In Search of Perfection
Whatever makes you feel beautiful is right
High cheekbones, even tans, long hair, perfect teeth, small feet, long eyelashes. The list goes on and on. What comes to your mind when I say beauty? Continue reading
Opinion: Page 401
Next Generation American
The shifting identity politics of multiculturalism
“I really should’ve packed a lunch.” The woman with the tightly wrapped bun on the top of her head is impatiently attempting to explain to me that the information on my birth certificate doesn’t match my mother’s. She hands me back my mom’s quadruple stamped, handwritten, Salvadoran civil war-era birth certificate, which looks as if it had been lost in Wes Anderson’s prop closet. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 5-30-2013
TAKE BACK THE BUDGET Thank you to everyone who voted, helped, and supported the No City Fee Campaign. People stepped up from all over our community to write letters, go door to door, make phone calls and contribute skills or resources — we could not have prevailed in this election without your activism. Together, we fought City Hall and won. Continue reading
Slant 5-30-2013
• The debate over the city services fee has generated a renewed awareness and interest in how our fair city is managed, and that’s a good thing. Letters to the editor this week offer suggestions on how budget priorities can be adjusted. Our city Budget Committee members are getting public input and have ideas on how funds can be reallocated. Continue reading
Raising the TAG Bar
As Eugene School District 4J works to meet a June deadline to comply with a corrective order regarding gifted education issued by the Oregon Department of Education, a second complaint has been filed against the district, according to the parent who filed the complaints and the education department. Continue reading
Of Bankruptcies and Turkeys
How to keep local governments afloat
Looking back in my legislative rearview mirror, it’s amazing to think about issues facing the 2013 legislative session that weren’t even imagined in 2003. Facebook and social media protection for workers, for example, or protecting human placentas from overzealous right wingnut hospital administrators, or drones. Ah, did I mention a collapse of the housing market? This 77th edition of Salem’s Hot Air Society will have to consider another daunting problem: local government bankruptcies in Oregon. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 5-23-2013
CONTROLLING OUR FOOD Our busy lives leave us little time to consider the sources of our freedom. In a world awash with iPads, smart phones and other technological marvels brought to us by global corporations, our tendency to leave the thinking to others is understandable — but there are moments when things change, when the way things are going just feels wrong. Continue reading
Slant 5-23-2013
• No big surprise in the defeat of the Eugene city services fee on this week’s ballot. What are the lessons to be learned here? For starters, the opinion polling that encouraged this measure did not include any of the objections that were easily anticipated. Continue reading
Of Deadlines and Decals
Both sides hunker down with unfinished business
Deadlines come and go in Oregon’s legislative cycle. The deadline for most committees to post notice of action on bills that have cleared the other chamber is May 20, and the deadline to complete action on those bills is May 31. The legal deadline for session adjournment is July 13. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 5-16-2013
BILL OF GOODS Voters should reject the proposed city services fee on the May ballot. It is regressive and open-ended taxation subject to change at the whim of a future City Council. Lower income folks, renters and small businesses will pay the same as wealthy citizens and large corporations. Continue reading