• Giving Tuesday was this week, but the time to give money, help and good deeds is year round. Duly noted of course is that if you want to donate money to a good cause in time for a tax break, then that deadline is drawing near! So, too, is the deadline for Eugene Weekly’s annual Give Guide listings of local nonprofits in need of your support. Please let your favorite nonprofit know to email Editor@EugeneWeekly.com their organization’s full name, phone, mailing address, 501(c)3 status and website as well as a one- or two-sentence testimonial from a supporter or volunteer describing the group, what type of group it is and why it should be supported by Dec. 9. High res photos are great, too. We have very limited space given the COVID economy, and we’d like to support all the groups we can! 

• The pandemic drags on, and it’s depressing and exhausting, but please don’t let down your guard. We have more cases than ever, and Lane County is listed as “extreme risk” under Gov. Kate Brown’s new criteria that took effect as the two-week freeze wrapped up Dec. 2. This means restaurants are limited to outdoor dining and takeout, and retail establishments are limited to 50 percent capacity. It does hurt businesses — we at EW feel the squeeze in our advertising  — but then again, dead people don’t shop or dine out. So hang in there, we will get through this. And it’s better to be safe than on a respirator. 

• “COVID-19: Where We Are, Where We are Going” is the topic for the virtual City Club of Eugene meeting noon Friday, Dec. 4. You can pick it up at the City Club of Eugene Facebook page. Speakers are: Patrick Luedtke, M.D., Lane County senior public health officer; James McGovern, M.D., vice president of Medical Affairs for the PeaceHeath Oregon network; Leslie Pelinka, M.D., part of PeaceHealth Medical Group Pediatrics; and Ellen Thornton-Love, LCSW, clinical supervisor for Lane County Behavioral Health Child and Adolescent program. KLCC will also broadcast this important program at 7 pm Monday, Nov. 7, and it will be available on City Club’s YouTube page shortly after airing on Facebook. Bravo to the City Club of Eugene for carrying on with “building community vision through open inquiry” in these tough times.

• The garish yellow football uniforms the Ducks wore against the Beavers in the big game 11/27 seemed to scream “Look at me!” Unfortunately, anyone who looked saw the Ducks fade badly in the fourth quarter and lose the game. Wearing garish uniforms, different ones every game, creates the risk that you’ll be known as the team that wears garish uniforms rather than the team that plays well and wins close games. At least the yellow looked good in the Corvallis fog!

• Oregon political junkies have some fascinating twists and turns to follow in the months ahead. Will Rep. Tina Kotek survive the effort to remove her as Speaker of the House? What about Secretary of State-elect Shemia Fagan and Treasurer Tobias Reed going after the governor’s chair? Will Bureau of Labor and Industries head Val Hoyle join the cast of thousands wanting to be governor in two years? What will Gov. Kate Brown do in two years if she isn’t plucked by the Biden administration? Place your bets. 

• William Barr, attorney general of the U.S., may have put the final nail in Donald Trump’s post-election circus this week when he revealed in an interview that the Department of Justice has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Of course, Barr may get fired for this, but for the sake of democracy’s future, it is time to put a stop to the conspiracy nonsense Trump and his inept legal soldiers have tried to foist on the U.S. electorate. Trump lost. Joe Biden will be our next president.

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