Morning Lookout: City manager retires this week; Ducks get home game

Good morning, Lookout Eugene-Springfield,

Grace Chinowsky sat down for an interview with Sarah Medary, Eugene city manager, who is retiring Friday. Medary talked about her accomplishments and persistent challenges during her six-year tenure as city manager and 30 years with the city. Those challenges include the controversy over Flock cameras, which ended Friday night with the city saying it terminated its contract with Flock Safety.

According to the Lane County Sheriff’s Office, a drug overdose caused the death of jail inmate in July. Karah Lynn Bowman, 37, died two days after she was booked into jail. Jaime Adame reports.

Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear arguments about a Trump order to restrict birthright citizenship. Jaime wrote a thoughtful piece about the birthright citizenship issue in Lane County in July, and it’s worth reading if you missed it the first time.

A home playoff game! The Ducks learned yesterday that they earned the No. 5 seed and will host the No. 12 James Madison Dukes on Dec. 20 at Autzen in the College Football Playoff. (Yes, it’s the Ducks versus the Dukes.)

In case you missed these stories published over the weekend…
• Food Insecurity Special Report Part 2: Delivering food, giving hope
• Medicaid members get information, ask questions about transition to Trillium
• This local mushroom once drew the world’s eye. Now, it grows quietly.

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After 30 years climbing rungs of city government, Sarah Medary is ready to step down

By Grace Chinowsky

She marched through a dozen job titles in her career with the city of Eugene, beginning as a part-time parks employee in 1996 and ending up as city manager. She is set to retire on Dec. 12.

A few of my favorite Christmas movies: Scroogy and schmaltzy, with Grinches and Kringles

By Bob Welch

As an unabashed fan of Christmas movies, I feel compelled to share my Top 15 list. A bias: Even if some of my choices are not schmaltzy shows, I’m good with the concept of schmaltz. We live in a world so laced with coldness and cynicism that if we get overly sappy coming Christmas time, […]