You can learn more about the Outback Naked Calendar here.
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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. It certainly seems like a no brainer. Stationing a Coast Guard rescue helicopter in Newport, where so many people venture out to sea, always made sense. So, when the federal government, surprisingly and with little notice, decided to move it away. Local and national leaders cried foul today on the show. We checked in with Oregon senior Senator Ron Wyden and heard how he and others are intervening to keep this lifeline available and functional for the people of Newport, and he'll also touch base on other happenings at the federal level. Then in the second half of the show, we'll switch gears entirely and bring you the fun story about a group of citizens in Lakeview, Oregon who have put together a PG calendar of locals all to help fund their small town.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Senator Ron Wyden, always great to talk to you. Thanks for carving out some time for us.
SENATOR WYDEN: Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I know you were at the coast fairly recently, why don't you remind our listeners sort of what's going on in Newport, with regard to that Coast Guard helicopter.
SENATOR WYDEN: We understand that Newport is a proud, wonderful community and economy based on tourism and fishing, and they have had since 1987 a helicopter, because my colleague, Dan less a coin brought it in after the he retired, I continued to lead the effort to keep it in place, and it was essential to have in order to make sure that if somebody fell into the water, if there was an accident, that there was a way to get them quickly out, because if you land in that frigid water, you cannot be with us in a matter of minutes. And the Trump people basically, under almost a cloak of darkness. Took it out of Newport, moved it to North Bend, and my sense is that what they want to do is also build a detention facility, which the community is vehemently against, but the Trump people don't care what the community thinks. There was a ruling yesterday in favor of the community to get the helicopter back, but Donald Trump apparently had his people by this morning trying to line up airports and hotels and trying to get housing arrangements for several 100 people. So, we're going to pull out all the stops, and the dangerousness and the deceitfulness of this proposal are going to come to light, and we're going to prevail and get that helicopter back and keep the detention facility out.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Did they talk to you, a ranking US Senator about why they thought it might be a wise idea to move this helicopter to North Bend?
SENATOR WYDEN: They did not. They didn't talk to the delegation, Senator Merkley, Congresswoman Hoyle, and to not consult with anybody in something like this is also a violation of an agreement Donald Trump made in 2018 so that when these issues would come up in the future, that there would be consultation.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And they didn't do that with the community as well. You met with members of the community, and you talked with them, and I just love for you to kind of express to our audience what people were saying, especially like you eloquently pointed out, a helicopter is not necessarily a nice to have. It's a must have.
SENATOR WYDEN: And minutes really matter. You know, at one point, they sent an official from San Francisco to come and talk to the community. He talked about staffing arrangements, and he said something along the lines, well, it might take two years to work it out. And I basically said, Are you kidding? The community barely has two minutes sometimes when somebody is in that incredibly cold water so they don't in the Trump administration seem to understand the urgency of this, and we're just going to stay at it until we get answers to our questions. And I can just tell you, based on what I heard from the community, the opposition to the detention facility is enormous, and the opposition to get the helicopter back is also enormous.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, let's, let's switch to that potential detention center. I mean, as far as what you've heard is that pie in the sky from the Trump administration, or is this a real threat that this could happen?
SENATOR WYDEN: Well, based on what I heard this morning, right after the judge last night ruled in favor of the community, the Trump people are just going ahead relentlessly looking for hotel rooms and facilities from the airport and the like. So, there's no question we've got a battle, you know, on our hands. My sense is that they've decided that they can't stand the media scrutiny in the valley in Lane County and Multnomah County and the like. And they're trying to go to small rural communities where people are going to not get as many media reports, and that kind of censorship approach is consistent with the way the Trump people handle this stuff.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'd love for you to tell our audience how you and your colleagues, what's it like to deal with an administration that seems to enjoy springing surprises on members of Congress, members of the Senate, communities. I guess it's not something that you can necessarily get used to. But how do you legislate around that kind of tactic?
SENATOR WYDEN: What you do is, first of all, you insist on getting the facts. You use all your tools. That's why we supported the lawsuit that was brought and then prevailed yesterday and in the local courts, I insisted that the commander come up and tell us what he thought was going on at the Coast Guard. I said that's way, way short of what's needed. So, you use a combination of the courts, the legislative process, the bully pulpit, where you tell the community what's going on. And I can tell you that the Trump people, if they had watched the hearing, and they can see it all online at this point, my first question was, do you want to get the Trump? Do you want to get the helicopter back? And the response from the community sure answered that question. It was as loud as anything I've heard.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Since we last spoke. You and your colleagues voted to have the DOJ release all the files with regards to Jeffrey Epstein, and I wanted to talk to you about that in terms of, do you feel like this is something that the DOJ and Attorney General Bondi will release all the files? Are you concerned that this is sort of a hollow act, and that a lot will be withheld?
SENATOR WYDEN: Well, I certainly don't trust Pam Bondi, and I am concerned about information being withheld and possibly already being sent to various places other than to make this available to the public. Now, Michael, I've always said that the best path to root out corruption is to follow the money, and I have been following the money associated with Jeffrey Epstein for well over three years. We began during the Biden administration. So when the Trump people say nobody did anything in the previous administration, that is just false, and what I have done is introduce legislation now, because the Treasury Department is stonewalling access to the Epstein files as it relates to the suspicious activity reports and the various financial issues, and I'm going to insist on that information coming out, the financial information, because Epstein spent hundreds of millions of dollars on these activities, and at one point, the bank, JP Morgan, failed to report $1.3 billion in suspicious transactions that were made, and it's time for the facts to come out.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Also, since the last time you and I spoke, obviously the government reopened, there was some controversy around that, and I know you did not vote for the package to reopen, but it has reopened. I wanted to get your read on how things are going. Obviously, you know, there was a lot of concern about flights in the FAA. There was a lot of concern about SNAP benefits from your perch both here in Oregon as well as in Washington, DC. Do you feel as though the money and the resources are flowing correctly where they need to go?
SENATOR WYDEN: Obviously things are going better. But in terms of Oregonians, and we had a hearing on Thursday in the finance committee, we've got Oregon couples living not far from your station that have had a 500% increase in their health care premiums. So, there's a lot to do, and I'm pushing hard to get them some protection.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm also wondering too about, you know, heading into this the holiday weekend and whatnot. Flights, the FAA trying grounding planes like they said they needed to during the shutdown. Are you optimistic that that will be okay this Thanksgiving weekend and into the holidays?
SENATOR WYDEN: Well, the airlines tell us it's going to be better. I continue to have some questions about whether consumers are protected. We finally got a data broker who is taking the flight information of passengers around the country and selling it. We finally put them out of business a couple of days ago, but I still have some questions about whether the consumer protection is adequate.
MICHAEL DUNNE: How bullish or bearish are you on the economy going into the end of this year and the beginning of 2026?
SENATOR WYDEN: I'm struck by Donald Trump practically gaslighting the American people to convince them falsely that food prices are going down. You know, he constantly tries to tell them that food prices under his administration are lower than the Biden administration, and the facts indicate otherwise.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I wish you a happy holiday, and as always, really appreciate you coming on and talking to our audience. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, thank you again.
SENATOR WYDEN: Happy holiday to all of you and all your listeners. And this is a great service to the community, and I appreciate it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Jess Calvin, a council member for the town of Lakeview, recently joined that council, and one of her first acts of business wasn't to fill potholes or issue a new business license. No, it was to commission a calendar of partially nude citizens to make money for the town. That conversation is next, Jess Calvin, who is a member of the town council for the town of Lakeview and also co-creator of the Outback naked calendar. Jess, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us.
JESS CALVIN: Thank you for having us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, so why don't you tell our listeners what the Outback naked calendar?
JESS CALVIN: So, the Outback naked calendar is made up of 12, the 12 months of the year, plus the cover page and the back page. So, we have 13 of our brave locals who decided to take pictures of themselves. They are not completely naked. They do have areas that are covered so you can't see anything. Okay, and they range from men and women there. It turned out that we got six women and six men to do it. So, some of them are taking pictures at our local hot springs. There's one guy fishing in Alaska. There's another guy skiing on Crane mountain. So just different. There are some different local businesses that have taken their picture and also put in there. When I joined the Council, our town was broke. We have no money. So last year we got quite a bit of snow, and there is a big problem with removing the snow, because we, the town, didn't have the money. So in our meetings and stuff, Margo decided that we should probably do an Outback naked calendar to raise money…
MICHAEL DUNNE: And I'm sorry, who's Margo again?
JESS CALVIN: She is the founder. She's the one that wanted to do the calendar, and, so I decided to help her. And actually, it's been doing really good. It went out in the Oregonian last week, and we raised about $8,000 so then today, the Wall Street Journal got a hold of our article from The Oregonian, and they're doing an article next week about us. So, I never in my wildest dreams thought it would go this far.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I think people have heard of a similar idea. Was that kind of, how this, this sort of happened, is that you kind of heard about organizations doing kind of a tongue in cheek, kind of a naked calendar, and that's what kind of spurred you on in this idea?
JESS CALVIN: Yes, one of Margot's friends lives in Vermont and Maple corner. Vermont did a count and naked calendar too. A few years ago, I said, I won't, I don't quote me, but I wanted to say, like, 2013 or older, yeah, they did. They did a calendar, and they raised quite a bit of money. So, she thought it would be fun for our little town to do a little calendar like that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Was it difficult to recruit your models? Or did people just sort of really want to be a part of this?
JESS CALVIN: It was not hard at all. It was once people heard about it. You know, you got some that were a little gun shy, and some like, yes, we'll do it. And so, we just asked them to take a picture and send it to us. And yeah, we got some really nice pictures.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And if, if my intelligence is correct, your co-chair, your co-founder, Margo, she posed for one of the months, didn't she?
JESS CALVIN: She did well, she's not one of the months. She is the cover.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Oh, my goodness, yeah, was she always gonna do it or, or did somebody kind of persuade her, perhaps yourself? Or was she like, no, if I'm, if this is my idea, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump in with both feet, as it were?
JESS CALVIN: I think that's what she thought. Because she did, she was, she took her own picture and put it on and said, this is kind of what we want, something like this and, and then everyone took that from there.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, I do have to ask about the gentleman who did this while skiing. That's a, that's a bold choice, right there, isn't it?
JESS CALVIN: Actually, it's an old picture. I think it would I it's from, like, the 70s, but he is, yeah, it's a cute picture, though. And yeah, he just has on a pair of underwear in the middle.
MICHAEL DUNNE: There you go. Like I said, a bold choice. You know, this is great, and certainly it's a lot of fun and whatnot. But you know, it is interesting that a town is needing to do this kind of thing to be able to raise money. I wanted to just kind of chat with you a little bit about it. Kind of seems like, boy, that's sort of the time we're in where budgets are so tight, and whether it's a family, an individual or an entire town having to be somewhat creative to raise money. I just wanted to kind of give you the opportunity to talk about that.
JESS CALVIN: So, I don't know much about it. I just joined the Council this year. So, January was the first time we all met. So, when I got in there, it's just mismanagement. And, you know, times are getting tough. You know, people don't have the money to pay their bills and, and, you know, with the prices of everything going up, you can only budget so much, you know. So, I mean anything to help our town.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, certainly, that's, this is one of the more creative ideas I'm curious about. You know when, when you first came up with this idea and recruited models and whatnot? You know what people on the town council, some of some of your colleagues, are people that you know in the community. I mean, what was sort of the pardon the pun, the scuttle butt of this calendar before it actually went to print?
JESS CALVIN: Well, scuttlebutt that I've heard. No one has ever said it to me, to my face, but I've heard people say, you know that it's kind of not tasteful, it's kind of disrespectful. But to me, you see people that have less clothes on going to the swimming pool than what these people have, sure. And then you get the fun people that are like, Oh, cool. We're creating soft porn in our town.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's certainly two ways to look at it. Yeah. And I'm wondering from that, I mean, are some of your models? Are they? Are they sort of becoming local celebrities now.
JESS CALVIN: Oh yes, we have one. Mr. December. He worked at our local courthouse, so they have a competition every year. Well, they were thinking about taking his picture and making wallpaper or not wallpaper, excuse me, Christmas paper and covering the doors, you know? So, it has. It's been a good thing. I mean, everyone enjoys it. Everyone gets a laugh out of it. So, I think it made our town, I think it made our town come a little bit closer with everything that's happening in the economy and stuff, and the town not having the money to plow the streets in the way. I've had fun with it. I even have my son who's in there. I even convinced my son to do it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, that's an interesting thing for a mom to do. Is, and he was, he was, he was on board initially, or did you have to convince him a little bit?
JESS CALVIN: Nope. He was on board with it, you know? And, and so then my grandson, he comes to me and he says, hey, you know, grandma, my dad's really wearing shorts behind that behind his kitchen. And I'm like, Oh my god. So even the kids, I mean, it's been fun. I have to admit, I have had a lot of fun doing this.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, so I'm wondering if this proves successful and you make some money off of this. Is this something you might, you know, continue to do each year?
JESS CALVIN: Well, Margo was talking about doing another one next year. You know, I don't want to say what it is, in case it doesn’t happen, okay? But, yeah, she was talking about coming up with another one, maybe next year. So, maybe we can put the money towards something else, something else that we need for our town, like our swimming pool. You know, we have people that have to help us keep it open. So maybe we can put the money next year towards the swimming pool. You know, maybe we can just come up, if we keep doing it, come up with different projects to help well, to help our community going well.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You certainly, as a member of council, a lot of a lot of elected officials, say that they'll do anything for their town, but you certainly have taken that to the next level, which is very exciting. Jess Calvin, a member of the town of Lakeview Town Council, and the co-founder of the Outback naked calendar. Thank you so much for talking with us, and what a great idea. Thanks so much.
JESS CALVIN: Well, thank you. Thank you so much. And if you guys would like to purchase one, if you go to Facebook, we have a website, the Outback naked calendar, and it has a little shop, and you can go and make a donation or purchase a calendar.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, yeah, thank you. That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow, we'll bring you special Thanksgiving programming from NPR, and then we'll be back next week with a new slate of shows. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon, On The Record, thanks for listening.
