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The Common Core approacheth: Starting with the 2014-2015 school year, Oregon public schools will do away with the old OAKS (Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) testing and usher in the Smarter Balanced Assessment, a new standardized test that evaluates student performance by Common Core standards. But with its ties to corporations and its rushed implementation in Oregon, Smarter Balanced is not winning over everyone. Continue reading
• ODOT is currently spraying roadsides. Call Tony Kilmer at ODOT District 5 at 744-8080 or call (888) 996-8080 for herbicide application information. Hwys. I-5, 58, 99, 101, 105, 126 and Territorial were sprayed recently. • Weyerhaeuser Company, 744-4684, plans to hire Mountainside Spray, 756-1193, to spray 2700 feet of roadsides near Hawley Creek with glyphosate, methylated seed oil and/or triclopyr. See ODF notice 2014-771-00460, call Marvin Vetter at 726-3588 with questions. Continue reading
It’s official: Wolf OR-7 and his lover have been busy making magic together and are now the proud parents of at least two wolf-lings, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Adorable baby wolves are good news in general, but OR-7 is particularly important because his love affair resulted in the first known wolf reproduction in the Oregon Cascades since the 1940s. Oh what a night! Continue reading
Credit Oregon's land use regulations or Eugene's efforts to keep within its urban growth boundary or our economic recession. Regardless, Eugene is ranked fourth in the nation in a new University of Utah analysis of cities in terms of "smart growth" and resisting sprawl. See http://wkly.ws/1rr Continue reading
Rumors that the Eugene Celebration and parade are being canceled this year are true, according to Brendan Releford of Kesey Enterprises, the private organization that runs the celebration along with the McDonald Theater and Cuthbert Theater. A press release is expected to be sent out to media at about 5:30 pm today (Tuesday, May 3) Continue reading
My first question when I saw this scam alert was: Who the heck would have "extra asphalt" that they would just go romping around rural Lane County trying to smear on your driveway? WATCH OUT FOR PAVING SCAMS IN LANE COUNTY News Release from Construction Contractors Board Posted on FlashAlert: June 3rd, 2014 11:14 AM Continue reading
After David Minor died in a biking accident in 2008, friends and family paid tribute to the social justice activist in a number of ways, from naming the David Minor Theater in his honor to establishing the David Minor Memorial Fund with the Willamette Farm and Food Coalition, helping improve access to healthy, locally grown foods for low-income people. Continue reading
• Oregon author and fish biologist Jim Lichatowich will speak at 6 pm Thursday, May 29, at Cozmic, 199 W. 8th Ave. He will read from and discuss his new book Salmon, People, and Place: A Biologist’s Search for Salmon Recovery. This event is free and sponsored by the Western Environmental Law Center. Call 255-0209. Continue reading
The Oregon Legislature last summer approved $3.75 million in seed funding for the South Willamette Valley Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network. RAIN’s goal is economic development for our region, which is slowly making the transition from a dependence on natural resources to a knowledge-based economy. RAIN is intended to help researchers at UO and OSU spin off private companies, provide mentors and create workspaces for tech start-ups. Continue reading
“My mom is white and my dad is black,” says Rena Dunbar, who learned about racism first-hand, growing up along with her twin sister Leah in Fort Wayne, Ind., a segregated steel mill industrial town. “Seeing discrimination made us activists.” The twins won scholarships to DePauw University in southern Indiana. They majored in English, started a chapter of Amnesty International and protested the first Gulf War. After graduation in 1994, Rena followed the Grateful Dead on tour as far as Autzen Stadium shows in June, and decided to stay on in Eugene. Continue reading