• It’s heartening to hear that University of Oregon President Mike Schill, Athletic Director Rob Mullens and 10 vice presidents are taking temporary cuts in their salaries during this precarious time for higher education, but we have a couple of questions. Why aren’t the coaches taking cuts? They’re getting the richest salaries of all, not those measly $700,000 to $800,000 or more packages that Schill and Mullens take home. And why do we have 10 vice-presidents? It’s time to take a tough look at the UO’s administrative bloat, because if union workers are being told to be flexible, so should coaches and administration.

• Lane County itself has pointed out that size-wise, this area is bigger than the state of Connecticut. Yet the county is being incredibly obscure as to where diagnosed COVID-19 cases are located. This is a problem both for transparency and also for rural areas. Ned Hickson, editor of the Siuslaw News in Florence and managing editor of the Cottage Grove Sentinel, took the county to task over this in a recent editorial you can find at TheSiuslawNews.com. Hickson points out that cases outside of Eugene-Springfield are called just that or listed as “in rural Lane County.” If you live in McKenzie Bridge you are more than 100 miles from Florence. Yes, we should assume the virus is everywhere and #StaytheFuckHome, but rural residents might be even more careful if they know a case is in their area.

•  We can’t say thank you enough to the people who have been contributing to keep Eugene Weekly printing pages in this COVID-19 time. Whether it’s an online contribution, a check in the mail or a check with a card or note, we are heartened. Also, we really do love the notes — clearly some of you love the Red Meat cartoon more than others.

• In little more than an hour on April 3 it was quite an education to hear six candidates for City Council Ward 1 be interviewed by Eric Richardson, president of the City Club of Eugene and NAACP executive director. Emily Semple is the incumbent, but she clearly has a hot contest. Eugene Weekly will be endorsing when the ballots go out. The City Club’s next virtual candidate forum will be April 10 for City Council Ward 8 and County Commission District 4 candidates and April 17 for City Council wards 7 and 2 candidates. Watch these at noon on Fridays on the City Club’s Facebook page, later on YouTube page, and on KLCC on Mondays at 7. This is a huge effort by the City Club and how democracy should work.

• What we’re reading: Paul Krugman’s Arguing With Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future, published in 2020 by Norton. Based on many of his columns in The New York Times, this book opens with quite a section on the conservative efforts to privatize Social Security. This week we learned that the Trump administration budget takes a big bite out of both Social Security and Medicare, the continuing attack that Krugman educates us about in Arguing. It is an important read.

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