By EW editorial staff
• It’s Groundhog Day on Sunday, Feb. 2, and Donald Trump’s nonstop executive orders have been giving us that “This again?” feeling every morning. We were impressed by the community members who gave heartfelt public comments at the Jan. 28 Lane County Board of Commissioners meeting in response to Trump’s attacks on trans people. We applaud Commission Laurie Trieger’s response — she said, “Sometimes decorum is one of the most powerful tools of oppression, and it is not always OK to comply. And this is one of those times.” She calls this moment in our country’s history, “uniquely dangerous.” Board Chair David Loveall, on the other hand — WTF dude? Women, immigrants, trans and queer folks and their supporters told of their fears, and while he started off well, thanking the commenters, he moved onto things like, “Our president only indicates that he is reading his Bible as he should.” Find a link to the meeting at EugeneWeekly.com.
• You can also find on EugeneWeekly.com (with no paywall or login) a review of the Eugene Symphony performance with music director candidate and conductor Tania Miller, and Bricks $ Mortar columnist Christian Wihtol with the breaking news last week on J.H. Baxter & Co. and its president, Georgia Baxter-Krause, pleading guilty Jan. 22 to federal criminal charges of illegally boiling off hazardous waste into the atmosphere at the company’s now-defunct Eugene plant and lying about it to regulators. There’s also an interview with Commissioner Laurie Trieger — it’s one of several swan song pieces by now-former reporter Bentley Freeman who has moved into an ad sales position here at the Weekly.
• Speaking of transitions — and the ad sales that keep this commie rag afloat — Eugene Weekly welcomes Dave Newman as our new advertising manager. Cuchulain Kelly (who somehow managed to sell ads and enter NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert contest multiple times) will be heading to the East Coast. Those who know him from Eugene’s music scene can follow him at CuchulainKelly.com. Newman has an extensive background in news and media (and not gonna lie, cannabis journalism) and has hit the ground running. You can hit him up at Dave@EugeneWeekly.com or give him a call at 541-484-0519.
• City Club of Eugene is meeting at the University of Oregon Many Nations Longhouse at noon Friday, Jan. 31 for its forum, “Preparing the Next Generation of Indigenous Leaders.” Three current Indigenous leaders will speak: Jason Younker, chief of the Coquille Tribe; Christina Thomas, member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the the 2024-2025 cultural ambassador at UO; and Te’E Philips Brown, member of the Pauma Band of Mission Indians and the 2024-2025 Mr. Indigenous at UO. The three will speak about tribal governance and the opportunities UO offers for students to participate in and assume leadership positions on campus.
• Hey you book lovers! Literary Arts announced the finalists for the 2025 Oregon Book Awards. Among the finalists for the Ken Kesey Award For Fiction is Miriam Gershow of Eugene for Survival Tips: Stories (Propeller Books) and Charlie J. Stephens of Port Orford for A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest (Torrey House Press). Finalists for the Frances Fuller Victor Award For General Nonfiction include University of Oregon professor Courtney Thorsson for The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture (Columbia University Press), and in the running for Sarah Winnemucca Award For Creative Nonfiction is Jaclyn Moyer of Corvallis for On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California (Beacon Press). The winners will be announced April 28 at the 2025 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony.