• Wishes for 2019: That Republican leadership will find the courage to offer Donald Trump the options of resignation or impeachment in this year. Michael Pence could not be as bad. (Right?) That the kids’ climate case will have its day in court. That we will find homes for our huddled masses, both the unhoused who live here and the immigrants who need safety. That Oregon will find a way to decently fund education at all levels.

• What we’re reading: Suggested to us as a break from the depressing nonfiction we’ve been perusing about the decline of democracy in America is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. The novel is not for everybody. One friend says he could not care less about Count Rostov’s confinement in the Metropol Hotel across the street from the Kremlin in Moscow, but the pace, style and character development certainly take the reader away from modern America.  Maybe that’s enough.

• As the New Year begins, we bid a fond farewell and “hear you later” to our reporter, podcaster and web editor Meerah Powell as she heads to Portland to break news for Oregon Public Broadcasting. Powell started at Eugene Weekly as an intern and has been impressing readers ever since. Speaking of interns, Michael “Mitch” Tobin has wrapped up his time at EW and is heading off to the Wall Street Journal as this year’s F. James Pensiero intern. (Longtime readers may know that former WSJ editor Fred Taylor was an EW owner until his death in 2015, and his family members are still owners of the paper.) And since we’re feeling proud, former intern Kenny Jacoby, currently a Scripps Washington Bureau investigative reporting fellow, recently had his work featured on Newsy, the podcast Reveal and ProPublica. Former EW interns have landed jobs at The New York Times, CNN, The Register-Guard, The (Bend) Bulletin and High Country News, to name a few. We’re always sad to see them go, but blown away by all they go on to achieve. Good luck Meerah! 

• What readers were reading online in EW last year: Check EugeneWeekly.com for a list of Eugene Weekly’s Most-Read Stories of 2018. Without giving the whole thing away, let’s just say the stories that got the most attention from readers last year were about neo-Nazis, public officials with legal issues and, no kidding, Ethiopian cuisine.

SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the
EW editorial board. Heard any good rumors lately?  Contact editor@eugeneweekly.com

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