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Health care insurance has long been confusing, and the troubled rollout of Cover Oregon hasn’t clarified much. But Jan. 10, the Oregon Microenterprise Network (OMEN) will visit NEDCO offices in Springfield to listen to small business owners and help answer questions about buying health care for employees. Continue reading
The Trans-Pacific Partnership sounds like a conspiracy theory. The TPP talks about a trade deal that will govern 40 percent of U.S. imports and exports as well as affect copyrights, pharmaceuticals and more. The talks are being conducted in secret, and only a few portions of the agreement and memos about it have been leaked. Congressman Peter DeFazio says he vehemently opposes the TPP. Continue reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Dec. 20 their intent to find that the State of Oregon has failed to submit an approvable coastal nonpoint pollution control program (required by the federal Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990). The agencies specifically propose to find Oregon’s program deficient with regard to new development, onsite sewage disposal, and forestry. Public comments on the proposed finding are being accepted through March 20. Continue reading
Tsunami Books at Willamette and 25th is organizing a fundraising day and event Saturday, Dec. 28, in support of Lane Arts Council and Friends of Civic Stadium. Customers are asked to “refrain from the usual discounts on new books, special orders, etc., on this day only,” says owner Scott Landfield. Instead, 20 percent of sales will be split between the two nonprofits. The day’s events will include free live music from 5 to 8 pm by Nancy Wood, Paul Safar, Sean Brennan and Mike Hatgis. Call 345-8986 or find Tsunami on Facebook. Continue reading
“I was a professional girl scout,” says Lyn Gilman-Garrick, describing a childhood in Salisbury, N.C., devoted to hiking and camping. She studied biology at Guilford College in Greensboro, a Quaker school and hub of anti-war and environmental activism. “We celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970,” she recalls. After two years researching fish populations off Montauk Point on Long Island, she came west to continue at OSU. Continue reading
Eugene’s City Hall, shuttered since August 2012 due to the loss of steam heat and earthquake concerns, is up for a new historic designation that could help protect it. On Dec. 22, Otto Poticha, a local architect and leader in the fight to save the building, submitted an application to give the building a City of Eugene Historic Property Designation. Continue reading
As the Eugene City Council’s winter break progresses, Whoville campers are focusing on their relationships with businesses around the camp to show that giving homeless people a place to rest can improve things for everyone. Whoville is one of several protest camps seeking a legal place for homeless people to sleep. Continue reading
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Predator Defense and other wildlife advocates have long protested what they say are lax trapping laws in Oregon. A Dec. 15 incident in which a man’s leg was broken in a beaver trap, in conjunction with a press release from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife saying “dog owners share in the responsibility to keep their pets safe during trapping seasons,” has strengthened HSUS’s resolve to make ODFW tighten its trapping regulations. Continue reading
They don’t look like much to the unknowing eye, but the 12 cottages at UO’s Columbia Terrace Houses have a history that experts say dates back to WWII. That history marks big changes for Oregon, and that’s why preservation advocates say they shouldn’t be torn down or moved to make way for UO Housing’s new central kitchen. “We kind of think of WWII as having happened in Europe,” says George Kramer, who wrote a book about Camp White and WWII. “People don’t understand how much Oregon changed as a result of WWII.” Continue reading
“Why do they treat people as if they are the problem?” asks Lisa Arkin of Beyond Toxics. She says residents of Gold Beach and Cedar Valley in Curry County who have been experiencing health problems from an Oct. 16 aerial spray of pesticides are being treated as it they, not the spraying of toxics, are the problem. Continue reading