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Camilla Mortensen is the longtime local editor of Eugene Weekly, the area’s alternative newspaper. The paper, which has been in print since 1982 (originally as What’s Happening) continues to print more than 27,000 copies a week in addition to its popular email newsletters and website. Camilla has a masters degree in folklore and mythology from UCLA and a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Oregon. She has been a reporter and editor at EW since 2007 and teaches journalism at the UO in the mornings before heading to the Weekly’s office. She also teaches newswriting at Lane Community College and advises The Torch student newspaper.
Standing on the sidewalk, you look up in the sky and see a curious crosshatching of straight white streaks. These are airplane contrails — clouds formed when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles that exist in aircraft exhaust, according to NASA. Continue reading
Many of those participating in a Stop Hate! rally in Springfield Sept. 29 were greeted by a loudspeaker, on the roof of the home of well known racist and anti-Semite Jimmy Marr, blasting offensive speech. Marr was arrested for disorderly conduct in the second degree, according to his booking at the Springfield Municipal Jail. Continue reading
Eugene Weekly has gotten word that local racist Jimmy Marr has been arrested for disorderly conduct in Springfield. EW correspondent Jennefer Harper, a CodePink activist, took photos of the arrest and says police are now searching Marr's home. Harper says she was walking to the Community Alliance of Lane County, Standing Up for Racial Justice and NAACP Stop Hate! rally outside Willamalane Center when she encountered Marr's house where he was blasting offensive speech such as "hate is good" from a loudspeaker on his roof. Continue reading
Eugene Center for Ethnobotanical Studies is hosting a kratom rally 9 pm, Friday Sept 30 at Kesey Square with informal speakers followed by a march to the federal building on 8th. Continue reading
Across most of the country, Oct. 10 is Columbus Day — celebrating Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America. But in Eugene and some other cities, including Seattle and Berkeley, we now celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. There is currently a push for Springfield to recognize the holiday, which turns what was a celebration of colonialism into a chance to celebrate indigenous resistance, to explore how indigenous peoples in the Americas have been oppressed and wiped out, and to organize against current injustices. Continue reading
Ken Darling, a descendent of Eugene Skinner has retained the law firm of Hutchinson Cox to intervene in a court action that seeks to determine if the deed restriction on the county-owned "Butterfly Lot" prevents the land being used for a Eugene City Hall. Continue reading
Avoiding the debates? St. Vinnie's is offering retail therapy for tonight's presidential debate. Press release is below. Vinnie’s provides ‘politics-free zone’ during tonight’s debate Sale from 6-8 p.m. tonight offers 50 percent off all books, clothing Continue reading
Long associated with attempts to alleviate urban blight, urban renewal in Eugene has turned its sights upon technology, and the city is implementing a high-speed fiber network downtown. Urban renewal has been seen as a tool for good and as a tool for destruction. Here in Eugene urban renewal money helped construct the Lane Community College (LCC) Downtown Campus that has been seen as a lynchpin in downtown revitalization. Continue reading
Although a written decision in the civil suit filed by former Register-Guard entertainment writer and reporter Serena Markstrom Nugent has yet to be filed almost three weeks after the case was dismissed, issues from the case continue to arise. In the wake of the trial, Markstrom Nugent’s fellow arts and features writer and the paper’s Eugene Newspaper Guild union co-president Randi Bjornstad has also been fired. Continue reading
While Measure 97, the tax on big corporations to help bolster Oregon’s struggling schools, seniors and health care has gotten the most press, Paige Richardson of the Outdoor School for All campaign wants to draw people’s attention to another education bill on the November ballot: Measure 99, which would create a separate fund, financed through Oregon Lottery Economic Development Fund and administered by Oregon State University (OSU), to provide Outdoor School programs statewide. Continue reading