An anonymous teacher in the Medford Schood District is suing to secure her right to carry a concealed weapon in the classroom. This “Jane Doe” says her life has been threatened multiple times by an abusive ex-husband; however, the teacher says she and her lawyer are primarily concerned with asserting and reinforcing the Second Amendment.

Oregon, unlike many states, allows teachers with concealed weapons permits to carry firearms, but almost all of the school districts in Oregon, such as Medford, do not. Either way the case is decided, it would apply only to Jackson County, unless it went to a higher court. The teacher’s case seems strong, especially with her personal safety at stake. This could be a good precedent for future Second Amendment cases, such as (oh, I don’t know) the right of college students to defend themselves from insane gunmen.

Colleges and universities across the nation made a show of discussing safety issues after the Virginia Tech massacre but accomplished shockingly little. In the end, it was back to “lie prone on the floor and wait to die.” The University of Oregon followed suit, advising students to call our bumbling,  klepto (not to mention unarmed) campus security. OC alum Andy Dolberg ripped the U of O’s revised “safety policies” a new one.

It’s not often you’ll read those words from me, but it should be noted that there is substantially worse student journalism out there. I’m taking some classes at UTSA to get geared up for grad school, and this is what I have to amuse myself with before the chem lecture starts. It makes me miss Mike Kleckner. Oy vey.

Just wanted to let you all know that OC alumnus Mark Hemmingway was on NPR’s All Things Considered today to talk about the recent news that the Iraq government is banning Blackwater USA from working in the country after civilians were fatally shot in a gunbattle involving Blackwater employees. You can here the interview here, and read more about the Blackwater story here.

Yes, we know that all the jumps go to the wrong page, but it was an executive decision to leave it as is. Enjoy.

 UPDATE: The new and improved summer issue is posted. You will be able to tell it’s the new one from the great new table of contents – now it zig-zags! Also, we fixed the jumps, most spelling errors, although we left a few in honor of the Bad Spelling artical in Best of, and after much thought even fixed Tim’s name.  Cheers.

As Editor-In-Chief of the Commentator for the 07-08 school year, I alone take responsibility for the summer issue missing the deadline of today. Everything was looking good and peachy for a 10 p.m. Internet release, until the OC summer staff was booted from the Erb Memorial Union by Mike, the EMU “security,” and Programs Coordinator Liora “Spunky” Sponko, about 19:00 Friday evening. (more…)

I know, I know. You’ve probably heard it said already. I mean, wasn’t it too good to be true? The Blazers, blessed with the number one pick in the NBA draft, did not want to repeat their infamous 1984 mistake of passing over basketball legend/god Michael Jordan for one of the biggest disappointments in NBA history, Sam Bowie. And seemingly, they did everything right this time. They took their time and held workouts with Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, but eventually picked Oden, who even seemed genuinely excited to start his career in Portland. Seeing that most Blazers don’t even live in Portland during the off season since Rasheed left town, it seemed as if the Blazers were turning a new leaf, leaving the old Jail Blazers moniker behind them.

But don’t go running to the nearest Dairy Queen just yet for your free Rip City cups; Oden, the wonder kid and personal savior of the Blazer Nation is out for the season. After dealing with mysterious pain and swelling in his right knee, doctors performed exploratory then microfracture surgery to repair cartilage, which will take Oden out for the entire 07-08 season as his knee heals.

While other notable NBA players have had this same surgery and gone on to have succesful careers, such as Amare Stoudemire and Jason Kidd, other injury-plagued NBA stars such as Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway have struggled to gain traction in the league after going under the knife.

A New York Times article about the situation quotes Oden as saying “I’m sorry” multiple times immediately after the surgery was completed. Are the Blazers going to be as sad this year?

That is, John Frohnmayer – brother of UO President Dave Frohny. Frohnmayer, who was appointed as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, only to be fired soon after for funding “obscene” art, will run in the 2008 election for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s seat. But get this, he is running as an independant.

“We who have been Republicans should be weeping about the state of the Republican party,” he said. “Because the Republicans have always stood for fiscal responsibility and we have a president who has taken a $3 trillion surplus and turned it into an $8 trillion defecit in seven years.

Frohnmayer, who left the Republican Party in 2005, is a former student of the UO Law School. He currently lives in Corvallis where he is an affiliate professor of liberal arts at Oregon State, “where he teaches First Amendment issues and ethics in the history department.”

“The order of the day ought to be that partisanship ends when a person is elected, and for every minute the person is in office after that, the person ought to be doing the public’s business.”

6 years ago, today, the lenses with which we look at the world were tainted. 6 years ago, a normal morning for the United States of America, came crashing down in flames and smoke as the hijacked passenger airliners were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon Building in Washington, D.C.
It unified our nation, and we vowed to never let it happen again. The world rallied around us in our time of need. In our time of most pain, we were also the strongest and most resolved people.
But it cast our nation into a shadow of fear. Partisan politics have torn our country apart since. We have lost legitimacy in the eyes of much of the world. We are mired in two wars halfway across the globe, and our beloved troops, our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors, those that volunteered on behalf of this great nation, are dying everyday. The American people increasingly are questioning the justification and purpose of this war.
And so, on this September 11th, this 6 year mark, I ask you to remember it. Remember that day, honor that day, the people that died. Don’t ever forget, like I almost did, that September 11th was a day that showed the resilience and resolve of the American people. Remember how we got to where we are today as a nation. And think of how we can regain our reputation with the rest of the world.
Most importantly, remember what it means to be an American. I won’t say what I think it is, because to each person, being an American means something different.
No matter what, I was, am, and always will be proud to be an American.

As if the UO Athletic Department wasn’t already having PR issues, now their public face has been suspended for next weeks home game against Fresno State for delivering this brutal smackdown to the Houston Cougar. No word yet on why the Duck decided to run wild on the Cougar, nor why he felt compelled to savagely teabag his hapless victim as he lay quivering on the turf of Autzen Stadium. Needless to say, this comes as a blow to the ASUO’s much-vaunted (by them) “Classy Fan Initiative.”

Watch the Ducks teabag the Michigan Wolverines today at 12:30 on ABC.

Edit: If you missed this, it was quite the teabagging. Go Ducks!

The Board of Higher Education “approved adoption of the resolution of necessity” today so that the University is guaranteed to acquire the remaining land needed to build the new basketball arena. The resolution passed 7-2, with two nay votes from the student representatives, Hannah Fisher and Adriana Mendoza, and one abstention. Vice President of Nike, Inc. Donald Blair did not take part in the vote.

Di Saunders, spokeswomen for the board, said that of the three remaining properties, the dentist office of Karl Wagenknecht is the only one that does not wish to sell. Phil Weiler, Senior Director of Public & Media Relations at the UO, however, said the University is confident it will come to an agreement with all three parties.

“(Today’s resolution) does give us the power of eminent domain, but it is not a power we expect to have to exercise at any time,” Weiler told the Commentator. “People are overplaying this step.”

NW Natural is the first company to launch a program to trap methane gas from cow manure, leading the way in cutting down greenhouse gasses.

“Under the program, the company’s natural gas customers can pay extra, and the money would be used to help develop systems to trap methane gas from cow manure. The trapped gas could be converted to energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

There are an estimated 120,000 cows on Oregon’s 350 dairy farms producing roughly 14.4 million pounds of cow dung a day. The next step is to get the cows to stop farting.

On Friday, the University administration will ask the Board of Higher Education to use eminent domain to acquire the rest of the land on Franklin needed to build the new arena, the 7-Eleven, a dental office and the old Dominoes building, it was reported today.

Melinda Grier, UO general counsel, told The Register-Guard newspaper of Eugene that the university still hopes to reach voluntary agreements with the property owners. But, she added, the university hopes to begin arena construction next year and needs assurance that the properties will be part of the site.

(more…)

In the right corner, the Indicator of Initiative, the Bully of the Ballots, the Cramp on Crime…KEVIN MANNIX [crowd on left boos, crowd on right hoorays, many in middle yawn]. And in the other corner, the, um, well, without further ado, the OREGON EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. (more…)

An online vote will determine five stops on an upcoming Talib Kweli tour. The College Demand Competition is being put on by Eventful.com, one of the largest growing marketing ploys for musicians, where people demand music acts and speakers to come to their area. Facebook also has a hand in spreading the word.

“Some of my favorite shows of all time have been at colleges so when Eventful brought this to my attention I immediately became interested, especially since a lot of college kids have been hittin’ me up about playing at their university. This gives them the opportunity to make it happen for themselves. “

The University of Oregon is currently in forth place with 1299 demands according to the site – the UO is also the fourth largest demanding college throughout the website. I have yet to find any details regarding how arrangements would be made with the winning universities, or if the show would be free for the students and/or the university.

In a related contest, a commercial is out for a contest where the Dave Mathews Band will come to the one college that has the most votes via text. The Oregon Commentator requests that no one from the U of O waste 25 cents on this due to our (my) strong belief that DMB sucks. Thank you for your cooperation.

So, as I sit here, watching the last 2 and a half hours of my teenage years ago by, I had a thought regarding Islamic extremist suicide bombers. My brother had told me earlier today about how the ancient Chinese military used oxen with explosives strapped to them as the first, primitive weapons delivery vehicles. Unfortunately for the oxen, they were used only once.

The oxen idea got me thinking…how long will it be before Islamic suicide bombers think…”Wait a minute! We don’t have to do this! We’ll get something like goats…or PIGS! Yeah, we hate pigs anyways, we’ll send them to blow up the infidels.” I’m surprised they haven’t figured it out yet. Hopefully they don’t find this blog and take my invention.