We've got issues.
It's endorsement time — ballots for the primary election here in Oregon get mailed tomorrow — and newspapers are putting out their endorsements, as well as printing page after page of stories, interviews and viewpoints on who's running and what we think of them. Sometimes the backstory is more fun than the endorsements. Continue reading
Reading legal documents is a key part of covering certain news stories. Sometimes it's fascinating. Sometimes I wish lawyers would stop capitalizing every other word (I know, it's a legal thing, but seriously people it's city, not City). Continue reading
Eugene physician Pam Wible gets interviewed for story on Daily Beast saying our health care system is so broken it's time for doctors to go on strike: http://wkly.ws/1qo Continue reading
• Springfield City Club will hold a county commissioner candidates forum at 11:45 am Thursday, May 1, at Willamalane Center, 250 S. 32nd St. Candidates from the East Lane and Springfield districts have been invited. The club meets every first and third Thursday. See springfieldcityclub.org. Continue reading
Whole Foods has its eyeballs on Eugene again, but no $8 million taxpayer-subsidized parking garage will be attached this time to get folks riled up. The Texas-based corporation tried to build at the same location just south of Ferry Street Bridge in 2006. We noted then that the chain averages $537,000 in sales per store each week. Even half that sales volume in Eugene would have an impact on established local stores, but Safeway, Albertson’s and Trader Joe’s are also chain stores, and the Natural Grocers chain is building on the north side of the bridge at the old Red Lion site. Continue reading
The daughter of parents who each became a teacher while she was growing up in Sacramento, Phyllis Haddox majored in education at Sacramento State and found work as a reading specialist at racially diverse Del Paso Heights Elementary, where she had gone to grade school. “The district had adopted the Direct Instruction model,” says Haddox, who came up to the UO in 1971 for training in DI, a highly scripted and fast-paced teaching method for young children, with its founder, Siegfried Engelmann. Continue reading
Dental coverage and living wages are not something people think about if they already have them. But when a worker doesn’t have one, or in the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) of the University of Oregon’s case, either, this can lead to not only health problems, but also to friction when it comes to contract negotiations. The UO GTFF 3544 held a rally Friday, April 25, outside Johnson Hall to spread awareness about what the union says is the administration’s lack of ability to meet with the GTFF and provide fair negotiations. Continue reading
The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted on April 22 to give County Counsel Stephen Dingle a raise via a step advancement after what commissioners say was a positive review in a closed executive session. Dingle’s salary was at $145,995 a year, according to his contract. His move to what the board order calls “the next step on the salary schedule for Program Manager, D82, which is Step 8,” puts his salary at $152,630. Continue reading
County Commissioner Pete Sorenson is calling for Lane County to return to being a little more open and available. He sent an email to the county’s agenda team, which determines what items will be dealt with at County Commission meetings, that starts, “I remember a time when the Republican Central Committee, the Democratic Party of Lane County and many other groups would routinely use Harris Hall as a gathering place. Continue reading
The Whiteaker neighborhood underwent something of a Velvet Revolution April 23 as residents of Eugene’s artsy neighborhood elected a total of 13 new members to the Whiteaker Community Council (WCC), including incoming chairman Sam Hahn and secretary David Nickles, author of the recent Whiteaker Manifesto. Continue reading