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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.
According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) one in six men have been through abusive sexual experiences before reaching adulthood. Males experience the same feelings and reactions as other survivors of sexual assault, RAINN says, but they may also be up against additional challenges “because of social attitudes and stereotypes about men and masculinity.” Continue reading
Illustration courtesy whatslegaloregon.com “Legalize it …” Peter Tosh sang in 1976 and, nearly 40 years later, Oregon did. Continue reading
The weather might be heading for the triple digits this weekend. Some people will head for the river, others for the coast, and some of us will head to Philomath (just outside Corvallis) for three days of watching riders ask large hooved mammals to prance like equine ballet dancers one day, then run balls-to-the-wall over ditches, logs and oddly shaped immobile obstacles the next. It's time for the 18th annual Inavale Farm Horse Trials. Continue reading
Members of the group Honor the Treaty of 1864 saddled up their horses in Chiloquin, Oregon and have been riding their mounts over the Cascades to the state Capitol in Salem. They plan to arrive in Salem Wednesday, June 24 and rally on the issues of tribal water rights, the Klamath Basin Water Agreements, Senate Bill 133 and a proposed LNG pipeline. Continue reading
Going viral in a political-geek sort of way is a video compilation of Oregon state legislators reading mean emails from constituents. In the vein of Jimmy Kimmel's "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets" your elected representatives read the nasty emails they've been getting. Continue reading
On Sunday afternoons in Eugene you may have noticed some people wandering downtown with big, warm insulated bags of food, wafting the scent of burritos behind them. Burrito Brigade is an all-volunteer group of vegan burrito makers that started distributing tasty wraps to those in need about a year and a half ago. Continue reading
Congressman Peter DeFazio has vehemently opposed the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal from early on, telling EW in January 2014 that the deal was “informed and manipulated by corporate interests” and that if the public knew what was in the classified document, they wouldn’t like it. Continue reading
As EW worked on its latest story on the issue of rape on the University of Oregon campus, HBO's Vice contacted us for permission to use our cover image from last year's story on sexual assault, created by our own Trask Bedortha. If you watch the intro sequence you will see EW up there with Time Magazine. Continue reading
Jon Krakauer doesn’t start Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Doubleday, $28.95) with one of the worst scenes in the book; he eases into it with the police pulling up to tell a young woman named Allison Huguet that her rapist has confessed. Only a couple pages later does Krakauer tell of the assault and of Beth Huguet’s horror when her daughter calls her at 4 am gasping with panicked sounds into the phone before screaming, “He’s chasing me! Help me! Save me! Mom!” Continue reading
Friday was bloody for some smaller papers in Oregon last week. EW hears through the grapevine that Lee Enterprises, owner of the Corvallis Gazette-Times and Albany Democrat-Herald cut City Editor Theresa Novak and Arts Editor Sarah Payne from staff at the Gazette-Times May 29. Also laid off were Albany Democrat-Herald's sports editor Les Gehrett and two staffers at the Lebanon Express, according to a tip EW recieved. Continue reading