What we’re reading: Jane Mayer’s fine article in the Aug. 9 New Yorker, “The Big Money Behind the Big Lie: Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich conservatives determined to win at all costs.” Really a depressing but important piece, this convinces us that we must get the money out of politics and it won’t be easy.
• Thank you pet-loving readers! Your fun pictures of your cute, unconventionally beautiful and best dressed pets perk us up from the stress of wildfires, climate change and a global pandemic. If you have not submitted your furbaby (did we just use that word in print?) then send a photo to Pets@EugeneWeekly.com by noon Friday, Aug. 13.
• Someday COVID will really start to let up (you know, when more folks get vaccinated) and looking ahead to that time, here’s a reminder that readers still rely on Eugene Weekly’s What’s Happening Calendar for their “where shall I go, what shall I do?” needs. While we keep our eyes out for events, we rely upon event organizers to submit them, so if you don’t see your favorite band at your favorite venue listed under music, remind them to go to Calendar.EugeneWeekly.com to submit their events! Post it on Facebook and your friends will see it. Put it in EW and everyone sees it — and you meet new friends.
• In case you’re losing sleep over who will be governor of Oregon after November 2022, don’t buy the Nicholas Kristof pitch. Don Kahle just wrote a column in The Register-Guard praising Kristof, famous New York Times columnist from Yamhill county who will come here to save Oregon. Some doubt that he will really run. Many doubt that he could win. He’s welcome to come chat with our editorial board — unlike the RG and some other papers, we are still doing endorsements — but he’s not our candidate.
• We were disappointed when the Lane County Board of Commissioners weaseled on a real indoor mask mandate. We needed something better than an “advisory.” But at an Aug. 11 press conference, Gov. Kate Brown announced an indoor mask mandate is in effect starting Friday, Aug. 13.Get vaccinated; wear a mask. It’s not hard.
• Kudos to former Register-Guard reporter Josephine Woolington, who left the paper — and journalism — in 2015 and moved to Portland to make her way as a pianist and vocalist, gigging around town as Josephine Antoinette. Turns out Woolington wasn’t done with writing; she just last month signed a contract with Ooligan Press at Portland State University to write a collection of 13 essays on iconic plant and animal species of the Pacific Northwest. The book began as a quarantine project last year. “I wanted to document the amazing natural diversity we have here,” she tells EW. So far she’s completed chapters on the sandhill crane, camas lily, yellow cedar, western bumblebee and the coastal tailed frog. Tentatively titled Mindfully Rooted, Woolington’s book is due out in November 2022.
• There were rumors that Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Val Hoyle was running for governor in 2022, but she tells Eugene Weekly she’s running for re-election to her BOLI position next year. In a comment, she says, “I’m in for labor commissioner and look forward to standing up for workers, expanding opportunities for apprenticeships, working with businesses to address their workforce needs and leveling the playing field by holding bad actors who don’t play by the rules accountable.”