concluded legislative session, some of the
campaign’s most prominent supporters were
small business advocates and family farm
organizations — the very business owners
who need access to this kind of capital.
Oregon Working Families Party is a
minor political party that can be found at
http://oregonwfp.org — Philip Shackleton
STATE BANK
COALITION
LOOKS AHEAD
Despite failing to pass both HB 3452 and
SB 889, the coalition to create a state bank
of Oregon is optimistic and looking towards
the legislative short session beginning in
February 2012 to build on the gains made in
this session.
Barbara Dudley, co-chair of the Working
Families Party, wrote in a recent essay in
The Nation that the state bank coalition is a
“grassroots” campaign anchored by the
Working Families Party campaign and
includes activists and organizations that
represent small businesses, family farms,
rural and urban communities as well as
labor unions.
Steve Hughes of the Oregon Working
Families Party said growing the campaign
between now and the February session will
focus on a new initiative called “Oregon
Banks Local.”
Hughes noted that right now 80 percent
of bank deposits in Oregon are held by
large, publicly traded banks with
headquarters out of state. Much of this
money is not staying in Oregon. Hughes
says that the advantage of banking local
with a lending organization that is not tied to
Wall Street banks is that these institutions
are answering to a different set of financial
motivators.
“Whereas a Wall Street bank has to
maximize profit and operates with often
very short time horizons, community banks
have the ability to practice what we call
‘patient capital,’” he says. “In other words,
they have the ability to evaluate loans based
on a broader set of criteria and can afford to
invest in main street businesses that may not
turn a massive profit right away.”
The Oregon Workers Party is not
proposing a retail bank that would compete
with local banks and credit unions. What
they are proposing is defined in Dudley’s
Nation article, “a banker’s bank that would
partner with local financial intuitions to
shore up their lending capabilities through
participation loans.” This would decentralize
banking power. She calls this an “exercise in
the FDR tradition of saving capitalism from
itself.”
Hughes says the campaign is going back
to where it began with its grassroots “Move
Your Money” campaign, attempting to build
a broad base of support and connect “Bank
Local” with established “Buy Local” and
“Eat Local” campaigns.
Hughes says that during the just-
LIGHTEN UP
BY
RA FA E L
THIRD OF UO
IS SPORTS
Just how big is sports at the UO? A third
of the value of all the buildings at the UO
are sports related and a fifth of all the
revenue and spending at the institution of
higher education goes to sports, according
to a 2010 UO report to the NCAA.
The UO’s annual revenue and
expenditure report to the athletic association
reported that the book value of all the
athletic facilities at the UO is $277 million,
and athletics brought in $122 million in
revenue.
Most of the revenue, 60 percent, came in
from contributions to the UO Athletic
Department. About 60 percent of the
contributions, about $45 million, were
related to Phil Knight giving the new jock-
in-the-box, athletes-only study center. This
year Knight is building an even bigger
building for football administrators, but the
Nike CEO and the UO haven’t said how
much it will cost.
Most of the big sports money at the UO,
of course, is football-related. Football
directly brought in 84 percent of the revenue
the UO identified by sport in the report.
Basketball brought in 12 percent, leaving
just 4 percent for all the other women’s and
men’s sports.
Football brought in $15 million in ticket
sales and $7 million in NCAA distributions
including bowl games.
The football program also spends big
money. The UO gave football coaches $4.5
million in direct pay and benefits. That
includes $2 million in reportable direct
compensation for the head coach and an
average of $280,000 each for nine assistant
football coaches.
The football players work for free for
the high-paid coaches but get academic
scholarships, aid and health care worth
about $38,000 per student, according to the
UO report.
Sports at the UO get a $1.1 million
subsidy from the state budget and a $1.5
million subsidy from student fees, according
to the report.
Spending on women’s sports and men’s
sports is not equal at the UO. The UO spent
74 percent of gender-allocated money on
men’s sports and 16 percent on women,
according to the UO report. About 57
percent of athletic student aid at the UO
goes to men.
The UO report to the NCAA was
obtained by the UO Matters blog and
posted online after a month of asking for it,
according to the blog. — Alan Pittman
This year’s Duck football team looks good
enough to beat all its opponents — except,
maybe, the NCAA.
IT’S ABOUT TIME
BY DAVID WAGNER
T
here’s been a slugfest
in our back yard the
past few weeks and I’m
not talking about fisticuffs.
The slugs have been getting
the upper hand in my onion
patch so my Walla Walla Sweets are not going to produce the way I’d
hoped. I just have to accept the balance of nature is not always in my
favor.
The potatoes got in late this year, like so many vegetables, because of
the long, cold spring. I always put a tarp over the potato bed during the
winter so that the summer’s straw mulch will compost nicely and the bed
will not be too soggy when potato planting time rolls around. During the
growing season last year, I had stashed the folded tarp under some
shrubbery in the corner of my yard. I had always intended to fold it tightly
and store it in the shed but never got around to doing that. It stayed on
the ground all summer and into the fall. When I picked it up to spread out
after the potatoes had been dug, there were four or five garter snakes
that slithered out. It had served as good a snake hideout as my wood pile.
So this spring I made a point of setting my tarp back in the spot where
it was last summer. I want to attract garter snakes because they are one of
the few natural predators of slugs. That’s right, garter snakes eat slugs!
Too bad they won’t swallow the snails.
David Wagner is botanist who lives and works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes and leads nature walks.
He may be reached at fernzenmosses@me.com
RHINO GETS A MAKEOVER
BRING Recycling in Glenwood is preparing for its 40th birthday bash with music,
food, art, demonstrations and a refurbished rhinoceros.
Jabali, the lifelike black rhino who lives in BRING’s bioswale, has been hauled off
to Old Dominion Collision Repair Center in Eugene for “a facial, mud wrap and some
discrete body work,” says Sonja Snyder, campaign director for the nonprofit.
The fiberglass rhino originally served as a spokesmodel for Rhino Linings before
retiring to greener pastures at BRING. Her name, which means “strong as a rock” in
Swahili, was the winning entry in a naming contest among BRING newsletter
subscribers.
Jabali will be one of the main attractions at the free event from 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday, July 24, in BRING’s Garden of Earthly Delights at the BRING Planet
Improvement Center at 4446 Franklin Blvd. in Glenwood. The festivities include live
music, kids’ activities, demonstrations, reuse crafts and plants for sale, art exhibit,
community booths, food booths and free coffee by Café Mam. LTD will provide free
bus passes to the event.
Also on July 24, BRING Gallery inside the retail store will host an unusual fashion
show and exhibit featuring “re-creations” by some of the area’s most innovative
designers. The show includes elaborate costumes, funky fashion and practical everyday
wear including many pieces made from nontraditional scrap materials.
Participating artists are Linda Anthony, Mitra Chester, Debrah DeMirza, Laura Lee
Laroux, Tylar Merrill, Lesley Neufeld, Diana Shampang-Voohries, Terrisa West and
Becky Wright.
An artists reception will be from noon to 2 pm. The exhibit runs through Sept. 9.
For more information on the July 24 event, contact Nicole Holck at events@
bringrecycing.org
A L DAV E
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