POC Businesses | Primate Sanctuaries | See-Through Masks |TriMet Driver

• A coalition of groups representing business owners of color expressed a fear to Portland city leaders last week: Unless the city allocates significant portions of aid to minority-owned businesses, they wrote, they "foresee the near total decimation of the BIPOC-owned small business community in the Portland area." Oregon Native American Chamber Executive Director James Alan Parker is one of the business leaders who signed the letter. He tells us why business owners of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. And the owners of the tattoo parlor Tattoo 34, Nisha Supahan and Toby Linwood, tell us how they're faring.

• Sheri Speede runs a sanctuary for chimpanzees in Cameroon. But when the country closed its borders because of the global pandemic, Speede was stuck in her second home in Oregon. Greg Tully, the executive director of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (based in Portland), says primate sanctuaries are facing multiple threats right now. Most sanctuaries have closed their gates for fear that the primates themselves could become infected by the virus. And many sanctuaries rely on visitors as their primary source of income. Speede and Tully join us to talk about these challenges.

• Sunset High School junior Eric Kim is creating see-through masks free of charge for people who are deaf or hard of hearing like himself. He's also gotten requests from medical staff and others all over the country who communicate with those who rely on lip reading. Kim joins us to discuss how he's running his operation while keeping up with his distance learning work, and how he's been able to meet the increasing demand.

• Craig Hill has been a TriMet bus driver for five years. He currently drives four different routes, relieving other drivers on their days off. He recorded an "audio diary" for us to give us a window into what it's like for him to be at work right now.

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