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• The Lane County Chapter of the ACLU will present a free program on “Human Rights and Mental Health Care: Managing the Intersection” from 5:30 to 7 pm Thursday, Dec. 12, at the Eugene Public Library. Speakers will include clinical social worker Ron Unger. Contact lanechapter@aclu-or.org for more information. Continue reading
The campaign to raise state and federal minimum wages is going strong, and now Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler is calling for more transparency in corporate executive pay packages. Wheeler is the custodian of state funds and says the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees in a company is an indicator of that company’s long-term profitability. Such information can affect state investments in Oregon stocks, and Wheeler believes the public also has a right to know. Continue reading
“I was a troublemaker as a kid,” says Kemy Joseph, the seventh of 10 children of divorced parents in Miami. “I was kicked out of school in fourth grade.” He got arrested twice in eighth grade, but turned things around in high school, where he captained the cross-country team and produced videos that helped him win a scholarship to study film arts at the University of Miami. There, he joined a campus club called Random Acts of Kindness. “It was a big turning point,” says Joseph, who became club president in his senior year. Continue reading
Without much discussion, the Eugene City Council unanimously approved a supplemental budget Dec. 10, including $2,258,355 increased revenue in the General Fund, which is now facing an approximately $3 million budget gap, down from $5.9 million earlier in 2013. A total of $1.5 million was sent to the replacement fund for the rebuilding of City Hall. Supplemental budgets are passed when the city’s income or expenditures are different than predicted in the fiscal year’s original budget. Continue reading
Mark Frohnmayer is tired of feeling like he has to vote for the “lesser of two evils” in the Oregon elections process, and he’s out to change our primary process to a more open process called “approval voting.” Continue reading
The upper level Lane County Public Service Building is going through a $750,000 remodel; this includes the area around where the county commissioners work, though not, according to County Spokesperson Anne Marie Levis, their actual offices. Work began last week and is expected to wrap up on Jan. 25, according to a Sept. 30 email from Capital Projects Manager Brian Craner to Commissioner Pete Sorenson. Continue reading
Record-setting low temperatures can lead to record-setting energy bills, but UO students can get help improving their homes’ energy efficiency. Student and Community Outreach for Renter Efficiency ($CORE) sends peer energy educators to assess students’ dwellings for ways to be more green, complete with about $40 in free fixes. Continue reading
Months after county administrator Liane Richardson was fired over changes she made to her pay, Lane County citizens still don’t know the whole story about what happened. Various news organizations, including Eugene Weekly, made public records requests for copies of the outside investigation by USO Consulting that examined the circumstances surrounding the compensation changes, but the county hasn’t released it in an unredacted form. The investigation found that Richardson violated county policy, but the county never gave any more details. Continue reading
The extended freeze is making Eugene area rhododendrons, azaleas and other plants looking sad and shriveled. Will they survive? “The cold weather causes the water in the leaves to evaporate, and with the ground frozen, no water enters the plant and/or leaves,” says Ross Penhallegon of the OSU Lane County Extension. “The leaves then start to wilt and droop. The longer the cold (below 25 degrees) weather, the more damage or water loss to the leaves.” Continue reading
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is accepting comments through 5 pm on Monday, Dec. 16, concerning a Clean Water Act discharge permit application for industrial stormwater discharges from Metal Products Company in Springfield. Visit goo.gl/ScwdH to see the company’s stormwater plan, and goo.gl/iMDQb to comment. Metal Products Company’s permit application was prompted by a notice of intent to sue letter sent by Oregon Clean Water Action Project on behalf of Willamette Riverkeeper. Continue reading