Tag: Everywhere and Here

An Oregon woman is suing Justin Bieber for $9.2 million in damages, claiming permanent hearing loss after she attended his 2010 concert here in Portland.

July 18 marked the 94th birthday of former South African president Nelson Mandela. It was also Nelson Mandela International Day, honoring the civil rights leader who garnered worldwide acclaim for his invaluable contributions to human rights.

Almost 3,000 children have been in the Multnomah County foster care system at least once in the past year, according to the Children First for Oregon’s 2011 Progress Report: Status Of Oregon’s Children. That’s roughly 65 percent of all foster kids in the entire state of Oregon.

Watching world-class athletes race, throw, jump and hurdle their way onto the Olympic team at the U.S. track and field trials in Eugene last month, I felt the excitement of the London games begin to creep up on me. As their chiseled, impeccably trained bodies reached astounding speeds and heights, I stood in awe at what the human body can achieve when trained into submission.

College students sighed in relief when Congress decided—at the 11th hour—not to allow interest rates on federally subsidized student loans to double on July 1. In an unusual display of bipartisanship, Congress voted to freeze the 3.4 percent rate for another year. Of course, this means that next June college students will face the same possibility; the only difference is it won’t be nearly as crucial a year.

Drugs and alcohol go hand in hand with university life. It’s become a joke—party your brains out, get up and go to class, rinse and repeat. Toss in a tailgate party and an all-nighter at the library and you’ve got the ingredients for the average college experience.

Last summer, as a transfer student, I walked into my sophomore inquiry class wondering what pop culture had to do with my major. The University Studies program in general was a bit baffling to me and, suffice it to say, my goal was to complete my required classes as quickly as possible so I could move on to what I was really interested in.

President Barack Obama recently declared he is putting a stop to the deportation of children of illegal immigrants. The president said in his announcement that he would be lifting “the shadow of deportation” that hangs over the heads of young people who “study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, are friends with our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag…who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans.”

Will the Internet render teachers irrelevant? This is a question that some people suggest is not entirely outlandish. With online tutorials like those of Khan Academy receiving rave reviews, some teachers wonder if the only sound we’ll hear in traditional classrooms in the not-so-distant future is the chirp of crickets.

In a landmark decision, Oregon schools have been instructed to do away with Native American-themed mascots and nicknames. In possibly the strictest rule in the nation, schools will have to comply with the ban or lose state funding. The Oregon State Board of Education passed the policy last Thursday in a 5-1 vote.