Eugene Weekly

• Oregon’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2004 and since then we’ve seen a steady shift in public attitudes on gay rights. On April 23, a federal judge will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Oregon and Basic Rights Oregon. If the plaintiffs prevail, Oregon’s obsolete ban will be struck down. The legal arguments for upholding the ban have withered under scrutiny in other states and we hope the Oregon court will agree. Continue reading →

• It’s hard to calculate what it cost the city of Eugene to shut down Whoville last week, but it had to be a lot, figuring overtime for EPD and maybe others of the 60 or so city employees who were called to participate. Regardless of whether the coordinated action at this scale was justified or not, it gives the city administration a black eye. We noticed a “Fire Jon Ruiz” Facebook page is up as of April 6. The page has lots of posts but as we go to press it only has 59 “likes.” Continue reading →

• The death toll is still rising in the massive landslide in Snohomish County, Wash., that has killed an estimated 24 at last count with more than 100 people still unaccounted for. As the search for bodies continues, so does the search for answers — what triggered the massive slide that crumpled homes and blocked a river? And for Oregonians, we wonder, could it happen here on such a scale? The area in Washington had unstable soils and a history of slides, had been logged in the past and experienced heavy rains recently. Continue reading →

• We lost Edgar Peara Feb. 22 at the age of 93, but the longtime Eugene peace activist’s words live on. “War is demonic, immature,” he wrote in an EW Viewpoint March 22, 2007. “It is incompatible with morality, high-minded religion and common sense. Peace is an active condition more difficult to achieve than any military objective.” Peara was a highly decorated officer in the Combat Engineer Corps during WWII and spent the rest of his life working for peace and spiritual healing. “War must be abolished,” he wrote. Continue reading →

• Mike Huckabee, the former right-wing presidential candidate, is coming to town April 2 as a fundraiser for the local Community Action Network. County Commissioner Jay Bozievich is likely to be there with bells on since the CAN political action committee sent him checks in February totaling $4,500. Bozievich, a Tea Party darling, needs to raise a lot of bucks because he has a serious and organized challenger in Dawn Lesley. Check out the list of Bozievich financial supporters on the state Orestar website at http://wkly.ws/1p2. Continue reading →

• The city of Eugene spent $20,000 to remove a low ledge at the corner of Broadway and Willamette where people often stopped to sit, people with “undesirable behaviors” according to a recent KVAL news story on the wall’s demolition. KVAL quoted a business owner as saying the wall was a “magnet for drug dealing, and drug use, alcoholism.” The city is apparently looking to replace the wall with bike racks … or, interestingly enough, seating. Let’s start with the fact that places to sit are a needed part of the urban environment. Continue reading →

• Nearly a foot of snow followed by an ice storm created chaos in Lane County this past weekend and shows us how unprepared we are for disasters large and small, whether brought about by climate or earthquakes. This week we heard an audit of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management indicated the agency has not completed its statewide disaster plan, among other deficiencies. We need to demand better performance from local, state and national agencies, but we also need to be better prepared in our neighborhoods for climate weirdness and seismic events. Continue reading →