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NEWS
BRIEFS : Toxic Law | Unionize
It | Big Brother Costs | Protections
Extended | Yes We Publish |
News:
The Last Rush Holiday Market vendors stock up for last-minute
shoppers and gawkers.
News:
Gifts of Kindness Undercovered #27: Invest in peace.
Happening
People: Jeanne Benson
TOXIC
LAW
A law quietly passed by the Oregon Legislature
in 1999 will soon be taking money out of the pockets of small manufacturers
in Eugene while fattening the wallets of local big companies.
The law will require that Eugene charge companies
no more than $2,000 in fees for a toxic chemical reporting program
enacted by a city charter amendment.
To fund its Toxics Right to Know (RTK) program, Eugene
has relied on a charge based on the number of workers at a factory
that uses toxic chemicals. For example, Hynix, with 710 employees
last year, paid about $7,600 in fees. Smaller companies paid only
a few hundred dollars.
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SLANT
What's happening with Eugene's Toxics Right
to Know (RTK) law? A new rule from the 1999 Legislature
goes into effect in Eugene in July that will limit to $2,000
the fees that any single manufacturer pays, regardless of how
much toxic materials they handle, and regardless of their size.
Will taxpayers end up covering the costs? Industry likes that
idea. One observer notes that it's like having someone shove
a wad of gunk up your nose, then say, "Pay up and I'll tell
you what I've just put up your nose." Both state and local rules
need revising for RTK to be effective. The Legislature needs
to change the law to allow any city to have a toxics RTK law
and fund it in a manner the city determines is adequate and
equitable. And our City Council needs to pass an ordinance that
expands which businesses have to report. It's absurd to exclude
dry cleaners and auto body shops from the ordinance.
City officials have confirmed the rumor
that the new "Talking Stones" in East Alton Baker Park were
vandalized last week. The stones in the newly renamed Whilamut
Natural Area of the park are inscribed with Kalapuya sayings
and their English translations. The vandal(s) reportedly spray-painted
what looks like fish images on the basalt boulders, symbols
often associated with the Christian faith. Why didn't Eugene
and Springfield police send out press releases? Sounds like
they aren't sure if this was a premeditated hate crime or just
some mindless kid mischief. Let's hope it's the latter. Either
way, it's an awkward predicament. News of the vandalism is not
a very auspicious way to introduce these thoughtful new park
additions to the community.
The UO administration takes the university's
image seriously when it comes to the new Duck mascot and
the new designer "O" logo. But the administration doesn't seem
to take the UO image seriously when it comes to hate radio.
Irate students and faculty, not the administration, provided
the leadership in the debate over "Voice of the Ducks" KUGN's
conservative talk shows. KUGN announced this week it's dropping
its most bigoted program, coincidentally just after students
left campus. No one's here to gloat.
We're disappointed to hear County Commissioner-elect
Tom Lininger will be resigning next summer to accept a full-time
teaching post at the UO Law School. We wish him well, we hope
he injects some new ways of thinking into our stodgy county
government, we hope a suitable progressive replacement can be
found, and we expect to see him reappear someday on the political
scene.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing
notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately?
Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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But next summer, when provisions of the 1999 law come
into effect, the city will be required to increase fees on smaller
companies to make up for lost revenue from the larger companies. "I
don't know how the little guy is going to get out of paying a higher
fee," says Glen Potter, the city's toxics program manager.
The city may be able to use general fund money to
keep fees for smaller companies lower. But the city is already cutting
programs to close a budget shortfall. Such funding may also run afoul
of the charter amendment which requires that the reporting program
"be funded wholly by hazardous substance user fees." Cutting program
costs may also conflict with other charter requirements.
Aside from interference from the state Legislature,
the reporting program is running smoothly. The use of toxic chemicals
has declined sharply in Eugene, according to the annual report of
the city's toxics RTK program.
Toxic chemical use dropped from 19.8 million pounds
in 1999 to 15.5 million pounds last year. In 1999, 1.9 million pounds
of chemicals were released to the environment. Last year that figure
dropped to just under one million pounds.
A large part of the drop is due to computer hard drive
maker HMT closing down, but environmental measures by companies have
also curtailed the use of toxic chemicals.
The city was forced to charge fees on a per employee
basis rather than per pound of chemicals after opponents won a lawsuit.
Fees charged manufacturers to administer the program have dropped
from $14.31 per employee to $10.79 per employee.
The toxics program website (www.ci.eugene.or.us/toxics)has
detailed chemical use information on individual companies and logs
more than 1,000 user sessions per month.
— Alan Pittman
UNIONIZE
IT
Employees of the Eugene Free Network (EFN)
unionized Dec. 16 under the representation of the Industrial Workers
of the World (IWW) Industrial Union 560. Lane County Commissioner
Peter Sorensen did the Dec. 16 card-check certification, confirming
that a majority of the staff had signed authorization cards for IWW
to represent them in labor matters and negotiations.
EFN ,a
nonprofit subsidiary of Oregon Public Networking (OPN), has been providing
low-cost Internet service in Lane County since 1993, and in other
parts of the Willamette Valley since August of this year. EFN is founded
on the principle of universal cyberspace access, regardless of an
individual's beliefs, affiliations, race, gender or partnership. Sliding
scale and even free text-only Internet access is provided based on
household income.
The decision to unionize has been met with enthusiasm
not only from workers, but also from EFN management and boardmembers.
Paul Harrison, vice president of EFN's six-member board, says, "The
labor movement has been a leader in bettering life for workers. We
have weekends, minimum wage — all because of the labor movement
… It is a movement toward social progress."
General manager Seth Cohn says this situation is unique.
Out of a dozen or so internet service providers (ISPs), Cohn says,
"EFN is the only unionized ISP in Eugene."
Patrick Wade will serve as union shop steward, representing
the 15 employees of EFN to the IWW. Wade says, "EFN has gone through
a lot of changes recently … We want to focus on better change,
with clearer structure and decision-making procedures ..."
Collective bargaining sessions will begin in January.
All parties seem to agree that negotiations could be held in an amicable
and collaborative fashion. Cohn says, "We're trying to be mutually
beneficial …" Harrison, Cohn and Wade all agreed that the board,
management and employees shared fundamental company values. That agreement
will be the foundation on which to build policy around labor matters
and negotiations.
— Bobbie Willis
BIG
BROTHER COSTS
The city of Eugene is backing away from
installing electronic cameras to ticket red light runners after finding
out the devices would cost more than they would collect in traffic
tickets.
Installing the cameras at four intersections (the
maximum allowable by state law) would bring in $250,000 to $300,000
in fine revenue. The devices average about five tickets per hour per
intersection.
More than half the revenue ($149,000 to $186,000)
would go to a private company that would review violations and send
out and track tickets. The rest would be eaten up by police and court
costs, leaving the city with a deficit of $12,000 to $46,000. That
deficit could grow to $69,000 to $103,000 per year if the city can't
get its old computers to work with the new system.
Add to that a one-time cost of $300,000 for installing
the cameras and the city is hitting the breaks. Due to costs, city
staff recommended the council postpone consideration of the red light
cameras.
The city estimates the cameras would have cut collisions
from running red lights by about 25 percent or 10 to 15 wrecks per
year.
— AP
PROTECTIONS
EXTENDED
A federal appeals court Dec. 12 reinstated
legal protections for 58.5 million acres of wild National Forest lands.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed
an injunction against the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a measure
imposed by the U.S. Forest Service in January 2001 that bans most
roadbuilding and logging in the remaining undeveloped portions of
the 191 million acre National Forest System.
"This decision represents a huge victory for our nation's
last wild forests, but also for the 1.2 million Americans who support
this rule," said Earthjustice attorney Doug Honnold, who argued the
case.
The Ninth Circuit's decision overturned a May 2001
ruling by a federal judge in Idaho that suspended implementation of
the Roadless Rule at the request of the Boise Cascade timber company
and the state of Idaho. Although the Bush administration declined
to contest the judge's ruling, a coalition of conservation groups
appealed the Idaho decision to the Ninth Circuit.
The Roadless Rule protects 58.5 million acres of identified
roadless areas nationwide from road construction and commercial logging,
while containing exceptions to deal with forest emergencies. The Forest
Service issued the rule last month after a three-year administrative
process that involved more than 600 public meetings (including more
than 40 in Idaho) and that drew approximately 1.6 million public comments,
of which fully 96 percent favored establishing new protections for
roadless lands.
In Thursday's decision, the Ninth Circuit recognized
the importance of the remaining National Forest roadless areas, stating,
"Given the importance of roadless lands as a resource and the ease
with which they may be irretrievably damaged, and the amount of forest
land already crossed by roads that facilitate active management of
vast acreages, a near total ban on further road construction in the
remaining and precious roadless areas within our national forests
is not the drastic measure that the plaintiffs make it out to be."
— Aria Seligmann
YES,
WE PUBLISH
For the last 20 years, EW has shut
down for a week over the winter holidays, but this year EW
will publish as usual on Thursday, Dec. 26. Doors will close about
3 pm Christmas Eve and remain closed Christmas Day. We wish you all
safe and happy holidays, and look for a special edition of our paper
Thursday morning.
Back to Top
The
Last Rush
Holiday
Market vendors stock up for last-minute shoppers and gawkers.
By
Ted Taylor
Weary of trying to find the best deals on the latest
George Forman grills, turbo jet spas, Goofy telephones, MP3 players
and Pokemon toilet paper holders? A whole other world of shopping
is happening down at the Holiday Market this weekend.
Some people come to this indoor version of Saturday
Market to buy gifts, others come to dig the music, scarf the food,
and bathe in the sights and sounds of the free-spirited counterculture.
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Roni
Webster (left) of Central Point and Rachel Neff of Eugene shop
at Levana Appletree's Bright Promise Tie Dye booth Dec. 14.
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Only at the Lane County Fairgrounds can you find "humanely
harvested hazelnut Tree Pixies," Polar Babies, Shapeshifters, Sleeping
Dog Puzzles and finely crafted gold art jewelry — all within
earshot of deep didjeridu honking and folk music stomping. Wafting
over the crowd in the International Food Court is the aroma of sizzling
Afghan shishkabobs on one side and spicy enchiladas on the other side.
Oh my! It's a feast for the senses.
Farmers Market has skedaddled to a sprawling building
next door and the south side space they occupied last year with their
sexy squash and tart apples is now Holiday Hall, a less crowded collection
of two dozen booths with an eclectic selection: such as wizard caps
by Scurvy Louts — Clothier to the Barbaric Hoardes, chocolate
tasting, and art by Linda Westbrook of Philomath.
"It's amazing what people will buy," says Westbrook,
who sells a lot of her animal-theme art pieces to pet lovers. She
hasn't mastered the psychology of marketing, but one trick she's learned
over the years is to display "something that will catch people's eye,
even if they don't buy it."
This year's Holiday Market has packed in some 250
booths, with 14 food vendors and almost non-stop live music. The market
is drawing huge and happy crowds, but nobody's counting bodies, just
dollars. Some of the vendors have successful year-round businesses
and the Holiday Market is just the whipped cream on the mocha. But
for many local artsfolk, this last selling marathon of the year will
determine whether they spend the winter dining on sushi and drinking
pinot noir — or eating beans and rice and drinking Trader Joe's
back shelf stuff.
The exhaustion is evident in the eyes of some of the
vendors who have been here working long hours every weekend since
Nov. 23, and will be here Saturday through Christmas Eve at 4 pm when
the whole scene gets torn down and people scatter.
The
Pain of Success
For those lucky or savvy folks who are depleting
their inventory, this season is both a joy and a tribulation.
Elizabeth Eisenman, aka Mudmom, makes ceramic Zen
gardens, fountains and raku pottery, but she didn't make enough merchandise
this year to meet the demand. "I didn't stock up," she says, "so I
work every day, as fast as I can do it."
Eisenman says last year was a bust. Few people were
in the mood to shop after 9/11, but this year people are more upbeat
and generous. "This year it's OK to spend that extra 50 bucks," she
says.
Bob Hall of Silent World Creations did stock up for
the market, but quickly sold out and had to head back to his studio,
sometimes pulling all-nighters. His fingertips are shredded and sore
from cutting and brazing copper for his wall hangings and garden stakes.
Like most of the vendors, Hall manages to maintain
his humor and enthusiasm through the exhausting schedule. "We're kind
of like a family here," he says, "and in fact, for a lot of us who
work alone in our studios, this is the only social outlet we have."
Reiki teacher and massage therapist Robert Bike agrees,
saying he spends a lot of time hanging out with other vendors at the
market, and exchanging bodywork for merchandise, such as artwork,
jewelry and toys. "I prefer cash because I have a mortgage," he says,
"but I do trades."
Bike says a "complete spectrum" of people stop by
his booth, from nomadic "true hippies" to Christians who have read
his book Biblical Aromatherapy and are eager to debate the
Gospel and its herbal implications.
It's
All Hand-Made
The Holiday Market has a history of 16 years
and is an outgrowth of the nonprofit Saturday
Market which has drawn vendors and customers of all sorts and
all ages in a casual, counterculture scene for 34 years. Vendors are
not juried for the two markets, but must follow strict standards about
their craft. Everything must be hand-made, grown or gathered, and
be unique. Only the artists and their family members can sell in the
booths, and booth space and location are determined by a complex point
system based on previous participation. Other cities around the country
have used Eugene's markets as models to follow.
"We think of ourselves as a public market," says General
Manager Beth Little, "and our job is to facilitate and provide the
artists with low-risk access to customers." Little can be found in
the vendors' office, which helps with signage, makes change and helps
people find things, and each other. A searchable computer database
gets a lot of use when questions come up dating back to 1989.
"Being self-employed and living your life as an artist
is a personally risky and intimidating thing to do," she says. "But
it's important to Eugene, and it's important globally — the
artist's role evolves the planet."
Little says she's well aware of the stress level experienced
by the vendors this time of year. "It's exhausting," she says, "but
it's a rejuvenating experience to be part of the community."
"It's obvious that the people of Eugene support this
market," says Hall. "There's no question about it. People would rather
be here than at Wal-Mart or K-Mart. And the reason vendors here have
long hair? It's not that we're all hippies. It's just that we don't
have time to deal with hair care issues."
Back to Top
Gifts
of Kindness
Undercovered
#27: Invest in peace.
BY
KATE ROGERS GESSERT
This year I've got holiday presents figured
out early. For my sister-in-law who loves to sew, a sewing machine
for an Afghan war widow. For my brother-in-law the doctor, measles
vaccinations for Afghan children. For my son and daughter-in-law who
are traveling to Cambodia, chickens for a family there. For my friend
who swims with dolphins, a share in defending whales against Navy
sonar.
I like the idea of donations as gifts. What I've realized
only recently is that thoughtful donations can resonate with the interests
of friends and family, just as traditional presents can. And gifts
of kindness are the way Christmas gifts began. The real Saint Nicholas
was a bishop in 4th-century Asia Minor. According to old stories,
he gave marriage dowries to prevent poor girls from being forced into
prostitution, and healed three children who had been chopped up by
a butcher.
With terrible troubles in the world, and many organizations
to donate to, it is fortunate there are excellent tools for choosing.
A website of the Better Business Bureau (www.gifts.org)posts
piecharts for hundreds of organizations, showing the percent of income
each organization spends on its programs (its work in the world),
fundraising and administration. Program spending ranges from 96 percent
for U.S. Committee for Refugees and 93 percent for Mercy Corps down
to 54 percent (Humane Society of U.S.A.) or less. Worth (www.worth.com)and
American Institute of Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org)list
their charity picks.
« In Iraq, polluted water and lack of medicine, a
result of war and economic sanctions, contribute to the deaths of
thousands of children. $50 can provide potable water for 50 Iraqis
through an American Friends Service Committee project to help rebuild
water systems. $35 buys a sewing machine for an Afghan war widow studying
literacy and tailoring (www.afsc.org/giftsor
AFSC Devt. Office, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479.)
« Through the Heifer Project , you can give farm animals
to families around the world. Families who receive an animal must
give animal babies to their neighbors, so your gift keeps growing,
everything from chicks for $20 and honeybees with hive for $30, to
a $250 water buffalo. Chicks, cattle and goats are heading to Afghanistan,
where many families have lost livestock to war, drought, and dislocation
(www.heifer.org/P.O. Box 8058,
Little Rock, AR 72203.)
« The U.S. government has fined Voices in the Wilderness
$30,000 for bringing medicine and children's vitamins to Iraq, violating
economic sanctions. Members of the group refuse to pay and invite
you to break sanctions with them by contributing children's vitamins,
or money to buy vitamins and medicine. They will deliver these supplies
on upcoming trips to Iraq (www.voicesinthewilderness.org/1460
West Carmen Ave., Chicago, IL 60640.)
« Volunteer doctors and nurses of Doctors Without
Borders work in crisis situations throughout the world. A $35 donation
provides high-energy meals for 400 children, or a suture kit for minor
shrapnel wounds. $25 vaccinates 25 people against measles, polio or
meningitis. Doctors Without Borders, feed and immunize, people in
Afghanistan, Africa, and elsewhere. They provide psychological support
to Palestinian children and families in Hebron, Gaza, and Jenin (www.doctorswithoutborders.org/6
E. 39th Street, 8th floor, New York, NY 10016).
« The Bush administration recently gave the Navy permission
to deploy LFA, an active-sonar system to monitor submarines. LFA broadcasts
extremely loud sounds through the oceans. Even 100 miles from a transmitter,
these sounds are loud enough to cause human seizures. Many whales
and other marine mammals depend on hearing to navigate, feed and mate;
among whales, active sonar has already caused deafness, mass strandings
and deaths. Some 75 percent of the world's oceans would be covered
by LFA. After Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Navy, a federal
judge granted a
temporary injunction against LFA deployment. NRDC is preparing arguments
for trial next summer. Donations will protect the hearing
of the world's whales (www.nrdc.org/
6310 San Vincente Blvd. #250, Los Angeles, CA 90048.)
«United Nations Family Planning Association hopes
34 million friends will each give $1 to restore $34 million in funds
that Congress approved and the Bush administration withdrew, on false
charges that UNFPA supports coercive abortions in China. UNFPA estimates
that this 12.5 percent decrease in their budget will result in two
million unwanted pregnancies a year, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700
maternal deaths, and 77,000 infant and child deaths. So far 800 friends
have donated $145,000 (www.unfpa.org/U.N.
Population Fund, 220 E. 42nd St., 23d Floor, New York, NY 10017.)
When you donate, you can let an organization decide
where need is greatest, or ask that your donation be used for a particular
project or country. These organizations will honor your request unless
they already have too many contributions in that area.
American voices may be gifts to protect the world.
Tell Bush and your representatives, "Let the U.N. inspectors do their
work" (www.moveon.org).I wish
everybody in the world a new year of peace, kindness and reason.
Back to Top
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Jon
Massoglia Silvermoon
In front of the Holiday Market music stage, blues harpist
Jon Silvermoon "blatantly promotes" the Vipers, the band he launched
10 years ago with the late guitarist Henry Vestine. Two years later,
Silvermoon founded the Lane County Musicians' Collective, a market
booth that exclusively features recordings by local artists. "It's
a huge service to our musicians," says market music maven Kim Still.
"Jon does a wonderful job of keeping the volunteer staff organized."
The collective has sold more than $30,000 of CDs and tapes since 1994.
A longtime social activist, Silvermoon served as a poll watcher in
Mississippi in 1969, and got arrested in Washington on May Day of
1971. "We were held on an ice rink," he recalls. "Guys with rifles
all around." A Eugenean since 1973, he has earned three UO degrees,
worked as an anthropologist and a labor organizer, run for EWEB Board
and City Council, and traveled to Helena, Ark., every October for
the King Biscuit Blues Festival. Silvermoon and the Vipers played
six dates in Europe last May with local favorite Eagle Park Slim.
Look for a new Vipers CD with soul diva Deb Cleveland sometime in
March.
— Paul Neevel
Nominate A Happenin' Person
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