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Oregonians convicted or arrested for marijuana offenses could have their records expunged this year if a recent amendment in the Oregon Legislature passes. Dense and lengthy House Bill 3400 is the Legislature’s catch-all bill for regulating Oregon’s burgeoning recreational pot industry and aligning it with the state’s already legal medical marijuana commerce and production. Continue reading
The Society of Professional Journalists held its annual award ceremony for the 2014 Northwest Excellence in Journalism competition June 6 at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany. Continue reading
Eugene is in the middle of an epic culinary competition. On June 16, Iron Chef Eugene enters its second heat, with Tiffany Norton and Mark Kosmicki of Party Downtown facing off against Ryk Francisco and Duncan Bennington of WildCraft Ciderworks. The event helps raise funds for Lane Community College’s culinary and hospitality management program. Continue reading
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has hit Pacific Recycling with yet another penalty (see previous Pollution Updates for other violations), this time for discharging stormwater containing hydraulic fluid to Roosevelt Channel in December. According to DEQ documents, a large grader that Pacific Recycling was unloading at its Cross Street facility on Dec. 23 tipped over, spilling hydraulic fluid. Continue reading
Oregon Department of Transportation is currently spraying roadsides. Call Tony Kilmer at ODOT District 5 at 744-8080 or call (888) 996-8080 for herbicide application information. Highways I-5, 101, 126 have recently been sprayed and Highway 36 may be sprayed soon. Continue reading
As EW worked on its latest story on the issue of rape on the University of Oregon campus, HBO's Vice contacted us for permission to use our cover image from last year's story on sexual assault, created by our own Trask Bedortha. If you watch the intro sequence you will see EW up there with Time Magazine. Continue reading
• The Metropolitan Policy Committee meets from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm Thursday, June 4, at the Eugene Public Library. Public comment time is early in the meeting and one of the agenda items is “Development of Draft Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan,” presented by Savannah Crawford of ODOT. Springfield Main Street public safety is also on the follow-up agenda. See lcog.org for more information. Continue reading
Just heard this week that Cynthia Pappas is retiring as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, and the Board of Directors has hired Lisa Gardner, former intergovernmental relations manager for the City Manager’s Office in Eugene. Gardner was previously city planning director. Pappas has been head of PPSO for the past nine years. Continue reading
Black students made up only 2.4 percent of the student body population at South Eugene High School at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. Five young African-American women will graduate from South on June 5, and EW caught up with three of them to discuss their plans for the future, their quests for diversity and their advice for young women of color growing up in Eugene. Continue reading
At approximately 1:30 am on Saturday, May 23, a group of six men attacked two women and one man on the sidewalk in front of Cowfish Dance Club in downtown Eugene. One of the men in the group punched Jasmyn Hinton in the eye and punched her partner Koen Derflinger in the face three times. The third person in the group — Nicole Foti — says she was hit in the stomach. Hinton, Derflinger and Foti say the six men were white, between the ages of 20 and 25, and looked like “stereotypical college guys.” Continue reading