Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2012)
NEWS BRIEFS SINGLE-PAYER GROUP: RULING IS ‘INADEQUATE’ Health Care for All Oregon has responded to the Supreme Court decision on Obama’s Affordable Care Act, welcoming the survival of the legislation’s consumer protections, but saying the ACA “remains inadequate” and helps entrench insurance industry profits. A statement from HCAO says “the act categorically excludes millions of undocumented persons and will leave over 25 million persons in the U.S. uninsured. The system of private insurance continues to collapse, imposing on families a rising requirement to pay more for less. The rapid spread of high deductibles and high co-pays will lead to continued self-rationing, expensive delayed care and continued widespread medical bankruptcy.” Eugene single-payer activist Ruth Duemler has a more optimistic view of the Supreme Court ruling and its impact on Oregon, saying, “My understanding is that over 400,000 more Oregonians will have health care and we are looking at the possible new opening for single-payer plan in our state.” Portland anesthesiologist Samuel Metz, M.D., tells EW in an email that the ACA “was largely irrelevant to health care even before the Supreme Court decision. It was specifically designed to sell more health insurance policies, which most people mistake for health care. The ACA will indeed succeed in selling more policies even with Supreme Court modifications. However, it will not make policies less expensive, nor will it make care more affordable, nor will it make care more accessible.” Metz is a member of HCAO, Physicians for a National Health Program and Mad As Hell Doctors, but he is speaking as an individual. Metz says Obama’s plan is closely modeled after Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. “The Romney plan succeeded brilliantly in selling more insurance. Over 95 percent of Massachusetts residents now proudly own a policy. However, public health has not improved. Medically related bankruptcies have not gone down. Lives lost to treatable diseases has not decreased.” “What has gone up, and spectacularly so,” says Metz, “is the cost of health care: Massachusetts residents now pay twice what they did in 2006 when the law was enacted.” In its statement HCAO says it “continues to advocate for a truly universal publicly funded system that guarantees the fundamental right to health care to everyone living in the U.S. Everybody in, nobody out!” — Ted Taylor BUCK THE MOVIE IN PERSON ACTIVIST ALERT If you want to see modern-day “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman help horses with people problems, then head up to Corvallis July 6-9 for a three-day horsemanship clinic. Brannaman, long known in the equine community for his way with horses, came to greater fame last year when the documentary movie Buck about his life and work was released to critical acclaim. Brannaman doesn’t break horses, he “starts” them, using an understanding of the animal’s perspective that comes from the violence that was in his own life. He learned his craft from Oregon’s own Tom Dorrance and from Dorrance’s student Ray Hunt, who first popularized this “natural horsemanship” type of training. Brannaman learned to understand the horses, and their fears, not only from these earlier trainers but also thanks to an abusive father who beat him and his brother until they were taken away by the local sheriff and put into foster care. The documentary Buck, which played at Bijou Art Cinemas last August, is now available on DVD. The horsemanship clinic, with Buck Brannaman and horses from Eugene and around Oregon, will be at the Benton County Fairgrounds. The clinic isn’t taking any more participants, but spectators are welcome. For more information email douganddeanna@ doublephorsemanship.com or call 466-5989 or go to brannaman.com — Camilla Mortensen FREE LUNCH FOR KIDS Free lunches for children and youth ages 2 to 18 have begun at 67 sites throughout Lane County, thanks to the Federal Summer Food Service Program and FOOD for Lane County (FLC). No documents are required to participate. Most sites serve meals each weekday between noon and 1 pm during the nine weeks when schools are not in session. A list of sites can be found at www.foodforlanecounty.org or call 343-2822. FLC says nearly 54 percent of Lane County children are eligible for free or reduced price lunch programs during the school year, but only 30 percent of those children take advantage of the summer lunch program. IT’S ABOUT TIME • Coal trains through Eugene and coal exports from Coos Bay will be the program at City Club of Eugene at 11:50 am Friday, July 6, at the Hilton 12th Floor Ballroom. A resolution banning coal trains will be on the agenda of the Eugene City Council Monday evening, July 9. • A city of Eugene survey on plastic bags can be found at http://wkly.ws/1bc and a draft ordinance can be read at www.Eugene-or.gov The public survey will close July 11 and the council will hold a work session on plastic bags July 23. The Lane County Oregon League of Conservation voters is urging those who support the ban to show up for the council’s public input time at 7:15 pm Monday, July 9, at City Hall. Last week Corvallis became the second city in Oregon to ban single-use plastic bags at grocery check-out stands. Contact the OLCV at 968-8269 or email Ashley@olcv.org • Wolf expert Carter Niemeyer will be speaking at a free Oregon Wild Tuesday event from 7 to 9 pm Tuesday, July 10, at Cozmic, 199 W. 8th Ave. in Eugene. See www. oregonwild.org for more info on this and other events. • The Lane County Chapter of the ACLU of Oregon is holding a series of “Civil Conversations” from 5:30 to 7 pm on the second Tuesday of the month at Café Yumm, 730 E. Broadway. The next is July 10 on “Exclusion Zone and Public Spaces: Controlling Crime or Banishing Undesirable People?” See www.aclu-or.org • Activist and singer Anne Feeney and numerous other political entertainers will take the stage at a block party celebrating Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday, from noon to 9 pm Tuesday, July 10, at Reality Kitchen, 245 Van Buren. Suggested donation at the door is $10 or canned food for FOOD for Lane County. See www.realitykitchen.org for more info. • The Black Butte Mine south of Cottage Grove is the topic of an open house beginning at 6:30 pm Wednesday, July 11, at the Cottage Grove Community Center on East Gibbs Street. Sponsored by the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division and the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council. The EPA is beginning efforts to clean up the mine site, which has been designated as a Superfund site. See http://wkly.ws/1be for more info. • The public comment period on the BLM’s proposed hydraulic fracturing rule disclosures has been extended to Sept. 10. See www.regulations.gov or send comments to BLM Regulatory Affairs, 20 M St. SE, Room 2134 LM, Washington, D.C., 20003. LIGHTEN UP When Donald Trump learned that Chief Justice Roberts wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion upholding Obama’s health care law, he demanded to see Roberts’ birth certificate. BY R A FA E L A L DAV E LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE BY DAVID WAGNER T he chickadees have fledged from the nest box hanging outside our breakfast window. We miss the daily watching of their activity. It’s like letting go of children who head out into the world on their own, leaving us parents. We feel special connection to the chickadee mommy and daddy who brought tidbits of suet and bugs at a frantic rate in the final week. The end game drama was watching them coax the youngsters out of the nest by bringing a snack to the entrance hole, showing it to them, and then refusing to give it to them but instead carrying it back to the adjacent blueberry bush. That took only a day or two; they knew when the time was right. Resident birds that nested early will be starting a second brood. The migratory birds completing their annual generation will hustle to fatten up and head south soon. Likewise, flying squirrel and river otter young are reaching maturity and getting prepared to explore the world for new territory. Only when they have learned to forage and hunt for themselves are they ready to embark. The older, wiser parents are best at the training. We watch ducks and geese doing the same. In the lowlands, native plants are past flowering peak. Fruits are maturing. Wild cucumbers are ripening on rampant vines, its seeds often ripped untimely from the fruits by scrub jays. It’s forbidden fruit to humans: the bitter rind is just that, the most bitter plant of the region. • ODOT is spraying highways in the Lane County area. For more information call 1-888- 996-8080. • West Lane ODF, 935-2283, has hired Nick’s Timber Services (503) 910-1120 to ground spray 10 miles of roadsides on ODF land in western Lane County with Element 3A, Element 4, Oust XP, Forester’s Accord Concentrate, Agri-Dex and/or Herbimax. See ODF notice 2012-781- 00363. • Freres Lumber Company, (503) 859-2111, plans to do hack and squirt with Imazapyr on 160 acres of land near Swartz Creek in Section 30 of Township 15S, Range 06W. See ODF notice 2012-781-00478. Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, www.for- estlanddwellers.org David Wagner is a botanist who has lived in Eugene for more than 30 years. He teaches moss classes and leads nature walks. He may be reached at fernzenmosses@me.com WILD CUCUMBER, MARAH OREGANUS 8 JULY 5, 2012 EUGENE WEEKLY WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
