Lookout PM: Polluted air

Good evening,

According to the American Lung Association, the Eugene-Springfield area ranks No. 2 nationally in short-term particle pollution. Just to be clear, in this case, ranking No. 2 is bad. The lung association also ranked our metro area No. 3 in annual particle pollution — also bad. Our degraded air quality is largely driven by wildfire smoke. Read Ashli Blow’s report for more details.

Our sportswriter Tyson Alger has a glimpse at a high-tech … well, I’d call it a sort of robotic quarterback. It throws passes so receivers — and defensive backs, too — can practice catches more or less whenever they want. Turns out the Ducks have made this machine a big part of players’ development.

The body of a Eugene man who had been missing for more than two months was found outside of Vida, more than a mile from where his car was found. Authorities said there was no indication of foul play in the death of Michael Trevor Owen Naughton, 42.

Several environmental groups are continuing to push for Eugene Water & Electric Board to make improvements to a dam on its Carmen-Smith Hydropower Project in the McKenzie River basin so fish can more easily pass. The groups say the current system is inadequate. Ashli Blow has the story.

Heading into election season, there is a new poll in the Republican primary race to see who will take on Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek in the fall. The poll found that state Sen. Christine Drazan of Canby, who lost to Kotek four years ago, has a big lead on her most prominent Republican opponents. Nearly 37% of those polled said they’d vote for Drazan, while 18.1% preferred former NBA player Chris Dudley and 17.6% liked state lawmaker Ed Diehl. Our friends at Oregon Journalism Project have the report.

By the way, we are compiling all of our election coverage on one page on our website. We’ll be adding a lot more about specific candidates and races in the coming days. Ballots will be mailed to voters beginning April 29. Election day is May 19. Our election stories are all free, as well, so you can browse them all you want even if you are not a paying member of Lookout.

We also have compiled — over on our YouTube channel — videos of the candidate forums we held last week that included candidates for Eugene City Council and the Lane County Board of Commissioners. You can watch them at your leisure and get to know the candidates.

In our opinion section …

Many of you have been busy writing letters to the editor. Good work. Keep it up. Today, we have:

A letter from Bruce Abel of Eugene says the city’s current work to rebuild some kind of CAHOOTS-style services appears overly piecemeal and not comprehensive enough.
A letter from Rick Riordan, coordinator of Lane Community College’s Health Information Management program, defends the program’s value, after LCC administration identified it as potentially headed for the chopping block.
Chris Daniel of Springfield writes a letter saying the controversy around PeaceHealth’s emergency department staffing is just a symptom of a broken health care system, and urges citizens to support a single-payer system.
Springfield’s Jenny Potter sends a letter endorsing Sean VanGordon’s run for Lane County Board of Commissioners.

What’s on your mind? Send us a letter to the editor (350 words or less, please): lte@lookoutlocal.com

Have a news tip on something we should cover: newsroom@lookoutlocal.com

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DAILY DIGEST

Eugene-Springfield ranks No. 2 for worst air in U.S., lung association says

By Ashli Blow

Air quality in the metro area worsened in the latest report from the American Lung Association, with the region climbing the national rankings for particle pollution. The rise is driven in part by wildfire smoke, as longer more intense fire seasons funnel pollution into Oregon’s valleys.

How the Ducks made a high-tech passing machine a daily obsession

By Tyson Alger

The robotic QB has become a key piece of Oregon’s player development, giving Oregon skill players — and defenders — more ways to train outside of practice.