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Every good starship captain ought to have a Twitter feed. If you still can't get your body beamed to other planets at least you can send 140 characters from space. William Shatner (aka Captain James T. Kirk, aka @williamshatner) tweeted to Chris Hadfield, of the Canadian Space Agency "Are you tweeting from space?" Hadfield is the International Space Station's Flight Engineer for Expedition 34, so he is indeed tweeting from space. Continue reading
Opportunity Village Eugene (OVE) and Community Supported Shelters will assemble two conestoga huts at 2 pm Saturday, Jan. 5, at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, 3925 Hilyard St. in Eugene. Two houseless people who have been chosen to use the first Conestoga Huts will participate in their assembly. The city of Eugene recently approved the simple, waterproof 6’ X 10’ conestoga huts as part of St. Vincent de Paul’s Car Camping Program. Episcopal Church has volunteered to be the first host site for two huts. Continue reading
The latest update, sent from Safe Legally Entitled Places to Sleep (SLEEPS) at 2:38 pm: SLEEPS pitches tents at the Trude Kaufman House today to highlight the fact that the city has allowed the historic home, donated to provide services to low income seniors, to lie dormant while 1500 unhoused people are out in the freezing weather. The Kaufman home was operated as a senior center until December 2010 and lain dormant since, eating up it’s trust fund while it does nothing to serve the community. Continue reading
• Church Women United of Lane County will meet at 9 am Friday, Jan. 4, at Ebbert United Methodist Church, 532 C St. in Springfield, and again at 7 am Tuesday, Jan. 8, at Brails, 1689 Willamette St. in Eugene. See cwulanecounty.org • The State of the County Address will be at 10 am Monday, Jan. 7, at Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. in Eugene. Eugene’s 2013 State of the City Address will be at 5:30 pm Wednesday, Jan. 9, in the lobby of the Hult Center. Donations of canned food for FOOD for Lane County will be collected at the door. Continue reading
“Middle-school kids are an exciting age-group to work with,” says Fran Calciano of Roosevelt Middle School. She was named Oregon School Counselor of the Year for 2012-13 by the Oregon School Counselor Association. “They come in looking and acting like children. They leave looking like young adults.” Calciano grew up on Long Island, N.Y., studied at Boston University, then moved to Eugene for her final two undergrad years. She graduated in 1979 and taught at Spring Creek, Bailey Hill and Roosevelt schools, while enrolled in a UO counseling psychology masters program. Continue reading
Conrad Barney says you never have it all while being homeless. “It almost seems like places have two out of three things that you need,” he says. “We have an ample supply of material; we have water and clothing and blankets because our community cares.” Barney commenced a hunger strike Dec. 11, he says, because the city’s camping ban makes something that’s important in rainy cold Eugene, shelter, difficult to attain. Continue reading
Idle No More is a campaign for indigenous rights, sovereignty and environmental justice that began in Canada in part as a response to Canada’s omnibus bill C-45 that is seen as taking away treaty rights. Though neglected in mainstream U.S. media coverage, the campaign has generated rallies and flashmobs across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Flashmobs were held in Portland’s Pioneer Square Mall on Dec. 23 and Eugene’s Valley River Center Mall on Dec. 29. Continue reading
In a curious case of human logic, public opinion is growing in favor of better gun control regulations, but gun sales are up, and the businesses that sell firearms won’t talk. Cabela’s, Bi-Mart, Walmart and S&M Gun Shop didn’t respond before press time, while Eugene shooting range and gun retail store Baron’s Den refused to comment. The reluctance to respond to repeated phone calls could be an indicator of how uncomfortable firearm distributors nationwide have become in the wake of shootings in Clackamas and Newtown, Conn., among others. Continue reading
Jordan Creek runs through the Mattson family’s land at Polyrock Ranch. The creek is located in the out in the open hills of southwest Eugene, in the Coyote Creek sub-basin of the Long Tom Watershed. The creek is symbolic of the Rivers to Ridges (R2R) partnership, a collaboration of public and private entities working together to acquire and manage natural open spaces in and around Eugene. While cattle can damage streams, and ranchers and environmentalists are often portrayed as at odds with one another, the story of the restoration of Coyote Creek is one of collaboration. Continue reading
“The mountains once were people, our grandfathers used to tell us,” begins a Warm Springs legend of how Eastern Oregon’s Black Butte came to be and how it came to provide the plants and animals used by the Native Americans. Mountains, buttes and knolls seem eternal as they stand sentinel over Oregon’s landscape, but as photographer John Bauguess watched miners dig away at Parvin Butte in the small community of Dexter, he began to wonder what other high places the Willamette Valley might be losing to development. Continue reading