• Sports fans will be debating the Oklahoma game Saturday and its controversial referee
calls for a long time, and Oklahoma President David Boren is even asking for the game to
be wiped from the record book. So who does deserve the most blame and credit for the
outcome? Veteran Eugene sports writer George Beres has a unique take on game’s final
minutes: “The game had many heroes in its unbelievable 34-33 come-from-behind victo-
ry, but none would’ve had the chance for heroism had it not been for a serious bonehead
play by Sooners coach Bob Stoops. His team led 30-20 with barely over 3:00 to play,
AND had the ball inside the Oregon 5 on second down. Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson
could have waltzed into the end zone for 6 points, especially with three chances to go 4
yards. Inexplicably, on second down, Stoops had his quarterback pass. It was incomplete.
Meaningless as it seemed then, the incompletion stopped the clock, preserving crucial
seconds for the miraculous Oregon comeback. One running play moved the ball closer to
paydirt, but on fourth down, the Sooners went for a field goal, as if to say: “Who cares?
We no longer need it anyway,” and they led, 33-20. Oregon’s magical quarterback Dennis
Dixon quickly passed the Ducks back downfield, and scored on a 16-yard run to make it
33-27. No problem, thought Stoops. Now we get the ball and we can run out the clock. He
did not expect Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti’s son to come in as a secret weapon. Luke is
the onside kick specialist. He punched the ball the required 10 yards, and a teammate got
possession to give Oregon another chance. The winning TD came with :46 to play on
Dixon’s pass to Brian Paysinger to make it 34-33. Oklahoma had one last chance for a
field goal to pull it out, but it was blocked by Blair Phillips, and Oregon had a memorable
victory. What no one remembered was that the field goal would not have been needed
had the Sooners coach not squandered that unnecessary pass minutes earlier. His great
running back was ready to run the ball into the end zone that, combined with the extra
point, would take Oklahoma out-of-reach at 37. Instead, the Oklahoma coach became a
most unlikely hero for Oregon.” Such a remarkable game is likely to stir Duck fans to
even greater frenzy at the next home game against UCLA Oct. 14. The California game
Oct. 7 is scheduled to be broadcast live at 5 pm as part of ABC TV’s Saturday Night
College Football, on either ABC or ESPN.
• You could have knocked us over with a chainsaw when we got the news that a federal
judge in California deemed the Bush administration’s Roadless Rule invalid, restoring the
Clinton-era rule. WOW! This is as exciting and unexpected as Oregon’s come-from-behind
win against the Sooners. Now the nail-biter question becomes, What does this mean for
ongoing roadless area logging in the Biscuit? “It seems pretty clear that the Bush admin-
istration needs to put down the chainsaws and walk away,” said the Siskiyou Project’s
Rolf Skar. But, as the Wilderness Society’s Rich Fairbanks pointed out, “They can’t glue
the trees in Mike’s Gulch back on their stumps.” Still, the ruling is moral vindication for
environmentalists who have called salvage logging in Biscuit’s roadless areas a sham
from the start. Some of the credit goes to Kulongoski who, along with three other guvs
and the WS, brought the suit against the Forest Service and the USDA. Neither Rogue
River-Siskiyou National Forest spokesperson Patti Burel nor WS attorney Mike Anderson
know yet whether the ruling will force the Forest Service to halt logging in the roadless
Blackberry unit, but FSEEE’s Andy Stahl has a few ideas. Stahl thinks it’s unlikely that
Judge LaPorte’s decision alone will stop the Biscuit roadless logging, but someone could
bring another suit seeking to enforce the 2001 Roadless Rule in Oregon. Such a case
would likely end up before Judge Hogan, whose environmental track record looks like a
clearcut, but arguing to keep logging in Biscuit’s roadless areas could be a tough sell for
the feds.
• The old Sears building site across from the downtown library would make a good site
for a new City Hall, but we’re happy to see that several Portland firms have submitted
last-minute proposals to develop the key city-owned property with a combination of
retail and housing and/or hotel. One plan of particular interest would take over the entire
block, including property owned by Connor & Woolley. Letting go of this property would
be an opportunity for C&W to boost the value of their other properties downtown, and it
would be a show of goodwill. Either way, a major redevelopment on this block would be
cause for celebration. City Hall, if it’s ever rebuilt, can be somewhere else.
• Kari Westlund, director of Lane county’s visitor and convention office, and Bob Zagorin,
who chaired a tourism infrastructure task force, both made compelling cases at the City
Club last Friday for more hotel rooms and convention space in downtown Eugene. They
would like a couple of 350-room hotels just to keep us from falling behind Boise, Spokane
and nearly every other city in the Northwest. Private funders are putting up a convention
center in downtown Bend. Last weekend the point was made when entertainers for
Fiesta Latina had to find rooms as far away as Salem and Roseburg. Football fans had
rented all the local space.
• Made us proud when Eugene attorney Martha Walters
was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court by the gov-
ernor on Monday morning, and three of the five finalists
came from Lane County. The other two were Circuit
Judges Lauren Holland and Karsten Rasmussen, now
stronger candidates for future openings. This appoint-
ment was Ted Kulongoski returning to his roots. He
started his career as a labor lawyer in Eugene, a tough
advocate for individual working people. That’s what
Martha Walters has been in her 30 years as a trial
lawyer. Congratulations to both for the great appoint-
ment.
10 SEPTEMBER 21, 2006
news
briefs
WHAT, UO
BIKE THEFT?
You can’t count on Portlanders to stop a
bike thief, according to a recent Willamette
Week report (“Steal This Bike,” 9/19). A
WW intern used bolt cutters to gank his own
bike out in the open seven times, but
passersby barely gave him a second glance.
The same might apply here in Eugene,
where bike theft numbers exceed
Portland’s, but at least one righteous soul re-
cently called campus police to report sus-
pected bike pilferage
on UO grounds.
But campus cops
neither logged
the report nor
shared the informa-
tion with the EPD.
On the evening of Sept. 15, UO
freshman Chris Pollard witnessed a man
standing next to a green pickup truck loaded
with several bikes near a rack outside of the
Hamilton Complex. When Pollard ap-
proached, the man waved to another man,
who grabbed a pair of 4-foot bolt cutters and
jumped in the truck, Pollard alleges. They
drove away, but Pollard found two cut U-
locks lying where the truck had been
parked. Pollard wrote down the truck’s li-
cense plate number and called the
Department of Public Safety.
DPS made a radio entry of a suspicious
condition and scoped nearby buildings, but
didn’t log an official report. “They were
given a vehicle description including a li-
cense plate, so they checked that out,” said
DPS Sgt. Lynn Brown. “Nothing more than
an area check … and it didn’t even get
posted onto the media log.”
The info was not shared with the EPD
because Pollard wasn’t the owner of the
stolen bike, Brown explained. “Even
though the witness saw the incident take
place, until the victim calls in, there is no
crime,” he said.
Pollard, unsatisfied by the DPS re-
sponse, posted his testimony on Craigslist in
hopes that vigilant citizens will do more
than campus police. “I’ve gotten emails
from people glad that someone is doing
something, because it doesn’t seem like the
police are doing anything,” he said.
— Kera Abraham
TASK FORCE
DRAFTS IDEAS
It’s been more than a year since Eugene
Mayor Kitty Piercy launched the
Sustainable Business Initiative with the goal
of making Eugene one of America’s green-
est mid-sized cities
by 2020. The
initiative aims
to
bolster
business
and
local quality of life
by stressing the “triple
bottom line” of eco-
nomic, social and environ-
mental well-being.
A 16-person task force chaired
by local business owners Rusty Rexius and
David Funk gathered input from more than
750 people, with support from a 50-person
technical advisory committee and UO
Resource Innovations staff. Through nu-
merous roundtables, online surveys and
meetings with local nonprofits, the task
force drafted eleven recommendations for
the City Council, which Funk and Rexius
will discuss with the councilors at a Sept. 25
work session.
“These are informal opportunities for the
city councilors to ask more questions,” said
SBI staffer Sarah Mazze. “Then it will be up
to the City Council to vote on the various
recommendations whenever they choose.”
The recommendations include: Making