WHUTSUPWORLDCUP
NEWS
After graduating from the UO School of Law in May, Killian
Doherty put on his backpack and headed to Brazil for the World
Cup. He will write for EW until the final match is decided.
From June 12 to July 13, billions of people
will watch the world’s most popular sports
event: the Fédération Internationale de Foot-
ball Association (FIFA) World Cup. The 2014
FIFA World Cup will be the 20th such tourna-
ment — and the second to be held in Brazil.
Of the 203 national teams that competed in
regional tournaments in order to qualify, only
31 teams will travel to Brazil to join the host
nation for the 2014 cup. An estimated 600,000
foreigners will visit Brazil to attend a match,
and many others, like myself, will journey
to Brazil just to witness the spectacular (but
controversial) event from outside the stadium
gates.
The 32 teams competing for the world’s
greatest soccer trophy are divided into eight
groups of four teams. Each team plays one
game against every other team in its respec-
tive group, with two teams advancing to the
first knockout round. The host and arguable
favorite to win the final, Brazil, will play the
first game of the tournament against Croatia on
June 12 in Sao Paulo.
The U.S. team is in Group G — considered
by many to be this cup’s “group of death” —
along with Germany, Portugal and Ghana. FIFA
ranks Germany and Portugal as the second and
third best teams in the world. The U.S. team is
ranked at 14. Ghana is ranked at 38, but the team
has proven especially challenging for the U.S. in
recent World Cups. In 2006, Ghana beat the U.S.
2-1 in the final match of the group stage, thereby
eliminating the U.S. from the tournament. Ghana
eliminated the U.S. again with a 2-1 victory in
2010, though their encounter came this time in
the round of 16 teams and was dramatically de-
cided by Ghana’s last-minute goal in extra time.
Granted, the U.S. team will have its work
cut out for it in the 2014 World Cup, though one
might find some hope in the team’s surprise per-
formance in the last cup held in Brazil. In 1950,
the U.S. fielded a squad of semi-professionals
and amateurs — including two decorated WW
II veterans, a postman, a funeral director and a
mill-worker — who defied
expectations by upset-
ting the best team in
world at the time,
England, with a
1-0 victory in the
group stage. Any-
thing can happen
in 90 minutes. The
U.S. plays its first
game of the 2014
Cup against Gha-
na, on June 16, in
Natal.
— Killian Doherty
KILLIAN DOHERTY
JUGGLES A SOCCER BALL
8
June 5, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
COMMON CORE
COUNCIL TO DISCUSS
DOWNTOWN SMOKING BAN A PROFITABLE PROBLEM
Eugene City Councilor Greg Evans has introduced
a downtown smoking ban for the City Council’s dis-
cussion. He says the ban is aimed at making downtown
more desirable for business and recreation.
“In downtown areas across the country you have
cadres of folks who congregate not necessarily because
they’re there to do the right thing, but because they’re
there to hang out and do things that are illegal,” Evans
says.
A ban on smoking downtown would decrease ag-
gressive behavior and illegal activities such as drug use
and dealing, Evans says.
“It may push it to some other areas,” Evans says,
“but I think it gives our police department an additional
tool to deal with that kind of activity.”
A work session has not yet been scheduled for the
City Council to discuss the possible ban. Evans says
he expects the council to
discuss it after its sum-
mer break, which ends
Sept. 8. He says he does
not know if he would
also advocate prohibit-
ing e-cigarettes.
The no-smoking or-
dinance would be en-
forced in public areas in
the downtown activity
zone, the area between
6th and 11th avenues and
High and Lincoln streets,
Evans says. Smoking
would still be permitted
at areas designated for
smoking by restaurants
and bars. Evans says he
has heard from some lo-
cal business owners that
they would like tobacco
smoke to be banned
from downtown.
“People have a right
to smoke,” Evans says,
“but I don’t think they
have a right to invade
and impose on others’ space with that.” The ordinance
would also encourage a healthy lifestyle, he says.
Lane County Health and Human Services Public In-
formation Officer Jason Davis says that during a town
hall meeting, the county found that most people are in
favor of making shared spaces tobacco and smoke free.
He says 18.8 percent of Lane County’s adult population
smokes and 75 percent of smokers want to quit.
“If you just make a smoking ban but don’t give them
the proper materials to quit, it’s kind of putting the car-
riage before the horse,” Davis says.
Smoking bans are growing in popularity in Oregon
and nationally. Some Lane County building properties,
including all of the health and human services, county
administration and public works, were designated as
smoke-free areas one year ago. Oregon State Parks
will begin enforcing a smoking ban in January 2015,
the Medford City Council unanimously passed a city
park smoke ban in March and the cities of Portland and
Forest Grove are both eyeing banning smoking in city
parks.
Santa Cruz, Calif., began enforcing a downtown
smoking ban in 2009. City of Santa Cruz Community
Relations Manager Keith Sterling says it was an adjust-
ment at first but residents and visitors have gotten used
to it. “The way the public views tobacco has changed
over the years and our laws are changing with it,” he
says. — Missy Corr
The Common Core approacheth: Starting with the
2014-2015 school year, Oregon public schools will
do away with the old OAKS (Oregon Assessment of
Knowledge and Skills) testing and usher in the Smart-
er Balanced Assessment, a new standardized test that
evaluates student performance by Common Core stan-
dards. But with its ties to corporations and its rushed
implementation in Oregon, Smarter Balanced is not
winning over everyone.
In May, Oregon’s teachers union, the Oregon Edu-
cation Association (OEA), called for a moratorium
on the test: “When the timeline doesn’t allow for giv-
ing 100 percent to preparing our students, none of us
should be surprised by the prediction that 65 percent of
all students will fail the first test,” OEA president Han-
na Vaandering says on OEA’s website. “Why would
we spend millions of dollars on a test that students are
predicted to fail?”
Superintendent Shel-
ley Berman of the Eu-
gene 4J School District
has a different view of
the Common Core. Ber-
man says that the Smart-
er Balanced Assessment
may have initial draw-
backs, but he says he
believes that in the long
run it will provide bet-
ter data to show how to
improve education. “I
believe the Smarter Bal-
anced testing will be a
positive change for the
district and the state,”
he tells EW.
It may be a positive
change from the per-
spective of tech com-
panies and curriculum
providers. A new report
from NPR describes the
Common Core’s con-
nections to big money,
pegging the market for
K-12 instructional materials in the U.S. at $20 billion.
Companies such as Apple and Amplify turn a profit
from providing technology to classrooms, and accord-
ing to a survey cited in the NPR’s “Common Core
FAQ,” 68 percent of school districts plan to use Com-
mon Core as a guide to purchase new materials.
Even popular kids’ show Reading Rainbow is
jumping on the Common Core bandwagon. The
show ended in 2006 but LeVar Burton’s Kickstarter
campaign has already raised more than $3 million to
develop its app. The show’s website says it will be
“modifying the platform to serve the needs of Com-
mon Core, measurable success tracking and additional
learning resources geared specifically for the educa-
tional environment.”
President of the Eugene Education Association Tad
Shannon feels that the Common Core money could be
spent elsewhere. “Our money would be better spent,
instead of having private testing companies and soft-
ware, to have more teachers to lower class size and
provide intervention for our most at-risk students,”
Shannon says.
With the growing concern of dropping gradu-
ation rates, especially in the 4J School District,
Shannon shares the same concerns as Vaandering.
“More high-stakes testing will not result in a low-
er dropout rate, I can assure you of that,” he says.
— Kevin Sullivan and Amy Schneider