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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes BRADBURY AT BIZ SYMPOSIUM The Sustainable Business Symposium began at UO this week and continues through Saturday, April 2. Keynote speakers include Bill Bradbury, Christine Ervin and Pat Nathan. A complete schedule of events can be found at http://sbs.uoregon.edu or e-mail sbs@uoregon.edu or call 346-0670. Except for some Thursday workshops, all events are free and open to the public. Bradbury, Oregon secretary of state and chair of Oregon's Sustainability Board, will speak starting at 6:30 pm Thursday in the Lillis Business Complex, room 182. His topic will be "Sustainability — Economic Development that Lasts, and he will be joined by Dan Carol, EW columnist and co-founder of the Apollo Alliance. Ervin, first president and former CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council, will speak from 1 to 2:30 pm Friday in Lillis 282 on the topic of "Green Buildings and the New Value Proposition." Nathan, global sustainable business director of Dell, Inc., will speak from 7 to 8:30 Friday. in Lillis 182 on the topic of "Harnessing Risks to Drive Sustainable and Systemic Change." Other events on Friday include multiple panels on such topics as: identifying market opportunities, supply chain, values-based marketing, managing organization change, influencing policy change, anticipating increasing energy expenses and others. Workshops are planned on life cycle management and "lean manufacturing." Saturday features a free site visit to the organic-certified King Estate Winery; however pre-registration is required.
WILLAMETTE PLANNING? The Willamette and 29th area in south Eugene is booming with construction. Cascade Manor cut down tall trees for a massive expansion along 29th and Rite Aid, PC Market of Choice and other parts of Willamette Plaza have begun or are scheduled for extensive reconstruction. But despite the big changes, there's no new city planning going on for the area. "There is currently no active 'planning' occurring by the Planning Division," Eugene Planning & Development Department Director Tom Coyle wrote the City Council March 22 in response to a query. Under TransPlan, the south Willamette area was supposed to be an example of pedestrian and transit friendly, denser nodal development. But powerful property owners opposed any restrictions on how they could develop the area and the City Council and Planning Department quickly backed away from rules requiring less car-oriented and more pedestrian-friendly development in the area. City planners say the area needs a comprehensive planning effort to fix traffic congestion in the area and make it a pedestrian friendly, mixed-use node able to accommodate its growing density. But so far the city hasn't prioritized money for the estimated $400,000 planning project. — Alan Pittman
CRIME FAMILY TALE TOLD A man who told Eugene police that "he was trying to form a crime family, peopled with kids from poor family situations or with low self esteem, which he would rule with fear," was recently put on trial for capital murder in Boise, according to a monthly activity report from the Eugene Police Department. The man was arrested in Eugene in 2000 for check fraud and Eugene Detective Doug Jordan traveled to Boise in February to testify in the case. Police also reported that they used a state team of cadaver dogs in February to search a north Eugene property for human remains. The search, based on a tip from a confidential informant, turned up nothing. — Alan Pittman
LTD ELECTION COMPROMISE In the face of stiff opposition from LTD and local business interest lobbyists, a bill to democratize the LTD board with direct elections appears headed for political compromise. Eugene Sen. Floyd Prozanski said he backs the effort to democratize LTD but is crafting a "compromise" that would require election of four of the seven board members with the remaining three appointed by the governor. "This kind of goes down the middle," he said. Prozanski said Sen. Bill Morrisette (D-Springfield) and Rep. Paul Holvey (D-Eugene), key sponsors of Senate Bill 558, have expressed support for the compromise and election opponents have said they will consider it. In a hearing last week, LTD used its taxpayer-paid staff to attack the democratic election measure. Business interests, including the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and Jack Roberts of the Lane Metropolitan Partnership, a taxpayer financed business recruitment group, also testified against the measure. Business interests argue that they should control LTD because they pay the local employer payroll tax to support it. But that's not the model used by most other democratic bodies. The half of people in Eugene who rent, for example, don't directly pay property taxes to support state and local government but they still do pay the tax indirectly through higher rents, and still get to vote. Also, a big chunk of LTD's budget comes from federal taxes and not the local payroll tax. — Alan Pittman
REGISTRY FOR WAR OBJECTORS A Eugene-based group has creating a new non-profit organization to help draft-age people across the country prepare for what they predict will be a military draft happening as early as this summer. The group, Point of Clarity (www.pointofclarity.org),says the on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have depleted our nation's active and reserve military personnel and military recruiting goals are not being met. "We are deeply concerned about the possibility that on March 31, the U.S. Selective Service will report to President Bush that it is ready to implement a U.S. military draft within 75 days, and that a draft could be in operation as early as June 15," reads a statement from the group, citing a government website, www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.htmlThe organization is operating a nationally accessible online registry, educational and informational resource, and organizing tool for conscientious objectors (COs) and their families and friends. On the site are forms for COs to document their personal history as a CO, updates on congressional action, and advice on how to deal with local military recruiting. Point of Clarity's inaugural event and fund-raiser is planned for 5:30 pm April 10 at Cozmic Pizza at 8th and Charnelton in Eugene, and will feature performances by Enemy Combatants, EDGEBREAKERS, Urgent Carnival, Fly by Night, and Civil Union. For more information, call 345-1633 or e-mail amy@informproductions.com
HOMELAND 'IN'SECURITY' A conference at the UO this week will explore how the war on terrorism has generated new policies affecting immigration, security and guest labor in North America. "Homeland 'In'Security: Race, Immigration and Labor in Post-Sept. 11 North America" will be held Thursday, March 31, and Friday, April 1, in Room 175 of the UO's Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate St. Roberto Lovato, the Independent Press Association's 2003 George Washington Williams Fellow, will deliver the keynote speech at 7:30 pm on Thursday. Lovato's essays on issues of race, immigration, foreign policy and American politics have appeared in numerous national and international media. Roundtable discussions and panels featuring a dozen American and Canadian scholars will focus on issues and experiences across the national boundaries of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Topics to be discussed include: impacts of the war on terrorism on immigration, national security and guest labor; constructing borders and communities of color inside and outside the U.S.; legal systems and the reconstructions of race and ethnicity after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the U.S.; and immigrant, refugee and of color community responses to law and policy shifts in North America. For a complete schedule, visit http://codac.uoregon.edu/HomelandInSecurity.shtml
DAISY WINS … The winner of the "I am Vegetarian, Here Me Roar" contest in the March 17 EW is Daisy Monticelli of Eugene who answered nine of the 10 questions correctly. She wins a whitewater rafting trip with High Country Expeditions. Below are the answers (in italics) to the fill-in-the-blank questions. In the U.S. three million animals are killed per hour for food. On factory farms, chickens have their beaks sliced off with a hot blade, pigs have their tails chopped off and their teeth pulled with pliers, and bulls and pigs are castrated — all without anesthesia. Tropical rainforests are being decimated to create grazing land for cattle. The space equivalent to seven football fields is destroyed every minute. In one year an estimated 13.5 million dogs and cats will be euthanized in animal shelters across the county. Animals raised for food produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population — 87,000 pounds per second! In the U.S., animals raised for food are fed 70 percent of the corn, wheat and other grains we grow. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of more than the entire human population. The animal welfare act does not apply to animals raised for food. True Four famous people who never eat animals: Pamela Anderson, Moby, Natalie Portman, Alec Baldwin, Shania Twain. Meat-eaters have nearly 10 times the incident of high blood pressure that vegetarians do. Milk that supposedly "does our bodies good" has been linked to common health problems, is laced with foreign allergy-inciting bovine protein, and often contains hydrocarbon pesticides and other chemical contaminants. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for other vegetarian-based contests and more prizes. — Mark Frisbee
SO SPAM ME Our favorite spam this week is from A&W Restaurants offering a year of free fried cheese curds to some lucky contest winner. Second prize? Probably TWO years of greasy floaters for your root beer.
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS In response to last week's cover story on the Eugene railyard, Susan Posner of Lane Forest Products says her company did not lease a 20-acre plot of land from the Union Pacific railyard.
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