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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.
“I doubt we’ll put in a Ferris wheel,” Brian Obie says of his proposed new development downtown. County Commissioners voted 4-1 on Feb. 26 to give Lane County Administrator Liane Richardson authority to enter into discussions for an interim lease and exclusive negotiating rights with Obie and Housing and Community Services Agency of Lane County (HACSA) for land at East 6th Avenue and Oak, near Obie’s 5th Street Public Market. Continue reading
The Lane County dump smells like fundraising to Commissioner Faye Stewart. A bill that has been introduced to the State Legislature, SB 248, would increase garbage “tipping” fees up to $10 more per ton at Short Mountain Landfill in order to raise funds for what has been dubbed the Goshen Region Employment and Transition (GREAT) Plan. The fee would apply to the entire county and would likely raise residential and business garbage fees. Continue reading
The Cascadia Forest Defenders (CFD) have been using treesits, blockades and other forms of civil disobedience to halt logging in the Elliott State Forest for the past four years. But a bill, HB 2595, that was brought before the Oregon Legislature’s House Judiciary Committee in Salem March 4 would make free speech and protest activities a felony, complete with a mandatory minimum sentence. Another bill, HB 2596, also aiming to quell state forests protests, has also been introduced. Continue reading
When it comes to saving the environment, lawyers and protesters often go hand in hand, so it may come as no surprise that alongside (though not an official part of) the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the UO Feb. 28 to March 3, there were acts of protest. Continue reading
Protesters take over Franklin Boulevard. The Cascadia Forest Defenders, Deep Green Resistance and other groups held an "action against extraction" on Sunday, March 3, following the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, to call attention to global-warming inducing tar sands pipelines, fracking, coal exports and other damaging fossil-fuel projects. More in this week's EW. Continue reading
Earth: Too big to fail. That’s the theme of this year’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) Feb. 28 through March 3 at the University of Oregon. But perhaps we should be asking the question: Are we failing the Earth? Continue reading
Twelve-year-old Jared Harrison testified about his experiences being shut in a seclusion room at his 4J school before the Legislature’s House Committee on Education in Salem on Feb. 22. “I think people have it in their minds that kids that are exposed to this kind of treatment are some kind of monsters,” Jared’s mother, Jennifer Harrison, says. “They are not thinking about a kid who can speak at length publicly.” Continue reading
Eugene-based Beyond Toxics wants the city’s public parks and public lands to go pesticide free, but the group says it’s still having trouble finding out just what toxins are being sprayed in the city and what public money is being spent on them. A public records request to the city of Eugene for the information was met with a fee estimate of more than $7,000. Continue reading
Fritz, an Australian shepherd mix and the beloved pet of John Beere and Cindy Corder, died on Jan. 20 while out for a walk at the Salmon River Fish Hatchery near Otis, Ore. The dog was strangled by an 8-inch conibear trap set to kill river otters that had been eating rainbow trout out of the hatchery’s ponds. Continue reading
“We are screwed in all kinds of senses if we keep doing what we’re doing and don’t change course,” says Thomas Linzey, executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Linzey, an attorney, says that he had to be persuaded to come give a keynote talk at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) because “we don’t see lawyers as change agents.” He adds, “I let them know up front that my talk would be based on why environmental law has failed.” Continue reading