Eugene Weekly

Barack Obama spoke to a cheering crowd of roughly 5,000 at the UO on Friday night. Here’s a link to audio of his speech with video clips of the rally. Continue reading →

Eugene is Obama country, judging by federal campaign contribution data. Barack Obama has raised about four times more money here from about four times more contributions. Through the end of March, Obama reported raising $114,622 from 955 donations from Eugene. Hillary Clinton raised $29,111 in donations from 224 contributions from Eugene. Obama’s contributions averaged $120. Clinton’s averaged $224. Continue reading →

With Jim Torrey running for mayor again, local videographer Tim Lewis has posted a reminder on YouTube of what it was like under Torrey. The video features dramatic footage of the June 1st incident in 1997 in which Eugene police emptied every can of pepper spray they had on non-violent tree sitters standing in the way of the Broadway Place project downtown. Continue reading →

TV news watchers may soon see less car wrecks, fires, cop chases and other “if it bleeds it leads” coverage on local broadcasts. The Eugene police department sent out a memo May 5 to local media on the upcoming switch of police radio to digital. That means the old analog scanners that TV reporters use won’t work. Even with digital scanners, EPD Capt. Chuck Tilby writes that “some frequencies will be encrypted in compliance with the new Oregon Consumer Theft Protection Act passed by the legislature in 2007. Eventually all channels may be encrypted.” Continue reading →

This week’s EW has a story about the mayor’s race that includes information about a recent political attack ad by Jim Torrey. Here’s the ad with fact checking by EW: Continue reading →

UO President Dave Frohnmayer has announced that he will resign by the summer of 2009. Here’s an email he sent out to UO faculty and staff this morning: Dear Colleagues: Continue reading →

UO big wigs have been taking a lot of hits in the media recently for kowtowing to the almighty swoosh. On April 16 the Oregonian reported that the UO had evaded state anti-corruption laws to hand the contract for the basketball arena—the most expensive public building in state history—to a Nike subsidiary and Nike related contractor and architect without a competitive or public bidding process. Continue reading →

If you enjoyed the cover story this week about Eugene’s new City Manager Jon Ruiz, you’ll love listening to the hour and a half of interview audio here . Here’s Ruiz at his public swearing in and speech on April 14: Continue reading →

Here’s an old Herblock cartoon from 1970 when tricky Dick Nixon was escalating the Vietnam war despite campaign promises to end it. Déjà vu? So what would the caption be now? How about: “You see the reason we’re dying in vain here in Iraq is so dying in Iraq will have some purpose.” Any other suggestions? Continue reading →

The Oregonian has a front page story today about a couple of Portland brothers tearing down a little old house to build an “ultrasustainable” home. The article and website for the house sound great. Continue reading →