Year: 2016

Studying the Public Trust

A Moroccan legal scholar comes to Eugene

News
Samira Idllalène

Fracking is coming to Morocco. Americans might associate the North African country on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea with the black-and-white romance of Casablanca, but Morocco faces some of the same modern environmental issues as we do in the U.S.  Samira Idllalène is visiting Eugene for 10 days via the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide to study how to make environmental laws in Morocco more effective and to give a presentation at this weekend’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. Continue reading →

Back Beat

Music

While the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival is only in its third year in Eugene, it’s part of a 34-year-old tradition that “began in 1982 as a tribute to one of Hawaii’s iconic and most celebrated slack key musicians, Gabby ‘Pops’ Pahinui, considered the ‘Modern Day Godfather’ of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar.” The one-day fest kicks off 7:30 pm Friday, March 4, in the Hult Center’s Soreng Theater. For newbies, slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle type of guitar music that became popular in Hawaii in the 1960s. Continue reading →

Jersey Boys at the Hult, March 1-6, 2016

Performing Arts

Jersey has taken over the Hult, and audiences are happy.             Long-running Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” opened last night, and with its familiar tunes and Cinderella story – of four charming guys who make their way from singing under a streetlamp, to selling out shows across the country – how could it not appeal? People love this stuff. Continue reading →

Jersey Boys at the Hult, March 1-6, 2016

Performing Arts

Jersey has taken over the Hult, and audiences are happy.             Long-running Broadway hit “Jersey Boys” opened last night, and with its familiar tunes and Cinderella story – of four charming guys who make their way from singing under a streetlamp, to selling out shows across the country – how could it not appeal? People love this stuff. Continue reading →

City of Eugene knew about Kesey Square deed

News

[EW will be updating this post as new information becomes available. Last update at 5:40 pm Monday, Feb. 29.] Did the city of Eugene truly forget or were city officials just hoping the public wouldn't remember? The city of Eugene was aware of the 1971 deed restriction on Kesey Square well before City Manager Jon Ruiz brought to the City Council a private offer to purchase the public parcel, which is "forever dedicated to the use of the public," in October 2015. Continue reading →

Our Kids Deserve Better

IP 28 proposes a way out of Oregon’s school funding crisis

News

Listen up, Oregon — your schools are underfunded by $2 billion. Just ask Sabrina Gordon, a reading teacher at Awbrey Park Elementary School in Eugene. She started teaching in Eugene School District 4J in 1999, but prior to that she was a student in 4J schools. Gordon experienced 4J at its peak in the ’80s, before the devastating passage of Measure 5 in 1990, which capped property taxes for school funding and shifted budgetary responsibility from local government to the state.  Continue reading →

Teacher Activist

Battling high-stakes testing

News

In the late 1980s, a third-grade student went with his mom to a parent-teacher conference and saw his score: There was the line that represented the average, and then he saw the dot, way below that, which represented him. That student is now history teacher Jesse Hagopian, who works at Seattle’s Garfield High School and serves as the advisor of the school’s black student union.  Continue reading →

Hands-on learning

Waldorf education builds on experience

News

It’s soup day on a Friday at Eugene Waldorf School (EWS). In the corner of the multi-age kindergarten classroom, a group of students sits at a table helping their teacher make soup from the vegetables brought from home. The room is fully set up for preparation for the meal. There are pots and pans stacked on a shelf, and cutting utensils for the children to use for the vegetables. Continue reading →