Lane County

The Lane County Sheriff's Department issued their report on Activity at the Oregon Country Fair, and it appears that fairgoers need to wear their seatbelts, buy automobile insurance and drive slower. However, more fairgoers had licenses and auto-insurance than last year, plus there was one fewer DUII than last year. Kudos.

Here's the report:

Over the course of the weekend Sheriff's deputies assigned to work the area of the Oregon Country Fair on both grant funded overtime as well as during their regular shifts issued about 409 traffic citations: 167 citations for failure to wear safety belt, 49 citations for driving uninsured or failure to provide proof of insurance, 18 citations for driving while suspended or not having a valid driver's license, 74 for speed violations and 62 for miscellaneous other moving violations. 4 DUII's were arrested.

Citations for driving uninsured and for driving while suspended or not having a valid license were down by about 50% from last year. All other categories stayed largely consistent, with safety belt cites slightly up, and speed and other moving violations slightly down. There was 1 fewer DUII arrest this year from 2007.

The Lane County Commissioners have unanimously voted to impose an infinite moratorium on county pesticide use, reports Vegetation Management Advistory Committee member Jan Nelson.

Lane County has had a "last resort" use policy since 2003 on chemical controls of weeds, but the policy had been called into question recently.

In May, a rally to support Lane County's last resort policy and ask the Oregon Department of Transportation to avoid roadside spraying of pesticides drew attention when the Eugene Police Department Tasered at least one and arrested three rally participants.

Go to the Torrey section to see where he compares trans high school students to Kip Kinkel! What. The. Fuck?

It's early moments in Basic Rights Oregon's LGBT candidate forum. Mayor Kitty Piercy, former mayor/mayoral candidate Jim Torrey and county commission candidate Rob Handy are on hand. There are cookies and juice, no coffee, which bothered someone.

Wait now ... someone is up there saying it's BRES, Basic Rights Eugene Springfield, not BRO. Does that mean in Portland it's BRP? Or BRB in Beaverton and Bend? Little confused here. (Also, BRES? Is that pronounced, like, brez? Or breeze? Or bressssss?)

Fundraiser coming up at the Broadway for pro-LGBT candidates. Now Todd Simmons (source of many stories for me and the communications director for OSU) talks about Equality PAC, which vets candidates for state races normally. First time it's gotten involved in local races. Endorsements based on "leadership and incumbency, as well as viability, electability in races like this."

Applause at news Equality PAC has endorsed Kitty Piercy already; new endorsements of Andrea Ortiz, Betty Taylor and George Brown. Will make endorsement in north Lane County commissioner race as well. Note: Bobby Green? A no-show so far.

Each candidate will speak for 5 mins, then a 15-min group Q&A though Piercy and Torrey need to get someplace else. Becky Flynn will keep time.

Read more here.