• Sept. 7 is Labor Day, which in Oregon is the harbinger of fall. This means that the midterm elections are drawing near. The election is Nov. 3 and the last day to register to vote is Oct. 13. President Donald Trump is trying to fuck with our vote-by-mail system per an August 24 Supreme Court decision that paves the way for restrictions. However, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said at an August 25 press conference that Oregon will follow its current election laws and protect residents’ right to vote by mail. Election season also means that the editorial team at Eugene Weekly is starting our election endorsements process. Know someone running for office? Reach out to Editor@EugeneWeekly.com. Longtime Lane County administrator, Steve Mokrohisky, is leaving in 2027. He’s been a steady hand at the county, so let’s make sure we elect a good commissioner in the contested East Lane race to help choose the next administrator. 

• We are dismayed to report that the Highway 58 Herald, which serves the rural Hwy 58 corridor, with a focus on Oakridge, will close its doors Sept. 15 unless someone steps up with an idea for the nonprofit paper’s future. You can read our story about it on EugeneWeekly.com, and find The Herald’s fundraiser on GoFundMe.com. Rural areas desperately need news coverage. And, yes, the Weekly would absolutely cover Oakridge, but we, too, need the financial means to do it. Ideas? Reach out to The Herald at General@highway58herald.org or to Eugene Weekly Editor Camilla Mortensen, who is on the board of directors, at Editor@EugeneWeekly.com. We know how it feels to be a news source in danger of disappearing and will forever be grateful to our supporters!

• We also know how it feels to be embezzled, and you can read our breaking news story online this week about the $1.5 million an employee allegedly embezzled from McKenzie Watershed Alliance. Embezzlement happens more often that you might think, and the feelings of betrayal go deep. If you want something more bright, check out photographer Todd Cooper’s shots of the Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue show at the Cuthbert Amphitheater August 20. Love the photos? Love the Cuthbert? Weirdly enough there are Best of Eugene Categories for photogs and venues at Vote.EugeneWeekly.com. Fun fact: We have been doing a readers poll for 30 years! Another fun fact, we debuted our red boxes in spring 1995! 

• The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition says there were 21 detentions reported to the PIRC hotline August 14 to 20 in nine counties including Lane and Marion counties and 61 detentions reported to PIRC in August. Just what does that cost? It costs a lot emotionally to the families and it costs communities beloved members. The University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center in conjunction with the Economic Policy Institute and Shared Futures has developed a “cost of deportations” calculator, which says that in Oregon the almost $3 million dollars, or $1,859 per taxpayer, that has been spent on on mass deportations, could fund 9,527 school teachers, 9,778 firefighters, 131,249 people on Medicaid and so on. Find the calculator at EPI.org/deportation-calculator.

• Can we just note we are really sad that Dolly Parton died August 25? We are all gonna sing, “Eugene, Oregon, I’ll remember you for the rest of my life/ I won’t forget how good you were to me.” From just being Dolly, to her Imagination Library that sends books to children from birth to age five in Eugene and across the country, we lost a treasure.