Beat Check with The Oregonian
A weekly look inside Oregon's biggest news stories with the journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive.com.
Episodes
July 7, 2025 • 2 mins
Beat Check with The Oregonian is taking a short break for the summer while we work to bring you our next exciting project and reimagine the format of the show.
In the meantime, you can look forward to several episodes of “Oregon Speaks: Voices from this moment,” a limited-series podcast from the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.
We’ll also bring around some of our most listened to episodes from the ...
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This episode was created by students from the University of Oregon’s Graduate School of Journalism and Communication.
Producer Kaiya Laguardia-Yonamine speaks with Duncan Hwang about the importance of local organizing and turning inward to sustain our communities. Duncan reflects on his experience as the Community Development Director at APANO, as well as his role as an elected official for the Metro Council.
Show notes & links...
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June 30, 2025 • 43 mins
Therese Bottomly, editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive and a frequent host of Beat Check with The Oregonian, is retiring next month after 42 years in the newsroom. On this episode of Beat Check, Bottomly reflects on the stories that shaped her career, and Oregon. She discusses how the newsroom rose to the challenge of covering some of the most significant news events of the era, her decision in 2022 to apologize personally for the ne...
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June 23, 2025 • 22 mins
Features reporter Samantha Swindler talks about the hidden gem stories she finds in some of Oregon's smallest towns.
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June 16, 2025 • 42 mins
The Oregonian’s investigative reporter Yesenia Amaro talks on Beat Check about the recent immigration enforcement ramp-up, Trump’s approach to immigration and the impact on Oregon communities.
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June 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece.
Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old.
Does Portland and some other pockets of the state have a cash-for-cans crisis? What should city and state officials do a...
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In the digital age, true crime content has exploded in popularity across podcasts, social media and streaming platforms. But with this growth comes a troubling trend: The blurring of verified facts and speculative theories.
On a recent episode of Beat Check with the Oregonian, guests Emily Reeder and Ashley Desanno from the Books with Your Besties podcast discussed this challenge while reflecting on their coverage of the Kyron ...
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In 2010, digital tools for journalists were emerging, but the gritty, time-intensive methods of traditional reporting still dominated newsrooms.
The disappearance of 7-year-old Kyron Horman from his Portland elementary school thrust The Oregonian’s journalists into a high-stakes investigation that demanded old-school techniques now increasingly rare in today’s fast-paced media environment.
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When a child goes missing, the first hours can be critical. In Kyron Horman’s case, investigators didn’t even know he was missing until about six hours had passed — a devastating delay that may have forever altered the trajectory of one of Oregon’s most haunting unsolved cases.
In a recent discussion on the Beat Check with The Oregonian podcast, veteran crime reporter Maxine Bernstein highlighted this critical timeline as perhaps ...
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June 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Fifteen years after 7-year-old Kyron Horman vanished from Skyline Elementary School in Portland, his disappearance continues to haunt not just the Pacific Northwest, but parents everywhere.
In this special episode of Beat Check, engagement editor Julie Evensen and social media producer Destiny Johnson talk to investigative reporter Noelle Crombie about recent news about the case.
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June 2, 2025 • 31 mins
A trio of journalists joined Editor Therese Bottomly on Monday’s episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about the 2020 street protests that started in Portland after the police killing of George Floyd.
Multimedia journalist Beth Nakamura, social media producer Ryan Fernandez, and reporter Zane Sparling (who covered protests for the Portland Tribune) join the conversation.
On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:...
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When Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen died in 2018 from complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it was matter of when, not if, his beloved professional sports team would be sold.
Seven years later, that time has finally arrived.
Allen’s estate announced on May 13 that is has initiated a formal sales process for one of Oregon’s most cherished institutions.
Even though the sale has been anticipated since Allen’s...
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May 19, 2025 • 21 mins
Watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger joined Editor Therese Bottomly on this episode of “Beat Check with The Oregonian” to talk about his extraordinary reporting into Skyline CDL School, which operated in Oregon and Washington.
On this episode of Beat Check, we talk about:
--How the alleged bribery scheme operated, according to regulators
--How the newsroom got onto the story
--How regulators in Washington went on stakeouts to make t...
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May 12, 2025 • 22 mins
For this week’s episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, education reporter Julia Silverman tackles a series of burning questions from readers and listeners who are weighing how to vote on the $1.83 billion bond.
Have a listen, and don’t forget to turn in your ballot.
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May 5, 2025 • 34 mins
It is a bleak time for mass transit all throughout the U.S. The challenges here in the Portland metro area are many and pronounced.TriMet is providing about 30 million fewer rides each year than it did in 2019 — and the recovery appears to be slowing way down.
Rider safety has been a persistent concern since the pandemic. Fare evasion is rampant.
Meanwhile, TriMet’s subsidy per ride has soared by more than 400% in the last decade...
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April 28, 2025 • 39 mins
In recent months, climate and environmental work have been under threat in the U.S., with the Trump administration dismantling climate legislation, freezing funds and intimidating universities, states and nonprofits.
Despite the chaos, there’s still a place for hope, says award-winning environmental journalist Alan Weisman, author of the new book Hope Dies Last. The book profiles scientists, engineers, activists and environmental...
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April 21, 2025 • 22 mins
When President Trump raised tariffs against China and other countries earlier this month, stock markets plunged, chaos rippled through the global economy and anxiety hit business owners across the United States.
The specifics of the tariffs — which soared as high as 145% on China and affected virtually every country on earth — have been changing weekly, if not daily.
And the helter-skelter nature of it all has sent businesses scr...
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April 14, 2025 • 20 mins
In this week’s episode, Politics and Education Editor Betsy Hammond breaks down the key finding of a survey of 600 metro area voters by DHM Research, commissioned by The Oregonian.
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April 7, 2025 • 31 mins
With wildfire season approaching and southern California still reeling from the January wildfires, Portland leaders are making sure the city can withstand a major urban wildfire.
Forest Park, the city’s crown jewel and one of the largest urban forests in the U.S., has been identified as one of the areas most at-risk for wildfire in the city.
Kim Kosmas, a senior public education officer with Portland Fire & Rescue who also manag...
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March 31, 2025 • 32 mins
First-class airfare to Hawaii. Five-star hotel stays. Lots and lots of food.
All of it footed — directly or indirectly — by customers of a large Portland-area utility.
A recent Oregonian/OregonLive investigation found that executives with Clean Water Services, Washington County’s sewer agency, have spent years enjoying fancy business trips to Hawaii and meals on ratepayers’ dime.
None of the lavish travel spending is accounted f...
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