Slant

• In 2014 Joshua Hunt wrote in The New York Times about rape allegations against three University of Oregon basketball players. Now he has an entire book about the corrosive influence of sports money on higher education — and particularly on the UO. Due out Oct. 23 from Brooklyn publisher Melville House, University of Nike explores the University of Oregon’s complex relationship with its corporate partner, Nike, and how the arrangement has undermined the school’s academic integrity, transparency, and campus culture,” the publisher’s website says. Rumor has it at least a few sacred cows have been gored by Hunt; we’ve asked for an advance copy to find out whose. 

• Together with our fellow news junkies, we’ve been keeping an eye on The Register-Guard since it was purchased by GateHouse Media. Functioning democracies need good journalism and transparency. We also need a healthy dialogue, so we were a little freaked out to see there were no letters to the editor in the Monday, July 23, issue. A mistake thanks to outsourcing to Austin for copy editing? Not a sign of future plans, we hope. Readers and community members need the forums the RG and EW provide in our letters sections. 

• What we’re reading: Chris Offutt’s novel Country Dark. Our EW senior staff writer Rick Levin says, “Trust me, you won’t be able to put it down.”

Oregon has the highest number of reported hate crimes in the country, according to ProPublica and the FBI. That’s what Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, told the City Club of Eugene on July 20. The topic was “Free Speech vs. Hate Speech,” and Ward shared the stage with Doyle Srader, speech and communication professor at Northwest Christian University. Maybe the hate crime statistic means that Oregon reports better than other states, but the national numbers do show a dramatic increase in hate speech and hate crimes during the Trump presidency. No surprise when Trump talks about “Mexican rapists,” chants “lock her up,” and constantly makes anti-Muslim comments. As Ward said, “It is time to speak our values.”

• As the crowded courtrooms in the federal courthouse in Eugene showed July 18, climate lawsuits are attracting the attention they deserve. Oregon is especially interested in the case brought by Our Children’s Trust, which likely will be argued before Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene in October. Another series of climate cases, with a different legal theory, is playing out in courtrooms across the country. These cases are suing big energy companies for continuing practices they knew were changing the climate and damaging cities, counties and states. So far, those cases are losing but — like the famous tobacco cases — they will keep coming.

• We want to wipe a phrase out of the world’s dictionary. Stop saying “mother of all wars,” please. Maybe try “father of all wars.” That makes more sense. Even better, let’s stop birthing war at all.