Locus Focus

Where endless fields of grain once grew in Eastern and Central Oregon, now gargantuan hyperscale data centers dominate the landscape. Some see this latest crop as an economic engine but others fear that it is not only polluting the region’s water supply and driving up en...

Portland Public Schools is proposing to shutter between 11 and 14 elementary and middle schools next year. Parents, teachers and students are furiously speaking out, trying to get the District to pause this plan, in order to make time for the public to play a meaningful...

The Portland City Council has been lambasted by the Oregonian and business elites who feel they have lost control of Portland politics with our new form of government. They demean the council as fractious, factionalized and dysfunctional. But in reality, despite some occ...

Our bedrock environmental laws are under attack. These include the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act (CWA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In order to protect our waterways, endangered species, and...

Lately coverage of Artificial Intelligence has dominated much of the news and probably much of our thoughts. But as we face the unknown future that AI might bring on, we also need to learn more about what AI really is. We're going to give that a try next Monday on Locus ...

The Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub, a massive array of aging tanks filled with toxic flammable liquid fuels along the north reach of the Willamette River, is an existential threat to the region. For when the inevitable Cascade Subduction Zone earthquake strikes, thes...

A lot has changed in the world of data center opposition since we first started covering the issue on Locus Focus a year and a half ago. Rather than feeling like they were trying to stop a speeding train from running down their communities, data center opponents now have...

A lot has changed in the world of data center opposition since we first started covering the issue on Locus Focus a year and a half ago. Rather than feeling like they were trying to stop a speeding train from running down their communities, data center opponents now have...

What does birding have to do with making social change? Actually it can be quite a lot. In her memoir Birding to Change the World, Trish O’Kane describes how she fell in love with birds as an antidote to the posttraumatic stress she suffered after losing her home to Hurr...

Over the past century, what was once a rich riparian zone along the North Reach of the Willamette River, has turned into a toxic and deadly zone of tanks filled with liquid fuels and chemicals. For years residents in North Portland and the Linnton neighborhood in Northwe...

This program aired originally on December 23, 2024 As we transition to a truly renewable world two of the things we need less of are more and larger server farms and nuclear power reactors to feed them electricity. Yet that is the plan being hatched by Microsoft, Amazon a...

This program aired originally on June 22, 2026 The Human Access Project (HAP) was founded in 2010 on the simple belief that Portlanders should be able to swim in their river. Since then the organization has worked on a variety of fronts to transform the Willamette ...

This program aired originally on May 25, 2026 A high tech noxious weed is spreading across Oregon, sucking up electricity and water and giving little back in return, as the landscapes of Washington County and parts of Eastern Oregon have been transformed into mazes of ...

This program aired originally on May 4, 2026 The Willamette River begins its course as two forks merge south of Eugene, to form the major river in NW Oregon. From its pristine origins the Willamette flows as a recognizable river through small cities, forests and farmla...

The climate crisis as it worsens every year, triggers in us an urge to act quickly, if not frantically. But how do we ensure that our timing and actions actually come from a place of internal coolness that informs what we do? On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with V...

Rapid data center growth is leading to unprecedented demands for electricity in Washington and Oregon. Because both states have passed landmark climate legislation, committing to an electricity supply free of greenhouse gas emissions, utilities have been developing plans...

Six miles of toxic tanks have lined the North Reach of the Willamette River for nearly a century. But it’s only been in the past few years that elected officials in Portland have started to take seriously the existential crisis these tanks pose. And the reason that every...

This summer, as Eugene swelters under a heat advisory and mourns the fifth year anniversary of the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Dome which killed over 500 people across the region, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund Campaign is working to pass an initiative which could dramatic...

As you drive through the eastern end of the Columbia Gorge into the plateaus of Eastern Oregon suddenly the scenery shifts from spectacular wild land formations on either side of the river to a swirling web of industrial infrastructure – massive high voltage towers conn...

Until 1991 Portland dumped its garbage in a wetland in the St. Johns neighborhood. After the dump closed the land was restored to become Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area. So where did the garbage go after that? Now it goes to a Metro transfer station from where it i...