• Merry Winter Solstice (and beginning of winter), Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day! And happy days off to those of us who don’t celebrate any of those. It’s an impressive cluster of holidays between the Thursdays Eugene Weekly publishes this week.
• The University of Oregon seems to have posted a new website saying that faculty members shouldn’t expect to get raises sought by their union, United Academics. The peculiar site, StrengtheningUO.org, says “The stark reality is that our current financial challenges make it impossible to offer the salary increases the union is requesting without dramatic changes to how we support our students’ education.” It also repeats the dubious claim that the multi-million-dollar athletic department is fully self supporting but can’t contribute any money to academics. Except for the UO logo and a copyright notice, the website offers no indication of who wrote it or why, though it links to the actual UOregon.edu site. In tune with the UO’s usual commitment to transparency, registration for the URL hosting the Wordpress site comes back as “redacted.” Check out Bill Harbaugh’s UOMatters.com for his usual spicy take on it.
• Last week’s story, “Toxic Lawsuit,” about the federal charges filed against J.H. Baxter, omitted a zero. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has already levied $350,000 in civil fines against Baxter for a sweeping range of violations at the plant, not $35,000.
• Our readers don’t always agree with us, and we don’t always agree with our readers, but the dialogue on the opinions and letters pages of a newspaper is part of a thriving democracy. One letter-writer this week weighed in on Mayor-elect Kaarin Knudson’s jogging togs, calling her a “Lexus liberal.” Judging a woman based on her outfit rubs us the wrong way — we want to see policies and action (or inaction) to judge political folks on. But just because we buy ink by the barrel doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear what you think! Join the dialogue by writing Letters@EugeneWeekly.com. Or if you want to hear us rant (and talk about what’s in the paper), sign up for our email newsletters at EugeneWeekly.com/newsletter.
• This week is our annual Giving Guide issue (and thank you, thank you to the folks who have given to Eugene Weekly’s nonprofit arm), so here’s some nonprofit news: RAD (Radical Alternative Development), our favorite punk organization of mental health specialists, drug/alcohol counselors and social workers, is now a 501(c)3 nonprofit! Find out more at @RAD.Eugene.Oregon on Instagram. Founding director of SquareOne Villages (and current EW columnist and former pastor of First Christian Church of Eugene) Dan Bryant has retired, with deputy director Andrew Heben stepping into the director role. Got some nonprofit news? Or heck, any other rumor-chasing notes? Let us know at Editor@EugeneWeekly.com.