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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1980)
A surprising but not unwelcome prewinter snow fall coated Eugene Wednesday evening as an appar ent blast of frigid air from ihe Canadian north swept southward. Weather Service officials received no snow at Mahlon Sweet Airport, but in Eugene there were reports of up to an inch of the white carpet by 8:30 pm. Wednesday before Eugene's persistent drizzle began turning the pleasant surprise to muddy slush. Eugene was the first area in the Willamette Valley to receive the inaugural batch of winter welcome Wednesday, although snow was expected elsewhere in the valley, as well as around the state. The Weather Service issued a travelers' advisory Wednesday night warning drivers “to exercise caution. " “It’ll be a little slick," said one forecaster. “There's lots of water, some snow, and there'll probably even be a bit of ice. It just makes for bad driving conditions." Forecasts today call for temperatures in the 40s. Temperatures were expected to plunge into the low 30s early this morning, increasing the possiblity of ice. Photo by Erich Boekelheide The Weather Service last night was predicting continued scattered snow showers through today, with decreasing showers Friday. Around the county, water and snow closed or limited traffic on several roads. Water as deep as four feet closed roads in College View highway near Lane Community College. City crews sanded several streets, and high water in Santa Clara, West 11th Avenue and Belt Line, the west end of Fox Hollow Road and Lorane Highway limited or halted traffic. Eugene Greenpeace office survives cuts I ir r a nmn wkwi.ii. i nnnig Of the Emerald Greenpeace U.S.A.’s Eugene chapter escaped the budgetary ax when the na tional organization abolished five of its nine regional offices, including Green peace Oregon. Greenpeace members decided on the reorganization at a national board meet ing in October. Lack of money, not a lack of interest, prompted the shake-up, says former Eugene member Phil Radcliffe. “The Eugene office is unique in that it’s financially independent, has low overhead and is staffed by all volun teers," Radcliffe says. “Other offices are funded through Greenpeace U S A., based in San Francisco.” me: i w i 111 Ks i i y iiiuui pui aicu uiiuci regional office in Portland, the Eugene chapter is reincorporating under the regional office in Seattle. Other regional offices abolished in clude the Alaska office in Anchorage, the Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor, the Rocky Mountains office in Denver and the Southern California office in Hermo sa Beach. In addition to the Seattle office, those remaining open are the Hawaii office in Honolulu, the New England office in Boston and the Northern California of fice in San Francisco. Subsidiary Greenpeace groups throughout the country are shutting down as well, including chapters in Salem and Corvallis. “This makes Greenpeace in Eugene me uniy one ueiween oeame ana csar Francisco,’’ Radcliffe says. "There’s i lot of the Greenpeace elan or spirit here And the grass roots thing is what Green peace is all about.” Greenpeace was founded in Van couver, B.C., in 1970 to protest under ground nuclear bomb tests in the Amchitka Islands off Alaska. Since then the group has gained fame for its darinc save-the-whales and save-the-seals tac tics. Greenpeace motorboats callec "zodiacs” have prevented the killing o whales by situating themselves betweer the whalers and their targets. Anc Greenpeace members have confrontec seal hunters on ice floes to reduce the slaughter of baby seals. "Although Greenpeace deals mostly wun ine wnanng issue, we ve peen in volved in many issues involving the en vironment,” says Eugene member Jackie Bryson "We’ve tried to educate the public on herbicides, nukes, the transportation of radioactive wastes and wildlife issues Bryson says Greenpeace is continuing work on legislation to ban leg-hold traps in Oregon, despite the recent defeat of Ballot Measure 5. Members also will be working to preserve the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which Bryson says is in danger of being amended. The act was passed in 1972 to reduce the killing of harbor seals and sea lions along the coast. It allows fishermen to shoot marine mammals only if the an imals are interfering directly with fishing nets or gear IFC warily approves 81 OSPIRG goals By PAUL TELLES Of the Emerald After asking for a definition of "public interest," the Incidental Fee Committee approved all but one of the the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group’s goals Tuesday night. OSPIRG’s goal to "advocate public policy based on OSPIRG research to appropriate public or private bodies" was rejected by a 4-2 margin. Before the vote, committee chairer Jon Neiderbach asked the group s represen tatives how they decide what position to advocate on an issue if their research doesn't give a clear indication. "If the research didn't show public interest to be weighed on one side rather than the other, we wouldn't touch it,” responded OSPIRG state chairer Bob Jenks. Asked how the group defines "public interest,” Jenks said the decision in volves "looking at basic assumptions like equity and discrimination.” These con siderations are inevitably subjective, he admitted. IFC member Jim Edmunson said he questioned spending mandatory student fees for lobbying efforts. Jenks responded that lobbying is necessary to give students a voice in public decision making "Pure academic research isn’t giving students a voice in public policy,’1 he said. Edmunson said later he understood the group was founded to provide students with information that could be used in public forums, not to take the action itself. Edmunson was an OSPIRG member during the late 1960s. Neiderbach said Wednesday he wasn't sure what effect the goal rejection will have on OSPIRG’s 1981-82 budget. Ordinarily, a group doesn’t receive funds for a goal the IFC rejects. However, OSPIRG’s state office usually receives a lump sum, making it impossible not to fund a specific OSPIRG goal. Doubts about OSPIRG’s lobbying ef forts almost led the committee to disap prove the group’s goal to “present infor mation obtained from OSPIRG research to the Legislature." The vote on the goal was 3-1, with two abstaining. During discussion, commit tee member Julie Bell asked Jenks if the group purports to represent the majority of students. “I couldn’t envision OSPIRG taking stands on issues that our local directors don’t feel is the view most students hold,” Jenks said For instance, the group concentrates more on consumer issues than environ mental issues because consumer affairs are of more interest to contemporary students, he said