This just in from Occupy Medical:

Occupy Medical in Veneta and Eugene are canceled this weekend due to the weather.

"I don't want to see duplexes in center field," said a young Eugenean back before Civic Stadium stopped hosting events in 2009. The kid who appears in a video about Civic on ArcheologyChannel.org was prophetic — the two main proposals from the Y and from Fred Meyer for Civic involve tearing it down. The video shows footage from one of the last Ems games at Civic and can be seen here.

Today, both the city of Eugene and Friends of Civic Stadium submitted proposals to save the stadium. Friends of Civic says on its website:

Yes, even though we are 100% behind the city's effort to buy the site, we did present a proposal. We had not planned to respond to this RFP but we did it because (1) the city's bid is contingent on the $5.5 million commitment on a 60-day timeline and (2) because 4J declined to delay the RFP to allow citizens who needed more time to put a bid together or put more dollars behind the city's proposal. We will withdraw our bid if another offering more revenue and preserving the stadium rises to the top.

Friends of Civic has already raised $200,000 in an escrow account. To donate go here. The group says it wants to reopen Civic as a sports and entertainment venue. 

Civic was built under the Works Progress Administration in 1938 out of old-growth wood donated by local timber companies. There are only four other wooden WPA stadiums still standing (and in fact, in use) and eight other non-WPA wooden stadiums. 

Update: Here is the news release from Friends of Civic:

Friends of Civic Stadium is submitting an RFP proposal for 4J’s serious consideration - although we realize that some may consider a token or protest proposal.

IMPORTANT: We 100% support the city’s proposal. But we want our proposal to be considered in case supporters aren’t able to meet $5.5 million renovation and maintenance commitment requirement in time or the city's proposal is not accepted for some other reason.

Our offer is for $16.56 - which is the current value of the $1.00 which 4J paid the City of Eugene for the site in 1938. Although at first glance it may seem absurd to offer only the 2013 equivalent of that $1.00, the reason this proposal should not be dismissed is that we would keep the site available to the public as the recreation facility it was intended to be when it was deeded to 4J in 1938. 4J students of today and tomorrow will have access to a facility that will be even better than the one 4J students in the past were able to use. This offer may seem like a token but we feel, in fact, that 4J has already received more than $5 million from the City of Eugene when they contributed to the creation and rehabilitation of synthetic fields at 4J schools in 1998 and 2006. By accepting that contribution 4J would be acknowledging and reciprocating this $5 million payment from the citizens of Eugene to 4J for student recreation.

We believe our case is compelling and its acceptance would be good for 4J and the community. One City Counselor commented at a City Council work session on Civic that we won’t always be in this era of budget tightening and when we come out of this period we’ll be glad we invested in places the community values like Civic Stadium (not an exact quote). We agree and hope 4J will too.

I wonder if LTD has thought about finding another 17-year-old kid to sing an annoyingly catchy song, this time to promote the EmX? Earworm warning, this will stick in your head. 

This bus commercial is from about 2002 (correct me if I'm wrong, those of you who are avid TV watchers and local advertisement fans. The young singer. Madeline Puckette, went on to a make more music and now is the founder of Seattle-based Wine Folly.

As they say in the video, it's practically become an urban legend — a lady spills hot coffee on her lap while driving, sues McDonald's and wins millions. People tell it as a tale of the legal system gone awry. 

But that's not really what happened at all. This short documentary by The New York Time's Retro Report lays out the real story.

According to this flyer on the Westboro Baptist Church website (and yes, the church's URL really is GodHatesFags.com) the church (more accurately called an anti-gay hate group) is coming to the memorial service for a fallen soldier on Sunday. The memorial for 24-year-old Cody Patterson, a U.S. Army Ranger who died in Afghanistan is 2 pm Oct. 20 at the LaSells Stewart Center in Corvallis. A quiet counter-protest is planned according to a Facebook event page. 

Update: here are the instructions for the protest via the the organizer Joseph Hedburg's Facebook event page.

Alright everyone, gather around, take a knee, and listened up. First of all I want to thank each and everyone of you for joining this cause, I appreciate your enthusiasm for it and to support the family of the fallen soldier.

Second, I will be in the front of the ticket office of Reser Stadium at noon but probably 11:45. You can meet up with me and the others there. I will be wearing blue jeans, a black coat, and a Miami Dolphins ball cap. I'll be holding an American flag too. WBBC is going to be there at 1:15, I'm going to gather intel with a few connections I've made over the years to see if we can block these people sooner.

Third, these people are jerks and with that they're lawyers and have powerful lawyers. DO NOT, I saw again DO NOT, let their hateful words, signs, or manner provoke you. They tend to have their own children at these protests, DON'T EVEN REPLY to them. This is a peaceful demonstration and if they're the ones shouting and making a scene let them get escorted away. Don't stoop to their level hurling the hate back. I've lived in this community for seven years, this is my second home, and I will not accept their hate and intolerance here, and you shouldn't either.

Lastly, for now, if you have an American flag please bring it. I want to raise the flags to block their hateful signs from the families sight. If you don't have an American flag don't stress, hopefully some people have multiple, I have 3, so ill lend two out. If you have any more questions, comments, or concerns you can post them here or send me a private message. I learned three important P's when I was in the Military: Polite, Professional, and Prepared (to Kill). We will stick with all three minus the kill part.

In a recent article entitled "Reputation For Rent" Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week writes about how Dave Frohnmayer, former Oregon attorney general and former UO School of Law Dean and UO president for 15 years, provided paid testimony for Big Tobacco against the state of Oregon.

… major tobacco companies challenged the state of Oregon’s right to continue receiving payments under a massive tobacco industry settlement.

And the star witness and paid expert for Big Tobacco against the state of Oregon: Dave Frohnmayer.

In April, Frohnmayer appeared as an expert witness on behalf of the tobacco companies in front of a closed-door arbitration panel in Chicago. The Oregon Department of Justice released Frohnmayer’s testimony to WW in response to a public records request.

In an interview, Frohnmayer tells WW he simply provided what he says was unbiased, objective testimony. And he says he would have provided the same testimony had he instead been hired by the state of Oregon or called by the three-judge panel as an independent witness.

But neither of those things happened; instead, Frohnmayer appeared as a paid witness for tobacco firms trying to get out of making payments to the state of Oregon under the tobacco settlement reached more than a decade ago.

Frohnmayer’s testimony reinforced the tobacco companies’ claims against the state.

Frohnmayer says his testimony for the tobacco companies was squarely in the public’s interest, because his contention was that the state could have enforced the settlement more aggressively against smaller tobacco companies.

“I testified that the powers of the Oregon attorney general are expansive,” Frohnmayer says. “That’s totally consistent with my public service from the day I entered the Legislature.” 

The article, which can and should be be read in full here, goes on to say that "Frohnmayer now works for the Eugene law firm of Harrang Long Gary Rudnick, which has represented Philip Morris in the past. He bills as much as $550 an hour (but declined to say how much tobacco companies paid him to testify). In addition, he gets a $257,000 annual pension from the Public Employees Retirement System and $101,000 a year as a part-time law professor at UO. (Harrang Long is also UO’s law firm, billing $647,000 since March 2012.)"

UO Matters reports that Frohnmayer is being paid $50,000 to teach a course in the UO Honors College. 

Frohnmayer's law firm represents the UO in negotiations with the United Academics union on campus. UO Matters also looked into how much that was costing the school, writing, "It looks like the administration is paying about $100K a month to outside lawyers and consultants to do the bargaining with the faculty union."

So there might be a strike of the UO classified staff starting Sept. 30 — the classified staff at Oregon's seven universities has voted in favor of a strike.

According to an email from the UO's union for teaching staff — United Academics of the University of Oregon (UAUO):

For several years, a group of more than 1,500 workers at the UO--including office staff, librarians, computer techs, custodians, housing employees, engineers, nurses, maintenance workers and many others--have been forced to make tremendous economic sacrifices. The UO could not function without these employees--they feed our students, keep our IT system up and our libraries running; they pay our bills, run our offices, and ensure our workplaces are safe, clean and functional. Yet a large number barely make enough to pay their monthly bills.

They've had to accept pay freezes, unpaid furlough days, and shell out even more for their health insurance in order to help the seven campus Oregon University System (OUS) balance its budget. During the recent budget crisis, they were the only campus workers forced to take sizable pay cuts. They have fallen so far behind that more than one quarter of full-time classified workers at the UO meet the threshold for food stamp eligibility for a family of four.

Now, the OUS is demanding further concessions--drastic changes to the basic system of pay increases, limited cost of living increases, refusing to provide insurance equity for domestic partners, and rejecting proposals for controlling administrative waste.

Full disclosure, I'm an adjunct instructor at the UO, so I started wondering what that means for teaching courses. The United Academics have anticipated that worry and send out some information for instructors and faculty in the event of a strike. 

The UAUO says that while students can honor the strike, faculty cannot, under Oregon law.

CAN FACULTY REFUSE TO WORK DURING A STRIKE?

NO. “Sympathy strikes” are forbidden by state law.  According to Oregon state law, public employees who are not in the bargaining unit on strike and who refuse to cross the picket line are engaging in a "prohibited strike." (ORS 243.732 & ORS 243.726). That is, it is against the law to refuse to work if your bargaining unit is not on strike. If faculty or GTFs went on strike, this same prohibition would apply to classified workers. This prohibition would apply regardless of whether faculty had elected to form a union or were covered by a contract.

UAUO suggests faculty can discuss the strike with classes if it pertains to the subject matter of the course, join picket lines and support the strike fund, among other things. The unions says faculty are not required to sanction students who refuse to cross the picket line.

ARE FACULTY MEMBERS REQUIRED TO SANCTION STUDENTS WHO REFUSE TO CROSS THE PICKET LINE? 

NO. The president of the ASUO, Sam Dotters-Katz, has called for a student walkout on September 30 and has urged fellow students to avoid crossing the picket line as possible. Many students may not show up to class, or will request alternative assignments from faculty so that they do not have to cross the picket line. Faculty retain the same discretion as always to respond to students requesting accommodations for missing class. For example, when the UO football team participated in the national championship game during the first week of classes in the winter term in 2011, the Provost emailed all faculty requesting that they make accommodations for students who would miss class because they were attending the game. Faculty have the same discretion during this time.

Get the full document from UAUO here.

Strike (or lack of one) update:

OUS student services workers settle agreement, averting strike

After a long and often contentious eight-month bargaining period, students services workers (non-teaching campus workers like librarians, lab techs, administrative assistants and custodians) and Oregon University System bargaining teams reached a tentative agreement at 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 26. 

In light of the agreement, workers have stepped down from a strike that would have taken place system-wide on the first day of classes.

According to Marc Nisenfeld, a development engineer at Portland State University and chair of the SEIU 503 bargaining team, student services workers were simply looking for a fair deal after five years of wage freezes. "The economy has turned around, and people are moving forward. Administrators are moving forward. Goodness knows the Duck’s locker room is moving forward. All we ask is that we don’t fall further behind,” said Nisenfeld.

At the center of negotiations had been the issue of the "step system." Classified student services workers are hired at an artificially low rate of pay, and put on a “step system” that they follow for the first nine years of their career, at which point they reach the market rate for their work.

Management had proposed doubling the period of time to reach the top of the scale to eighteen years. This agreement maintains the system at nine years.

The agreement also allows for very modest cost-of-living adjustments--1.5% and 2%--to take place toward the end of 2013 and 2014, respectively.

According to Nisenfeld, "Our goal throughout this process hasn't been to strike--no one wants to strike. Our goal has been to achieve a settlement that moves our members toward economic security and improves our campus communities. We believe this agreement achieves that."

The tentative agreement will now move to the 4,332 student services workers represented by SEIU 503 for a vote.