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 University System (OUS) workers represented by SEIU Local 503 will be voting on whether or not to strike Sept. 9, 10 and 11. The union, which represents classified employees at the University of Oregon and other schools, posted on its website on Aug. Continue reading
It remains to be seen if splititng up Oregon's state schools is going to pan out for the benefit of all the schools or just the ones with big donors (aka "Uncle" Phil Knight, who pulled himself from the list). But for the long-term good of higher ed or not, the boards are announced. Some commentary in italics, please feel free to jump in. Gottfredson says in his email to the UO: Continue reading
Trains smack of progress, freedom and adventure. It’s said that railroads revolutionized America. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) touts the safety record of the rails: “In 2012, North American railroads safely delivered more than 2.47 million carloads of hazardous materials.” But sometimes trains leak, derail or just plain explode. Continue reading
Alley Valkyrie said from the beginning that closing the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza was unconstitutional, and a recent ruling in Eugene Municipal Court has proven her right, she says. The arguments in court centered on poop, which makes for giggles, but Valkyrie’s attorney, Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, says it’s no laughing matter when someone’s free speech rights are being taken away. “Whenever anybody’s constitutional rights are diminished, everybody’s rights are harmed,” Regan says. Continue reading
The Bureau of Land Management has issued a “finding of no significant impact” on its order to close the White Castle timber sale to public access, but the protesters currently occupying the trees in opposition to the planned logging project beg to differ. They say cutting the native trees hurts the ecosystem and doesn’t solve the root problems of lack of money for counties and a lack of jobs. A comment period on the closure ends Aug. 30. Continue reading
The Oregon Legislature may have banned roping horses to trip them in the last session, but the horse tripping issue hasn't gone away. The Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo is alleged to have said it will continue the event, despite the law and public outcry, and a recently released recording shows police in Malheur County discussing the fact the rodeo board compelled them to pull over an animal rights activist. Continue reading
Clean drinking water is a logging issue in Oregon, where so many of our watersheds are on forest lands. In the furor over the DeFazio forest bill — or more properly the O&C Trust, Conservation and Jobs Act — river advocates say that the need to protect water for fish, wildlife and humans gets lost as people argue over county payments, timber jobs and board feet. Continue reading
More than 20 percent of Lane County residents are on food stamps — that’s 80,657 people in a county with a population of about 350,000 who need federal assistance to eat and to feed their children. Local mapper and retired government employee Joe Kosewic has been mapping food stamps and other social issues to graphically draw attention to the challenges faced by the poor and the homeless. Continue reading
Type UniversityofNike.com into your browser and see where it goes. Hat tip to UO Matters for pointing it out. Hard to say whether that is actually the UO embracing its worship of Phil Knight or someone playing tricks on the Knight School, as the R-G quoted earlier this week: Continue reading
When the megaloads came through last night, despite the objections of the Nez Perce tribe and the U.S. Forest Service, protesters were there to try to block them. Elders of the Nez Perce tribe were among those arrested as they tried to stop the massive loads of tar sands equipment. According to Borg Hendrickson of The Rural People of Highway 12 — Fighting Goliath, the Nez Perce Drum Circle and the Aug. Continue reading