• What will COVID-19 affect in the West? How about the crowds at the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas this weekend? It could, probably should, but we’ll wager that not even that scary bug will keep fans from watching Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard, Satou Sabally and crew take to the floor on the way to the business they talk about finishing. Meanwhile the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference is canceled here in Eugene, and we hear King Estate is closing its tasting room and restaurant for a week. We’re wondering: What else is the new coronavirus putting the brakes on, and what travelers and workers it will affect?
• We missed City Club last week, but at the Feb. 21 meeting we learned that Oregon is one of only three states with a tribal history/shared history statewide curriculum required by law for its public schools. That’s what Leilani Sabzalian, professor of indigenous studies in education at the University of Oregon, said as part of a program on “The Importance of SB 13: Tribal History/Shared History Curriculum.” But that curriculum will need community support if it is to “touch teachers’ hearts so they touch the hearts of children,” according to the other speaker, Brenda Brainard, director of the Eugene School District 4J NATIVES program. She urged the community to push school boards, administrators and teachers to see that the curriculum required by SB 13 is actually used.
• What we’re reading: Josh Reckord, an avid reader who suggested this little literary feature in Slant, tells us to read Tightrope by husband and wife Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Kristof, a New York Times columnist, often writes about his native Oregon.
• It’s curious that there is so much distrust and disgust with government both locally and nationally, yet so many people are still running to be a part of that government. We have all kinds of candidates for Pete Sorenson’s county commission seat, for city council seats, for mayor of both Springfield and Eugene. We also hear chatter about at least five candidates, four women and one man, lining up to run for governor when Kate Brown is done in 2022. The thinking must be, “Government is really bad right now, but I can do my part to make it better.”
• Need a job? The University of Oregon Board of Trustees is looking for a new member following the unexpected resignation of Connie Ballmer, who’s been on the Phil Knight-inspired board since its creation in 2013. Ballmer, the university says in a statement online, will depart June 30 “due to her other obligations and time commitments.” Apparently those obligations snuck right up on her; Ballmer was re-appointed to a four-year term by Gov. Kate Brown just last year. The job doesn’t pay, but you do get to bask in all that Nike glory and could probably arrange your own private tour of Hayward Field’s new Phildo.