Wondering why so many pages in the Weekly this week? We’re back up to our pre-pandemic page count for this issue — and it feels good. If you like seeing so many pages, then thank your pothead friends, CBD users and local purveyors of cannabis. 4/20 is on the horizon and you know what that means — weed. Lots of weed, most of it on sale. You can call us Eugene Weedly, but just make sure you do it while appreciating the news, Dan Savage and crossword puzzle!

• Seen any little brown rabbits running wild in your neighborhood? We saw one hobnobbing with three deer on the edge of Hendricks Park, and that’s the first “wild” rabbit we’ve encountered in Eugene. We also saw one on Springfield’s Millrace path. Escaped pets? Let us know your rabbit count for this Easter weekend. 

• Thank you, Eugene Weekly, readers for being nice people! After we ran the letter from 77-year-old Jane Smith about her stolen 1998 Honda Civic and her resulting stolen independence, readers reached out to us about what they could do. The Eugene subreddit suggested a GoFundMe, and Smith and her family were persuaded to put one up. As of press time the community has raised more than $4,000 for Smith at GoFund.me/e2f101dc.

• 60 Minutes on CBS on April 10 did the best television reporting we’ve seen on heroic President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leading his Ukraine against the onslaught from Vladimir Putin and Russia. The reporter went into Zelenskyy’s living quarters, interviewing him mostly through an interpreter, to show us this amazing actor turned wartime president. We know at least one Eugenean who is on the Polish border preparing and serving food to Ukrainian refugees every day. Many more Americans probably will be there before this conflict ends.

• As we went to press this week with our story on the Downtown Riverfront development, we were checking out The Register-Guard’s coverage of the upcoming Riverfront Festival, set to take place during the World Athletics Championships. Our takeaways? It’s going to cost $1.2 million, and beyond the $400,000 the city has approved to pay REVERE, the “life experience” company putting it on, the city hasn’t figured out where the rest of money will come from aside from looking at sponsorships and state funding. There’s also the challenge of “building a festival on a construction site” as one city employee puts it to the RG. This just leaves us wondering why we couldn’t just bring back the Eugene Celebration?

• The eight Democratic candidates who will compete in the May 17 primary for a chance to succeed Congressman Peter DeFazio in representing District 4 will share the City Club of Eugene stage at noon Friday, April 15. The two hour live program is at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, and it will air on the City Club YouTube page. The candidates are Sami Al-Drabbuh, Doyle Canning, Val Hoyle, Andrew Kalloch, Steve Laible, Jake Matthews, John Selker and G. Tommy Smith. The City Club promises that “candidates will have a chance to show their achievements and express their values and priorities.” The winner will run against Alek Skarlatos, who is unopposed in the Republican primary.

• Sure, Eugene got a dusting of white and the McKenzie River communities have been hit with a blanket of snow in April, (thanks, climate change) but it’s spring nonetheless, and you know what that means — Eugene’s venerable institution Saturday Market is back. This means in addition to the locally grown produce of the nearby Farmers Market, you can once again eat your Dana’s cheesecake while listening to live music and browsing the crafts from Lane County artisans. Rain or shine, as of April 7 you can go get your hippie on downtown, Saturdays 10 am to 4 pm at 8th and Oak. 

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