News: Page 359

Eugene’s Raining Slug Queen Crowned

News
SLUG Queen candidate Lisa Arkin circulates the crowd before the competition

A bumblebee handing out shots amid a flood of flashy, radiant costumes on the Saturday Market stage at the downtown Park Blocks marked the beginning of this year’s SLUG (Society for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod) queen coronation Aug. 8. This observance of unconventional beauty was a heated competition between four colorful candidates that was ultimately won by Bulbous Slimebledore, aka local software developer Daniel Borson. Continue reading →

County Commission’s Anti-Sick Leave Ordinances Questioned

News

The Lane County Commission acted against Eugene’s paid sick leave ordinance before the city had its public hearing on the issue. The three ordinances that the county rushed to vote contain a typo in a reference to Oregon law, and they are similar to model legislation to preempt sick leave put forth at the state level by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Continue reading →

Activist Alert 8-7-2014

Activist Alert

• “Viet Nam: An Inner View” is a live multi-media performance and book release at 7 pm Friday, Aug. 8, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette. Advance tickets at $10 are available at Tsunami. Tickets day of the program are $11. The event marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, authorizing U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Marc C. Continue reading →

Biz Beat 8-7-2014

Biz Beat

Dramatic circulation drops in nearly all Oregon newspapers are documented in the new Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association directory. Looking at weekday subscriptions and weekday single-copy sales, The Register-Guard went from 51,040 last year to 43,663 this year.  The Oregonian went from 228,599 last year to 162,599 this year — what’s shocking is the stalwart Oregonian had weekday numbers approaching half a million in the 1990s. The Corvallis Gazette-Times went from 9,815 last year to 8,607 this year. Continue reading →

Ron Buss

Happening People
Ron Buss

“I got tired of rain,” says Ron Buss, who grew up in the Seattle/Tacoma area, but spent high school summer vacations with his older brother in Modesto, California, moving furniture for Beacon Van Lines. “I started when I was 14.” After graduation, Buss moved south to work for his brother, then spent a decade at warehouse work. He eventually got a truck and a PUC license and returned to household moving. “I made  $100,000 a year,” says Buss, who was supporting a house, a wife and three kids. Continue reading →

And Inequality for All

How do we resolve Lane County’s great income divide?

News
Tonya Bunning

Tonya Bunning became a single parent of two teenagers when her husband left. She remembers thinking, “Oh, crap. What do I do? Where do I go?” Bunning and her children went to live with her family in Arizona for a year and a half, but her severe asthma and unhappy children led her back to Oregon. The family of three sold all they could, fit the rest in their van and drove to Eugene. Continue reading →

Seneca Air Pollution A Civil Rights Issue

News

Beyond Toxics has been calling attention for years to what it says are the “disproportionate environmental and human health effects” of the Seneca biomass burning plant on nearby communities. Seneca Sustainable Energy is located in the West Eugene Industrial Corridor, an area with a higher-than-average number of low-income and Latino residents, according to Lisa Arkin of Beyond Toxics. Continue reading →

Climate Action Teen Camp Looks For Postive Change

News

An upcoming camp for teenagers presents an opportunity for kids to get involved in climate change justice. The Next Generation Climate Action Camp, hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center, is aimed at empowering youth to make change in their communities, according to Amber Mongan, associate director of CLDC. “We wanted to provide the sort of action camps that are available to adults, but specify it for teenagers,” Mongan says. “Public schools don’t cover this kind of stuff, so we want to fill that need.”  Continue reading →

LTD Faces Big Utility Bills For EmX Expansion

News

Expansion of Lane Transit District’s EmX bus rapid system into west Eugene could run up utility costs to LTD exceeding $9.2 million, according to a memo sent July 28 to the EWEB board from EWEB Engineering Manager Mel Damewood and planner Jon Thomas. The memo was on the agenda for the Aug. 5 EWEB board meeting as an information item and no board action was anticipated. Continue reading →