📸 Take a photo of what!? 💀

An App for Roadkill Photos

Please photograph any roadkill you see — and upload them to a new app. That’s the ask from the Oregon Zoo and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Why!? Well, they’re trying to determine where to create alternative and safe road crossings for wildlife. [KOIN]

• Related: Sign up to report your roadkill sightings. Or download the iNaturalist app on your phone.

Grass Pollen Season Is Now

A micro-season lasting some four to six weeks has begun in full force in the Willamette Valley: Grass seeds have arrived. For those with allergies, the experts advise avoiding the pollen when possible by staying indoors and running filters or AC, which removes about 80% of the pollen. Also: Don’t forget to take your meds. [OPB]

Republican Would Ban Voting by Mail

Republicans pushed to create Oregon’s vote-by-mail system in the 1990s. But State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, the Republican secretary of state nominee — meaning he’d oversee state elections — wants to scrap mail-in ballots and require ID checks for voting in person. Linthicum, along with other Republicans, also filed a now-dismissed federal lawsuit in 2022 to try to get rid of vote-by-mail, citing unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. [Bolt Magazine]

Weird Fish and Unique Bird

On the Friday news roundup, the Oregon Coast is getting some wild visitors, including a bird never spotted in these parts and an unusual fish, not to mention another beached whale. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

Winemakers Sue Over Smoky Grapes, Rare Coastal Creatures, and Don’t Eat Those Mussels!

On the Friday news roundup, there’s all these weird things washing up on our nearby coastal shores, along with a local outbreak of shellfish poisoning and winemakers taking aim at PacifiCorp for their ruined harvest during the 2020 wildfires. Geoff Norcross, co-host of OPB’s All Things Considered (and previously, for 15 years, the host of OPB’s Morning Edition), joins City Cast Portland host Cladia Meza and executive producer John Notarianni.