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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.
The recent rape investigation at the University of Oregon has not only triggered a spate of articles about the issue locally and across the nation, it’s also triggering requests for emails, contracts and other information from UO staff who might be involved in the investigation or its handling. As a state institution the UO, like other government entities, is subject to Oregon’s Public Records Law. Continue reading
Galloping down the beach, the wind in your hair and whipping through your horse’s flying mane as her hooves splash in the frothy waves — I’ve daydreamed about it, and I know I’m not the only one. Even non-horse owners get caught up in the romance of thundering across the sand and water à la The Black Stallion. Continue reading
Federal Judge Michael McShane ruled at noon today at the U.S. federal courthouse here in Eugene that Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage was unconsitutional. That's not the only good news. Continue reading
This just in from Oregon United for Marriage: Continue reading
UO radio station KWVA and Portland television station KATU have aired interviews with an alleged witness to the events in the the UO rape investigation. The UO's SWAT (Sexual Wellness Awareness Team) questions the paper's coverage of the alleged witness's story writing that it just serves to discredit and get people to question the victim's story in a viewpoint in the Oregon Daily Emerald. Continue reading
This story contains details of an alleged sexual assault that may be triggering to some readers and rape survivors. EW uses the word “alleges” not to indicate doubt in the survivor but as a legal term for when no charges have been proven in a court of law. Continue reading
"I can't hear you over the weight of scientific consensus!" Last Week Tonight with John Oliver rocks the climate change debate — or lack of it, as Oliver points out, it's really not a debate at all. He says polling people to see if they believe in climate change is kind of like asking "Do owls exist?" or "Are there hats?" Continue reading
In this week's EW election coverage I write about who donated how much money to which campaign. One of the first rules of journalism (and keep in mind there are a lot of "number one rules of journalism") is follow the money. Want to do a little Oregon campaign stalking yourself? Here's how. Continue reading
Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich has never quite lived down dressing up in a tricorner hat for a Tea Party tax day rally in 2009. The incident came up again at a recent City Club of Eugene debate between Bozievich and challenger Dawn Lesley for the West Lane Commission seat. Continue reading
Now that the Great Recession has officially ended, the pie is getting bigger, according to David Cay Johnston, but the bottom 90 percent is getting less pie. Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, has written a trilogy of books on financial inequities and has been teaching a course on “Property and Tax from Ancient Athens to America” at Syracuse University since retiring from The New York Times in 2008. Johnston will be speaking about “How Inequality Affects You” at the City Club of Eugene on May 9. Continue reading