Barbara Bernstein

THIS SHOW ORIGINALLY AIRED ON AUGUST 3, 2020   In the midst of election season insanity, let's step back in time and forward into the future by listening again to an interview I did with Chinook Elder Sam Robinson in early August. In mid July I went out to Chinook Point o... Read more

For over five years the threat of being the site for the world’s largest methanol refinery has loomed over the small community of Kalama, Washington, 40 miles north of Portland. This month the Washington Department of Ecology released a new Draft Supplemental Environmental ... Read more

All summer Trump has ranted about how Portland is being burned down by radical anarchist Antifa mobs. Of course Portland has not burned down, but as we speak, much of Oregon actually is on fire, wildfires inflamed by Trump’s flagrant disregard and denial of impending climat... Read more

All summer Portland has been the brunt of vicious attacks by Trump and his minions, denouncing the city as a liberal democratic bastion under siege by mobs of radical, anarchist thugs. After sending in uninvited federal police to put down the city’s nightly black lives matt... Read more

THIS PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON JULY 13 before the wildfire season had really gotten underway. Now as we are experiencing one of the most intense fire seasons ever, this episode of Locus Focus is more relevant than ever. In a time of global pandemic, this summer's fire sea... Read more

Ursula LeGuin’s story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" describes a utopian city where everyone lives good lives, except for the neglected child chained in a basement. Portland, which prides itself on its progressive attitudes, also has such a metaphorical child: the com... Read more

Right now salmon are making the miraculous journey from the Pacific Ocean, up the Columbia, to the place each fish was born. All salmon ask for is a river with cool flowing water. But because of the stagnant reservoirs behind dams as well as climate change, the Columbia hea... Read more

Cruise ships are three times as polluting as airplanes, spew carcinogenic and other toxic particles from their smokestacks, and pump sewage and fuel oil contaminants into the ocean. Yet the Port of Seattle is largely dependent upon the cruise ship industry and is now planni... Read more

For nearly a month, federal troops dowsed Portland protesters with CS tear gas, a chemical weapon banned in war. Now its residues still cling to the trees and grass in Lownsdale Square and Chapman Park and may be making its way into Portland’s storm water system. Yet no one... Read more

In mid July I went out to Chinook Point on the Washington side of the Columbia River near its mouth, to talk with Sam Robinson, a longtime Lower Chinook Tribal Council member. He told about the history of his people and the land they know better than any of us whose ancesto... Read more