• In honor of our Chow Fish-ssue, here’s some food news! Popular Mandy’s Family Restaurant has opened 24-hour Duck-themed Mandy’s Diner on East Broadway near campus, and the original Mandy’s on Willamette will only be open 24-hours Thursday to Sunday. Also newly opened are Oh My Cod! (points for the name) in Valley River Center and Eugene Hot Pot Express in the Chicken Shanty location on West Broadway. Sadly, closing are longtime restaurant and nightspot The Davis, on the “Barmuda Triangle” corner downtown at West Broadway and Olive, and Whit favorite Izakaya Meiji abruptly closed for a second time after that whole “now we are Junglefowl” thing in late 2023, leaving us craving those miso eggs and whiskey ginger. There is a fundraiser for Davis owner Tom Kamis at GoFund.me/dc9b38289 to help him with his mounting medical bills.
• Summer Guide is on the horizon! Our annual issue chock-full of summer events is well underway and coming up quick! Submit all of your summer events to EugeneWeekly.com/calendar/ by noon, May 21, to be featured in the paper. For any questions or can’t miss events, contact Cal@EugeneWeekly.com.
• While a small work crew erected the controversial steel security fence at the Eugene Federal Building April 29, a group of about 25 people gathered in protest. The Eugene Police Department arrested Christopher Henry Bennett for resisting arrest, interfering with public transport and disorderly conduct in the second degree. It seemed like authorities expected a much larger presence — when the fencing finally arrived around 7 pm, over a dozen EPD and Springfield police officers also arrived in full riot gear and stood on Pearl Street, blocking the extremely small crowd of protesters from the work crew. After a brief stand-off, the riot police left the scene — and federal agents, along with a smaller EPD contingent, remained. The fence blocks the entrance to the Federal Building from Pearl Street to 7th Avenue, leaving a small open space in the plaza for protests.
• Eugene Weekly’s primary election endorsements hit the newsstands just as your ballots hit your mailboxes. We are told (as we are every time) that some of our endorsements surprised people. That means we are doing it right — we don’t endorse based on party line or how much money a candidate gets (who it’s from matters), we endorse based on interviews, interactions, debates, what we see in news coverage, policies and more. We spend hours on the process. Some news outlets have stopped endorsing — too much controversy — but EW loves the free exchange of ideas.
• Speaking of endorsements, we learn a lot about candidates by how they respond to our endorsements — or lack of one. Kudos to City Councilor Greg Evans, who we noted didn’t respond to our media requests when we endorsed his opponent. He gracefully reached out to us to clarify his lack of response was unintentional. Other candidates — and their supporters — have thrown some minor tantrums. In this Trumpian era of political attacks, it’s been interesting to observe how folks respond. Read letters to the editor in print and online at EugeneWeekly.com, check the vibe, and make good choices!
• PeaceHealth has a new twist! PeaceHealth and Eugene Emergency Physicians announced May 6 that they “agreed to reset the approach to Emergency Department physician services in Oregon.” This is after months of controversy in the courts, news sources and social media — TikTok and YouTube comedian Dr. Glaucomflecken has garnered hundreds of thousands of views online covering the saga and recently came to Eugene to perform.
•Come say “Hi!” Weekly staff and interns will be hanging out at the University of Oregon Street Faire, May 6 to 8 on 13th Avenue. Drop by the booth — we’ll be near the EMU, get some stickers, great food from the food carts and do some shopping.