, lingers on my palate decades later. Living on the Mediterranean with my grandparents when I was ten, I enjoyed traditional French cooking. Their style was rooted in a farming heritage, but it was not stuck there. It was also influenced by North African flavors of couscous and spices from their time as school teachers in Algeria. These experiences, among others, formed the foundation of how I understand food—not just as nourishment, but as something intrinsically tied to place, memory, and human connection. More recently, my appreciation of craft foods deepened while I was living in Mexico. I am a huge fan of Mexican cuisine, but after a few years in the country, I found myself missing some of my favorite staples, like French cheese. In the main, imports were overpriced and disappointing. Then I discovered the regional craft cheese scene—artisans who had studied abroad and brought techniques home to create their own versions. I was hesitant at first, but my skepticism was misplaced: it wasn’t about comparing to the originals; it was about embracing creativity and local interpretation. From there, I moved on to olive oil, bread, and other local specialty foods. Once I tapped into that vibrant local foodie network, I never looked back. That same curiosity led me, unintentionally, to the Rogue Valley, long before I ever set foot here. I was in Seattle, shopping for cheese, as usual. This time there was a great selection of imports, but then I stumbled across Caveman Blue—a Rogue Creamery cheese, and I thought, Why not? It was one of the best blues I’d ever had, and it stuck in my mind. So, years later, finding myself in Southern Oregon, I decided to make Rogue Creamery one of my first food explorations. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 17
Going Rogue – A Foodie’s Tale Continued from previous page
I had hoped to make it one of several stops among producers in the region that weekend, but it was still a bit early in the season, so the others will have to wait. I traveled to the 68-acre, certified organic farm near Grants Pass, under a hazy sun in late May. Set along the Rogue River, the property unfolded in lush fields of saturated green. Staff cheerfully welcomed visitors upon arrival and treated them to a complementary cheese-tasting at the Farm Stand, where its award-winning cheeses are available for purchase along with other Southern Oregon goodies and grilled cheese sandwiches. It was past my lunch time, so I ordered a “Classic”: 1 oz Oregon Blue and 2oz of Touvelle (an original creation that approximates a mild Jack-cheddar) with a light drizzle of honey. The cheesy blend was grilled to its perfect melting point on artisan bread from Central Point’s Coquette Bakery. I enjoyed the sandwich in the store’s outdoor seating. The picnic tables on the expansive lawn at the front of the property were all occupied. Although I think I would have chosen a somewhat sharper blend, the sandwich was very good, with just the right touch of honey. My dog, Herbie, definitely approved of the little taste I shared with him. With roughly 180 cows, the farm produces half of the milk needed for all Rogue Creamery cheeses, which are actually
made in Central Point, Oregon. A separate organic farm supplies the rest. According to the farm’s website, they aim “to provide a model for the future of sustainable dairy farming,” which includes a healthy environment for the animals and sustainable practices, such as the use of solar panels and the recycling of manure for use as fertilizer, among others. I was a little apprehensive because, while I am not a vegetarian, I am always concerned about the wellbeing of farm animals. If I’m going to eat cheese, or other animal products, I still want the animal to have a high-quality life. I can’t get inside their heads, but by all appearances, the cows were relaxed and comfortable in their large, well-aerated barn, also known as the Cow Palace, which is where they spend much of their time when they are not out grazing in the fields. Staff members displayed genuine affection for their charges, identifying many of them by name. The term “fully automated milking system”, however, initially conjured up fantastic and nightmarish scenarios in my mind—stressed bovines tightly packed side by side, or forced up on bizarre conveyor belts, being subjected to aggressive, unrelenting milking. But it turns out that, while it is an automated system, the cows choose when to be milked. One of two Voluntary Milking System robots, affectionately dubbed Matilda and Charlie, identify individuals by reading their tag, then a robotic
Erich Franz Schimps, Arcata – 1978 BMW R80/7 “I found my [1978 BMW R80/7] in an old shed, just sitting there abandoned… a mechanic went through it and restored it. I rode it for a good ten or fifteen years. I had a number of more modern machines but didn’t like them that much, so I reverted back to the old style. I started riding in Germany way back in the 1950s and travelled all over Europe. I shipped [a motorcycle] back to New York and rode it to Mexico and then to Alaska. The Alcan Highway wasn’t paved in those days. We were in Fairbanks the day statehood was declared so everyone was partying all night. I’m a fifty-five-year motorcycle rider and no longer wish to ride. I wanted to give [this motorcycle] a good home. I’m just so fond of JPR, so I thought ‘why not?’. I go to sleep listening to JPR’s Classics & News service around midnight and wake to the morning news. [This donation] will help continue their good work.”
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to consume. There’s a story in the food here—a story that I’m eager to uncover, one meal at a time. Natalie Golay is the Senior Producer of the Jefferson Exchange. She has a B.A. in Visual Arts, a certificate of recommendation in multimedia from the Vancouver Film school, and a law degree from the University of British Columbia. A communications professional for over 20 years, Natalie is a natural storyteller with extensive audio and video production skills. She’s been an editor and writing coach, shepherding many inexperienced authors through the writing process. In her spare time, Natalie is a singer-songwriter/composer who loves audio gear and all of her silly pets.
NATALIE GOLAY
arm cleans the teats and affixes the milking cups. A screen displays yield and other data. We watched as one cow, then another, placidly stepped up to the milking station, let the technology do its thing while enjoying a special treat of organic grain supplement, and then calmly walked off to continue with their day. According to our guide, not only is milking by humans a job nobody wants, it is much more taxing on the animals. There’s no denying that it is an industrial process, but as a layperson observing for the first time, I saw no signs of discomfort or stress. After the short tour, I left with a small supply of Rogue’s Mary Cheddar, infused with just the right amount of rosemary, a piece of Rogue River Blue, and a spicy cheese spread. With my visit to Rogue Creamery, it seems I’ve come full circle since that day when I discovered Caveman Blue and heard of the Rogue Valley for the first time. Now I live here, and there’s so much more to learn. In the Rogue Valley, food is about identity, sustainability, and a culture of welcome. That’s been the most striking thing about my experience so far. That being said, it is worth remembering that amid all of this abundance, there is also plenty of food insecurity. Too many people simply don’t have enough to eat and don’t have access to healthy food. I’ve met so many volunteers, organizations, and neighbors who, animated by that same sense of community, are working hard to combat hunger in the Valley. There is more than enough food to go around; a topic I hope to return to in the future.
Conclusion: The Beginning of a Journey Cows enjoying their fresh organic feed in the vast, airy Cow Palace. They are free to move about their respective areas. The ones on the right side of the barn have access to the milking station; those on the left are on a break from milking.
NATALIE GOLAY
This is only the beginning. I arrived expecting a strong food culture; what I found was far richer and more complicated—an interconnected world of farmers, chefs, producers, foodies, and activists who understand that food is more than just something
Cow Palace dominates the property. Inside, cows move freely between the main barn and the Voluntary Milking System housed in the adjoining grey structure on the left. Fresh milk is pumped to the dairy tank at the center of the image and rapidly cooled. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 19
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ROMAN BATTAGLIA
“Someone last year who was pregnant wanted to see the whole birthing practice as it was simulated in the table.”
In Arcata, Anyone Can Fly Planes and Fight Wildfires Without Leaving the Library Where can you fly a plane, fight a wildfire and dissect a human body in one place? At the Hall of Simulation at the Cal Poly Humboldt library. This endeavor is part of an effort to connect with the local community. edding tower, 1913 Hotel, ready to go, three four at alpha,” Dave Marshall said into the radio. He’s the advisor for the school’s aviation club, taking off in a test flight from the Redding airport. “Number 1913 Hotel, Redding tower,” ground control responded. “Wind three two zero at niner gust one six. Make left down departure. Runway three four cleared for takeoff.” The propeller spun, vibrating the pilot’s seat. Marshall makes his final checks before taxing onto the runway, pulling out the throttle and speeding down the runway for a smooth takeoff. Only, he wasn’t in Redding, and this wasn’t a real plane. He was sitting inside a flight simulator, designed to recreate the cockpit of a Cessna 182. From the pilot’s seats, there’s a 180-degree view of a low-resolution mockup of the airport, complete with fuel trucks that drive around the tarmac. Aviation isn’t as big as it used to be in Humboldt County, Marshall said. There are only around 50 pilots in the area, and the company that used to train pilots shut down a few years ago. Marshall and a small group of enthusiasts are trying to revive the region’s aviation industry. “Several of the air ambulance pilots got their primary instruction here,” he said. “Several of the people that fly the Cal Fire air attack or water bombers got their instruction here. That’s no longer available, so that opportunity loss is going to be seen over the next 20 years.” The aviation club received this simulator as a donation around a year ago, replacing a more primitive one built by a PC gaming club on campus. The new simulator is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, so users can log hours toward their pilot’s licenses. It now sits on the second floor of the Cal Poly Humboldt Library, where it’s just one of the experiences at the Hall of Simulation. Library Dean Cyril Oberlander said he wants the library to inspire everyone, not just students. “Wikipedia taught libraries that knowledge can be co-created by everyone, and as a result, everyone benefits. Everyone’s engaged in it in a way,” he said. “That really has served communities very well.”
ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR
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Dave Marshall, advisor to Cal Poly Humboldt’s aviation club, sets up his radio for a simulated flight out of Redding, May 21, 2025.
The Hall of Simulation was created to centralize a number of different exhibits that the library had been collecting for years. “All of these experiences, all these projects suggest that there’s a really wonderful way to encourage the community to try these ideas out,” Oberlander said. “Learn how to fly a plane, learn about the human body, or learn about plants using emergent technology.”
Tricking your brain Student docent Diego Rodriguez-Willie helps people discover the simulators. His favorite is the emergency table: a large sandbox with a projected map of Arcata and the surrounding forest. When Rodriguez-Willie shines a laser on a spot in the forest, a wildfire begins to spread. “We’re expecting to see fire pretty much nearly one-to-one how you would expect fire to behave in reality if you were to set it here with some caveats,” Rodriguez-Willie said. He said this table isn’t just for playing around. Users can assign simulated crews to fight the fire, practicing strategies to contain a wildfire all over the world. Using the simulation, firefighters and emergency managers can learn from virtual mistakes — instead of real ones. These simulators are meant to provide an experience that can help trick your brain into thinking you’re doing something Continued on page 23 for real. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 21
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Continued from page 21
Cal Poly Humboldt Library Dean Cyril Oberlander stands next to the entrance of the Hall of Simulation, May 22, 2025.
Cal Poly Humboldt Library Dean Cyril Oberlander uses the 3D Digital Herbarium, which shows high-quality scans of local plants, May 22, 2025.
Brandon Brown, a flight instructor new to the area, said the immersive experience makes learning faster. “For my student, who has only flown out of the simulator, she doesn’t have that frame of reference, and her hands sweat, she holds on tight,” he said. “She said this several times, it is indistinguishable when you’re in the moment from actually flying.” But Rodriguez-Willie said people might not know how they can use tools like this if they aren’t studying wildfire or medicine or aviation. “Many would be willing to actually come up here,” he said, “if there was more information regarding some of the more tangible features or applications that they would benefit from.” “Someone last year who was pregnant wanted to see the whole birthing practice as it was simulated in the table,” For example, the emergency table could be used to simulate evacuation routes, helping residents prepare for a wildfire. Oberlander said the library’s 3D dissection table, which shows full-body scans of human cadavers or other animals, also has uses beyond being a tool for nursing students. “Someone last year who was pregnant wanted to see the whole birthing practice as it was simulated in the table,” he said. Another person, Oberlander said, wanted to know how their damaged knee tendon looked. “When I was able to show her the tendon, she felt very transformed and empowered by the knowledge that she now understood what it was that was damaged in her knee.”
high school and is now attending a flight school college in Arizona to get his pilot’s license,” Dedini said. “And I know he spent a lot of time at that flight simulator, and that was good for him.” Teachers have been learning about this hall of simulation through visits to the college campus every year. Dave Haller, another science teacher in the area, said teachers now know more about what’s available at the hall. “The first few years, it was more just trying to introduce it to us, and it was new to most of the teachers, too,” Haller said. “Now, we can think of ways that we could incorporate that into units or projects and have the kids maybe do some deeper experimenting.” The flight simulator is by far the most popular attraction in this exhibit. Community members used the simulator 105 times last semester, Oberlander said. Marshall said around 1,300 hours were logged in the first six months of use, which he said is a lot of use in the aviation world. Shukri Iman is one such community member. She’s a traveling ultrasound technologist and just started her flight training a few months ago. “It’s an amazing, amazing resource,” she said. “I’m surprised that more people don’t take advantage of it, because it’s open to students and also the public, you know?” Oberlander said he hopes that kind of excitement spreads to the entire Hall of Simulation. The library plans to offer extended hours with student guides available to help kids and families. His next project is an immersive tunnel to show 360-degree footage of nearby natural areas, highlighting the research students are doing there.
Inspiring the community The library is planning workshops this summer to teach people how they can use these simulators. Oberlander said the simulators can be especially valuable for kids, who might get inspired to pursue a passion later in their lives. Nick Dedini, a middle school science teacher in Arcata, said some students and families have visited the space on their own. “I do know a student who used the flight simulator pretty regularly there and then applied to a school in Arizona out of
Roman Battaglia is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. After graduating from Oregon State University, Roman came to JPR as part of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism in 2019. He then joined Delaware Public Media as a Report For America fellow before returning to the JPR newsroom. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 23
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JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 25
NEWS BRIEFS Some Schools Turn Down Oregon Summer Learning Grants After Tight Deadline Jane Vaughan/JPR News With little time to plan, some districts chose to turn down the money entirely.
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awmakers didn’t approve Oregon’s summer learning funding — $35 million to be distributed over the next two years — until mid-April, giving school districts just a couple of weeks to apply. Brookings-Harbor Superintendent Helena Chirinian said the timeline for the grant was too tight, and there were other issues as well. “We have a little bit of a difference philosophically with the summer learning grant. We really want summer to be fun for our kids,” she said. “The grant is highly restrictive.” Brookings-Harbor turned down a $191,000 allocation, the second year in a row the district has rejected the funding. Chirinian said the district still will offer credit recovery, tutoring and other services this summer. The funding requires at least 80 hours of instruction per student, assessments before and after the program and a focus on literacy. “Last year, we were able to also [put] math in there. This year, it’s a literacy focus,” said Doris Ellison, director of elementary curriculum at Klamath County School District, which will receive $1 million. “If we do anything with math, we have to center it around the literacy of mathematics, so we’re looking at story problems and those kinds of things.” Ellison said the grant parameters were more limiting than in past years. “We’re kind of time-bound to this 80 hours of literacy,” Ellison said. The money was not available to every school district. Instead, it was prioritized for districts with the lowest reading proficiency rates.
26 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
Meanwhile, Oregon has experienced a steep decline in student test scores over the last decade, despite increased education spending. The Medford School District is set to receive $1 million, said Athletics and Activities Director Fred Kondziela. He agreed that districts had a very limited time to complete the grant, but for Medford, it was worth it. “Funds are limited across the state. I know several districts are looking at potentially having to make some cuts,” he said. “But collectively, we’re looking at close to $400,000 in savings to the Medford School District [as a result of this grant], which is fantastic.” That’s a welcome boost for the district, which faced a $15 million budget shortfall last year.
Oregon AG Agrees To $66 Million In Settlement with Sackler Family, Purdue Pharma, Which Fueled Opioid Crisis Conrad Wilson/OPB Some who worked on the litigation argue it doesn’t go far enough.
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regon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he would accept a $66 million payout as the state’s share of a $7.4 billion settlement with the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma. The family and their company created the drug OxyContin, which was marketed as treatment for chronic pain, but instead set off a prescription pill epidemic that deepened the nation’s opioid crisis. “This settlement ensures Oregon communities receive much-needed resources like drug treatment and prevention programs,” Rayfield said in a statement Wednesday.
This latest nationwide settlement was announced in January after a previous settlement was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The new agreement forces Purdue Pharma to pay up to $900 million. The Sacklers must give up ownership of the company and pay up to $6.5 billion. Technically, the deal is still not finalized. The Oregon Department of Justice said its acceptance “marks a significant step towards finalizing the deal.” For Oregon, the money would get paid over the course of nine years, faster than most states, according to the state Department of Justice. Like other settlements the state has received as part of other national lawsuits connected to the opioid crisis, these funds would be divided up, with 55% going to cities and counties for local treatment and prevention programs. The remainder will go to the state’s Opioid Settlement Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Fund. Since 2021 Oregon has received $645 million in legal settlements from pharmacies and other companies that profited from the sale of opioids, not including this latest agreement with Purdue and the Sacklers. “We will not stop fighting to hold opioid companies accountable for the devastation they’ve caused,” Rayfield’s statement continued. “Oregon families deserve justice, and every dollar we recover will go toward healing our communities and building a future free from this crisis.” This latest settlement has also received criticism in Oregon. David Hart is a recently retired assistant attorney general at the Oregon Department of Justice where he ran the agency’s opioid litigation and recovery/pharmaceutical fraud unit. In an interview with OPB’s “Think Out Loud,” Hart argued the current settlement was too favorable and lenient towards the Sacklers. “If you look at internal company emails and documents, as described in many of the complaints, they were aware of the dangers associated with their product. They were also aware of social problems that were increasing as a result of their product,” he said. Hart also noted that despite the total settlement being billions of dollars “that’s over time, so it’s not as big a number as it sounds” because it’s paid out over years. Despite the risk associated with not taking the deal, Hart argued the state has already received hundreds of millions of dollars from the other settlements. He said if the Sacklers are allowed to keep billions from their company and a sizable portion of their fortune, it creates what Hart called a “terrible precedent.” “The Sacklers are particularly responsible,” he said. “Sometimes you have to focus on justice and sometimes you have to focus on deterrent.”
Dutch Bros Is Officially Moving Headquarters from Grants Pass to Arizona Kyra Buckley/OPB The drive-thru coffee chain first started expanding in Oregon, moving to Eugene, Salem, Portland and other cities before growing outside the Northwest.
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coffee company with deep roots in Oregon is moving its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona. Dutch Bros started as a coffee cart in Grants Pass more than 30 years ago and has grown into a national brand. The drive-thru coffee chain confirmed the move to Phoenix in an email on Wednesday. The Portland Business Journal first reported the news. “To support the next phase of Dutch Bros’ growth, we’re relocating additional roles to our new Phoenix office and making strategic changes to the structure of several teams,” a company spokesperson said in a statement sent to OPB. “Bringing more people together will allow us to better serve our customers and crews across the country.” The news comes a year and a half after company officials said they were moving much of their operations and support staff to Arizona. Dutch Bros has gained a following for its sweet, caffeine-filled creations. While coffee drinks like flavored lattes remain on the company’s core menu, it also sells a line of energy drinks and blended beverages. The signature blue and white coffee drive-thrus can now be found in over 15 states. But the company started expanding first in Oregon, moving to Eugene, Salem, Portland and other cities before growing outside the Northwest. The company said it will continue to support the “Southern Oregon community” through its foundation. “Grants Pass is where our journey began, and it remains a vital part of our story,” the statement said. “Our original roasting facility and supporting functions will remain rooted in Grants Pass.”
Continued on page 29 JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 27
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NEWS BRIEFS CONTINUED SOU Facing Another Round of Cuts Amid Budget Crisis
Jackson County Is a Rare Fiscal Bright Spot in Southern Oregon
Jane Vaughan/JPR News
Justin Higginbottom/JPR News
Southern Oregon University may have to cut programs and up to 35 positions to fill a budget deficit, as the school expects to receive less money from the state than expected.
Jackson County passed its budget. And the numbers are looking pretty good.
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lthough Oregon has not technically adopted its budget yet, SOU President Rick Bailey said he has a pretty clear picture: at least a $3.3 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. That’s more than the $2.8 million shortfall the university projected last fall. Bailey blamed the gap on inadequate state support, which he said shifts the financial burden to students. “It’s not complicated,” he said. “It’s just that, as a state, we have not prioritized public universities in this state to where we need to, and that has a direct effect on our ability to function without a dramatic increase to tuition, and we’re not going to do that.” SOU increased tuition rates for most students last April. The university has faced a series of financial crises in recent years. At one point, it projected a $13 million deficit, prompting the the creation of a new fiscal realignment plan two years ago, called SOU Forward. That plan involved cutting almost 82 positions, mostly by not filling job vacancies, retirements, voluntary departures and non-renewable contracts. Approximately 24 employees were laid off. But Bailey said it won’t be that easy this time around. “We don’t have as many opportunities like that now. That means that the decisions that we make, almost all of them are going to involve people who would rather not leave,” he said. “That’s very sobering.” Bailey said that nothing has been decided at this point regarding which cuts will be made. The university will create a plan to fill the budget deficit in the coming months. “There is no doubt that this news is difficult; however, we have overcome previous challenging times together,” Bailey wrote in a recent email to faculty and staff. “Please know that I reaffirm my commitment that every decision we make will reflect our shared love for SOU, each other and our students. When we keep those things as our North Star, there is no obstacle that we cannot overcome.” SOU has also struggled recently with a decline in enrollment, which Bailey said last fall was mainly due to a monthslate rollout of the federal financial student aid form known as the FAFSA.
editor’s note: The university’s board of trustees planned to meet
in late June (prior to publication) to consider a budget for the new fiscal year.
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ackson County commissioners passed a $640.5 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with $264.6 million going to reserves — a financial position that puts the county ahead of most others in Oregon. The county is the only one in Southern Oregon not facing a shortfall. At least 21 of the state’s 36 counties are expecting deficits this fiscal year, according to a recent report by Oregon Public Broadcasting. County Administrator Danny Jordan said it has been a long road to financial health. He started working for the government nearly 20 years ago, around the time environmental regulations drastically reduced logging and federal payouts to the county. “I was forced to make some drastic steps,” Jordan said. “One of those steps was to close all 15 of our libraries.” Jordan said the county had to get creative so as not to deeply cut prioritized services, such as public safety. The libraries eventually reopened under the management of a separate taxing district. Jordan said he also helped create an employee clinic for healthcare to reduce insurance costs. And he set up side accounts with the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, which reduced rates and saved the county tens of millions of dollars over the span of decades. Jackson County has a relatively low property tax rate of $2.10 per $1,000 of assessed value, and state law makes it difficult to raise those rates. Rogue Valley voters have historically been averse to new taxes. As a result, Jordan said the county relies on its reserve funds to pay for capital projects. “We have enough money in reserve where we could operate the entire county for a year. No other county does that,” Jordan said. “We’ve had to depend on it for capital projects. Because our local taxpayers aren’t really excited about passing new taxes very often.” This year, the county will spend reserve funds for a $40 million expansion of Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport and a $15 million animal shelter. Despite the good footing, the county still has around 75 fewer positions than during its heyday before the decline of timber, according to Jordan. He’s skeptical about offering budget advice to other counties. “What I say about counties is, ‘If you’ve seen one county, you’ve seen one county.’’
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 29
NEWS BRIEFS CONTINUED Klamath County Considers Voluntary Retirement Program as Cost Saving Measure Jane Vaughan/JPR News After filling an almost $7 million budget shortfall, Klamath County is exploring new ways to fix its finances. That might include a voluntary resignation program for county employees.
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o balance the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the county had to use reserves and one-time grants to fill a budget deficit. But those funding sources are finite and running out. As a result, county commissioners are now discussing ways to create long-term financial stability. Commissioner Derrick DeGroot said at a June 3 meeting, that a voluntary resignation or retirement program could be part of a broader budget strategy. “I think we need to start having some work sessions with leadership and talking about restructure, reorganization and how we can drive our budget down,” he said. “These could be tools in order to help accomplish that.” Commissioners voted unanimously to explore implementing such a program. “While it’s good to have employees with longevity for sure, employees with lots of longevity that are sort of in that ballpark range of retirement are a lot more costly to employ than a new employee,” Commissioner Kelley Minty said. The problem, DeGroot said in an interview, is that the cost of services is going up, while taxes and other sources of revenue are staying the same or even decreasing. “So you have this divergence of dollars to provide service and the expense of that same service,” he said. “Right now, we’re just going to have to figure out how to live within our means.” At the meeting, commissioners also lifted a hiring freeze that had been in place since last August. DeGroot said the only way for the county to address the deficit is by reducing staff, since those costs make up the majority of the budget. “We’ve already reduced the cost of paper clips as far as we can,” he said. “Now we have to actually start talking about human force.” The county has particularly struggled with a lack of funding for law enforcement. In May, residents resoundingly voted down a measure that would have formed a public safety service district in the eastern part of the county, funded by an $89 annual tax per lot. Nearby Josephine County recently offered a buyout program to some employees to help address budget concerns.
30 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
Many federal employees have also taken buyouts or early retirement in recent months amid cuts by the Trump administration. Klamath County Commissioners must approve the county’s budget in late June. Decisions on the voluntary resignation program will be made later, after the Human Resources department has presented some potential proposals.
Proposed Med School in Klamath Falls Could Help Treat Rural Doctor Shortage Justin Higginbottom/JPR News Klamath Falls may someday become home to Oregon’s second public medical school.
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he Oregon Institute of Technology has announced its hope to create a college of osteopathic medicine at its southern Oregon campus. It would be the first public college of osteopathic medicine in the state and the second public medical school in Oregon. Doctors of osteopathic medicine, or DOs, typically place a stronger focus on whole-person and preventive care than traditional medical doctors, or MDs. Their training may also include osteopathic manipulative treatment, a hands-on technique to diagnose and alleviate certain conditions. Otherwise, DOs receive similar training to MDs and can be licensed to treat and diagnose illness. Osteopathic colleges filled the top 14 spots in a list of best medical schools for primary care doctors, according to 2024 ranking in the U.S. News & World Report. Gaylyn Maurer, executive director of health and wellness at Oregon Tech, said a new medical school would help provide health care access in the region. “We have a massive provider shortage across the state,” Maurer said. She noted that the shortage is linked to poor health outcomes in rural areas, including “poor quality of life, completed suicides, shortened life expectancies.” Research published by the National Institute for Health in 2022 says people who study medicine in rural areas are around five times more likely to practice in rural areas. According to Maurer, Oregon Tech would like to offer an accelerated option for the osteopathic program, which would allow students to graduate in three years rather than four. That would be possible by coordinating a student’s undergraduate degree to reduce classroom time for the medical school by one year. The polytechnic university plans to develop an AI-infused curriculum for the health program, according to a press release. Oregon Tech has requested $1.2 million from state legislators for a planning study of the proposed school.
JPR NEWS FOCUS
LAW & JUSTICE
It costs roughly $560,000 to treat a single person at the state hospital for a year.
AMELIA TEMPLETON
Federal Judge Finds Oregon in Contempt Over Mental Health Care Delays for People In Jail U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson will begin calculating $500 daily fines for each person left waiting in a local jail more than a week before admission to the state’s psychiatric hospital. federal judge has found Oregon’s state health agency in contempt of a court order that requires severely mentally ill detainees be swiftly admitted to the state psychiatric hospital. Starting June 7, U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson began calculating a fine of $500 per person, per day for each individual ordered into the care of the Oregon State Hospital left waiting in local jail for more than a week. The average waiting period for individuals admitted in April 2025 was 20.7 days, according to Nelson’s order. In recent years, at least two mentally ill detainees have died of starvation in Oregon jails while waiting for mental health treatment. The judge wrote that the delays are a crisis of Oregon’s own making after decades of underinvesting in community care options for mental health. The result, Nelson wrote, is that the criminal justice system has become the only opportunity many have to receive treatment. “This is simply not what the criminal system was originally intended to do,” she wrote. In a similar civil rights case, Washington state ultimately paid a $100 million fine for failing to quickly evaluate and treat mentally ill people in jail. Nelson’s ruling is a blow to the state, which had hoped to avoid costly, punitive damages for violating the constitutional rights of mentally ill people caught up in the criminal justice system. Amber Shoebridge, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the state hospital, said they’re reviewing the opinion and evaluating next steps. Disability Rights Oregon, the group that first brought the case in 2002, welcomed the order. “We’re hopeful swift implementation of the monetary sanctions and remedial measures will kickstart real solutions to fix Oregon’s broken mental health system,” Jake Cornett, executive director and CEO of Disability Rights Oregon, said in a statement. Nelson’s order also sharply rebuked some of the parties that have participated in the case as friends of the court, or amici. Those include Marion County and a quartet of circuit court judges, which have filed briefs attacking the federal court’s intervention.
KRISTYNA WENTZ-GRAFF / OPB
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Entrance to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, March 8, 2023.
They’ve also testified against legislation brought by the Oregon Health Authority meant to help the state resolve the litigation by codifying time limits on stays at the state hospital. The federal court’s neutral expert has repeatedly said those time limits are best practice and are necessary to ensure flow of patients in and out of the state hospital — and for good stewardship of state funds. It costs roughly $560,000 to treat a single person at the state hospital for a year. But those limits are controversial. Many district attorneys believe shorter stays at the hospital contribute to recidivism. “Indeed, the role of many amici in this case has thus far only hindered resolution; these amici seek to be considered ‘friends of the Court’ while actively opposing necessary legislative action and thereby thwarting the Court’s efforts to aid defendants in achieving compliance,“ Nelson wrote in her order. She did not specifically name the amici she considers unhelpful. In a separate order, Nelson said all amici must get her approval before filing in the case.
Decades of litigation This ruling is the latest development in the lawsuit over the rights of people with symptoms like psychosis or mania who have been arrested but are too unwell to stand trial. County jails lack the capacity to treat them, and their disruptive behavior means they’re often confined in solitary cells. Metropolitan Public Defender is also a lead plaintiff in the case. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 31
JPR News Focus: Law & Justice Continued from previous page
Nelson is the third federal judge in the last 23 years to oversee it. In 2002, the first federal judge assigned to the case found that leaving mentally ill people in jail with inadequate treatment violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution. He issued a permanent injunction requiring the Oregon State Hospital admit criminal defendants within seven days of a judge ordering treatment for them. Demand on the state hospital has increased. Since 2018, Oregon has rarely met that seven-day requirement, leading to the case being reopened. In 2022, U.S. District Court judge Michael Mosman, the second federal judge assigned to the case, imposed limits on stays at the state hospital for criminal defendants undergoing restoration: 90 days for patients charged with misdemeanors, six months for felony charges and a year for violent felonies. Mosman also imposed new rules designed to limit the use of the hospital for civil commitment, to make beds available more quickly to patients being held in jail. Those intakes are now only for cases where patients had unique medical needs or showed severe aggression. Those orders have sparked backlash from prosecutors and some circuit court judges, who say they don’t adequately take into account community safety issues. Opponents argue patients discharged from the hospital due to the time limits on treatment are more likely than others to be arrested again later. After Mosman’s orders, OHA was briefly able to admit defendants from jail to the hospital within seven days, but the state fell out of compliance again last summer. Judge Nelson took over the case in 2024. She raised the possibility of contempt in a hearing late last year. Disability Rights Oregon responded by asking Nelson to find the state in contempt and impose fines. At a hearing in March, Disability Rights Oregon attorney Tom Stenson argued that the state health authority was violating the constitutional rights of mentally ill defendants. Stenson argued that the state had, for years, moved too slowly to fix the central problem dogging the Oregon State Hospital:
an underbuilt community mental health treatment system. He also said that a lack of alternative facilities pushes mentally ill people into the criminal justice system in the first place, and makes it harder to transition people ready to be discharged out of the state psychiatric hospital. OHA “wasted years of mild incremental steps,” he said. “Wait and see is no longer an answer.” Disability Rights Oregon’s attorneys also argued that the health authority downplayed to state legislators the degree of legal jeopardy the state faces in the case, and had not effectively lobbied for a bill that would impose permanent limits on stays at the hospital. Attorneys for the state did not dispute that the Oregon Health Authority is out of compliance and has been for much of the past six years. In February, the average wait for admission to the Oregon State Hospital from jail was two weeks, according to state data presented in court. Instead, the state argued at the trial that it has closely followed the recommendations of a neutral expert appointed in the case four years ago, and is already taking all reasonable steps to address the facility’s capacity issues. A finding of contempt and fines, they said, could divert focus and funding from that effort. “That disruption in the system would not lead to compliance faster or more efficiently than allowing the state to continue its work,” said Assistant Attorney General Jill Conbere, during the state’s closing argument in March.
Amelia Templeton is a multimedia reporter and producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting, a JPR news partner. She was previously a reporter for EarthFix, an award-winning public media project covering the environment in the Northwest. Her reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington. OPB’s Conrad Wilson contributed to this report.
ON JPR'S RHYTHM & NEWS SERVICE SATURDAYS AT 9:00AM 32 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
JPR NEWS FOCUS
POVERTY & HOMELESSNESS
Nationally, about 20% of the homeless population is now 55 or older.
JANE VAUGHAN
‘I Couldn’t Afford It’: Older Adults Are Being Priced Out and Ending Up Homeless A growing number of older adults are ending up homeless for the first time — often after a lifetime of work. With few options, little support and growing health risks, being older and homeless comes with unique difficulties.
Gregory Sovick in his apartment in Redding, California. He lost his nose to cancer while living on the streets.
JANE VAUGHAN / JPR
regory Sovick spent a decade sleeping on the streets of Redding. “The price of everything, I couldn’t afford it,” he said. He’s not alone. In recent years, more older adults like Sovick — many with steady work histories — are being priced out and pushed into homelessness for the first time. Nationally, about 20% of the homeless population is now 55 or older. Sovick, 64, ended up in Redding after a series of family deaths and financial losses. “I just hung out with nothing else to do,” he said. “Being without my tools, I couldn’t work anymore.” Sovick grew up in East Los Angeles and worked for years as a dog groomer. While living on the streets, he brought in a little cash fixing bicycles and building bike trailers. “I just made it out there as best I could,” he said. “Surviving that way, which wasn’t very much of a survival.” Sovick’s story reflects a growing pattern across the country: older adults who once made ends meet now find themselves without a place to call home. “I’m old enough that when I started in this work, we were like, ‘Oh, Social Security solves homelessness,’ and now it doesn’t,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. Kushel said in her research, she’s seen many people, like Sovick, who worked low-wage, physically demanding jobs with no money left over for savings. “And then after the age of 50, something happened,” she said. “They got sick. Their spouse or partner got sick. They couldn’t keep up their physically demanding work. Their marriage broke up.” This kind of life disruption is more common than most realize. According to Kushel, almost half of them have never been homeless before. The financial strain is severe — people over 50 are most likely to spend more than half of their income on rent, Kushel said. Being older and homeless comes with special challenges. Sometimes housing options are physically inaccessible, like a third-floor walk-up, or there’s just not enough housing available.
JANE VAUGHAN / JPR
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Bob Welch in the home he rents in Medford, Ore. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 33
JPR News Focus: Poverty & Homelessness Continued from previous page
Saving seniors from eviction While some older adults lose housing entirely, others need help to make their home somewhere they can stay. Hearts for Seniors focuses on this problem: helping older adults with whatever they need, whether it’s getting food or fixing up their house. “When we hear about these seniors who are going to be evicted if they don’t have clear pathways, we try to get teams
JANE VAUGHAN / JPR
Government programs help millions of older adults with housing, but a 2023 study shows there just isn’t enough to go around — and in some places, people wait years for a spot. All of this takes a physical toll. Kushel said older homeless people have high rates of chronic disease and incredibly high mortality rates. One of her studies, published in 2022, found that homeless older adults die much earlier than expected — with death rates more than three times higher than the general population. The study says the average age of death among these older homeless adults ranges from 42 to 52. “These are people who’ve paid into Social Security their whole lives, but frankly, their rate of death is such that many will never live long enough to get the Social Security out,” Kushel said. Tents in Fruitdale Park in Grants Pass in May 2024.
that can go in and help keep them in their homes,” said Stephanie Miller, the program’s director. A team of volunteers fans out to seniors’ homes, cleaning up the yard, installing a ramp or just providing company. Miller said they serve 80 to 90 seniors each week in Jackson, Josephine and Lincoln Counties. One of them is 82-year-old Bob Welch in Medford. He broke his hip falling on the unstable front steps of his house. Hearts for Seniors helped him out. “I come home from the hospital, and I had a yard full of carpenters building me a ramp,” Welch said. He speaks highly of their work and said the best part is the weekly hangout with “my buddy,” one of the volunteers.
‘Domesticated’ after 10 years But for older people who do become homeless, finding their way back into housing can be difficult and tedious — as Sovick knows first hand. After 10 years living on the streets, he was finally able to get a housing voucher and move into an apartment. He now spends his days drawing, painting and reading the Bible, joking that he’s “a domesticated male.” But for thousands like him, stable housing remains out of reach. “We need to look ourselves in the mirror as a society,” Kushel said. “We are letting our elders die out alone in the cold or the heat, deeply traumatized, deeply frightened, and die alone and outside. And that is unacceptable.”
Jane Vaughan is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. Jane began her journalism career as a reporter for a community newspaper in Portland, Maine. She’s been a producer at New Hampshire Public Radio and worked on WNYC’s On The Media.
JPR NEWS FOCUS
ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY
JUSTIN HIGGINBOTTOM
Several former employees of Mast, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of legal retaliation, confirmed the potentially false marketing by Canary.
Can This Company Get Polluters to Pay for Reforesting Land After Wildfires? Carbon credits are supposed to fight climate change, letting companies offset emissions by funding projects that pull carbon from the air. But a carbon credit startup with deep ties to Northern California is facing a lawsuit that alleges it misled investors.
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eattle-based Mast Reforestation had a novel idea to help save the planet: sell voluntary carbon credits and use that money to replant forests destroyed by wildfire. To pull off its reforestation projects, the company bought key parts of the supply chain, including Cal Forest Nurseries in Etna, California — the largest independent nursery in the Pacific Northwest. It also purchased Silvaseed in Washington, the largest privately held seed bank in the West. In 2023, it replanted 2,500 acres of land in Montana. A year later, it launched the Feather River Dome project near Chico, California. Mast positioned itself as a rising star in the carbon credit market, claiming to be the only “vertically-integrated reforestation carbon credit developer in the industry.” It got backing from Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Social Capital.
Now, the company is facing allegations that it deceived potential partners to secure its reforestation projects.
Risky projections The way Mast structures its credits is central to the controversy. Like other companies, Mast sells carbon credits to businesses that want to voluntarily offset emissions. Those financial instruments are often used to fund the protection of areas — like forests or marine habitats — that remove greenhouse gases. But Mast’s model hinges on a specific type of carbon offset known as an “ex-ante” credit — essentially, a bet on future climate benefits. Instead of waiting for trees to grow and capture carbon, Mast sells its credits based on projections of reductions. The money raised would be used to plant trees on private land scarred by wildfire. Landowners are required to set aside some of their property for conservation. In exchange, they get a new forest, and the world benefits from a reduction in greenhouse gases. The money comes up front, but the reward comes in the following years and decades, as weather, fire and other factors affect forest growth, and ultimately carbon absorption.
CREDIT: MAST REFORESTATION
A Mast Reforestation worker is seen at a project site. The company uses carbon credits to fund reforestation on land burned by wildfire.
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 35
JPR News Focus: Environment & Energy Continued from previous page
That makes these credits riskier, according to Danny Cullenward, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “Instead of observing what actually happens at the project, we project what we think is going to happen,” Cullenward said. “And that’s even more speculative than the conventional carbon-crediting approach.” Forest growth predictions can be especially tricky in areas susceptible to drought or wildfire, which is where Mast’s reforestation projects are located.
Whistleblowers raise alarms In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in Siskiyou County, Mast’s former senior director of business development Arnould De Villegas, claims the company misled potential partners. He alleges Mast’s CEO, Grant Canary, made inflated claims about future deals and oversold the value of its ex-ante credits. According to the lawsuit, Canary ”frequently lied about Mast’s business to outside clients and investors.”. The alleged lies include Canary implying a well-known corporation would purchase a large percentage of the carbon credits from Sheep Creek Ranch in Montana and putting a value on offsets with little relation to actual demand. The lawsuit claims employees, even Canary himself, knew this wasn’t true. Several former employees of Mast, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of legal retaliation, confirmed the potentially false marketing by Canary. De Villegas and other employees became so concerned over Canary’s sales tactics that they sent a letter to the board in January 2024 asking for an assessment of the CEO’s performance, according to court documents. But the complaint notes the board announced a few months later that an independent investigation found no wrongdoing. Canary continued to push projects, which De Villegas claims he delayed due to his ethical concerns. De Villegas alleges he became so overwhelmed with the company’s false statements that he took medical leave. Last May, his access to the company’s email was suspended. He argues in the wrongful termination suit that he was effectively fired. Mast said it does not comment on pending litigation.
‘Period of reckoning’ The lawsuit comes at a time of reckoning for the voluntary carbon credit model, as investors and environmentalists search for anchors of integrity in an increasingly scrutinized market. Cullenward said past enthusiasm for the voluntary carbon credit market has generally waned. “Over the last three or four years, there’s been a steady drumbeat of academic and investigative reports documenting major problems with the market,” Cullenward said. A study released last year in Nature Communications found less than 16% of the carbon credits issued to projects led to emission reductions. “Carbon crediting mechanisms need to be reformed fundamentally to meaningfully contribute to climate change mitigation,” according to the paper. 36 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
There’s been a general downturn in market prices for credits at least in part because of these concerns, according to Cullenward. Carbon Streaming Corp, which invested $15 million into Mast in exchange for carbon credits, marked down the fair value of the Sheep Creek reforestation project to zero after many of the seedlings died, according to that company’s 2024 fiscal report. It similarly reduced the fair value of Mast’s Feather River Dome project in Northern California. “In 2024, carbon credit market demand has generally shifted towards lower-risk carbon credits,” according to Carbon Streaming. “Forecasted mitigation units or ex ante carbon credits, which are designed to facilitate forward financing, inherently carry higher risk, leading to supply that has exceeded demand.” Despite the weak demand for ex ante credits, the company said it still planted about 47,000 native seedlings across 165 acres on its Feather River Dome project in Butte County, California, last year. The owner of Sheep Creek Ranch in Montana confirmed the company had replanted his property. In a statement to Jefferson Public Radio, Mast admits that the voluntary carbon market went through a “period of reckoning” in recent years — but said things are looking up. “From our vantage point, the market is evolving—and buyers are raising the bar,” said Mast. “That’s a good thing for projects like ours that are built around high-integrity carbon removal and long-term ecosystem restoration.” Most recently, it launched a biomass burial project to meet demand for immediately realized carbon credits. The method involves burying dead trees, so as they decompose and release carbon dioxide, the carbon remains trapped underground for the next century. The company announced in February that it received $25 million in Series B funding for its biomass burial project. This isn’t Mast’s first pivot. Formerly known as DroneSeed, the company previously used drones for mass aerial seeding, with mixed results. “The problem isn’t the value of these projects,” the company said. “It’s that the market structure hasn’t always aligned with their timelines.” One former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, wanted to be clear: they believed the voluntary carbon credit market could still help combat climate change. They just hoped bad actions by some companies wouldn’t ruin the model for everyone.
Justin Higginbottom is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. He’s worked in print and radio journalism in Utah as well as abroad with stints in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He spent a year reporting on the Myanmar civil war and has contributed to NPR, CNBC and Deutsche Welle (Germany’s public media organization).
RECORDINGS VANESSA FINNEY
“The most common feedback is that this experience is in some way healing.”
A Grand Piano in The Great Outdoors Pianist Hunter Noack combines two of his passions, music and nature, to present unique outdoor concerts. He spoke with JPR’s Vanessa Finney on location, during his tour with “In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild”, which since 2016 has presented 305 concerts in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, California, New York and Canada to over 75,000 people. His current tour has stops in Oregon and California. CREDIT: ARTHUR HITCHCOCK
Describe the history of this concert series, starting with what sparked the idea for you. hunter noack: I mean, at the beginning, it was really a combina-
That’s a beautiful concept. I’m wondering where you grew up, and if your interest in nature and music evolved side by side, or if they sort of meshed together later. noack: Yeah, I grew up with them side by side. I grew up in a
small town in Central Oregon called Sunriver. Spent a lot of time outdoors, hunting and fishing and kayaking with my parents, but all the while playing music. When I was four years old, I started playing piano. My mother taught me, and so I always kind of wanted to be a concert pianist. And when I finished school, I was sort of thinking, “Okay, what am I going to do with my life?” I had just done a backpacking trip through Yosemite with the Sierra Club, and I knew that I wanted to spend more time outdoors, and so I had heard about this opera production called Invisible Cities in Los Angeles, where they used wireless headphones to kind of bring concert hall quality sound into an unusual space—in their case, Union Station in Los Angeles. And so I wrote a grant to try that concept, to try using that technology outside. So we give the audience wireless headphones, so they can listen to the live music, wander and explore the landscape with the music as a soundtrack.
Hunter Noack returns in concert at Black Butte Ranch, in Deschutes County Oregon.
CREDIT: ARTHUR HITCHCOCK
tion of the two things that I love most: classical piano and being in the great outdoors. The kind of thematic inspiration of the program comes from the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which was a government stimulus plan during the Great Depression of the 1930s and specifically, there was a federal Music and Theater Project which presented thousands of free concerts and plays, many of them outdoors in public lands. And what I love about this was that, for one, the arts were a big part of a government stimulus plan, which I think signaled to the American people that the arts are, in fact, as important to the overall health of our society, as important as things like roads and schools. And I also love that it brought the fine arts out of the spaces that can sometimes feel exclusive or uncomfortable and into what I believe are our most democratic spaces, which are our public lands and our parks.
Hunter Noack’s audiences wear Bluetooth headphones during his concerts.
Do you have a sense of your audience if you’re bringing your music to new audiences that are more comfortable outdoors, or if you’re sort of expanding the experience of typical classical music fans? Absolutely, it’s kind of both. For about 1/3 of our audience, the In a Landscape concert is their very first experience with live classical music. But we also have a lot of classical music lovers who are excited to have a reason to travel and explore landscapes that they otherwise might not. But yeah, I think the greatest appeal is to those who are looking for a beautiful experience in the great outdoors, in nature. The most common feedback is that this experience is in some way healing. It’s very different from the feedback that I would get in a normal concert hall experience, where people have these relationships with and these experiences with just the music. There’s something magical that happens when we’re in nature,
noack:
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 37
Recordings
Continued from previous page
and everything is constantly changing—the lights, the sounds, the smells. People’s senses are much more activated and heightened. And so it has this kind of magical effect when combined with live classical music, with these great works of beauty. And so it’s really as much a pleasure for me to perform every concert as I think it is for people to get to experience this great music in these inspiring landscapes. That’s right, your senses would be heightened just being outdoors, outside the four walls we’re used to in the typical day. So speaking of sights and sounds, you’re getting a nine foot grand piano into all kinds of different settings. What are the logistics like? And are there any places that have been especially tricky to get into with your instrument and gear? Definitely. So typically, it would take three professional movers to move this 1,000-pound, nine-foot Steinway. We’ve developed a kind of custom trailer that transforms into a stage, so we’re able to bring this instrument and all of our equipment to almost anywhere that a four-by-four vehicle can go. We’ve gone to the top of Mount Bachelor. We played in 110 degrees in the desert. We’ve also done concerts in -2 degrees in Big Sky, Montana in the snow. I really like taking this instrument to places that are kind of surprising, and where people,
noack:
when they roll up, they think, “Wow, how did you get a ninefoot Steinway here?” That’s part of the fun of it. I think it’s also a testament to the piano. It’s a 1912 Steinway Model D. It’s the same model of Steinway that’s in Carnegie Hall and in most major halls around the world. And these instruments are really built to tour. And so this is a great example of that technology and that instrument. When you’re on tour, do you travel with the piano tuner? Noack: We usually hire local piano tuners. We have a team of six that travels to help execute and produce the shows. But piano technicians, we usually try to source locally.
noack:
Hunter, where would you like to give a concert that you haven’t yet? Noack: Oh, tough one. You know, we’ve gotten to play in some magical spots, like Yosemite National Park in the valley, Joshua Tree National Park, but I find that some of the most meaningful experiences are not in the celebrity location — they’re in the county parks, the parks where people go regularly, and they have relationships with the spaces. A huge part of the fun of this program is going into a place and learning from the people that are there — like, what is their
noack:
“We try to stay involved in a lot of different community programs because one of our goals is to add more diversity in the media and film industry.”
Mylz Blake ‘17
Co-founder of digital creative agency Black Cub Productions
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You’re sort of mashing up audiences. I love that. And in the same way that we hear about food deserts, there can be concert deserts, too. So it’s more inclusive. When you go out to the rural areas in these concerts, you play some of the piano repertoire people might expect — Debussy, Chopin — but you also have guest musicians and vocalists, and you don’t stick with just classical European composers. Describe for us the range of genres and moods you’re currently exploring.
CREDIT: ARTHUR HITCHCOCK
noack: Yeah, in a typical program, I play music that spans about
Hunter Noack performing at Wallowa State Park in 2022.
favorite place to bring a picnic or go fishing? Or, where would be the most fun place to hear music? Every place has a story and has magic and has potential. And I tend to fall in love easily every place we go. I just want to stay there and live forever. So there isn’t one particular place that comes to mind, I guess I would love to play in all of the national parks, and I would really love to be able to have a floating stage, so that we could play on bodies of water and have people out there kayaking and on the water experiencing the music. That sounds fantastic. So you’re not only just beckoning people to new dramatic landscapes they haven’t explored, but you’re actually bringing it to their comfort zones, where they might be recreating on the lake or something, or in their local park. noack: Yeah, that’s right. You know, about 75% of our concerts
happen in rural areas, and there are a lot of classical music lovers that aren’t going to travel 3, 4, 5 hours to go to a city to see some classical music event. And there’s also a lot of people that just don’t have the same easy access to the performing arts, and so a big part of the feeling is to create events as much for the people that are local to the areas in which we’re performing, as it is for people to use as a travel destination in it. And so at every concert, it’s about a 50-50 mix of locals and people that are traveling more than 50 miles to attend. It’s not often that we have people from rural and urban areas coming together around something that’s celebratory, where that really feels like a uniting activity, like a shared appreciation for the landscape, for the history and the culture. So it’s really great to be kind of in the middle of this mix.
300 years. So we’ve got some Baroque, some classical, romantic, and contemporary. I like to choose music for the piano that is generally under 10 minutes, and I like to program music that has some sort of story or that’s just beautiful. And I talk a little bit between each piece. There are some pieces that are more spacious that I feel are better for wandering. With others, I will invite people up onto the stage to listen to the music from underneath the piano. There’s a piece by Debussy called “Reflections in the Water,” where if we’re near a body of water, I’ll ask people to actually go stick their feet in the water and watch visually what’s happening in the water, and see how Debussy tried to kind of elicit that visual through the notes that he wrote. For the guest artists, I like to have people that are generally not classical musicians, people that have some connection with the landscape. Often it’s local singers, or we work with this Grammy-winning Native American flutist James Edmond Greeley from Warm Springs reservation. We’ve also worked with dancers, visual artists, and poets. Several Oregon poet laureates have been a part of shows, and in those cases, we get to kind of actually collaborate and figure out what music would be interesting or evoke something in particular about this landscape. And so those can be some of the most rewarding collaborations when it’s focused on a particular site. All right, why don’t you tell us some of your upcoming dates in the region?
noack: We have a couple of concerts in Central Oregon—Black Butte Ranch, Prineville—then out to the outdoor desert and on to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, circling back into Washington. We’re doing 49 concerts this season, and we’re just getting rolling here in California. So we’ll be on tour off and on through September.
Vanessa Finney is JPR’s All Things Considered host. She also produces the Jefferson Exchange segments My Better Half — exploring how people are thriving in the second half of their lives — and The Creative Way, which profiles regional artists.
JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 39
NEWS & INFORMATION: Monday–Friday · 1:30PM–2PM CLASSICS & NEWS: Monday–Friday · 6:30PM–7PM This is what the news should sound like. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by The New York Times’ newsroom, The Daily brings listeners the biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. The Daily focuses on just one or two stories each weekday, offering listeners a 30-minute, deep, textured portrait of the characters and human stakes driving the news.
A Nature Notes Sampler II is a broad collection of radio commentaries based on Dr. Frank Lang’s popular series that aired on JPR since the publication of the first volume in the year 2000. This collection of essays offers Dr. Lang’s same eclectic, often humorous view of the natural world in the mythical State of Jefferson and beyond. Over 100 of Dr. Lang’s commentaries have been collected in this second volume. Make it your first collection of Nature Notes, or add it to the original publication for a complete set! Order A Nature Notes Sampler II for $19.95 postpaid. name
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SCIENCE
JES BURNS
The same forces that cause the coast to slowly rise over the years triggers a reversal when the subduction zone quake happens.
Double Threat of Cascadia Earthquake and Sea-Level Rise Could Change Pacific Northwest Coast Forever
y luck of geology, the Pacific Northwest coast isn’t being hit nearly as hard as other areas of the world by climate change-driven sea level rise. While the U.S. East Coast is expected to see roughly 11–16 inches of sea level rise by 2050 under a high-emission scenario, our coast will see closer to 3–7 inches. Now scientists working in Oregon are adding a new wrinkle to these presumptions, showing the risks could be far greater. Much of the Oregon, Washington and northern California coast is slowly rising — not quickly enough to keep up with the expected sea level changes due to human-caused climate change, but enough to put us on better footing than the rest of the country in the short term. The reason is largely due to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a massive fault running parallel to shore about 100 miles out into the ocean. There, the Juan de Fuca plate is being pushed under the North American plate. This pressure causes our coasts to buckle, pushing our coastline up out of the water. But as fortuitous as this has been in the face of climate change, it could turn unlucky at any moment. The big one — a magnitude 9.0+ Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake — could happen any time now based on its history. An analysis out of Virginia Tech and the University of Oregon shows a dramatically different future for coastal communities when considering the effects of a Cascadia earthquake and climate-driven sea level rise together. While a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the tsunamis that follow would devastate parts of the region, it’s the lasting change to the land level itself the scientists considered in their work. The same forces that cause the coast to slowly rise over the years triggers a reversal when the subduction zone quake happens. In a matter of minutes, the tension releases, and the land level drops down, or subsides, likely between 1.5 and 6 feet. The researchers examined what would happen at 24 different estuaries in Oregon, Washington and California when you pair three different potential levels of earthquake subsidence with sea level rise due to climate change. Short answer: a lot more people would need to get flood insurance. If the earthquake happened today, the amount of area considered to be in a high-risk floodplain across these coastal areas would increase by more than 100 square miles. Add in the impacts of sea level rise, and that 100-year flood area increases further to 140 square miles by 2100. Overall, the researchers found the number of people, buildings and other infrastructure exposed to flooding could more than triple from current levels.
PRAKRUTI BHATT / OPB
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file: With the sea level steadily rising from climate change, the Ore-
gon coastline is expected to move inland a few inches by 2050. Add in the possibility of a big quake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone shifting and flooding in Newport, shown here in this Oct. 19, 2024 file photo, and other communities along the West Coast could be worse than anticipated.
The scientists say their analysis shows the importance of considering sea level rise and earthquake subsidence when devising strategies to increase the resilience of coastal communities over the next century. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
New Honey Bee Energy Bar Tested in Washington Offers Hope for Struggling Hives
H
oney bees are vital to agriculture in the Pacific Northwest. But it’s increasingly difficult to keep colonies alive from year to year, causing concern about the future of our food systems. But now an international team, including researchers at Washington State University, has developed a new supplemental food source that could keep hives strong when deployed on agricultural land. Honey bees are major pollinators of more than 75% of global crops. But bees have been struggling — with habitat loss, climate change, pesticide exposure, parasites, poor nutrition and diseases all contributing. Based on a recent spike in hive collapses, scientists estimate up to 70% of commercial colonies will die this year. On the nutrition front, bees rely on collecting nectar and pollen from a variety of sources. In fact, they need that variety to meet their nutritional needs. But when honey bees are used in agriculture, they’re often deployed to pollinate large swaths of one single crop, which often just doesn’t offer enough nutritional variety. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 41
MARY LOUISE KELLY
A Legacy of Public Radio
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Science
Continued from previous page
The new artificial bee food is kind of like those full-nutrition protein bars you’d bring along on a hike.
o much has changed since JPR began in 1969. In many ways, public radio has grown up. What was once a struggling—almost experimental—operation has become a permanent and positive presence in the lives of so many in Southern Oregon and Northern California and across the nation.
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We continue to seek and depend on regular membership contributions from supporters, especially new generations of listeners. But in the long run our future will depend, more and more, on special gifts from long-time friends who want to help Jefferson Public Radio become stronger and more stable. One of the many ways that friends can choose to express their deep commitment to public radio here in our region is by supporting Jefferson Public Radio in their will or trust. This is a way to make a lasting contribution without affecting your current financial security and freedom. To support Jefferson Public Radio in your will or trust, consult your attorney or personal advisor. The legal description of our organization is: “The JPR Foundation, Inc., an Oregon non-profit tax-exempt corporation located in Ashland, Oregon.” If you would like more information about making a bequest to support Jefferson Public Radio call Paul Westhelle at 541-552-6301.
STEVE INSKEEP
COURTESY APIX BIOSCIENCES
S
Honey bees chew on a new food product that meets all of their nutritional needs. The product was developed in part by scientists at Washington State University.
WSU researchers have been working with a Belgian company to find a way to provide these agricultural bees with a supplement that will provide all of a hive’s nutritional needs. The new artificial bee food is kind of like those full-nutrition protein bars you’d bring along on a hike. The researchers used the pollen-replacing food in hives set out near the Eastern Washington towns of Othello and Mount Vernon. They targeted blueberry and sunflower fields, which are known to be poor nutritional sources for honey bees. In tests, the hives given the new food thrived, growing to have more than twice the number of bees (a measure of hive health and predictor of survival) as those without. The scientists were also able to isolate a chemical compound present in pollen that appears to be especially important for maintaining honey bee health. If the new food is able to improve hive resilience, the researchers say it could contribute to higher crop yields and a better food security. The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
These stories were written and reported by OPB’s Jes Burns as part of the “All Science. No Fiction.” Series which features the most interesting, wondrous and hopeful science coming out of the Pacific Northwest. And remember: Science builds on the science that came before. No one study tells the whole story.
INSIDE THE BOX SCOTT DEWING
Against this backdrop of technology’s central role in the arc of the human story, AI feels a bit different from past technologies like fire, language, agriculture, trebuchets, ships, airplanes, nuclear weapons, rockets, and satellites.
Let’s Stop Freaking Out About AI
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hat goes for me too. Maybe especially for me. I’ve done my fair share of freaking out about AI both in conversations with friends and colleagues as well as right here, in writing, in past columns. Perhaps saying “freaking out” is a bit hyperbolic, but let’s roll with that. AI is going to save us. AI is going to enslave us. AI is going to destroy humanity and replace us. Sure, AI might ultimately lead to one of those three basic scenarios. I hope the first one but then I’ve never been accused of being an optimist nor am I certain what, exactly, we’re being saved from. Oppression? War? Extinction? Ourselves? Either way, AI isn’t the enemy. AI is a technology and like any technology can be used to create or destroy, to expand individual freedom or shrink it through subjugation. AI in and of itself, however, does not do any of this. Humans using technology do this to one another both individually and collectively as groups. Those groups became tribes and those tribes eventually grew to become nations all inventing, sharing, and using technology to build civilization and to destroy one another too. This is the role technology has played in human culture since Homo sapiens first emerged on the scene some 300,000 years ago. Everything we’ve ever achieved as a species is tightly connected to the development and use of technology. AI is just the latest technology in a long line of technologies that have propelled humans to the top of the food chain in all of our glory and folly. Against this backdrop of technology’s central role in the arc of the human story, AI feels a bit different from past technologies like fire, language, agriculture, trebuchets, ships, airplanes, nuclear weapons, rockets, and satellites. It feels different because it can do things that, until very recently, have been uniquely human. A gun can’t write a poem and a submarine can’t answer complex estate tax questions. Prior to AI, most technologies were very narrow in their application. That’s not to say that nuclear technology, for example, isn’t versatile in its application: it can be used to power a city as well as incinerate it beneath a looming mushroom cloud. The difference is the application of the technology and the intentions of the humans utilizing it. AI feels different to us because it can mimic us. AI can talk to us and provide answers to questions. It can read and write. It can create art and music. AI can help you plan your next European vacation. And yes, it can assist you with estate tax planning. We are daily bombarded with news stories about AI. One of today’s headlines was “Will AI wipe out the first rung of the career ladder?”.
“Generative artificial intelligence,” the article read, “may eliminate the job you got with your diploma still in hand, say executives who offered grim assessments of the entry-level job market last week in multiple forums.” But AI has already replaced jobs. This started decades ago in the early 2000s with automated customer support call centers using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and now Large Language Models (LLMs) that are the technology behind today’s generative-AI platforms. AI will indeed replace more jobs, especially those that are routine and can be efficiently and dependably automated using AI. We’ve been here before. During the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing jobs traditionally done by manual human laborers were “wiped out” by machines. The term “Luddite”, which today is used to describe someone who is opposed to new technology, comes from that era. The Luddites were a group of English textile workers in the 19th century who vehemently opposed the use of automated machinery to produce textiles because it threatened their livelihood. The Luddites waged war on the machines but the machines eventually won. Well, the machines themselves, as a technology, didn’t fight back. People who owned the machines did. The British government did too. So it wasn’t the machines that won, but one group of humans who wanted a technology that would drive the economy and culture in one direction defeating another group of humans who wanted it to remain as it was. There have been and will continue to be many Luddite moments throughout modern history. AI is no exception. Currently, we have a group of people who want AI to proliferate, chief among them being the CEOs of various AI companies such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. They will be the biggest cheerleaders of AI not only because the survival of the companies they lead depend on broad adoption and use of the AI systems and tools they create but because they believe that AI will make the world a better place. I’m not freaking out about AI anymore. It’s just another powerful technology in our emerging human story. We’ve been here before and will hopefully be here many times again in the future. But it’s not AI that will make the world a better place. Whether or not AI saves us, enslaves us, or destroys and replaces us, will be completely up to us. And that does kind of freak me out. cott Dewing is a technologist and S a human writer who hasn’t (yet) been replaced by AI. JULY/AUGUST 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 43
RECIPE HEATHER ARNDT ANDERSON
Spinach and Feta Puff P P
retty much anywhere you go from Greece to Azerbaijan, spinach pies are there to ensure that your dose of leafy greens comes cheesed up and encased in pastry. Spanakopita may get a lot of the credit for bringing spinach pie to American shores, but if I had to hazard a guess, the empanadas brought by Spaniards to Mesoamerica actually came from the Muslim Moors, and that it didn’t take long for the locals to start stuffing them with chaya (Mexican tree spinach). Balkan börek (or zeljanica, depending on where you are), fatayer of Lebanon and even South Asian samosas all have something in common with spanakopita (besides the fact that they all originated in the Ottoman Empire): They were made with whatever crumbly cheese and leafy greens were on hand, and were probably delicious. Although spinach originated in Ancient Persia, the savory spinach pastries of the Arab world were probably made with horta in Greece — the wild herbs and edible weeds that grow across the Mediterranean countryside 44 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL MARCH/APRIL 2025
and have been part of the southern European diet for millennia. Amaranth greens, chicory, dandelions and nettles would have all been familiar to cooks and an obvious choice for a latespring pie. Spring greens are on their way out of season, but that doesn’t mean this pastry is off the menu — luckily, your cool-season leafy greens, tender herbs and crispy root vegetables are probably all getting ready to bolt (if they haven’t already). Pull them now while they’re still nice, and make room for all your summer crops at the same time. Those greens are perfect in a savory tart (which happens to taste even better when eaten al fresco) and the tart will make tons of the greens disappear all at once, saving you the trouble of coming up with more ways to use them up.
Ingredients 1 tablespoon olive oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 pounds fresh spinach, chopped (or a 1-pound bag frozen spinach, thawed) A few scratches of fresh nutmeg Salt and pepper 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed 3 eggs, beaten ½ cup crumbled feta ½ cup chopped herbs ¼ cup chopped sundried tomatoes (optional) ⅓ cup chopped hazelnuts or pine nuts (optional)
Instructions 1. Place a rack on the lowest level of the oven, then preheat to 375 degrees. Grease a 9x9 inch tart pan. 2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then add the garlic and stir to coat. Cook for a minute, then add the spinach, nutmeg and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Saute the spinach until its liquid has released and cooked off. (If you’re using thawed frozen spinach, squeeze the liquid out before you add the spinach to the pan; you can either toss the liquid or use it for something else.) Set aside to cool.
ff Pastry Tart Serves 4–6 Note: To keep it simple, this recipe calls for spinach, but use any greens (or mix of greens) you have — kale, turnip greens, lamb’s quarters and chard are all great here. And remember, basil needs assertive pruning to stay bushy and productive all summer long, so don’t be afraid to include it in the mix should you have, like me, planted a few too many Genovese starts.
3. While the cooked spinach is cooling, dust your work surface with flour and unroll the thawed sheet of puff pastry. Roll the pastry out enough that it’ll fit into the prepared tart pan up to the rim (high enough that the filling won’t spill out — a little overhang is fine). Brush some of the beaten egg along the edges of the pastry and if you like, sprinkle on some sesame seeds. 4. Mix the rest of the beaten egg with the feta, herbs and sundried tomatoes (if using), then stir it into the cooked spinach until combined. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pastry and sprinkle on the hazelnuts (if using). Bake until the filling is no longer jiggly and the pastry has puffed and turned golden brown, about 20-30 minutes. 5. Carefully dislodge the tart from the pan onto a cutting board and allow to cool for five minutes before serving. OPB’s “Superabundant” explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest with videos, articles and a weekly newsletter. Every week, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, food writer and ecologist, highlights different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem.
Heather Arndt Anderson is an award-winning food writer and the author of four books on culinary history. She is the producer of OPB's Superabundant newsletter.
MARCH/APRIL 2025 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 45
POETRY BARRY VITCOV
A Redheaded Girl born at a time to wonder about the numbers on her arm too young to ask about memories when we played on the steps of my great-grandfather’s apartment house your redheaded joy never hinting at the brutality you survived you survived for all of us to carry a historical burden not understood as a child felt deeply as an adult responsible to know and share over and over and over inward and outward sensibilities because freckled girls and curly-haired boys may never laugh together again but need to make sure their children do without numbers on their arms
Barry Vitcov is a retired educator having spent a 45-year career as a middle school English teacher, school administrator, leadership coach, and adjunct university professor. He lives in Ashland, Oregon, with his wife and exceptionally brilliant standard poodle. He has had four books published by Finishing Line Press, a collection of poetry, Where I Live Some of the Time (2021); a collection of short stories, The Wilbur Stories & More (2022); a chapbook collection of poems, Structures (2024); and a novella, The Boy with Six Fingers (2025). FLP will be publishing two more books in early 2026: a poetry chapbook, Boychik Poems, and a collection of short stories, Unknown & Other Stories. Writers may submit original poetry for publication in Jefferson Journal. Email 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and your mailing address in one attachment to jeffmopoetry@gmail.com, or send 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Amy Miller, Poetry Editor Jefferson Journal 1250 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Please allow eight weeks for reply. 46 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2025
Jewball At first, my fingers lacked strength and stability, exactly like my family. But my Spalding basketball comforted me all summer long: a leather sphere with nubby surface, smells of salty sweat, grime, and blacktop. The rhythmic sounds of bounce and the skid of sneakers, not knowing what would be there when I returned home. So, on the hardtop I remained from morning mist till sunset, wearing out the soles of black Converse high-tops, repaired with castoff baseball cards wrapped in aluminum foil, fitted between threadbare socks and the evidence of pivots and push offs. I played alone with fantasies of Coach Holzman, Schayes’ dominance, Brown’s mastery of the game. Then, one-on-one, horse, three-on-three half court, full court pick-up games winners remain, losers hoping to regain pride and esteem lost on the court as good sports, yet more often without dignity in loud suburban houses. We grew taller, learned new skills: between the legs dribbles, when to chest or bounce pass, pick and roll, weak-side significance, rebound position with elbows and shimmy hips, reverse lay-ups, scoring at will with a deep, high arching shot from the corner, especially from the corners, escaping a double team when leaving home. Elevating for a dunk with funk. Sometimes a tip-in for the win. Eventually, spinning the basketball on my fingertip like a winner’s trophy, straight, strong, and sustained. Strutting around without a thought about what awaits after the game.
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