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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: News: Happening Person: Gene Chism COUGHING UP FOR THE BAGS Lane County Commissioners next week will be hearing arguments from local recycling advocates for establishing a countywide fee on paper and plastic grocery bags. Talking to the commissioners around 10 am Wednesday, May 28, will be Julie Daniel, executive director of BRING Recycling; Terry McDonald, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul; and Sarah Grimm, Lane County waste management specialist. Also at the meeting will be local activist Bob Cassidy, who has been researching this idea for some time. Cassidy says it makes sense economically and environmentally for Lane County to follow the lead of other countries and cities that have cut plastic bag use by as much as 90 percent. "Bob approached the commissioners with an idea to raise funds for the county," says Daniel. "(Commissioner) Pete Sorensen asked me my opinion, and while I thought Bob's original proposal would have difficulty politically, I agreed the concept had potential and was worth looking into. … I applaud the commissioners' willingness to explore the possibilities." Daniel says many communities are looking at or have already implemented bag fees, for a variety of reasons. "Ireland was the pioneer, and has had a successful plastic bag program for some time." Seattle activists, with the backing of Mayor Greg Nickels, proposed a 20-cent fee on both paper and plastic bags in April. The city ordinance would also ban take-out food containers that can't be recycled or composted. Seattle consumers currently use about 360 million disposable bags each year, and most end up in landfills. San Francisco banned disposable plastic grocery bags last year, and other California cities are looking into it. Why a fee on both paper and plastic bags? "If you put a fee on plastic, you'd just drive everyone to paper," says Daniel. "Both paper and plastic have considerable environmental impact, and you'd be hard pressed to say one is 'better' than the other, since impact occurs during production rather than at end of life. … Plastic bags pose an extra end of life issue — litter — which ends up in places it shouldn't and causes additional problems." Grimm favors a fee paid by customers rather than by stores. "Big stores could cover the tax and not impose it on customers, which would give them advantage over little stores," she says. Cassidy says the bag fee could generate much-needed revenue for the county, but Daniel figures the revenue would shrink over time as people change their bag habits. The idea is not new in Oregon. The Ashland Community Food Store began charging customers a nickel a bag more than a dozen years ago, and some local grocery stores give customers a nickel credit for every used paper bag they bring in for reuse. If the county pursues the idea, many issues would need to be resolved: how much to charge customers, how the fees would be collected and administered, where the money would go, whether stores would get a service fee back and how to deal with the new biodegradable plastic bags. The commissioners could also look at putting the proposal to the voters. — Ted Taylor
4J SEEKS TO SAVE TEACHERS WITH LEVY To avoid cutting funds for about 160 teachers, Eugene School District 4J Superintendent George Russell has proposed that the district send a renewal of its local option levy to voters this November. The new levy would generate about $15 million a year and cost the average homeowner about $250 a year. The expiring levy passed in November 2004 with a 72 percent yes vote. Local option levies are one of the few ways local voters have to increase local school funding. In 1990 state voters passed Measure 5 capping local property taxes and equalizing school funding regardless of local tax levels. In 1999 the Legislature allowed school districts to supplement their state money with local option levies. The 4J levy would generate about the maximum local revenue the district is allowed. The state capped local option revenue at 20 percent of state funding. The complicated local option levies tax the gap between a property's Measure 5 capped assessed value and its value under Measure 50, a later property tax measure. Generally, properties that had increased more rapidly in market value have a bigger gap. The state formula shifts more of the tax burden from industrial property owners to homeowners and commercial properties. Under 4J's levy homeowners would pay about $1.48 per $1,000 of value and commercial properties about $1.46. Industrial property, which generally trails in rising real estate values, would pay only $1.10 per $1,000 more. The 4J local option levy is not to be confused with the city of Eugene's property tax levy for schools, which generated about $8 million a year after passing with a 54 percent yes vote in 2002. In 2006 the Oregon Tax Court ruled that the city school levy violated Measure 5, and the city decided not to put the expiring four-year levy up for renewal. Portland schools have evaded Measure 5 by passing an income tax for local schools. Both mayoral candidate Kitty Piercy and Jim Torrey supported the city levy for schools. EW asked them at a May 14 Fox TV debate if they would support an income tax for schools to reduce class sizes. Torrey said the focus now should be on 4J's local option levy. "Let's step up to that issue first." Piercy said if 4J officials approved of the idea, "I'm more than willing to talk about it." — Alan Pittman TO SPRAY OR NOT TO SPRAY
Carly Barnicle and Ian Van Ornum, co-directors of "Crazy" People for Wild Places (CPWP), don white hazardous material suits. Sweating under the 90-degree weather at the Farmers' Market, they hand out flyers to promote a demonstration about the pesticide and herbicide sprayings on the side of I-5. The demonstration, scheduled for noon on Friday, May 30, at Kesey Square, will begin with speakers from Pitchfork Rebellion, OPAG, Forestland Dwellers and the Organic Trade Association. Open mic time will be allotted for the community. Barnicle hopes that people will be able to share their personal stories. "There are so many pesticide horror stories out there," she says. At 1 pm the demonstration will move to Harlow Bridge on Coburg road by bike, foot or car to drop a banner. Barnicle and Van Ornum hope for a large turnout. "We want people to gain awareness," says Van Ornum. "Pesticides are detrimental to humans, plants and other wildlife. We want to tell them how they can get involved." Flyers will be provided with the names of people and places to contact to stop pesticide spraying. "The Oregon Transportation Commission is proposing to the Oregon Department of Transportation a pilot that is a last resort no spray policy. It would prohibit routine seasons spray policy to 1-5 [and Hwys.] 58, 126, 36 and 99," says Barnicle. "Instead of spraying there would be manual labor for pulling weeds, planting competitive species or mulch. It's the perfect time to show support for a no-spray policy." Next year the CPWP focus will be the fight to make the UO a pesticide free campus. "We're 'crazy' because we want to preserve natural beauty," says Van Ornum. For more information contact Van Ornum at ivanornu@uoregon.edu
INQUIRY OR INDOCTRI-NATION? Does the freedom to teach and learn flourish in American universities? Does it flourish when a professor indoctrinates students with his or her political views? Is the latter a regular occurrence? Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, and David Horowitz, president of the Freedom Center, debated these issues at Northwest Christian College's Morse Event Center May 19. NCC and the UO hosted the debate collaboratively as part of the UO Contrarian Forum, a new program to foster critical discussion of controversial issues. Nelson accused Horowitz, who has drafted an Academic Bill of Rights that would bar faculty from indoctrinating students with their own political views, of wanting to institute surveillance and reduce education to a service industry. He said while professors do sometimes inappropriately impose their political views on students, only 1/10th of 1 percent of the population of professors commits these excesses, which the existing system is capable of resolving. He added that failure to police intellectual aggression usually only happens on pervasively dysfunctional campuses that also fail to prosecute physical assaults and protect professors' academic freedom. Furthermore, the tenure system has weakened to the point that professors no longer have as much freedom to express controversial ideas as they did in the past, Nelson said. Horowitz identified himself as politically conservative and a defender of the university's independence, adding he does not advocate spying on teachers. He described his experiences speaking on 400 college campuses over the past 20 years. He said metal detectors and security personnel are sometimes present at his lectures; posters advertising his lectures have been vandalized; and he can't discuss reparations for slavery, the Iraq War or Islamofascism without a bodyguard. "University administrators tolerate intimidation on their campuses," Horowitz said. Horowitz said liberal bias is so prevalent in academia that people don't even see it when it happens and that some entire university departments are set up to indoctrinate students with a particular ideology rather than inform them of a wide variety of ideas. He read out loud the mission statement of the UO Women's and Gender Studies Program, which said the program "examines the meaning of gender as a socially constructed category." Other fields of inquiry, such as biology, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology note gender differences from innate rather than environmental causes, he said, and Horowitz expressed concern that students in the Women's and Gender Studies Program would not learn about those perspectives. Barbara Warnick, professor of communication at the University of Pittsburgh, was one of the debate's moderators. She asked Nelson and Horowitz repeatedly to clarify whether provocation equaled debate and whether the persecution of an individual was relevant to the issue being debated. "As a member of the audience, I would be frustrated," Warnick said after the debate, adding that both parties failed to support their arguments with factual evidence, relied too heavily on anecdotal evidence and left many points unaddressed. — Eva Sylwester
HEALTH CARE REFORM ADVANCING When it comes to reforming health insurance, the political climate has changed a lot and will change more before the 2009 legislative session, according to Frank Turner, a Eugene doctor. "National political leaders (with notable exceptions) are committed to universal health care," he says. "Most doctors now favor a centralized federally managed health care system. Citizens overwhelmingly favor the same and are willing to work and pay for it." The Oregon Health Fund Board, now in its second year, is nearing the end of its assigned task: proposing a universal, sustainable, accountable health care system for Oregon. The board plans to send its proposals to the Legislature by October, hoping for action in January 2009. Turner says about 90 Oregonians are working on the project, including doctors, activists, insurers and representatives of hospitals and medical groups. The board is also seeking public input. A presentation and workshop by the Archimedes Movement and Health Care for All-Oregon is planned for 7 pm Wednesday, May 28, at EWEB, 500 E. 4th Ave. And the board plans to meet at 7 pm Wednesday, June 4, at LCC, Building 19. "I think the board is quite aware of the severity of the problems we face and the tremendous political pressure that will be brought to bear on it and on the Legislature," says Turner. "Our whole community is feeling anxious, victimized and fearful of the impact of our economy of their jobs and health insurance. As a community, we have had to put up with unfairness, uninsurance, inefficiency, delays and poor health results. Our supply of doctors is drying up. We see our money disappearing into a deep dark pit."
ELY BACK IN CONTEST Eugene community activist and fundraiser Erin Ely is a finalist again in her campaign to raise seed money for an indoor Farmers' Market in Eugene. Ely has entered a national contest at www.ideablob.comand a link to her proposal can be found on the website's home page, where visitors can vote for her idea after free registration. If Ely wins, she says she will donate the $10,000 prize to Willamette Farm and Food Coalition to facilitate public discussion of Farmers' Market options and to draft a preliminary presentation of two or three designs as well as a business plan. Ely entered this competition two months ago with the idea for a permanent Farmers' Market for Eugene. She lost the contest by 20 votes and is trying again this month.?
OCF TICKETS NOW ON SALE Tickets for the 2008 Oregon Country Fair are now available at TicketsWest outlets and online at www.ticketswest.com and www.oregoncountryfair.org.The OCF, now in its 39th year, runs from 11 am to 7 pm Friday through Sunday, July 11-13, at the OCF site near Veneta. All tickets must be purchased off-site through the TicketsWest system; no tickets will be sold at the fair. The OCF brings three days filled with handmade crafts, international cuisine, and entertainment, including musicians, poets, hip-hop artists, jugglers, clowns, comics, magicians and live circus performances on several vaudeville stages. More than 350 craft and food booths are planned this year. The voluntary $1 "green ticket" contribution that began last year continues this year in order to promote projects that reduce the Fair's carbon footprint. Green tickets will fund carbon sequestering or carbon reducing fair projects that will move the fair closer to its goal of becoming climate neutral. Advance ticket prices are a few bucks higher this year: $18 for Friday, $21 for Saturday and $18 for Sunday. Tickets for all three days are $48. Children under 10 are free, and discounts are available for those who are over 65 or alter-abled.
ACTIVIST ALERT
• The May Brewhaha political forum is set for 6 pm Wednesday, May 28, at Sam Bond's Garage, 407 Blair in Eugene. The topic is "Spring Cleaning: Dusting off Democracy" and will include discussion of the Citizen Initiative Review Project and Voter Owned Oregon. Presenters will include members of Healthy Democracy and Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson. The May forum is at a different location due to a scheduling conflict.
WAR DEAD Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq began on March 20, 2003 (last week's numbers in parentheses): • 4,079 U.S. troops killed* (4,071) • 29,978 U.S. troops injured* (29,395) • 145 U.S. military suicides* (145) • 312 coalition troops killed** (312) • 1,123 contractors killed (accurate updates NA) • 91,460 to one million Iraqi civilians killed*** (91,094) • $520.9 billion cost of war ($518.9 billion) • $148.1 million cost to Eugene taxpayers ($147.6 million) * through May 19 2008; source: icasualties.org; some figures only updated monthly ** estimate; source: icasualties.org *** highest estimate; source: iraqbodycount.org; based on confirmed media reports; other groups calculate civilian deaths as high as 655,000 to one million.
EARLY DEADLINE EW offices will be closed Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day. Early deadline for reserving display advertising space for our May 29 issue will be 5 pm Thursday, May 22. Questions? Call 484-0519.
GENE CHISM
The youngest of six kids from a single-parent household in Riverside, Calif., Gene Chism was the first in his family to earn a college degree. "I wanted to go to school away from home," says Chism, who moved to Eugene. "It was all about having fun." It was three years after college, in 2000, that Chism got serious about education. "I got a job as an educational assistant at Springfield Middle School," he says. "In my second year, I worked with special-needs children. I felt a calling to teach them." In his third year, Chism was hired as multicultural liaison to three Springfield middle schools. He developed an after-school program called FACES (Freely Accepting the Culture of Every Student), "It's my vision of using unconventional teaching to reach students," he says. "Everyone has a love of music and dance." For five years, Chism has put on a RED (Respecting Everyone's Differences) Day at the three schools, featuring food, crafts, music and speakers representing many cultures around the world. Also back in school at the UO since '05, Chism will finish a master's in special education next spring.
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