Eugene Weekly

REMEMBERING MISA SMITH 1929 — 2012 There are a few people who quietly influence and bring out the best in this city. These people never seek center stage or public attention; they simply live from day to day doing what they have to do with dignity and strength, contributing immensely to our local culture. Continue reading →

ILLEGAL DISPOSAL “We conclude that the Fourth and 14th Amendments protect homeless persons from government seizure and summary destruction of their unabandoned, but momentarily unattended, personal property.” In early September, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Lavan v. City of Los Angeles that confiscating and destroying the personal property of the homeless constitutes unreasonable seizure. This ruling is legally binding upon the state of Oregon.  Continue reading →

FANTASTIC RECORD Once again Betty Taylor is the clear choice for City Council to represent south Eugene. Betty has done an outstanding job of representing her progressive and environmentally conscious district. She listens to all perspectives and always makes careful, thoughtful decisions. She works hard to represent us and has a fantastic track record of service. You can always reach Betty by phone if you need to talk with her about city issues. Continue reading →

WE NEED BETTY The rarest things in politics are compassionate liberals who are tough and fearless. They are the ones the coal shippers and exploiters spend tons of money to defeat. You know where they stand and will not fizzle out when the going gets rough. We have such a one on the Eugene City Council: Betty Taylor. I have been thrilled over the years of her service watching her work. I implore the voters of south Eugene: do not be sidetracked. Keep Betty Taylor on the council. We need her as never before. Jim Weaver, Eugene   Continue reading →

CIRCLE OF LIFE In response to Lucas Spiegel’s letter [9/13]: It is debatable whether humans can be nutritionally sound without meat, especially when you look at nutritional deficits across generations. Dr. Weston Price traveled the world in the 1920s seeking traditional cultures that thrived without any animal protein at all, and he found none. Not one.  Continue reading →

TOO LATE FOR TALK The lowest Arctic sea ice volume ever recorded! Yet another confirmation of rapid human-caused global warming. But climatologists are not cheering; they’re not celebrating the vindication of their theories. The results they predicted are not happening in a petri dish or a computer model — they’re happening in irreversible real time in the real world, the only world. And they’re happening faster than predicted. Continue reading →

CLICK YOUR HEELS Like the Land of Oz, Eugene is a magical place. But, as we learned from L. Frank Baum’s story, magic can be complicated and sometimes dark. Industry sorcerers are presently employing black magic to conjure up coal trains that threaten our fair city. If they succeed, dark clouds of coal dust will envelop Eugene as trains carry their toxic loads from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming through Eugene to the Port of Coos Bay for export to Asia. Continue reading →

THE CARETAKERS Several Occupy Eugene committees are collaborating on caretaking an empty downtown house which is involved in foreclosure. We have been at 1191 Lawrence for three weeks now, with the cooperation and support of the neighbors and the owner, who lives out of state. Continue reading →

COUNCIL DELAYING ACTION Jerry Ritter [Letters, 8/16] kindly asked me why housing for the homeless is a human right. The right derives from common decency, apparently a foreign concept to right-wingers. Continue reading →