News: Page 385

City Home Repair Program Drained Of Funding

News

Eugene City Council reallocated $150,000 to the city’s Emergency and Minor Home Repairs (EMHR) program, which assists low-income homeowners and tenants with emergency and accessibility-related home repairs. The program experienced a higher demand than usual for repair assistance this winter, according to City Grants Manager Michael Wisth, and had exhausted its funding for fiscal year 2014. Funds were taken from the city’s microenterprise development program. Continue reading →

Gottfredson Yet To Sign Off On Academic Freedom

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University President Michael Gottfredson. Photo courtesy of University of Oregon.

Students, faculty and staff at the University of Oregon have the right to conduct controversial scholarship and teaching or hold contentious public positions, according to the University Senate, a body made up of faculty, students and staff that is a partner in the shared governance of the UO.  In early April the senate body unanimously passed an Academic Freedom Policy. Professor Michael Dreiling, the president of the UO’s newly formed union, United Academics, says that this policy would help to unlock “the greatest potential” that the UO has to offer. Continue reading →

Income Inequality

Will lax financial laws lead to the end of our democracy?

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David Cay Johnston

Now that the Great Recession has officially ended, the pie is getting bigger, according to David Cay Johnston, but the bottom 90 percent is getting less pie. Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, has written a trilogy of books on financial inequities and has been teaching a course on “Property and Tax from Ancient Athens to America” at Syracuse University since retiring from The New York Times in 2008. Johnston will be speaking about “How Inequality Affects You” at the City Club of Eugene on May 9. Continue reading →

Endorsements – May 2014

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Statewide Offices U.S. Senator (Democrat) — Jeff Merkley Merkley has two challengers in the primary, lawyer William Bryk of New York, who has never been to Oregon, and Pavel Goberman of Beaverton, an immigrant and perennial candidate for various elected posts. Merkley is a rising star in the Senate and a strong voice for economic justice and health care reform. In November he will face a Republican challenger, either Jason Conger or Monica Wehby.   Oregon Governor (Democrat) — John Kitzhaber Continue reading →

Women Challenge Leiken

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Sheri Moore

Springfield City Councilor Sheri Moore and Licensed Practical Nurse Charmaine Rehg are challenging the current Lane County Commissioner Sid Leiken for the Springfield district seat. Both Moore and Rehg say the current commissioners are not responsive enough to the public’s concerns. “I was seeing that the county really does have a lot to do with the lives of the people of Springfield,” Moore says, “and I’m not happy about the way they’re doing the job.” Continue reading →

Pollution Update 5-8-14

Pollution Update

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) assessed a $7,800 penalty against the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) last week for causing pollution of waters of the state in February. MWMC operates the Eugene-Springfield wastewater collection and treatment system, including the treatment plant on River Avenue and the “biosolids management facility” on Awbrey Lane. On Feb. Continue reading →

Lane County Area Spray Schedule 5-8-14

Spray Schedule

• Little Lake Logging and Const. Inc., 927-3339, plans to spray Tordon RTU (triclopyr ester) on 30 acres near Little Lake Creek. See ODF notice 2014-781-00486, call Robin L. Biesecker at 935-2283 with questions. • USR Company LLC, Rosboro LLC, 746-8411, and High Mountain Investment Group, 746-8411, plan to hire Dole Land Management Inc. to spray their roadsides throughout Benton County with imazapyr and/or triclopyr. See ODF notices 2014-551-00183, 2014-551-00184 and 2014-551-00185, call Bill Mahr at 929-3266 with questions. Continue reading →

Bargaining between 4J and EEA goes south

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The Eugene School District’s teachers’ union, the Eugene Education Association (EEA), participated in “what turned out to be an exercise of frustration,” last night, according to the EEA’s bargaining newsletter. In the second full bargaining session between EEA and District 4J, members of the EEA bargaining team tried to understand why District 4J wanted to make significant changes to their contract, the newsletter says. According to the newsletter: Continue reading →

Protest brews over basketball players and rape accusation

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A protest is being planned on the UO campus Thursday in response to allegations of rape of a UO student by former Duck basketball players. The UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence has published a scathing open letter on its website and is calling for accountability by the UO administration and action. See the letter at http://wkly.ws/1qv The protest will be at noon Thursday, May 8, on the lawn behind Hendricks Hall on campus. Continue reading →