Slant

For the past few years, local labor unions have been on an upswell — wrestling with employers both corporate and government to fight for better wages and rights in the workplace. Eugene Weekly has been there to report on it, thanks to a grant from the University of Oregon’s Morse Center for Law and Politics. EW wraps up its 2021-22 series with a forum at Tsunami Books 7 pm Thursday, Dec. 15. The event will feature local union leaders, who will discuss struggles and victories with organized labor. Make sure you RSVP sooner than later, as space is limited. Masks are strongly encouraged. 

• It’s warm and cozy sweatshirt season! Buy a Eugene Weekly Local and Vocal hooded sweatshirt for yourself or as a holiday gift! Or heck, do what a one of our fabulous readers did last time and buy a couple for our interns — we promise they will wear it when they go off to their careers at CNN (Jack Forrest) the Associated Press/Report for America (Joey Cappelletti) or the Columbia University Journalism School (Anna Mattson). Only $55 gets you a hoodie and the joy of knowing a little of the cash goes to pay for the pages we print. Go to EugeneWeekly.com/2022/12/06/omg-its-a-eugene-weekly-hoodie/ to order your hoodie today. 

It wasn’t fun watching UCLA beat the Oregon Ducks basketball team last weekend Dec. 4, but it was fun listening to Bill Walton comment on it. Not everyone loves Walton’s ramblings, we know, but when he does digress on the game, he points out more than other commentators. He played college ball at UCLA, pro in Portland.  We heard he was retiring, but obviously not yet.  

Not done reading local authors after last week’s Winter Reading issue? Check out Karl Eysenbach’s revised edition of his modestly titled The Story of the Century, available in local bookstores. Oregon Country Fair founder Cynthia Wooten calls it “a wacky version of  Dr. Strangelove.” Let us know what we missed and see the local Authors and Artists Fair highlighted in this week’s What’s Happening Calendar!

• A reader who has been bringing surplus socks, underwear and T-shirts to the Eugene Weekly office for the winter-wear we gather for White Bird Clinic’s Drive to Stay Warm tells us that White Bird also welcomes dog food for the pets of then unhoused folks in the community. Bring it well packaged, and we’ll help White Bird get it to the dogs. Drop off warm clothing and bedding — as well as food for the Fidos — at 1251 Lincoln Street.

City Club of Eugene’s Dec. 9 program will cover The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. Note the time — starting at 1:30 pm — is a little later than usual. The Ballmer Institute is creating a workforce solution to the challenge of meeting the behavioral health needs of children and youth, in fact creating a whole new profession, City Club says, of child behavioral health specialist. You can attend live at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street, or live stream on the City Club’s YouTube, or of course listen Monday evening on KLCC.