Morning Lookout: LCC budget

Good Monday morning,

Lane Community College’s Budget Committee got a look at the administration’s proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year. It cuts two degree programs and 23 jobs. “There’s not a lot of flexibility and maneuverability,” a budget official said, money being very tight. Contributing Editor Mike McInally was there.

Springfield’s school board will consider a new science curriculum tonight for elementary classrooms. Teaching science has been a flashpoint recently, following a teacher’s 2024 complaint that the district was not meeting science standards in elementary school classrooms. Education reporter Lilly St. Angelo explains the proposed new curriculum.

Columnist Bob Welch tells the story of a Midwest school teacher who reached out to him during the COVID-19 pandemic — and how her routine copyright request bloomed into a relationship of all that’s wonderful in life.

Horn-tooting alert! Did you know we are in the thick of journalism awards season! I bet you didn’t. Well, Executive Editor Dann Miller has a column today announcing some of the awards Lookout Eugene-Springfield has collected so far this spring:

Ben Botkin won one of the top investigative journalism prizes in Oregon for his coverage of troubling conditions at Oregon State Hospital.
Annie Aguiar and Tyson Alger were honored for feature writing.
Lauren Kessler and Isaac Wasserman won for the series they produced on food insecurity in Lane County.

Here are some stories you might have missed, posted Saturday and Sunday:

Eugene police Chief Chris Skinner issued a statement Saturday in response to a police body camera video that appeared on social media. It reveals people, at least one of them a Eugene police officer, discussing domestic violence, anti-ICE protesters and use of force — before, toward the end, veering into racial comments. Skinner said one of the people in the recording resigned from the force, adding, “There is no excuse for racist remarks from anyone who wears this badge.” Reporter Taylor Goebel has the story — which includes the video, so you can hear for yourself.

Taylor went out to the rhododendron garden at Hendricks Park yesterday to meet some Mother’s Day visitors, shoot portraits and ask the moms and their kids what they had learned from each other over the years. She put together a sweet photo essay.

Tyson was in Los Angeles taking in some NCAA baseball this weekend. And No. 13 Oregon knocked off No. 1 UCLA on Saturday, breaking the Bruins’ 27-game Big Ten winning streak, although the Ducks got crushed Friday and then dropped a wild one Sunday.

We have an excerpt from Eugene author Lauren Kessler’s 15th book, “Everything Changes Everything.” It explores topics of love and loss, written after the deaths of her husband and her daughter.

An undocumented man named Rajinder Kumar is in ICE custody following his being charged with manslaughter in a fatal traffic collision near Bend in November. The Springfield parents of one of the people killed in the crash said they would like to see Kumar tried, not deported. Jaime Adame explains.