• Voting in Best of Eugene (which encompasses all of Lane County and our readership areas) wraps up Sept. 29. Remember: 1. This is a readers poll so it’s you who vote and decide (EW staff gets our own staff picks issue the next week!) 2. There’s no shame in a good campaign! Tell folks to vote for you, your business or your favs! 3. To vote, you just have to enter your email (so we know you are a real person), NOT register as a business — that’s only if you are a nominee! Go vote! Vote.EugeneWeekly.com.
• The Lane County Board of Commissioners continues to raise eyebrows. As we mentioned in last week’s Slant, Springfield Commissioner David Loveall has been called on the carpet for referring to women as spinsters and strippers. Some county constituents have been taking him to task in the public comments section of some recent commission meetings, and the sensitive men of the commission asked that singling out individual commissioners for critique be stopped. Since they didn’t stop (you know, free speech and all), Commissioner Pat Farr (who often votes in a block with Loveall and Ryan Ceniga) asked the county administrator to stop them. That seemed weird. So we asked Lane County Public Information Officer Devon Ashbridge about this and she told us that the board chair “or other commissioners can ask people to be civil during their public comments, but ultimately people can decide for themselves what they want to say.” The exception, she writes in an email, is if “someone is truly disruptive or makes threats of violence; at that point we can suspend the meeting.”
• Thanks to all the readers who send us Activist Alerts! As attacks on free speech, health care and the free press continue, please continue to speak up and exercise your rights. Have an event? Put it in our What’s Happening Calendar at Calendar.eugeneweekly.com. Saving democracy? Send the info to Editor@EugeneWeekly.com. We also welcome photos from protests! Not a protester but concerned? Check out the Civil Liberties Defense Center, CLDC.org, and the National Lawyers Guild, NLG.org, for information on how to be an ally or a legal observer.
• Tuesday, Sept. 30, is the monthly last Tuesday ICE protest at the federal building (see Activist Alert for details.) On Tuesday, Sept. 23, local protesters were joined by some folks from Portland, and protesters were pepper sprayed and some were arrested by masked law enforcement. Find video at KLCC.org.
• It’s a spur-of-the-moment gesture of kindness from motorists for people who are generally homeless and are already feeling isolated on street corners, holding signs pleading for help. The motorist, stopped at an intersection, has a few extra bucks and hands it to the pedestrian on the corner. Now, the city of Eugene is considering a proposal banning motorists from this act unless legally parked, citing safety concerns. The result could be a $50 fine for the motorist. City Councilor Eliza Kashinsky noted at the Sept. 17 work session that the proposed ordinance is targeting the homeless and will distract police from monitoring other driving behaviors, while advocates for the ordinance maintain that this is a safety issue, not a free speech issue. The ban Eugene is discussing targets the driver for giving, not the panhandler for asking, so does not run afoul of free speech laws — it just runs afoul of human kindness.
• Could luck be your lady? On Sept. 27 at the Ford Alumni Center, get ready for a glamorous and high-stakes evening for a cause. The Lane County Diaper Bank is hosting a Masquerade Casino Night fundraiser. Enjoy delicious food and drinks while playing poker, blackjack and craps for raffle tickets of high-value prices. Every chip you play and every raffle ticket you buy helps provide free diapers to families in need. Quite crucially, there will also be a dessert dash showdown. Wear beautiful clothes, feel your best and try your luck to get some diapers on some babies. Find out more in the Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar or at LCDiaperbank.org.