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Warm up and get ready to roll! The renovation of the park under Washington-Jefferson Bridge has begun, and what will be the biggest covered and lighted skate park in the country will reach completion in March 2014. Continue reading
Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz won some high marks during his annual performance evaluation, but councilors also complained about the budget process that created a nearly $6 million deficit and poor relations with the public employee union. “A certain pattern has developed here, certain unhealthy trends,” says City Councilor George Brown. Brown says he hasn’t received answers to critical budget-related questions that he submitted in April. “Why it doesn’t bother the other councilors is beyond me,” he says. Continue reading
Many obstacles can stand in the way of kids finishing high school and young adults going to college, but the 4J School District’s Early College and Career Options (ECCO) is out to give them both opportunities. The non-traditional school with an enrollment of 180 will be stationed within Lane Community College’s Regional Technical and Early College Center beginning this fall, giving people with a variety of disadvantages the chance to get their GEDs and move on to college. Continue reading
Summer is not over yet at the Eugene Public Library. For parents concerned about the school budget cuts affecting art and music programs in Eugene public schools, the library fills in a little by providing free summer programs every week for teenagers to express their talents. Continue reading
Toward the end of her eighth grade year, Phoebe Wihtol, now a junior at South Eugene High School, came out to family, friends and classmates. “I’m a lesbian,” she says. “People kind of knew. I hadn’t hidden it.” Like other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their allies, Wihtol is a member of South Eugene’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). “What we want it to be is a safe, welcoming environment where, no matter what, we’re going to accept you,” says Onyx Huch, GSA president. Continue reading
Budget cuts have left Oregon schools in rough shape. Eugene’s 4J School District is no different. However, despite the financial challenges, many public education alternatives exist in the area. Kerry Delf, communication coordinator for 4J School District, says there is a long tradition in Eugene of supporting alternative education, and some of the most popular local programs offer language immersion at the elementary level. Continue reading
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) sent a warning letter to Jeanne M. Burris of Springfield on July 29 for illegally operating a waste tire storage site at property owned by Burris at 29882 Kelso St. in Eugene. DEQ’s warning letter indicates that while more than 17 tons of tires from the site have already been disposed of at Delta Sand and Gravel, additional tires remain on the property and also that improper storage and accumulation of tires can be a fire hazard and attract mosquitoes, rats and mice. Continue reading
Weyerhaeuser Co., 744-4600, plans to backpack spray 247 acres near Fish Creek in the Coast Range with Polaris AC, Polaris SP, Forestry Garlon XRT, Accord XRT II, Rodeo and/or Accord Concentrate with additives MSO and/or nonionic surfactant. See ODF, 935-2283, notification 2013-781-00649 for more information. Continue reading
In Afghanistan • 2,254 U.S. troops killed (2,251 last week) • 19,080 U.S. troops wounded in action (19,032) • 1,389 U.S. contractors killed (1,389) • 16,179 civilians killed (updates NA) • $647.9 billion cost of war ($646.1 billion) • $194.4 million cost to Eugene taxpayers ($193.8 million) In Iraq • 4,422 U.S. troops killed, 31,928 wounded • 1,599 U.S. contractors killed (1,599) • 124,640 to 1.2 million civilians killed* (124,217) Continue reading
Robert McChesney, co-author of Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America and author of Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy, is quoted today by the Institute for Public Accuracy saying: Continue reading