By EW editorial staff
• The year 2025 is upon us, and this new year will mark the first one in more than a quarter of a century that this column will not be written and overseen by Anita Johnson, longtime owner and contributing editor of Eugene Weekly. She died Dec. 15. Please read her obituary in this issue, and if you have a memory of Anita you would like to share with this community that she championed, send it to Editor@EugeneWeekly.com where we will add it to staff remembrances.
• What are you dreaming about for Eugene? For Lane County? Affordable housing? Googly eyes on every statue? Send us your 250-word dreams, large and small, funny or serious, for our Jan. 2 “I Dream of Eugene” issue with your name and a line about yourself. Letters@EugeneWeekly.com.
• President Joe Biden commuted most death sentences for federal death row prisoners shortly before Christmas. Like Biden, we condemn what those people did, and we don’t agree with the death penalty. Or trust Donald Trump.
• In this week’s online extra and other local news at EugeneWeekly.com is an update on the Bigfoot Beverages strike with workers soon to hit almost 100 days on the picket line. Lane Community College’s The Torch (LCCTorch.com) scooped the rest of local news with its report on the Board of Education’s attempted use of a form of ranked choice voting that had some board members refusing to list more than one choice and another abstaining from voting. No one was appointed to replace the last six months of now-Oregon Legislature Rep. Lisa Fragala’s term. EW’s editor advises The Torch, but the student-journalists make decisions about its coverage.
• The College Football Playoff is underway, another chance for schools across the land to rake in millions and millions of more dollars to pay the outlandish salaries of coaches and, increasingly, the eye-popping money to student-athletes through name, image and likeness. The Oregon Ducks, winners of the 18-team juggernaut Big Ten Conference, take the playoff stage Jan. 1 after a first-round bye to play the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Can the Ducks hold off the Buckeyes again? Or does the team named after a tree that bears fruit that contains a large and inedible nut extract revenge against the team with a Disney mascot for the 32-31 loss Oct. 12 at Autzen Stadium? A full house of 90,000 will pay to find out.
• Have a story we should chase, a note we should put in Slant? This paper is nothing without our readers! Send it to 541-484-0519 or, heck, snail mail it to Editor, Eugene Weekly, 1251 Lincoln St. Eugene, OR 97401. Just want to hear us rant? That’s cool, too. Sign up for our email newsletters at Eugeneweekly.com/newsletter. We recap what’s in the paper and what’s online — Tuesday’s note is spicy, Thursday’s is sweet.