Alan Pittman's blog
The new Seneca biomass plant in Eugene will get millions in state tax breaks while the state releases prison inmates and stuffs kids in overcrowded classrooms for lack of tax revenue.
Ostensibly the tax breaks are for "green" power, but the Oregonian reports today that the Seneca biomass plant will "release more carbon dioxide and lung-damaging particulates than a comparable coal-fired power plant."
OSU forestry professor Mark Harmon tells the paper that Seneca's claims that the biomass plant is carbon neutral are "very misleading."
The Eugene Citizens Review Board voted unanimously tonight that a police officer used excessive force in Tasering a Chinese student last year.
Wondering what to get for that special someone who has everything?
The Bonhams auction house in Los Angeles plans to sell off an Oregon thunderegg that's four feet across and one of the largest in the world at at an auction on Dec. 6.
Indians believed gods threw thundereggs at each other from mountaintops. White men later made it Oregon's official rock. This one from the Blue Mountains will set you back an estimated $100,000 to $125,000.
If that's too pricey for your Christmas gift budget, Bonhams is also auctioning a 70-lb. piece of fossilized dinosaur dung for $1,800-$2,400 on the same day.
The massive piece of crapolite (or caprolite as they say in Greek) could serve "as an intriguing and amusing conversation piece," according to the auction house.
Two weeks ago, EW wrote about the potential of guerrilla gardening in Eugene as a way for citizens to rise up and overthrow the urban blight left downtown by failed city redevelopment projects.
This week the San Francisco Bay Guardian writes about how guerrilla gardening has taken off in San Francisco with backing even from public works bureaucrats and the mayor.
The paper writes of the transformative power of even temporary green space:
"When people see parking spaces turned into parks, vacant lots blossoming with art and conversation nooks, or old freeway ramps turned into community gardens, their sense of what's possible in San Francisco expands."
San Francisco is converting parking spaces to miniparks, restaurant seating or bike parking. Black granite cubes removed in the 1970s out of fear the homeless might sit on them are being taken out of storage and put back in public spaces. With many vacant lots in the down economy, the city is looking at giving developers incentives if they will allow temporary parks and gardens.
But the coolest thing out of San Francisco may be this pedal powered green machine that instantly converts a parking space into a park:
Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns today officially absolved fellow officers of any wrongdoing in tasering protester Ian Van Ornum last May.
The EPD's decision to not hold themselves accountable was widely expected. At a 3 pm press conference, Kerns largely repeated police justifications for the Tasering made by former Chief Robert Lehner three days after the incident.
Police officer Judd Warden Tasered Van Ornum in the back twice while Van Ornum lay face down with one or both arms behind his back. Here's police video from the Taser gun of Van Ornum writhing in pain:
After the Tasering Warden was given the "Officer of the Year" award by the Eugene Police Department.
Kerns is now reviewing another controversial Taser use by Warden against a Chinese student wrongly thought to be trespassing in his own home last month. Kerns said Warden deserved the Officer of the Year Award and stood by his public praise of Warden as "noble and hard-working" after the Tasering of the student. He denied that his praise indicated that he had already also prejudged whether that use of the 50,000-volt weapon was justified.
The Iraq war has reached new levels of absurd corruption.
The New York Times reports that the U.S. funded Iraqi government spent $85 million on plastic-coated cardboard divining rods to Ouija bombs and guns at checkpoints:
"The Iraqi government has purchased more than 1,500 of the
devices, known as the ADE 651, at costs from $16,500 to $60,000 each.
Nearly every police checkpoint, and many Iraqi military checkpoints,
have one of the devices, which are now normally used in place of
physical inspections of vehicles."
The paper reports that top Iraqi officials claim "the operator must walk in place a few moments to 'charge' the device, since it has no battery or other power source."
Is this what we wasted so many lives and so much money for?
UO football coach Chip Kelly announced today that he may allow a player who punched an opponent and threw an embarrassing violent fit on national TV to play for the UO after all.
Sports columnists are all abuzz about with speculation on exactly why Kelly suddenly changed his mind about kicking LeGarrette Blount off the team. But in the past, such dramatic flips in UO decisions haven't been made by the football coach, the athletic director or the UO president, they've been made by Phil Knight.
ESPN has reported how UO officials "genuflect at his Nikes" and "coddle and fawn over their rich uncle at every turn." The story noted how pressure from the UO megadonor forced the UO out of an anti-sweatshop group and forced out a track coach.
There's no direct evidence Knight made the decision. He may make decisions at the UO, but he doesn't do press conferences about them. But does anyone believe Blount could be reinstated if Knight objected?
LEED certification for supposed leading work on green buildings, a focus of the city of Eugene, is facing criticism.
Las Vegas Weekly reports on LEED Gold certification by the private U.S. Green Building Council for two new Las Vegas Casinos. The paper writes:
"Giant buildings that welcome and encourage the extravagant, wasteful behavior of thousands of guests at the same time hardly seem like a recipe for saving Mother Earth."
The article also notes use of LEED certification for parking garages and for building a new school in Texas on the edge of town to replace one requiring less driving to get to. "Sure, it features a bioswale to capture storm-water runoff from the parking lot-but the old school didn't have a parking lot."
In Eugene some dubious LEED buildings include the UO's Lillis business school (which put solar sells not on the roof where the sun shines, but on the front windows where they could be seen for the PR value) and the Royal Caribbean call center which chose to locate not downtown but next to a freeway exit on the edge of Springfield where employees drive to acres of parking lots.
The City of Eugene has claimed a leadership role on green building, but its biggest building project involves moving 250 police employees out of downtown to a building next to a freeway in north Eugene with ample parking lots.
