We've got issues.
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.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley is feeling the burn — of climate change. But maybe he’s feeling the Bern, too. Merkley teamed up with presidential candidate and fellow Sen. Bernie Sanders on Nov. 4 to introduce new climate change legislation. The “Keep It In the Ground Act” would end all new federal leases for oil, gas or coal extraction on public lands and waters. Continue reading
In the latest update on the long-simmering debate over large events — think music concerts and Faerieworlds — at Lane County Parks, the County Commission has voted to approve all the recommendations of the Large Events Task Force. You can see the members of the task force and other information at the county website here. The full press release is below. Continue reading
As President Obama heads toward his last year in office, he has been stepping up his actions on climate change. Today he he announced he has said no to the Keystone XL pipeline. Earlier this week, the State Department had turned down Canadian company TransCanada's request to delay government review of the pipeline, fueling speculations the Obama administration would reject it. Continue reading
It’s halfway though fall term and Michael Schill has been UO president since July 1. He’s five months into his term as the fifth president (counting interim leaders, too) in five years, something that has led the Chronicle of Higher Education to call the Ducks’ leadership position a “revolving door.” Schill met with members of EW’s editorial board Oct. 30 to talk about some of the UO’s current occupations. Continue reading
When Ali Emami steps outside his store on Willamette Street, he can look into the neighboring public plaza and see the statue of Ken Kesey. He says he remembers chatting with sculptor Pete Helzer in 2003 when Helzer was working on the bronze artwork officially known as “The Storyteller.” Continue reading
“Right now at this moment a coyote is strangling in a neck snare or a wolf is struggling in a leghold trap,” says Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense and one of the nonprofit’s founders. The predator advocacy group is celebrating 25 years of work to protect coyotes, wolves, cougars and other predators on Nov. 5 with movies and a Q&A at the Bijou Art Cinemas on 13th Avenue. Continue reading
A little Huffington Post poll shows Dems and Repubs disagreeing … and agreeing. Continue reading
Call them crawdads, call them crayfish but whatever you call them, ringed crayfish are native to the central plains and Ozarks, not Oregon, and a recent discovery of the invasive crayfish in Lane County's Row River new Cottage Grove is troubling biologists according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Continue reading
The clock may be ticking for the unique bit of open space in Eugene’s downtown that is Kesey Square. But Ali Emami, owner of the two buildings that have common walls with the plaza, says that when he heard rumors the public space might be sold and developed into apartments, he came before the Eugene City Council last week to again renew his offer to open up the walls of the buildings and make the space more inviting. Continue reading
Civilian oversight of the police tends to be reactive not proactive, says Mark Gissiner, Eugene’s civilian police auditor. Yet a recent $755,000 jury verdict in the “Bowl of Dicks” retaliation case against the University of Oregon’s police department has not prompted change in the UO’s police oversight. Continue reading