John Fischer
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I blogged about the New Jersey Devils for over 18 years. I now talk about the Devils on the Jersey Overtime. I also support RBNY, Giants, & Rutgers Football.
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Articles by John Fischer
Eugene city manager to be interviewed by county administrator at City Club meeting
Jenny Haruyama, Eugene’s new city manager, will make her City Club of Eugene debut Friday, Nov. 6, in an interview with Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky. The meeting begins at noon at the WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave. Club meetings are open to the public and free to attend. In February, the Eugene City Council chose Haruyama to replace Sarah Medary, who retired after six years as city manager and three decades in Eugene city government.
Progressive candidates, issues hold strong leads across Lane County
We’ve wrapped up our election night coverage. The next round of updated vote counts is expected to be released by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Congresswoman Val Hoyle talks with supporters during an election night watch party in Eugene, Oregon, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. The 9:30 p.m. vote results didn’t offer any major surprises from the results released at 8 p.m. Some of the races got a little tighter — and some leads got a little bigger, but there were no reversals.
Declining school enrollment numbers are not inevitable | Letter to the editor
A recent conversation reminded me that many of my neighbors have no idea that declining enrollment in schools was entirely predictable, but not inevitable. As Lilly St. Angelo’s recent story showed, it’s more than demographic changes affecting enrollment numbers. When I started teaching in the 1990s, the predominant mindset centered on the importance of student-centered learning.
For gardeners, last year’s leaves are a valuable asset on next year’s garden
This is a great time to get free soil fertility enhancers delivered to your door — well, to your driveway. Leaf pick-up time also means leaf drop-off time — at least if you live in or near the city of Eugene. The best way to get leaves for your garden or landscape is to put a rake in your hands and move the leaves in your yard off the lawn and into a pile where they can sit for the winter. I have last year’s leaves in a pile that has turned into wonderful crumbly leaf mold.
Dallas Wayne Henze
Dallas Wayne Henze. Photo courtesy of Hare Funeral Home Dallas Wayne Henze, 82, of Elroy, WI, died Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at his home. He formerly lived in Oakridge, Oregon. Hare Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
Alfred Russell Youngren
Alfred Russell Youngren. Photo courtesy of Major Family Funeral Home of Springfield Alfred Russell Youngren, 88, of Springfield, Oregon, died Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Major Family Funeral Home of Springfield is handling the arrangements.
ICE ‘abandons’ plans for detention center on Oregon Coast
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not pursuing a detention facility in Newport, according to a joint stipulation filed Friday, Oct. 23, in U.S. District Court in Oregon. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s office sent a news release Friday headlined, “ICE abandons detention center, no plans anywhere in Oregon.” “Oregon stood up, we made the federal government answer for its plans in court, and now they have to follow the law,” Rayfield said in the statement.
Do we value fast food chains more than local entrepreneurs? | Letter to the editor
Nothing says “uniquely Oregonian” and “economic vitality” like idling in a drive-thru line for Raising Cane’s, watching waves of traffic swarm to national fried chicken just down the road from near-identical chains. I like chicken tenders as much as the next person, but when it comes to building a resilient local economy, we can’t just put the fries in the bag and call it a plan.
I am hoping that my fellow Oregonians consider their vote for Oregon’s governor very seriously. A vote for the Republican candidate will lead to Oregon acquiescing to the current occupant of our White House. At risk are important policies regarding healthcare, our environment, data center expansion, workers’ rights and MAGA affiliation. Please understand how critical your vote will be in this close race. Rita Babauta Kiley Eugene
Growing your own garlic: Plant a clove, get 10. Heck of a deal.
QuickTake: Now is the time. Break up garlic bulbs into individual cloves, and stick them about two inches into soft soil. Nothing like a good fairy tale where one item multiplies into many of the same thing. Even better if the story takes place in your garden. Garlic does just that. Plant one clove to get 10 new ones nine months later.
Quest closes PeaceHealth blood-draw sites, expands Santa Clara location
Quest Diagnostics will close its blood-draw sites at two PeaceHealth locations, University District in Eugene and RiverBend in Springfield, at the end of the business day Friday, Oct. 23. Patients can continue blood work at a new, larger Quest location in Eugene’s Santa Clara neighborhood, at 217 Division Avenue, starting Monday, according to PeaceHealth leadership.
Have an urge to ‘clean up’ your garden? Stop! Put down the clippers. There’s another way.
QuickTake: Let your vegetable garden mimic nature's example and decompose on site, which will release valuable materials back into the soil. And some vegetables will keep feeding you all winter long. If you are getting ready to clean up your summer garden, I have a tip that will make next year’s garden better, provide you with food all winter long and save you a lot of time and expense: Don’t. In the best of all possible worlds, your vegetable garden would mimic nature’s example.
It’s time to plant cover crops in your garden. Here are a few favorite options.
QuickTake: These will help your soil, and if you want, provide food. Crimson clover and fava beans are especially versatile possibilities. The most important things you plant in your garden are vegetables and fruits. The next most important seeds should go in right now: cover crops.
Make your own fruit leather — harnessing old tech and new
QuickTake: Plums, figs, peaches, nectarines, apples, berries and tomatoes are good candidates for fruit leather, which can help you enjoy your summer bounty in the middle of the winter. It is interesting — and time-consuming — to read an ingredient list, even on a “natural” food product.
Even when you give them TLC, those tomatoes can suffer before you get your BLT
QuickTake: Blossom end rot looks bad and sounds worse. Fortunately, there are remedies. You put in those little plants in May. Nurse them through hot, cold, wet and dry spells. Keep the weeds down. Keep the neighbors’ cat away, and provide them with a cage for moral and physical support. Finally, you see some tasty red fruit, pick it and get ready for an even more luscious salad, or a delicious BLT. But when you turn the tomato over, the nonstem end is all brownish green.
Go for the gold for your summertime lawn, and you’ll save a lot of water
QuickTake: Two-thirds of the water used here in the summer goes to lawn watering. If you could magically change the color of your lawn what color would you choose? Red? Yellow? Purple? How about gold? Well you can, and you should. You will save a lot of green in the process, and cut down on pests at the same time. Grass in Oregon naturally turns golden or tan in the summer (not brown). Just look at all the brown hills that will faithfully turn green again when the fall and winter rains return.
QuickTake: To ensure your late harvest will be available, plant some more corn now. Because the weather will be cooler, choose a place that gets lots of fall sunshine. If at first you do, or don’t, succeed, plant, plant again. Some vegetables and most fruits need to be planted once each season. When the harvest starts, only frost, insects or disease will stop it. Beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers — they just keep producing as long as you keep them picked. But other things are one-hit wonders.
CenterGate Capital invests in Canadian Dental Labs
CDL manages eleven laboratories across Canada that develop fixed and removable prosthetics and orthodontic appliances CDL will use the investment to continue adding more people and technology to its organization and to support its laboratory network. CenterGate Capital has invested in Canadian Dental Labs (CDL), a manufacturer of dental prosthetics and orthodontic appliances. Create an account to continue reading Gain instant access to our expert editorial analysis and in-depth insight.
Good Gardening: Smooth
Knowing what you're missing can be a better motivator for putting in a new plant than thinking about it in the off season. The raspberries and blackberries are succulent and prolific this season, and there are varieties that will stop the spreading, and provide fruit without thorns that can be put in this fall — or early next spring if you prefer the lower cost of bare root plants. My favorite blackberry is thornless - truly thornless - produces large fruit, and is thornless.
Our View: Oregon Health Authority’s non-answers on state hospital are unacceptable
So much for transparency at the Oregon State Hospital. Oregon Health Authority leaders have spent over a year assuring state lawmakers and the public that conditions have improved at the psychiatric hospital, since Lookout Eugene-Springfield first reported on the extensive safety concerns that went unaddressed by administrators until they contributed to the deaths of two patients held in seclusion.
Homeowners on Lane County local access roads deserve fairness | Letter to the editor
Thank you, Lookout Eugene-Springfield, for writing about local access roads, public roads under county jurisdiction that the county does not maintain. Homeowners along these roads are asking for basic fairness. They pay the same transportation taxes that fund road maintenance as neighbors on county-maintained roads, and many live on roads that look and function exactly the same. Yet their taxes have helped maintain other county roads for decades while their own roads were excluded.
Take steps now to prevent overloaded fruit tree branches from breaking
QuickTake: Lighten the load by removing fruit or brace branches to provide extra support. Snap, crackle and pop is a fine, fun sound for a breakfast cereal, but not so great coming from a fruit tree in your yard. Many trees are loaded beyond carrying capacity this year, and as the fruit matures, its weight will inevitably crack and even break off branches — unless you act before the law of gravity gets enforced.
June is not too late to plant vegetables, though maybe skip the peas and spinach
QuickTake: Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, squash and other veggies can thrive here if they're planted in June. I was shopping for plumbing parts this weekend (the problem persists), and to get into the store, I had to pass rows of tomato, pepper, lettuce, squash and other vegetable plants.
Everything’s coming up roses: If they’re not always easy to grow, they’re easy to enjoy
QuickTake: Roses are blooming prolifically all over the Willamette Valley, and even indifferent gardeners are finding they have bumper crops. The weather has conspired this year to produce a bumper crop of roses. If you think of Eugene’s Owen Rose Garden as a dripping muddy place that also has roses, this year will surprise you. I ride my bicycle by there regularly, and the trip always takes an extra 15 minutes, as the display of flowers keeps growing and expanding. Make a point of visiting soon.
Good Bones
By John Fischer Ilove old houses—and I don’t throw the word love around lightly. I have bought and restored half a dozen over the years, and several were considered “tear downs.” As a former building contractor, I had (and still have) the skills and interest in keeping the past (and its practical, functional homes) around. These old houses serve both as places to live and as examples of what we need versus what we want—or have been convinced we want.
In Oregon, where plants grow so well, they need frequent pruning
QuickTake: Removing about one-third of a plant's older, taller trucks each year should allow you to do the reshaping you desire. Spring blooming shrubs are often covered with flowers before the winter rains have stopped — offering a preview of the beautiful summer season we enjoy here. Lilacs, azaleas, forsythia, flowering quince and many other early blooming perennials need to be pruned shortly after blooming, so that next spring’s blooms can form during the summer growing season.
QuickTake: The most wasteful way to water is with an overhead sprinkler, although it's also the easiest in the short term. Consider drip irrigation or hand watering instead. Oregon is known as a wet place — and that is true for nine months of the year. (This year, not so much.) But during the heart of the growing season here, we often get less than 1 inch of rain, while your garden will need 12 inches or more.
Growing vegetables: It starts with the soil
QuickTake: Don't forget to experiment on your own to find what works for you and learn how your vegetables thrive. If you are putting in your first garden, or 30th — or, for me, at least, my 60th— you have a lot to learn, and you will have a lot to eat. I appreciate your letting me share some of what I have learned over the years. But I want to point out right away that there are lots of ways to grow things, and what works for me with my six-foot-deep topsoil may not translate to your plot.
Doing battle with the pests: aphids, slugs, snails, beetles and their kin
QuickTake: The writer has solutions for common garden pests, but squash-bugs and squirrels outwit him. There are things that want to eat your fruits and vegetables as much as you do. Knowing which ones are worth stopping, and which ones are OK to share with can save you a lot of food and work. A hole in a lettuce leaf is fine. If it really bugs you, cut the holes out of the leaves before you make your salad. However, a bunch of aphids on the broccoli makes it unappetizing.
The fruits of your labor can last decades
QuickTake: For most vegetables you have to plant your garden every year. By focusing on fruit, you can plant once and harvest forever. Perennial plants, like most fruits and many berries, get put in the ground once, and while the initial planting may be a little more work than dropping a seed in the ground, the harvest can last for years, decades, or even 100 years in the case of some fruit trees.
Heed the weeds, but don’t feed them
QuickTake: A few preventative steps can go a long way toward reducing the time you have to spend weeding. If you garden, you will have weeds. Spending the right amount of time weeding — in the right places — and around the most important crops will increase your harvest and reduce the amount of watering you need to do. Let’s explore water-saving and weed-reducing techniques. Whether you use drip irrigation or hand-watering, water only your plants.
You’re not the only one who needs food. Plants need to eat, too.
QuickTake: You might be tempted to use chemical fertilizers. If so, follow the directions. I prefer natural fertilizers, which break down slowly as the soil warms and provide your plants with a long duration food source. Your garden fruits and vegetables take sun, water and soil, and turn it into food for you — and your neighbors, friends and relatives. Providing the plants with a little nutrition is the least you can do, and it is absolutely necessary if you want a continued bountiful harvest.
No space to spread out? Try container gardening.
QuickTake: Start small. You can always add more containers next season. And the plants in there might need more water than you realize. I have a big yard with lots of soil and plenty of space. Not everyone does. If you live in a second-story apartment or a home with a mostly paved yard — but you still want to grow some vegetables — containers could be the answer.
Oregon’s planting season lasts a good long time
QuickTake: Starts, seeds, schedules — these tips will help keep your garden producing edible produce almost year-round. For me, planting season spans about 10 months. And the most important thing to remember about planting time is that not everything goes in at once and that some things need to be planted over and over. Cool-season crops go in first. Lettuce and other greens, peas, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower can be planted right now — what are you waiting for? Carrots, onions and beets, too.
Don’t give up on your plants too soon after a cold snap
QuickTake: If your garden vegetables are looking a little peaked after January's extended low temperatures, give them time and warmth. They’re likely to bounce back. There are at least two kinds of cold snaps, and they can both mean trouble for plants in your garden. We just had a long duration cold snap, and while the overnight low temperatures were mostly in the 20s, for most of a week, the temperatures stayed close to freezing all day.
Lighter Footprint
By John Fischer Oregon adventure opportunities are everywhere, from the magnificent riverside bike paths along the Willamette right here in Lane County to guided and catered skiing options at snowcat operations further afield. Of course, adventures are not free of cost — or environmental impact — but the choices you make before and during your trip can greatly reduce how much your fun affects the Earth. Distance, and how you cover it, is the easiest place to start.
How you can have home-grown fruit to eat, even deep into winter
QuickTake: Kiwis and pears can be picked in fall and stored in the refrigerator for weeks. If you want to get started, the time to plant is coming up. My family has a lot of fresh fruit that was picked in October and is getting ripe now. I am reminding you now about something you can do this spring so you too can have fresh home-grown fruit in February a few years from now.
Leaves: A free and easy way to boost your garden's soil
QuickTake: Keep leaves from your yard, or ask your neighbors for theirs. Also, you can get leaves from the city of Eugene. They work as mulch to keep leaves down, and then decompose into soil themselves. One of the best things you can do for your garden is add organic matter to the soil. And some of the best organic matter available literally grows on trees — and falls to the ground during autumn.
Mushrooms and dandelions in your lawn? That's a good thing, actually.
QuickTake: Mushrooms are doing a lot of work, decomposing organic matter. And dandelions are just good to eat. Sometimes, something you think is bad for your yard or garden is actually good for it. I’ll share two often reviled beneficial garden creatures, and challenge you to come up with a third. Mushrooms growing in the lawn are breaking down organic matter — lawn clippings, a dead tree root or something else your plants can’t use directly.
The Gendered Footprint
By John Fischer I don’t like to stereotype, so I will just generalize and paint with a broad brush instead: Men and women often have different impacts on the environment. Let’s explore some of the ways we are different, and some of the ways we can learn from each other. First, one of the good (OK, not as bad) things men do while inhabiting this planet with 8 billion other people (50 million more men than women). Men use shoes to cover their feet.
MRF-D 25.3: Forging a stand-in force legacy
Maintenance window scheduled to begin at February 14th 2200 est. until 0400 est. February 15th (e.g. yourname@email.com) Remember me Forgot Password? 45 MRF-D 25.3: Forging a stand-in force legacy Your browser does not support the audio element. U.S. Marines and Sailors with the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) set a historic precedent this year for the program and the region.
Plant a tree for your tomorrow - spring, summer or fall, then enjoy the fruit and shade
This is a great time of year to look at trees with their amazing fall colors, and get some ideas on which tree (or better yet, trees) you should plant in your yard next spring (this is not the best time to plant – more on that in a bit). And while autumn color is wonderful, my favorite trees provide spring, summer and fall feasts for the eyes – and in summer, feasts for the mouth.
MRF-D 25.3: U.S. Marines, ADF host farewell ceremony [Image 5 of 5]
47 U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Michael Escobar, the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force Sergeant Major, left, and Col. Jason Armas, the MRF-D 25.3 MAGTF Commanding Officer, middle, deliver remarks to U.S. and Australian service members along with GPCAPT Melissa Neilson, Headquarters Northern Command Commanding Officer, Australian Defence Force, during a farewell ceremony.
Gardening: What to plant now to improve your garden next year
QuickTake: Planting cover crops now will give your garden a jump start next year, and provide you with some food to enjoy over the winter and spring. This is a good time to plant fertilizer for next year’s garden, and get something for the table this winter and spring at the same time.
From the Philippines to Indonesia, MRF-D maneuvers combat credible forces afloat
Maintenance window scheduled to begin at February 14th 2200 est. until 0400 est. February 15th (e.g. yourname@email.com) Remember me Forgot Password?
KKR, LDC, TPG eye travel tech; Great Hill expands reach in pediatric dental care
Happy Fri-yay! John R Fischer here with the US Wire from the New York newsroom. Summer may be winding down, but travel season is still in full swing. So are investments in travel and hospitality tech, with firms such as KKR, LDC and TPG showing interest in the sector. We’ll look at some of the eight deals that PE Hub’s Rafael Canton rounded up here from the past six months.
MRF-D’s rapid response: From training to disaster relief and back again
Maintenance window scheduled to begin at February 14th 2200 est. until 0400 est. February 15th (e.g. yourname@email.com) Remember me Forgot Password? 49 CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines — At the close of Exercise Talisman Sabre 25, the Indo-Pacific’s largest combined military exercise with over 40,000 service members, U.S. Marines with the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) began the mass retrograde from training areas across northern Australia.
A medical marvel: supporting the MRF-D MAGTF from Australia to the First Island Chain
49 When Marines and Sailors deploy to the Indo-Pacific as part of the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), the mission isn’t just about combat readiness, deterrence, and multinational training. Sustaining that force — keeping more than 2,000 warfighters healthy, safe, and in the fight — depends on a medical capability that can operate anywhere, under any conditions, and alongside any partner.
MRF-D joins U.S. Ambassador, Solomon Islands Government to honor Allied sacrifice for 83rd Battle of Guadalcanal Anniversary
50 HONIARA, Solomon Islands — On August 6, 2025, U.S. Marines with the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) stood alongside U.S. and Solomon Islands officials atop Skyline Ridge, participating in the 83rd anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Talisman Sabre 25: MRF-D Marines and Sailors conclude multinational exercise in the Top End
50 Northern Territory, Australia — Against the backdrop of Talisman Sabre 25, the Indo-Pacific’s largest military exercise involving more than 35,000 troops from 19 nations, the Marines and Sailors of the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) accomplished what few forces can: multimodal and mobile command and control across thousands of kilometers of simulated contested terrain, synchronized precision fires with the U.S. Army and Australian Defence...
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