Want to support Eugene Weekly and sport our “Local and Vocal” logo? Great, we do, too! So we started a fundraiser that runs for the next two weeks. For $45 you get a black hoodie and the joy of supporting your locally owned paper. (Chip in a little extra, and we’ll buy the EW interns a hoodie, too.) Go to CustomInk.com/fundraising/eugeneweekly and check it out. You can now also make tax-deductible donations online to TRIPS, the new nonprofit foundation supporting journalism in the southern Willamette Valley. Donate to TRIPS using your Paypal account or credit card at EugeneWeekly.com/donate-to-trips. 

• On Monday, March 14, something odd was in the air at Eugene Weekly’s office on Lincoln Street. No, it wasn’t pollen. It wasn’t spring fever. It was the glorious and unfamiliar feel of breathing the air in our old office and seeing our co-workers’ faces as we showed up for the first time in forever without a mask mandate. (OK, except that brief period before the Delta virus last summer.) Freeing? Yes! Concerning? A little. We hope the COVID numbers, which have dropped rapidly in Lane County the past month, stay down. Meanwhile, we’re all breathing sighs of relief, and nodding with understanding at anyone who wants or needs to continue masking. 

• Here’s a tip for you basketball fans. If you’re looking for some more local winning teams, next season drive out to Lane Community College and watch both the men and women play. The teams are living up to their Titan name: the women ended the season with a 26-0 record and the men 22-3. You’ll have no trouble finding a seat in the stands.

• If you’ve got March Madness, there’s only one cure. The No. 5 seed University of Oregon women’s basketball team has made it to the Big Dance and plays No. 12 seed Belmont in the Wichita bracket 2:30 pm Saturday, March 19 (ESPN2). In keeping with this week’s cover story on women who make a difference, we’ll have to keep our eyes on the work that Duck center Sedona Prince will do — she’s already off to a good start after highlighting the lack of equal gym facilities for men and women teams at the 2021 NCAA tournaments. 

• The City Club of Eugene is talking elections. The race in question on Friday, March 18, is Eugene City Council Ward 4, where challenger and former councilor Jennifer Solomon will face incumbent Jennifer Yeh. Ward 4 is roughly north of Franklin and runs north and east to the city borders. KLCC reporter Brian Bull will moderate. You can join in person at noon at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, or you can watch on the City Club’s YouTube page at the end of the event.

• Oregon Bach Festival can’t seem to hit the right note. It’s still trying to replace Matthew Halls, who was abruptly fired as artistic director — with no public explanation — in 2017. In 2020 OBF narrowed its search to three finalists, who, after a pandemic delay, have been scheduled to perform at the festival this summer: Julian Wachner, music director of Trinity Wall Street in Manhattan; Eric Jacobsen, a cellist, conductor and member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble; and Miguel Harth-Bedoya, former music director of the Eugene Symphony. In late February Wachner was accused in social media posts of sexually assaulting a woman musician at a festival in 2014; after an investigation, he was fired March 14 from his job at Trinity Wall Street. As of press time March 16, Wachner, who has denied the charges, remained a candidate to head the University of Oregon-run Bach Fest. “The Oregon Bach Festival is aware of news involving a finalist for the festival’s artistic director position,” writes UO spokesperson Kay Jarvis in an email. “Careful background reviews are standard with every search. We take allegations of this nature seriously and intend to gather more information in the coming days.”