Imagine our surprise — as a woman-owned and edited local newspaper — when we were invited to ask a question of the three men speaking on the topic of “Can Local Newspapers be Saved?” It’s the program for the July 8 City Club of Eugene. The women and female-identifying editors of The Register-Guard, Corvallis Gazette Times, Chronicle and Capital Chronicle, to name only a few other local newspapers, may raise their eyebrows as well in an era where the rights of women and others are imperiled, per the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. The speakers — all highly qualified newsmen — are Jackman Wilson, former editorial page editor of The Register-Guard; Steve Forrester, CEO of the EO Media Group; and George Custer, interim editor of the Highway 58 Herald. We politely declined the invite, but please do tune in to hear the first questions by two talented up-and-coming journalists: Molly Newhard, editor of Lane Community College’s The Torch, and Hannarose McGuinness, editor of the Daily Emerald and recent Eugene Weekly intern. The meeting is at noon at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, with live streaming an option

• A round of applause and a standing ovation, please, for Cottage Theatre — the little community theater that could, just down the road in Cottage Grove. CT has been selected as one of six theaters around the country to take part in the American Association of Community Theatre’s NewPlayFest by staging the world premiere of a new play — yet to be announced — in 2024. CT previously took part in the festival in 2018, with its production of Joe Musso’s Treehouse.

• Last week our June 30 cover stories focused on the state of the local labor movement, capping our yearlong series funded by funding from the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics. One of the stories was about unionizing at Eugene’s Starbucks coffee shops. At the time Springfield stores had not organized, but now we can report that Starbucks workers in Springfield have begun to unionize. On July 5, workers at Springfield’s Starbucks on Pioneer Parkway announced that they were starting the unionizing process. The workers said in their letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, which was shared on Twitter by the nationwide Starbucks Workers United union, that they were tired of working for low wages at a time of record corporate profits. 

• Anyone else wondering what Chip Kelly thinks about UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 for the riches of the Big Ten? That’s all for the “Conference of Champions.” Kelly was beloved when he coached football at University of Oregon and is now at UCLA. This change is simply a reminder that it’s all about money. It’s unfortunate that sports are tied to academia, and that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

• Assault rifles need to be banned. That would be a start toward ending mass shootings and murder. 

• Anyone else having a little fun with ketchup lately? After Cassidy Hutchinson made her gutsy exposé of the former toddler-in-chief last week, telling how he threw ketchup and dishes against the wall in a tantrum, we found little packets of ketchup on desks at the Weekly. The news has been grim lately, and sometimes we need a little fun. We do keep our own walls ketchup-free, though.