News: Page 241

I wanted to volunteer at the hospital, but they said I was too young

Happening People
Serena Orsinger

  At age 15, Serena Orsinger has spent 10 years in French immersion classrooms, from kindergarten at Fox Hollow/Charlemagne through middle school at Roosevelt, to South Eugene’s International High School. She’s front row center in the photo. As a freshman last year, she was looking for a way to get involved in the community beyond school. “I wanted to volunteer at the hospital,” she says, “but they said I was too young.”  Continue reading →

A Queen for the Books

The 2016 SLUG queen talks bar clowns, books and baby dolls

News

Do you remember what your favorite color was when you were a kid? Winter Peterson remembers hers: multicolor. “I saw that on a container of glitter when I was a kid and thought it was one color,” she says. “But no – it was all colors.” Since then, her worldview hasn’t gotten any less colorful. Peterson calls herself a “recreational, loud, gaudy person,” and she can often be seen around Eugene in drag or even a clown costume. “People don’t expect to see clowns out at the bars,” she says. Continue reading →

County Calls a Temporary Halt to Controversial Changes to Petition Process

News

The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 on Aug. 30 to call a six-month halt on its efforts to change its initiative petition process, Commissioner Pete Sorenson tells EW.  The initiative petition process allows the public to collect signatures and get measures on the ballots, such as efforts to ban aerial sprays of pesticides or genetically modified crops — two issues that local group Community Rights Lane County has been working on. Continue reading →

Springfield Students go to Nepal

Students will hike the first stages of the Everest Trek and visit the U.S. Embassy

News
A3 students headed to Nepal include: Ethan Varner, Satysha Whitworth, Zia Lasky, Katie Hibbard, Morning Glory Ritchie, Maia Mendelssohn and Mason Wingert. Not present Jesus Hewitt. Photo Courtesey Ed Mendelssohn.

Students from the Academy of Arts and Academics (A3), a public high school in Springfield, will head to Nepal in October to volunteer, hike the first stages of the Everest Trek and visit the U.S. Embassy. Mike Fisher, the school’s director and a former volunteer with the Peace Corps, and Ed Mendelssohn, the school’s managing director, say they started planning the trip last winter after a visit to the Tacoma School of the Arts.  Continue reading →

Burnt Berners fired-up over corporate tax measure

News

Some Bernie Sanders supporters wept as they watched Hillary Clinton snag her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention this summer. Months of hard grassroots toil erased. Millions of dreams squashed. Many diehard Berners balk at the notion of another Clinton presidency. And of course Trump is a non-starter. The quadrennial scrum for the Oval Office has devolved into a dog and pony show of oligarchic proportions. Continue reading →

Lane County Area Spray Schedule 9-1-16

Spray Schedule

• The Kester family (541-520-0131) has engaged JR Helicoptors of Yakima, Washington, (509-452-3300) to spray 40.4 acres with a mixture of glyphosate, Polaris SP, SFM Extra and surfactant. Located near Hawley Creek and 1/2 mile north of Cottage Grove-Lorane highway. Starts Sept. 15 and ends Nov. 15. Notification # 2016-781-10253.  Contact Oregon Department of Forestry Brian Peterson (541-935-2283). Continue reading →

Breaking News: Lane County Calls a Temporary Halt to Controversial Changes to Initiative Petition Process

News

The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 today, Aug. 30, to call a six-month halt on its efforts to change its initiative petition process, Commissioner Pete Sorenson tells EW.  The iniative petition process allows the public to collect signatures and get measures on the ballots, such as efforts to ban aerial sprays of pesticides or genetically modified crops.  Continue reading →

Activist Alert 8-25-2016

Activist Alert

• Native American activists have temporarily shut down the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The North Dakota protest centers on a pipeline that would carry about half a million barrels of Bakken crude per day to Illinois where it would link with other pipelines to transport the oil to Gulf Coast refineries and terminals. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says the 1,172 mile pipeline route threatens the tribe’s drinking water and would disturb sacred and cultural sites. Continue reading →

New Treatment Center Surges

News

Willamette Family Inc., an affordable health care provider that offers services ranging from mental health to substance abuse counseling, recently dramatically increased the number of people it serves at its newest Eugene clinic. Willamette Family’s new Rapid Access Center and Medical Clinic opened January 2016 at 12th and Charnelton, and after serving 123 clients in the first month, Willamette Family says it now serves around 1,000 people per month.  Continue reading →

Farewell Eagle Park Slim

A great loss to Eugene music scene

News
‘We just want to keep Slim alive, through his music and everything,’ says Eagle park Slim’s long-term partner Gwen Johnson.

Local blues institution and Saturday Market staple Eagle Park Slim, né Autry McNeace, passed away at 74 last weekend, leaving behind his partner Gwen Johnson, his son Donnie McNeace, two grandchildren as well as Johnson’s nine children and 16 grandchildren. While Slim has had a history of heart failure, and earlier this summer received a wireless heart-monitoring system implant, Johnson tells EW the results for cause of death are still pending. Continue reading →