Slant: State Bank of Oregon, recycled EWs, antisemitism and more

How about a state bank of Oregon? Jeff Golden, the fine state senator from southern Oregon, wants to create a task force to study and make recommendations on creating a State Bank of Oregon. He learned about the Bank of North Dakota while producing an episode of the television series Immense Possibilities about it. No other state has done this since North Dakota in 1919 — evidence of the power of the lobbies. Learn more at PNS.org/video/immense-possibilities-state-bank. Golden has introduced a bill, SB 501, again this legislative session that makes absolute sense. Let’s get on with it and create a task force to study and make recommendations on a Bank of the State of Oregon.

• One of our favorite things we do at Eugene Weekly (beyond just publishing this newspaper each week) is train future journalists. We love it when we get an update on one of our former interns. You can catch Donald Morrison on TV One’s true crime series Payback talking about the 2004 unsolved killing of influential rapper Mac Dre. Want to support our intern program? Or heck, just help us buy our interns cool Local and Vocal T-shirts? Go to Support.EugeneWeekly.com or drop by 1251 Lincoln Street.

• Speaking of dropping by Eugene Weekly, please feel free to stop in and pick up some free copies of our papers for your garden and other uses. We like to recycle our recycled newsprint. Ever since that one time a white supremacist stole 500 copies from our red boxes and lit them on fire, we have had a “first five copies are free, all copies after that $1” policy in place (since the Eugene Police Department didn’t consider stealing a free paper and videoing the fire to try to intimidate us a crime). We are glad to give out free copies after you readers are done with them — and then feel free to use them to start a campfire. 

• “Antisemitism and How To Fight It” is the City Club of Eugene topic for Friday, March 10. You can join the meeting at noon at the Maple Room at the Inn of the 5th or you can live stream the program online on YouTube, or listen 7 pm Monday night on KLCC. Wait! There’s more! You can also read a story at EugeneWeekly.com about the program and recent antisemitic incidents here in Lane County. If you want to be up-to-date on all our online extra content, go to EugeneWeekly.com/newsletter and subscribe to our weekly email updates.

• Here’s a book we don’t want to read: The Courage to be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis clearly is running for the Republican nomination for president against Donald Trump in hopes of facing off against President Joe Biden in 2024. DeSantis is a far-right conservative, probably smarter and more dangerous than Trump. He’s very popular in Florida despite, or maybe because of, his attacks on public education, people of color, LGBTQIA people and even Disney World. Buckle up. We have to do everything we can to stop him.