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.
The Oregon Republican Party might have elected climate change-denier and urine-sampler Art Robinson to be its chair, but these days most Oregonians understand that manmade climate change is changing our planet. Groups in Portland and Corvallis will be hosting anti-climate change “Draw the Line: Stop Keystone XL” events on Sept. 21, and in Eugene there will be a “Pancakes not Pipelines” fundraising breakfast. Continue reading
The first person who waxed eloquent over Oregon author Brian Doyle’s Mink River (Oregon State University Press, $18.95) was a sportswriter for the Salt Lake Tribune. The second was a lovely woman I met at recent Planned Parenthood fundraiser who had read it with her book club. Doyle’s lovely Pacific Northwest tale with drops of magical realism appeals to people from all walks of life. The author of this novel, which The Oregonian called “shimmering” when it came out in 2010, will be at the downtown Eugene Public Library 2 pm Sunday, Sept. Continue reading
The Lane County Commissioners will be getting an update on the now-canceled contract with Kaleidoscope Music Festival at Emerald Meadows. The will also be discusing another controversial outdoor venue, Prindel Creek Farm. Continue reading
If you wanted to exercise your right to free speech this week on Lane County property then you would have found that the Free Speech Plaza was shut down. No problem. The county provided a 71-by-73-foot square in a gravel parking lot off 6th Avenue for free speech use from 6 am to 11 pm from Sept. 6 to 10. Continue reading
Maybe it’s the diaries of Lewis and Clark, or perhaps it’s Woody Guthrie’s folk song “Roll On, Columbia, Roll On” that makes us think of the Columbia River as a uniquely American waterway, but the river actually begins in the Canadian Rockies. The Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada has managed the river’s flows since 1964, and the time is nearing to reassess that treaty. Continue reading
[View the story “Climate Change III: Oceans and Salmon” on Storify] Continue reading
[View the story “Climate Change I: Science, streams, forests and oceans” on Storify] Continue reading
[View the story “Climate Change II: Science, streams and forests” on Storify] Continue reading
Update: Comments are now working! If you spend much time on either EW or the R-G's website, sooner or later you will run into some comments by MikeWrites. The R-G reported today that MikeWrites, aka Michael Patrick McFadden was one of the people arrested for protesting the closure of the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. (Ironically for some reason I can't get the comments to work on this blog post). Continue reading
Congressman Peter DeFazio said he doesn’t think it is a good idea to “lob cruise missiles for an unspecified objective” when it comes to dealing with the question of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war. Speaking at a press conference Aug. 30, DeFazio argued that congressional war powers have been eroded. President Barack Obama is now seeking congressional approval to attack Syria, without a United Nations mandate. Continue reading