Eugene weekly., November 03, 2011, Page 9, Image 9

NEWS BRIEFS
largest urban area in East Lane.” The
Cottage Grove Chamber of Commerce
wrote a letter against the scenario for that
reason, but Stewart nonetheless voted for
the scenario. Springfield Mayor Christine
Lundberg spoke at the Oct. 26 hearing in
favor of it.
According to the Lane County Charter,
Springfield, North Eugene and South
Eugene districts are metropolitan, and
East and West Lane districts are rural.
Bartlett says the new redistricting plan
changes Springfield from 18.3 square
miles to 61.6 square miles, making it
much more rural. The concerns of
residents in rural areas often have a
different focus than urban dwellers.
In discussion of his scenario eight,
Bozievich says, “The rural commissioners
already have to represent several
incorporated
cities,
numerous
unincorporated towns and a large
geographic area.” He says that eight,
“provides the rural districts with the most
homogeneous communities of common
interest to represent from the metropolitan
areas.
Jeff Lozar, head of the Lane chapter of
Koch Bros.-backed Americans for
Prosperity, told those who objected to
scenario eight at the redistricting hearing:
“Welcome to not getting your way in
politics. Those of us who find the Tea
Party movement giving us a voice frankly
are thrilled with the turn of events.”
Redistricting lawsuits, if one were to
be filed about scenario eight, generally
fall into four main areas, according to
election reform group FairVote.org: if the
process wasn’t timely, if votes were
diluted (gerrymandering), types of
population counts, and issues with the
process itself. — Camilla Mortensen
WOLVES ON
THE MOVE
Oregon’s wolf packs have been ebbing
and flowing as the predators fight to
reestablish themselves in Oregon, but for
the first time in more than 50 years a wolf
has made it back to western Oregon.
Once a part of Oregon’s landscape
from Eastern Oregon into the Willamette
Valley, wolves were extirpated — hunted
into local extinction — in the 1940s. The
last known wolf on the west side of the
Cascades was killed in 1946. Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife reports
that a collared male wolf from the Imnaha
Pack has made its way into the Umpqua
River drainage.
More good news for wolf advocates
comes from Eastern Oregon where
Oregon’s fourth confirmed wolf pack has
taken up residence near the Snake River.
The pack, which roams the Hells Canyon
area, will not have a confirmed breeding
pair until at least two pups are spotted in
December.
Oregon’s four wolf packs are the
Snake River pack, the Imnaha pack, the
Wenaha pack and the Walla Walla pack.
Oregon has approximately 23 wolves,
which are protected under the state
endangered species law, and, in parts of
the state, protected federally.
biz beat
HOPE AFTER CITIZENS UNITED
An interview with Russ Feingold
Marché will open Le Bar on
Thursday, Nov. 10, in the Fifth Street
Public Market. The Parisian-style
bar is located north of Marché in an
adjoining space. Le Bar will cater to
restaurant and bar patrons, as well as
guests of the nearly fi nished Inn at the
5th boutique hotel. No word on when
the hotel will open, but December is
the target.
Eugene’s Nancy Sanford Hughes
of StoveTeam International got word
this week that she is one of fi ve social
entrepreneurs to win a $100,000
grant from the Civic Ventures annual
Purpose Prize. The award is for
“making an extraordinary impact in
an encore career.”
Steve Musser at the Green
Store at 5th and Olive tells us solar
sales and services are up, despite the
economy, and the store has been busy
for a while. He says people who live
in shady areas are getting creative in
where they locate solar panels.
Saturday Market shuts down
after Nov. 12 and then goes indoors
for Holiday Market starting the
weekend of Nov. 19 with all booth
spots reserved. Kim Still of the
market says some new vendors will
be at Holiday Market this year, along
with Saturday Market businesses that
have qualifi ed through a point system
to move indoors to the Fairgrounds.
Need a small offi ce space
downtown? Helios Network has a
couple of rooms available at 120 W.
Broadway to join Helios, the Oregon
League of Conservation Voters and
Basic Rights Oregon. Email Cary at
cdt@efn.org
The USA Olympic Team Trials
are set for June 22 to July 1 in Eugene
and Dave Hauser of the Eugene
Area Chamber fi gures the trials will
generate about $31 million in new
business for the region. For info
on exhibit space, email mhiggins@
gosportsone.com
HACSA, the Housing and
Community Services Agency of Lane
County, is the only Oregon agency
to win national acclaim from the
National Association of Housing and
Redevelopment Offi cials. The award
is for Roosevelt Crossing, a 72-bed
transitional housing development
designed for returning ex-offenders,
in partnership with Sponsors, Inc.
HACSA owns about 1,500 units of
affordable housing and administers
the Section 8 housing voucher
program.
Natural Choice Directory, aka
the Healthy Green Pages, now has
downloadable and mobile versions
of its local publication, including
smart phone apps, according to
Publisher Larry Fried. See www.
healthygreenpages.com
Send suggestions for Biz Beat items to editor@
eugeneweekly.com and please put “Biz Beat” in
the subject line.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
Former senator and current
progressive powerhouse Russ
Feingold will give a free talk at
UO on “Corporate Power in
Politics and the Economy: What
the Citizens United Decision
Means for Our Democracy.”
Feingold will speak at 4 pm
Monday, Nov. 7, at the EMU
Ballroom. Seating is first come,
first served.
The lecture will focus on
the role of corporations in the
economy and government, and will address one of the loudest refrains from the
Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Eugene movements (and the best satire on The
Colbert Report), the elimination of the aspects of corporate personhood that raise
corporations beyond the heights of persondom.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, settled in a 5-4 Supreme
Court decision earlier this year, ruled that the government may not ban or limit
political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The decision reversed
election laws nationwide that attempted to limit the ability of corporations to
influence elections through their enormous financial resources.
Feingold told EW that the Citizens United case was particularly shocking
because the narrow ruling overturned 100 years of precedent. This includes two
previous Supreme Court cases, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce,
which held that a Michigan law prohibiting corporations from using treasury
money to support or oppose candidates in elections did not violate the First and
Fourteenth Amendments, and part of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission,
which held that money is property, not speech.
While the legislation for which Feingold is best known, the Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (aka McCain-Feingold) is still intact, the older
framework that the legislation was built upon is now demolished. “What it does
is basically kick the foundations out from under McCain-Feingold,” he said.
“McCain-Feingold is still valid in that it prevents corporations and unions from
giving unlimited contributions to the political parties. That’s good law. The
trouble is that the foundation on which has built has been destroyed in many
ways.”
To remove the ever-inflating influence of corporations on elections and
government, Feingold founded Progressives United, an organization “focused on
money and politics and this new phenomenon of corporate domination of our
system.” Progressives United uses different avenues to seek the limitation of
corporate influence, but Feingold said that a future Supreme Court ruling
reversing Citizens United is the likeliest route for change. “I think overturning
the decision is the most direct way we can put the genie back in the bottle, if you
will,” Feingold said.
Feingold also said he approves of passing a Constitutional amendment that
could serve the same purpose, but that it would be more difficult to accomplish
than reelecting President Obama, who Feingold believes is likely to nominate “a
fair-minded person” to the bench, “a jurist who would do the right thing.”
While the difficulty of a Constitutional amendment is clear — the polarized
House and Senate would each have to pass it by a two-thirds majority — Oregon
Sen. Jeff Merkeley co-sponsored a proposed amendment, introduced Nov. 1 in
the Senate, that seeks to correct the Citizens United decision. The amendment
proposes to authorize Congress to regulate and limit the spending and raising of
money for federal political campaigns and includes the authority to regulate and
limit independent expenditures, such as those from Super PACs, made in support
of or in opposition to candidates.
Despite the fact that campaign finance and corporate speech can sound like
dry, wonky topics, Feingold said people care about the issues, and Progressives
United has received an overwhelmingly positive response. “People really get it
that this is one of the critical issues of our time,” Feingold said. “We believe that
this should be one of the two or three most discussed issues of the presidential
election.” — Shannon Finnell
LANE COUNTY SPRAY SCHEDULE
• Jason Klemp (541) 927-3118 will be spraying Arsenal Applicator’s Concentrate on
two acres near Lake Creek, a Coho salmon bearing stream, and near Horton Lane in
Township 16S Range 07W Section 2. Notice 2011-781-00738. Klemp does not currently
have an applicator’s license, according to Forestland Dwellers.
• Klemp will be spraying Atrazine, Glyphosate, 2,4-D ester and amine on four acres.
Daniel Klemp (541-927-6181) owns the land near Lake Creek in Township 16S Range
07W Section 9, near Triangle Lake School. Notice 2011-781-00752.
Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, www.forestlanddwellers.org
EUGENE WEEKLY NOVEMBER 3, 2011 9