• Ballots are out for the Nov. 7 special election. Here’s our endorsements at a glance: Dissolving the separate Goshen and Pleasant Hill rural fire protection districts and creating a Pleasant Hill Goshen Rural Fire Protection District (yes). Renewing the local option tax funding the River Road Parks & Recreation District (yes). Levy to fund Siuslaw School District #97J (yes). And finally, in the runoff race between Lyndsie Leech and Barbie Walker, we find that Leech has the communication skills and savvy to lead Ward 7 on the Eugene City Council.
• This week is our Best of Eugene Staff Picks and Best of the Ballots issue. Now that the Best of congratulations are underway, we figure we will have a little more fun. Every year we also ask you to give your best and worst votes on Eugene Weekly itself. Worst things about the Weekly? “Clueless letter writers,” “that it’s not daily,” “too skinny” and “nothing” were the top vote getters. For best things, it was “the letters,” “the calendar,” “free,” “honest,” “it’s local” and “local news and reporting.” We’re pretty darn OK with all of that, except we love all our letter writers.
• And as long as we are celebrating, longtime Eugene Weekly owner Anita Johnson was inducted into the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication Hall of Achievement on Oct. 20 for her contributions to journalism and keeping this scrappy paper alive over the years. Want to help her on her mission of making sure this town has a community paper trying to make the world a better place? Take out an ad, subscribe or make a contribution at Support.EugeneWeekly.com.
• Eugene will have a new mayor in 2024 as Mayor Lucy Vinis is not running again. So far only one candidate has officially thrown her hat in the ring, architect Kaarin Knudson. The mayor’s official duties are serving as the city’s political head and chairperson of the Eugene City Council. She presides over City Council meetings but has no vote except in the case of a tie. But it’s a bully pulpit with influence, so what do you want our next mayor to do? Let us know for print at Letters@EugeneWeekly.com and as a news tip at Editor@EugeneWeekly.com. Also in election news, STAR Voting (Score Then Automatic Runoff) has made the Eugene ballot in May. Ranked choice voting has gained in popularity across the country, but STAR proponents say their system is better. They have a couple months to make their case to voters.
• A big story in The New York Times on Sunday, Oct. 22, tells us how “College Football Now Has Wages Over $100,000.” A recent MarketWatch report says Ducks quarterback Bo Nix makes more than $1 million a year from name, image, likeness deals. We always thought players should receive more than scholarships, but this has gone so far that the only solution may be separating athletics from academia. That’s not likely to happen.
• “Dangers to Journalism: A Threat to the First Amendment” is the City Club of Eugene topic at noon Friday, Oct. 27, in the Maple Room at the Inn at the 5th. University of Oregon journalism Professor Peter Laufer will give an interview, Micah Loewinger, of WNYC’s On The Media, will discuss his reporting that led to his being called as a witness in the Oath Keepers trial. And Eugene Weekly editor Camilla Mortensen will tell of the encounters of Oregon journalists and newspapers.