• As a newspaper and as a community, we were saddened to hear of the passing of Lois Wadsworth on Saturday, Sept. 14. Wadsworth was one of the bright and creative minds that founded Eugene Weekly as What’s Happening in 1982 and later served as editor, arts editor, movie reviewer and mentor. Lois and her laughter will be greatly missed.

• Benson High School in Portland doesn’t have enough players to field either varsity or junior varsity football teams this fall, according to The Oregonian. Maybe this is peculiar to the Techmen, but we wonder if it is the trend of the future, as would-be players and their parents learn more about the dangers of concussions.

• Rep. Peter DeFazio is now powerfully positioned as the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, but that doesn’t mean his seat in Congress is secure. After fighting off Radiant Art Robinson year after year to the point it’s become a joke, DeFaz is facing some real competition this year in attorney and community organizer Doyle Canning in the Democratic primary (see story this issue) and in Nelson Ijih and Alek Skarlatos for the Republican nomination. Skarlatos was the subject of a Clint Eastwood movie and Ijih asked our reporter to interview him via a Twitter thread, so election 2020 in Oregon is already interesting.

•  The City Club of Eugene offered an emotional and inspiring program Sept. 13 on “Collaboration Defeats Confrontation at Malheur – Part 1.” The weekly public forum brought Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, retired county official Steve Grasty, Burns area journalist and historian Pauline Brayman and University of Oregon geography professor Peter Walker to describe, some with tears, how a sparsely populated eastern Oregon community pulled together to defeat what Ammon Bundy and his followers saw as the spark of a revolution against the U.S. government. Although the county voted 70-30 three times to repudiate the occupiers of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, as Brayman put it, “It will take many years to mend.” Walker’s book Sagebrush Collaboration is available free from the Ford Family Foundation, tfff.org. A second City Club
program on this topic will be livestreamed noon Sept. 27 from Bend to the Baker Center in Eugene. 

• Michael Moore has asked all Americans to stand for the 50,000 autoworkers striking against General Motors. Count us in, Michael. When GM needed help during the recession, the workers came through. Now it’s time to reward the workers.

• Speaking of elections, the deadline for voting in this year’s Best of Eugene contest is midnight Tuesday, Sept. 24. Cast your votes at BestOfEugene.com. Vote early and vote often, as LBJ used to say.

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