We've got issues.
The Oregonian has announced it's changing its delivery schedule for its print additions, laying off employees — among the layoffs are environment reporters Scott Learn and Eric Mortenson, (no relation to me,) Willamette Week reports). WW also reports that The O has decided NOT to call its online version TheDigitalO after all. Continue reading
Somebody (or bodies) destroyed Roundup Ready sugar beets in southern Oregon. No communiqué yet that EW knows of has claimed responsibility. Continue reading
• Basic Rights Oregon will combine eating and equality in its annual Bites for Rights fundraiser. On Thursday, June 20, eat at Cornbread Café, The Divine Cupcake, Poppi’s Anatolia, Sweet Life Patisserie and Whirled Pies Pizzeria in Eugene or Interzone, Les Caves Bier & Kitchen or Squirrel’s Tavern in Corvallis to show your support. • Walk, bike or ride the bus Thursday, June 20, for Dump the Pump Day. Who knows, you might just get addicted. Continue reading
Delta Sand & Gravel and Babb Construction are the target of a class action lawsuit by four former employees on behalf of themselves and other current and former employees, according to attorney Alan Leiman of the Eugene law firm Leiman & Johnson, LLC. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, alleges violations of overtime provisions and other Oregon labor laws. The complaint seeks damages in excess of $3.5 million. Continue reading
“I decided I was going to be a nurse when I was 5,” says New Jersey native Kallen Korin, who grew up in Burlington, earned a bachelors from Rutgers College of Nursing in Newark and married Joel Korin of nearby Camden. They lived there for 35 years and raised two sons in Haddonfield, where he was a trial attorney and she was a public health nurse. “Since 1978, I’ve been a childbirth educator, working in doctors’ offices and hospitals,” she says. Continue reading
The White Castle pilot project is an unusual kind of logging proposal and it’s led to an unusual forest defender vs. forest scientist dynamic. When forestry professor Norm Johnson of OSU, who created the project along with Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington, found out that the Cascadia Forest Defenders (CFD) had taken to the trees last week to stop the proposed logging, he decided he would head out to the site near Roseburg and talk to the protesters. Continue reading
After a brief but vociferous debate, the Eugene City Council voted 5-3 June 17 to grant Core Campus, a Chicago-based developer, approximately $4.5 million in tax exemptions over 10 years for a planned 12-story student apartment building. In response, neighborhood advocate Paul Conte announced that he would file a ballot initiative petition to abolish any Multiple-Unit Property Tax Exemptions (MUPTEs) granted after April 2013. Continue reading
Gold mining and all its negative environmental effects have made their way to the waterways of Lane County. River guide Frank Armendariz was out walking his dog early in May in an open section of Armitage Park when he says he saw a Jeep parked inside a portion of the park still locked behind gates and a man digging away at the riverbank. Gold mining in southern Oregon has led not just to the degradation of rivers but also to shootings and legal battles, but, until now, it has not been much of an issue on the McKenzie River. Continue reading
In objection to the planned West 11th EmX extension, perennial bus-rapid-transit-opponents Our Money Our Transit (OMOT) filed a lawsuit against the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) June 11, calling for the project to be halted pending further review. The suit claims that the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) that the FTA issued after reviewing the expected effects of the LTD project’s impact was improper, but LTD says that it thinks the FONSI will hold up in court, and there’s not much chance that the EmX extension will be delayed. Continue reading