At noon on Friday, March 14th, Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson and Gary Blackmer, auditor of the City of Portland, will speak to the City Club of Eugene at the Eugene Athletic Club on 10th and Willamette on Voter-Owned Elections. Commissioner Sorenson is the principal author of The Oregon Voter Owned Elections Act, proposed for [...]

Bits and Pieces on EB last month:
A. “Most analysts continue to maintain that the 19 percent increase in oil prices during the past month is not supported by fundamentals and is largely driven by speculators fleeing the sagging equities markets….
B. . . . . crude is now selling for $40 a barrel or 95 cents [...]

As of this writing there are 143 Initiatives (on 3/5/08 there are 155) proposed for the November ballot. That means they are registered with the Secretary of State and are authorized to collect the signatures of 82,769 voters registered in Oregon. Only if they obtain the required number of signatures will they make it [...]

When I was but a stripling I thought about money. Probably because I’d read a book by Dostoevsky that talked about how to become wealthy. No sweat if you had wealthy parents; otherwise it took a lot of single-minded, dedicated work. Closed out a lot of attractive options. Seemed a severe limitation on one’s life. [...]

You are offered an opportunity to comment at the bottom of every piece appearing in this blog. Matters being addressed here tend to be of a controversial nature. We’re not hearing much from the readership. For instance, do you want public financing of political campaigns, yes or no? If yes, how much do you think [...]

Climate Change and the Media
Last month CBS aired a ‘special’ on global warming. The program featured Dr. James Hanson, Director of the Goddard Space institute and a leading climate scientist. If you’ve been reading this column you will recognize the name – we refer to him frequently. The problem was, CBS published an interview which [...]

I am not entirely naive about politics: in 1971 I was given a brief course in government operations in Washington, D.C., the most intensive course of instruction I’ve ever been involved in. Days began at around 5:00 a.m., and rarely ended significantly before midnight. We met with a shrink daily for attitude adjustment, as well [...]

I have become involved with a political issue. The issue has nothing whatever to do with partisan politics. It has to do with how elections are financed, whether by wealthy individuals, special interest groups or otherwise. I see a more than superficial attraction in public campaing financing. I intend to speak of it over the [...]

Coal
The hard energy news of the moment: The price of coal threatens to reach $300 a ton this week. That’s a sudden tripling in the price of the stuff (see EB 2/4) . For those depending on cheap coal to solve future energy problems, put that in your stack and smoke it.

Oil
Financier Matthew Simmons told [...]

The Energy Crisis
The CEO of General Motors announced at this year’s auto show that he foresees the end of the internal combustion engine, and rather soon at that. He looks for GM to maintain a leading position in the manufacture and distribution of personal vehicles powered by batteries, that to happen as soon as GM [...]