News: Page 381

Rural Residents Worry Over New Mining Operation

News

“Here we go again. Big money moves into a neighborhood and excavates 40 feet into the ground near the river,” Wende Hitchcock says in exasperation. She says a gravel site along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River near Delight Valley Road has applied to the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) to expand its operations, including excavation and asphalt production. Hitchcock and other neighbors fear impacts to the rural community from noise and trucks to possible affects on wildlife and water. Continue reading →

Reporter Fired for Checking Email?

Serena Markstrom Nugent’s termination from the R-G draws employee protest

News
Photo by Amber Hogan

Almost 13 years after starting at Eugene’s local daily paper, The Register-Guard, reporter Serena Markstrom Nugent was fired while on pregnancy disability leave from the paper where she had worked since college. Another employee cleaned out Markstrom Nugent’s desk for her, and she was told she could pick up her belongings in the reception area. “It felt like getting punched in the stomach,” Markstrom Nugent says. Continue reading →

Mic Check! Whoville in Crisis

News

The U.S. flag is flying upside down at Whoville. This display of the flag is not disrespectful or against the law; it is a legal sign of dire distress according to the United States Code. The distress stems from a decision by Eugene City Manager John Ruiz to shut Whoville down "the first week in April," a week before the City Council had decided it must be closed and before any scheduled meeting of the City Council, which has not met since its March 12 work session when the council declined to take up the subject of Whoville before adjourning for a one-month vacation. Continue reading →

R-G fires popular reporter, well-wishing (aka protest) planned today

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The Register-Guard has fired popular entertainment reporter Serena Markstrom Nugent, and according to an email sent out by her former colleague, Bob Keefer, her friends and colleagues will be convening to wish her well today at 3:30 pm on the sidewalk in front of the R-G at 3500 Chad Drive. Markstrom Nugent will be going to the R-G to collect her personal items from her desk. EW is going to go out on a limb here and say this well-wishing is going to be more of a protest and will be heading out there to cover it. Continue reading →