• Welcome to yet another edition of “the little paper that could.” First, did you celebrate Eugene Weekly Day? We did! Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson proclaimed May 30 as Eugene Weekly Day — and encouraged “all community members to join me in celebrating their many issues and contributions to the fabric and future of Eugene.” We were touched and delighted — and even more so because longtime EW owner Anita Johnson joined local lights and luminaries in the City Club of Eugene’s Order of the Turtle, awarded posthumously to folks who have “stuck their neck out.” She joined Dallas Boggs, Nancie Fadeley, David “Frog” Miller, Marshall Peter, Lyllye Reynolds-Parker and Nancy Webber. Johnson also was honored with a Turtle Award while alive, and this year’s honorees were Sharon Posner, Paul Solomon and Oblio Stroyman. And because May 30 was our new favorite day, the ups and downs of the extradition case in the EW embezzlement was the front page of The Register-Guard that day!
• Ready for more cheers? As long as we are celebrating, we also learned this week that Eugene Weekly won six regional Society of Professional Journalists awards in the medium newsroom category (full disclosure: we are pretty sure we are a small newsroom, but hell, we’ll compete against the bigger kids). Editor Camilla Mortensen took first in editorial commentary for “Stung — What Happened to the Damn Paper,” on the embezzlement. Former intern Eliza Aronson had two first places in investigative reporting and series for “F is for Failure,” her series on the University of Oregon’s handling of roofie incidents at frat parties. She also placed in the top three in the country in the large school division for in-depth reporting in the SPJ Mark of Excellence collegiate contest for the same series. EW’s graphics and production manager McKenzie Young-Roy won a regional SPJ first for her cover illustration for one of the roofie stories, “Report No Evil.” UO’s Catalyst Journalism Project scored two wins — students beating full-time professional journalists — in education reporting. Sophia Cossette and Tristin Hoffman took first for education coverage with their 4J/Andy Dey investigation, and Emily Rogers and Bentley Freeman won in poverty and homelessness reporting for their story, “Unhoused and Unwelcome,” on the dismantling of a homeless camp in Cottage Grove.
• Walking in, you immediately notice the shelves of beef jerky, candy and chips where natural, local snacks once lay. SeQuential, the popular “hippie” gas station on McVay Highway, was sold to JSK Eugene, LLC on April 25. The good news is that SeQuential’s famous SQHub café and kombucha on tap will remain, as will some of those natural products. A post on its website, SQBiofuels.com, says, “After all these years, it has come time for us to close the SeQuential Retail business and say goodbye. To our customers, vendors, friends and SQ Hub team members — thank you!” EW reached out to Jose Jimenez, new manager, who says, “A lot of the healthier stuff is staying, but I’m trying to get rid of all the stuff that wasn’t selling and bring in a lot more product.” SeQuential opened in 2006 and since then has provided the community with its alternative fuels and natural products, and EW has reached out to the previous owners to confirm if the station will be a 76. EW reported on a previous transition in 2023 when Neste, a Finnish company, acquired the used cooking oil collection business that was a part of Crimson Renewable Energy Holdings, which included SeQuential Environmental Services.
• Have you checked out the Native American Arts & Crafts Makers Market? It’s the first Sunday of the month March through December at the Eugene Farmers Market Pavilion. We stopped by June 1, and it’s worth a visit if you haven’t been, from the arts and handicrafts to the music and dancing (and even some dancing instruction!). Native and Indigenous artists present and sell their arts, crafts, jewelry, clothing, beadwork and more. Find out more at NAACM.org. And for art lovers, in the meantime, don’t forget to check out the Eugene ArtWalk this Friday, June 6!
• This week in news updates: Online at EugeneWeekly.com you can find several guest viewpoints on the Legislature. Eugene 4J School Board member Judy Newman writes in support of Senate Bill 1167, The Child Success Act, and Rep. Nancy Nathanson and Anne Harthman of Broadway Apothecary discuss Eugene and Oregon’s pharmacy crisis and House Bill 3212. Check out the RG’s update on Gov. Tina Kotek’s decision not to extradite a suspect in the burglaries targeting Asian families in Eugene. And KLCC (and everybody else) is updating on just how freaking high the grass pollen count is this year. KLCC notes that on June 2 the count was 890, and anything above 200 particles per cubic meter of air is considered very high. Gesundheit!