Author: EW Staff

Slant 12-18-2014

Slant

• Parting is such sweet sorrow: Since Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota won the Heisman last week — and won it decisively — he ceased to be just another great UO athlete. If he wasn’t already, Mariota is now a national celebrity, evidenced by his immediate appearance on network television  Dec. 15 when he read the Top Ten list on “Late Night with David Letterman.” Letterman introduced Mariota as “a good-looking kid” from “your University of Oregon Ducks,” and he wasn’t talking to us, Eugene. Continue reading →

Hit the Books

Gift Guide

Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78RPM Records By Amanda Petrusich. Scribner, $18.95.  Do Not Sell At Any Price is an engaging, well-paced peek into the world of buying, selling and coveting rare 78-RPM records. (SPOILER ALERT: Did you know one of the world’s leading dealers of 78s lives just down the road from Eugene in Grants Pass?) Continue reading →

War Dead 12-18-2014

War Dead

In Afghanistan • 2,356 U.S. troops killed (2,351 last month) • 20,060 U.S. troops wounded in action (20,040) • 1,559 U.S. contractors killed (1,559) • 16,179 civilians killed (updates NA) • $770.2 billion cost of war ($763.1 billion) • $303.4 million cost to Eugene taxpayers ($300.6 million)   Against ISIS • $1.4 billion cost of military action ($1.2 billion) • $564,706 cost to Eugene taxpayers ($478,795) Continue reading →

Biz Beat 12-18-2014

Biz Beat

Alice Doyle of Log House Plants in Cottage Grove has been working for the past five years with Dutch and American horticultural researchers to refine and market a “Ketchup ’n’ Fries” grafted plant that grows potatoes underground and tomatoes above ground. Potatoes and tomatoes are related, and the first such graft was recorded in the early 1900s by Luther Burbank. The local Territorial Seed Company will have a national exclusive to sell mail-order plants and “I’m sure they‘ll see quite a bit of action,” Doyle says. Continue reading →

Slant 12-11-2014

Slant

• Congrats to all players for ending the GTFF strike on the UO campus. We’re even pleased that we can stop honking our horns in solidarity with the picketing graduate teaching fellows marching for hours on end. Hopefully, this conflict will not be a forerunner for broader labor disputes at the university, now that the faculty is unionized. It should not be. The UO has a long history of working peacefully with unions, the SEIU, for instance, and the GTFF until this fall. Continue reading →

Activist Alert 12-11-2014

Activist Alert

• Beyond Toxics is planning its annual winter event, this year called “Cozy Up With Beyond Toxics,” from 5 to 7:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 11, at 1192 Lawrence St. A video premier will be part of the festivities. See beyondtoxics.org.  • The Eugene Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will meet at 5:30 pm Thursday, Dec. 11, at the Atrium Building Sloat Conference Room, 99 West 10th Ave. Contact Lee Shoemaker at 682-5471 or email lee.shoemaker@ci.eugene.or.us. Continue reading →

Biz Beat 12-11-2014

Biz Beat

Tiny Tavern in the Whiteaker was shut down by Lane County health inspectors Dec. 5 for health code violations, according to the Eugene Brewery District website. The bar at 394 Blair Blvd. scored 67 points out of 100 and “according to regulations, any score of 70 or less will require the business to close its doors until corrections and a re-inspection can be made,” says the website. Jeff Malos owns the building and is rumored to be looking to sell it. Back in our Sept. 25 Biz Beat, we wrote about the bar closing when manager Jeff Peck left to open Old Nick’s Pub. Continue reading →

Slant 12-4-2014

Slant

• The Graduate Teaching Fellows’ strike on the UO campus is still on as we go to press this week. Our sympathies have been with the GTF Federation since negotiations began, and we are baffled by the UO administration’s response, considering interim President Scott Coltrane’s background. Coltrane is described in a recent New York Times article as a sociologist who has done extensive research on issues central to these negotiations. He should have led the way in giving the GTFs two weeks of paid sick  and parental leave and a pay raise. Continue reading →