April Ehrlich

The state of Oregon is suing Josephine County over smart meters.

Josephine County this fall passed an ordinance prohibiting Pacific Corp from charging customers higher rates for opting out of its smart meters program. The digital meters use wireless networks to send information to the company.

Pacific Corp — through its Oregon-based subsidiary Pacific Power — is charging customers an extra $36 a month for opting out. That’s because without the wireless network turned on, the company has to pay someone to read their meters.

After just two years on the job, Klamath Water Users Association president Scott White is stepping down.

The group represents irrigators’ interests in the Klamath Basin along the Oregon-California border.

Before joining the association in 2016, White was the Oregon official in charge of enforcing water rights in the basin.

During his tenure, the basin has faced water shortages and lawsuits between the interests of ranchers, farmers, and endangered fish. 

He says maneuvering through the different jurisdictions is “extremely complex.”

Nursing home caregivers in Redding ended a two-day strike early Tuesday morning. They say understaffing and mismanagement at the River Valley Nursing Home are straining workers.

About three-dozen workers formed picket lines in front of the River Valley Nursing Home in Redding on Sunday. They say the facility overworked caregivers and pressured them into working double shifts.

Union representative Cyndie Fonseca said problems started when billionaire entrepreneur Shlomo Rechnitz  took over management.

For Oregon homeowners, invasive blackberries and poison oak are the bane of their existence. Many resort to powerful herbicides to get rid of them. But those chemicals are harming nearby vineyards, particularly an herbicide called Crossbow.

Winegrowers across Oregon are tearing up their grapevines because of an aggressive disease likely brought in by plant nurseries.

Native and indigenous women have cried out for decades against the high rates of violence inflicted against them. And this year, they’re getting louder: many are running for elective office, and others are pushing for policy changes.

Earlier this fall a major California winery canceled $4-million-worth of orders with Southern Oregon winegrowers over smoke taint. But what exactly is smoke taint?

Enologist Anita Oberholster of the University of California, Davis, Extension says it's what happens when a grape’s ripening skin absorbs fresh smoke, resulting in a flavor that’s like an old ashtray.

Except that it's not really a flavor.

“We say taste but it’s really a retronasal smell at the back of the throat,” Oberholster said. “But it feels like it is a taste.”

At their practice in Ashland, Southern Oregon University football players kneel to the ground and growl, their eyes bulging, their tongues sticking out. Lineman Masi Tunoa leads the chant.

Tunoa and his family used to perform luas for tourists back home in Hawaii. They also did the haka, a battle cry that originated from the indigenous people of New Zealand. It’s a powerful ritual that Polynesian cultures still perform today for ceremonies like weddings or funerals, or before a big game.

Dozens of wildfires are filling the West Coast skies with thick smoke. In Southern Oregon, unhealthy air has forced people to wear smoke-filtering masks almost every day for more than a month. It has become part of the norm.

But in recent weeks, people have gotten tired of wearing the plain white paper masks every day. Instead, they’re investing in nicer ones made of fabric, and some even have artsy designs.

When a wildfire hits and people have to evacuate their homes, they often refuse to leave their pets behind. They pack their dogs in carriers and crates and head to the nearest emergency animal shelter, if there is one.

But increasingly people are refusing to separate from their pets, even if that means they can’t sleep in an evacuation center.

That was the case during the massive wildfire in Northern California that erupted last week. 

Hundreds of Redding residents didn’t have much notice before they heard sirens blaring through their neighborhoods Thursday night, calling for immediate evacuations. People who left were snagged by traffic. If they tried to find a hotel, they were likely out of luck; most were booked solid clear down to Sacramento.

So they ended at an evacuation center, like the one at Shasta College. Cots covered the gym floors, and despite the midday noise, many evacuees slept solidly. They were exhausted. It was hot. And they didn’t know when they could return home, or if their home was left standing.

Wildfires are pouring smoke into the valleys of southern Oregon, making hazardous air that’s nearly unbreathable.

The internet has been around for several decades now, but there are still large, rural areas that don’t have sufficient coverage. 

Christopher Tamarin is a broadband specialist with the Oregon Business Development Department, which has been working to expand broadband in Oregon. He says about 15 percent of Oregonians lack a high-speed connection. 

"Feel years younger now!"  We hear claims like that frequently, especially with 10,000 Americans reaching retirement age every day. 

Can you believe any of them?  Maybe, says microbiologist Carolina Livi. 

She has been working for a biotech company and teaching at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, exploring some of the products offered to slow the aging process.  Her work focuses on fasting and the drug rapamycin. 

Not everybody likes to go to the doctor's office.  With good reason: often, when we go, there's something wrong with us, and we're worried about that. 

Now consider this: it could be that the doctor dreads seeing YOU. 

Caroline Elton, a vocational psychologist, works with doctor, and many of them are having a hard time doing their work.  She gives plenty of examples in her book Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors. 

School is out, and parents are looking for things to do with the kids.  Oh, look, a puppet show!  But Puppeteers For Fears says "Cthulhu: The Musical!" is NOT child-appropriate. 

The Halloween-themed show based on an H.P. Lovecraft story begins a summer tour this week, including several days in Hollywood. 

Josh Gross, our Rogue Sounds co-host, is the driving creative force behind P4F and the musical.