Today’s Newsmakers at Noon celebrated National Radio Day—which Denise and Hunter still think should be an actual holiday! We also marked National Bacon Lovers Day, National Hawaiian Pizza Day (pineapple remains controversial) and World Mosquito Day.
Our guests, Steve Kettering and Sheila Askov, joined us from the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors (K/SAS) as the organization celebrates 30 years at its Plymouth and Cherry locations. We talked about the many activities and opportunities available at the center, along with the upcoming Health & Safety Day on August 25, featuring a Red Cross Blood Drive, blood-pressure screenings and more than a dozen community information tables.
Sheila also shared her work teaching writing classes and encouraged people to put their memories and experiences on paper. That especially resonated with Denise: every family has stories worth preserving, and if we don’t record them, future generations may never know them.
Our Thursday trip through This Day in History took us from Paradise Lost and the end of the Civil War to rotary telephones, Estonia’s independence and Winston Churchill’s legendary 1940 tribute to the RAF: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Politics and public policy were also on the table. We discussed the ethics violations involving Oregon Rep. Greg Smith and a larger principle that shouldn’t depend on party affiliation: accountability has to apply to our own side, too. If we expect voters to punish misconduct by politicians we oppose, we have to be willing to call it out when it happens on our side.
We also looked at a new report arguing that Portland’s anti-auto transportation policies have contributed to worsening congestion, declining transit use and increased traffic deaths, and the sobering milestone of the national debt reaching $40 trillion.
And because not everything needs to be depressing, Rhode Island provided today’s palate cleanser: a truckload of squid spilled onto the road in the August heat. You can probably imagine the rest. 🦑
Links from Today’s Show
Keizer/Salem Area Seniors — K/SAS
Winston Churchill — “Never Was So Much Owed by So Many to So Few”
Oregon Lawmakers Respond to Rep. Greg Smith Ethics Violations — Oregon Capital Chronicle
Truckload of Squid Spills Onto Rhode Island Street — AP
