• Eugene’s ad hoc Finance Investigative Team (FIT) looking into city budget issues will meet at 5:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 17, at Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. Staff contact is Vicki Silvers, 682-5082. The meeting is open to the public to observe.
• Noted speaker Maurice Cox of the Tulane City Center Initiative will be the speaker at a special evening meeting of City Club of Eugene. The normally noon luncheon will instead be at 5:30 pm Friday, Oct. 18, at the LCC Downtown Center. Cox’s topic is “Making Great Cities!” and he will focus on civic engagement, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship and design excellence. Cox is the former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., and served as design director for the National Endowment for the Arts. Space is limited. RSVP at October18@dxoregon.org.
• Slingshot Hip Hop, a documentary film of young Palestinian hip hop artists united for the first time from the ‘48 community in Israel and the ‘67 communities in the West Bank and Gaza by their shared performance art and by the core principles of the Palestinian resistance, will be shown 6:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Willamette Hall 110 at the UO. Free.
• A series of Eugene city budget interactive community workshops began Oct. 15 and will continue from 6 to 8 pm Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Sheldon High School, and the same time Oct. 24 at North Eugene High School, Oct. 29 at Willamette High School and Oct. 30 at Churchill High School. Contact the budget staff at 682-5670. Budget Committee and City Council members will be available to talk about the budget situation and seek public input. Contact the budget staff at 682-5670 for childcare, sign language interpretation or other issues.
• Key organizers of state and local efforts to require GMO food labeling will be guests at the next Blackberry Pie Speaker Series at 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Cottage Grove Hotel, 811 E. Main St., Cottage Grove. Speakers will include Ivan Maluski of Friends of Family Farmers, attorney Ann Kneeland of Support Local Food Rights and Lynn Bowers, chief petitioner of the Local Food System Ordinance of Lane County initiative. Free and open to the public. Email alice@loghouseplants.org or call 521-2877.