Opinion: Page 383

Letters to the Editor: 5-15-2014

Letters

MILLIONS HAVE BEEN LOST Is PAC money from out of state being fused into Lane County politics? How much of it is from the Koch Bros? What does your gut tell you? This money is filling the political coffers of commissioners Jay Bozievich, Sid Leiken and Faye Stewart and has bought their loyalty at the expense of Lane County citizens. These commissioners have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars; add to that: scandals, corporate welfare, gerrymandering, lack of government transparency and lawsuits. Continue reading →

Slant 5-15-2014

Slant

• Election turnout is likely to be awful for the May 20 Primary since there’s not much on the ballot other than County Commission races, so if you’re ever wanted to make a difference, this is your time to shine. Every vote is bigger and badder when the turnout is small. Only about 12 percent of the ballots were in as of May 12. It’s peculiar that Lane County has more Democrats than Republicans and yet we’ve elected a right-wing, anti-environment majority to run the county. Continue reading →

Pesticide Drift

Bad forest practices cross cultural lines

Viewpoint

As an environmental studies major at the UO I’ve gotten very used to discussing issues of injustice and land degradation through a scholarly/ objective lens; however, I had never drawn these connections back to myself and how they affect me as an Oregonian. Never would I have imagined that a trip out to interview a community affected by pesticide drift — a predominantly middle class, white conservative community in Gold Beach — would connect directly to the working-class Latino-immigrant farmer community I grew up with in the Rogue Valley. Continue reading →

Slant 5-8-2014

Slant

• UO athletics and the broader university got another black eye nationwide this week with the story about three Duck basketball players accused of rape. The police report goes into disturbing details, but Damyean Dotson, Dominic Artis and Brandon Austin will not be prosecuted — not enough evidence to convict. We agree with the powerful and angry response from the UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence, citing “institutional betrayal” of survivors and “lack of institutional control” over athletics. Continue reading →

Nuclear Fire

Have we learned anything from Chernobyl?

Viewpoint

On April 26, 1986, in Pripyat, Ukraine, Chernobyl Reactor #4 suffered a power increase, which caused the whole plant to burn. On the night of the incident, Chernobyl's staff ran a safety drill. An automatic shutdown was supposed to happen in case of low water levels. But operators, who lacked proper training, blocked the automatic shutdown mechanism, because they thought the shutdown would abort the test. The coolant started boiling in the reactor, and reactor power slowly increased, which caused Reactor #4 to explode.  Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 5-1-2014

Letters

STABILITY FIRST Donating $400,000 to help unhoused people in the Eugene area is a very positive step in a humane direction, but so much more needs to happen. For example, Utah has moved 2,000 people off the streets and reduced chronic homelessness by 78 percent in the last eight years by simply providing people with apartments. Continue reading →

Slant 5-1-2014

Slant

• Look for our election issue and endorsements next week. Ballots will arrive in mailboxes soon for the May 20 Primary Election. You might not find a lot of sexy stuff on the ballot until the November General Election, but the primary has potentially a big impact. For those new to voting in Oregon, nonpartisan races, such as Lane County Commission positions, can be decided in the May Primary if one candidate gets at least 50 percent plus one vote. The commission races, of course, are anything but nonpartisan. Continue reading →

Two Old Memos

Is time running short for timber compromise?

Viewpoint

I’m looking at two memos that I wrote in July of 1991 when I worked for Congressman Peter DeFazio as a natural resource policy advisor. The memos were written on two consecutive days to reflect two meetings, one with the timber industry and the other with the environmental community. Earlier that year, all timber harvests on federal forests were halted by a federal court injunction. Thousands of jobs were at risk and the economies for many rural communities were in limbo. Continue reading →