We’re celebrating this week! Former Eugene Weekly intern and Catalyst Journalism Project reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian won second place in investigative reporting in the prestigious Hearst Journalism Awards Program for his story about the death of Eugene resident Landon Payne in local law enforcement custody. Tabrizian is now a writer for the Salem Reporter. As long as we are bragging, former EW intern and freelancer Taylor Griggs is now a staff writer at BikePortland. Former intern Jack Forrest is an E&E News reporting intern for Politico, Ryan Ngyuen, a digital producer at the Seattle Times, is joined there by fellow former EW and Wall Street Journal intern Renata Geraldo, who will be a business reporter. Also a familiar name from EW’s pages now in Seattle is Jade Yamazaki Stewart, the editor of Eater Seattle.

• For us TV viewers it was quite a jolt to see a “Betsy Johnson for Governor” ad come up in the middle of that terrific May 7 Saturday Night Live. It would have been more fun to have seen her parodied in a skit on the show — she’s just the kind of politician that SNL loves to lampoon. Then another Johnson ad showed up during 60 Minutes on Sunday night, May 8. She’s definitely spending the $2 million Phil Knight has already poured into her campaign. We are not thinking she will be elected governor, but we are worried that she could tilt the win to the Republican candidate.

• Anyone else suspicious of Eugene Police Department’s sudden interest in cracking down on University of Oregon parties? As intrigued as we are by the tales in EPD’s press releases of moms defending their kids from party-busting cops, we can’t help but to wonder why EPD is suddenly rushing to campus parties — at the expense of other calls, the police say — and calling in reinforcements from other law enforcement agencies when they didn’t care about massive parties during the height of the COVID pandemic? Is there another “community safety” tax on the horizon? If EPD needs more money it would get more traction by asking folks to fund CAHOOTS.

• Remember Dillon Brooks when he played basketball for the Oregon Ducks? Now playing for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA playoffs against Golden State Warriors, he seems to be the bad boy, ejected and suspended for a game because of a flagrant foul that resulted in a fractured elbow for the Warriors’ Gary Payton II. With the Trail Blazers out of it, we’re cheering for Golden State, not Brooks — even if he is an old Duck.

• We were saddened to see that on May 7, former Eugene Weekly intern and freelancer Mike Bivins was arrested on charges of vandalizing Jewish temples and setting fire at a Muslim mosque in Portland. Those following him on Twitter had noted his social media posts becoming increasingly paranoid and erratic. Prior to his arrest, Bivins was well known in Portland for covering and filming street protests featuring clashes between right and left wing activists. He covered a 2016 pro-gun protest at the state Capitol for EW, and after wrapping up his 2015 internship, he mainly freelanced stories on cannabis until 2017. 

• “UO Women in Science: The Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Researchers” is the City Club of Eugene topic on Friday, May 13, from noon to 1:15 pm at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street.  Four students, all women, all from the Clark Honors College, will describe the work they are doing. No lunch at the in-person meeting. The program airs on the City Club YouTube page and will be on 89.7 FM KLCC on Monday night at 7 pm.