9/28/17 Emerald Media - Thursday Edition (Week of Welcome)

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D A I LY E M E R A L D . C O M

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PRESCRIPTIONS

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heroin ravages the lives of individuals and families.The source of this addiction is often prescription painkillers, and Eugene is struggling to mitigate its effects.

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đ&#x;”Ś NEWS

UO PALEONTOLOGIST RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARD ➥ ERIN

C A R E Y, @ E L C A R E Y

On August 26, Paleontologist Ted Fremd received one of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s (SVP) highest awards. The Morris F. Skinner Award acknowledged Fremd’s contribution to the paleontology world by collecting fossil vertebrae.

Fremd has also had five separate fossil species named after him. A researcher with the university’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, he also works in the Department of Earth Sciences.

Fremd was the first Chief of Paleontology at the John Day Fossil Beds in Kimberly, Oregon, and credits his work as a National Park Service worker as a main inspiration. “Personally, it’s cool to be the first National Park Service person to ever win something like this,� Fremd said in an email to The Emerald. “Indeed, any staff of any federal land-stewardship agency — many of those who watch over and try to protect the landscape while studying the entombed biotas — have often been

UO Paleontologist Ted Fremd on a excavation trip. (Around the O)

disregarded. Some of us are considered a threat by those who would like to just blow off the ecosystems we are supposed to be mindful of.�

The Morris F. Skinner Award was established in 1990 by SVP, named after one of the greatest contributors to the paleontology of vertebrate — animals with a skull or cranium and a spinal column including fish, reptiles, mammals, amphibians and birds.

Fremd bested award candidates from around the world, including Australia, China, Germany and Japan.

Winning the award hasn’t changed Fremd’s mindset on what’s important about paleontology, he said. “It is our job as paleontologists to get out there and study the fragile traces of ancient ecosystems — more often than not publishing our results in very technical, obscure meetings and journals — and then put some of this in perspective,�

Fremd said.

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Oregon Ducks defensive back Khalil Oliver (26) answers questions from a reporter on Friday April 21, 2017. Oliver leaves the team at a pivotal point in the season. (Aaron Nelson)

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LASTER, @ZLAST3445

Khalil Oliver has left the Oregon football team on, according to a report

by GoDucks’ Rob Moseley and Andy McNamara on Wednesday. The junior safety started in the season opener against Southern Utah but has been injured and hasn’t appeared in a game since.

Oliver said, via a post on Instagram, that he intends to take the graduate transfer route.

This means he would graduate from Oregon and then transfer to another school where he would be able to play for two

remaining seasons of eligibility.

“I have decided that what’s best for me is to finish and graduate from Oregon and pursue finishing my remaining years of eligibility somewhere else,” Oliver said in the post.

Throughout his Oregon career, Oliver played in 26 games and had 73 total tackles, one forced fumble and two interceptions.

To fill in for Oliver, redshirt junior Matrell Mcgraw and redshirt freshman Brady Breeze will see an increased workload at the safety position.

⚡ SPORTS MEN’S GOLF ENDS STREAK, PLACES EIGHTH AT TRINITY FOREST INVITE

Freshman Edwin Yee of Oregon fist pumps after defeating Gavin Hall of Texas. (Samuel Marshall)

O’CONNOR, @KYLEETHEMIGHTEE

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sophomore Norman Xiong struggled, finishing in a tie for 42nd. On Tuesday, he finished with an even par-71, but it only improved his place by ten spots after shooting 4-over par on Monday.

Donald Kay finished next for Oregon.

He had a strong day one, shooting a 69 on Sunday and sitting tied for 15th place after day two; however, he fell to 49th after shooting 7-over par to wrap up the tournament.

Sam Foust tied for 75th at 19-over, finishing up the Ducks’ scoring. Kymer Li tied for 73rd at 17-over but competed as an individual. It was Li’s first collegiate tournament.

Up next, the Ducks will compete close to home as they head to Portland for the Nike Collegiate Invitational beginning on Oct. 1

The Oregon men’s golf team wrapped up the Trinity Forest Invitational on Tuesday, finishing in eighth place overall in Dallas.

The Ducks were 8-over par after the three-day event, snapping their streak of 15-straight top-five team finishes.

Florida topped the other 12 schools competing, shooting 17-under.

Ryan Gronlund was the top finisher for the Ducks. He shot 2-under par to place 10th individually. He had a best 3-under par during Monday’s round.

Edwin Yi was not far behind at 11th overall. He was tied for third after Monday, but shot a 3-over, his worst score of the weekend, on Tuesday. He finished the tournament at 1-under par.

After a strong showing at the Rod Myers Invitational on Sept. 16,

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đ&#x;“– COVER

HEROIN ARRESTS RISE IN EUGENE ➥ MICHAEL

TOBIN, @TOBIN_TWEETS

On Monday, August 14, a routine traffic stop in Springfield became a clear sign of a growing problem in the community. Something didn’t seem right with the passenger and driver’s behavior, so police had their drug dog, Danner, sniff out the truck.

Danner led Springfield police to six caulking guns filled with six kilos of heroin worth over $900,000 on the street. This latest bust by Springfield police exposed the magnitude of demand for heroin in Lane County.

Despite pulling a jaw-dropping amount of the deadly drug off the street, arrests for possession of heroin are on the rise in Eugene.

In 2016 and 2015, the Eugene Police Department made 195 and 143 arrests for possession of heroin respectively. As of September 26, Eugene PD arrested 272 individuals for possession of heroin this year.

Heroin itself is harmful to the user, but the societal consequences of addiction also brings damage to the user’s community.

Chris Wig, the programs director at Emergence Addiction and Behavioral Therapies in Eugene, said that drug use is not a victimless crime. “People didn’t sign up to get their cars and houses broken into so you could steal money for drugs,�

Wig said.

Drug use and crime go hand-in-hand. Offenses such as identity theft and property crimes — burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft — are more common in Eugene than they are in Oregon as a whole and other parts of the country.

Marty Wilde, the Executive Director of the Lane County Medical Society and a prosecutor in Eugene, said that certain crimes are often associated with drug use. “I used to joke with my friends and say that out of

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Dirty needle drop bin in an alley near 12th Avenue and High Street in Eugene, Ore. (Sarah Northrop)

the dozens of identity theft cases I prosecuted maybe one wasn’t related to drug use,� said Wilde.

With the increased rates of arrests for possession of heroin and the high rates of property crime, the debate around treating addicts is rising to the forefront of public dialogue.

Wig said that when Patricia Perlow became Lane County’s District Attorney in July 2015, she increased focus on addiction treatment; the previous district attorney did not have enough money to prosecute every case of drug possession. “Addicts were let out and [would] reoffend and rack up several possession charges, then the prosecutor would file on all those charges and they would go to prison,� Wig said.

Wig explained that the new district attorney champions the idea of treating addicts instead of incarcerating them. “It saves people’s lives in the community, but it also limits the effects of mass incarceration. It stops people from committing crimes and stops destroying families,� Wig said.

One method for treating addicts is through drug court, which Wig and his organization work with.

The DA will offer treatment as an option if they plead guilty to the charge. “In order to get into drug court, one must first plead guilty to a crime involving drugs,� Wig said. “There’s not a lot of soft admits to drug court, you have to be pretty deep in your addiction to be offered drug court.�

Prescriptions to Syringes One of the main contributors to heroin use is prescription painkillers.

From small Rust Belt towns to sleepy beach communities, pills such as oxycodone and morphine

are turning recovering patients into everyday heroin users.

On top of being cheap and abundant, heroin can be even more potent and potentially lethal due to dealers adding cutting agents — substances as dangerous as fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times as potent as morphine.

Wig said that about two-thirds of his clients in drug court started their addictions by abusing prescription painkillers, and then switched to heroin.

Having knowledge of his patient’s stories allows Wig to identify what he thinks is the main culprit behind the rise of addiction. He said the pharmaceutical industry is “at best complicit� and “is probably the main driver of the opiate crisis.� And he credits this to the industry misinforming doctors in the late ‘80s through early 2000s about when and how to prescribe prescription painkillers. “Opiate painkillers are good for about seven days after a procedure, maybe even fourteen,� Wig said. “They shouldn’t be refillable prescriptions. Opiates just mask the pain.�

Wilde shares the same opinion. With the available information given at the time, doctors did not necessarily know the dangers of opiates. “Doctors wanted their patients to be comfortable, and opiates were very easy to prescribe at the time,�

Wilde said.

The crisis is not limited to small Rust Belt towns.

Wig referenced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a politician who is personally aware of drugs’ toll on families and communities. “Christie talks about this guy who he went to law school with and made partner at his firm,� Wig said. “He had the family, the money, the white picket fence.

Then he got a back injury and started taking pills.

(Graph by Kelly Kondo)

CRIME 59.7 56.2

54.5 48

38.1 31.1

It unraveled. He lost his prescription and started buying pills on the street. Then he started doing heroin and his wife and kids left him. He ended up dying homeless. This guy who made millions of dollars ended up dying on the street because of opiates.”

In an effort to limit mass incarceration and expand access to treatment, the Oregon Legislature took action to address the issue of drug possession. House Bill 2355, which became law on August 15, reclassifies possession of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to a misdemeanor.

The bill attracted criticism from both sides of the aisle, and even Wig has reservations about the outcomes of the law.

Wig said that more drug users in rural counties will spend up to 364 days in jail for a misdemeanor, and that there will be less access to treatment due to the fact that misdemeanor crimes are not worthy of rehabilitation.

“The reclassification will have pretty serious unintended consequences, and will hurt the people it intends to help.”

Holding Pharmaceuticals Accountable Legal action is already being taken against the pharmaceutical industry by several states, counties and cities. Multnomah County is suing several large drug companies for $250 million for doctors overprescribing painkillers.

With more overdoses occuring every day, Wig has one prediction for the fate of the pharmaceutical industry and the states affected by the crisis.

“I see tobacco-level settlements coming to states affected by prescription painkillers, especially states in the Rust Belt.”

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đ&#x;‘? ENTERTAINMENT

FALL CONCERTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO ➥ EMERALD

A & C D E S K , @ DA I LYE M E R A L D Courtney Barnett at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

(Emerald Archives)

October — or “Rocktober — is just around the corner. This fall various acts, ranging from the Foo Fighters to Tyler, the Creator, are visiting Eugene and Portland. Grab some tickets to see Emerald staffers most anticipated fall shows.

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile (and the Sea Lice) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 at 8 p.m.

On Oct. 20, Australian indie-rock songwriter Courtney Barnett joins forces with The War on Drugs’ Kurt Vile at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. The two musicians came together months ago to write an album called “Lotta Sea Lice� and are touring in support of the album.  With an all-star band featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Janet Weiss and a slew of other great musicians, the show’s bound to be special. The set list will cover the two’s recent collaboration as well as their own work. “Lotta Sea Lices� singles “Over Everything� and “Continental Breakfast� ramble in a poetic way — commenting on everything from the songwriting process to “intercontinental friendships� like Vile’s and Barnett’s. Feeling “Over Everything�? This show might just cheer you up.

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đ&#x;‘? ENTERTAINMENT Foo Fighters at Matthew Knight Arena, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

Tyler, The Creator at McDonald Theater, Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017 at 9 p.m.

Just a year after the suicide of Nirvana lead singer and cultural icon Kurt Cobain shocked the music world, the band’s drummer Dave Grohl released a self-recorded 12-song album with no promotion. Grohl, now playing guitar and singing lead vocals, called the project the Foo Fighters. The record quickly made its way to the top of the charts as Grohl recruited bandmates to join him on a nationwide tour. Without knowing it, the drummer-turned-frontman had created what would prove to be one of the most commercially dominant rock bands of all time.

Over two decades later, the Foo Fighters have released 7 platinum albums, completed countless world tours, won 11 Grammys and carried the rock genre through its darkest years to date. As the band’s popularity grew, so did their audiences. For the last 15 years, the Foo’s have almost exclusively played at stadiums, making Matthew Knight Arena the perfect venue to see the band perform.

Six years ago, eccentric L.A.-based hip-hop artist Tyler, the Creator sold-out shows using his shockingly far-out persona and his group of radical groupmates.

Absurdly exuberant personalities and violent mosh pits were commonplace at his concerts; no other actions fit with his fuck-it-all music style of half a decade ago.

But that was then. In July, Tyler released one of the strongest albums of 2017 in “Flower Boy.� The album— his most melodic work as of yet — features great hiphop grooves, beautiful, Neptunes-esque synth lines and personal lyrics that go against the persona he built in earlier work. More calm and level-headed, Tyler, the Creator has re-emerged as a mature artist that now allows himself to be absorbed by the eloquent sound that he produces himself.

The album’s tour should feature a less intense atmosphere and instead focus more on the album’s inherent joy. But the classic Tyler mosh pit set to the tune of “Radicals� isn’t entirely out of question. Because of the success of “Flower Boy,� now may be the best time since 2011 to see the cultural icon.

Morrissey at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017 at 8:30 p.m.

In the ‘80s, Morrissey became famous as a lead vocalist for the now-legendary alternative rock group The Smiths. Over the course of four albums, the English singer — born Steven Patrick Morrissey — set the blueprint for almost every moody and melancholic vocalist working in pop music. The Smiths disbanded in ‘87, but Morrissey has since remained relevant. He continues to sell out shows, playing for huge crowds of adoring fans.

Morrissey will begin his North American tour in Portland on Halloween at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This tour is in support of his new album, “Low In High School,� set to be released on Nov. 17. Fans can expect to hear a set of songs ranging from all over his solo career, hopefully with a few Smiths tracks thrown in. But make sure to have a backup plan. The singer has cancelled or postponed over 100 shows within the last five years.

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox at the Hult Center, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

Ever wonder what Lorde’s “Royals� might sound like if it was performed as a ballad by a sad clown? Or how you could envision yourself in a ‘20s-era speakeasy while listening to “Thrift Shop� by Macklemore? After seeing Postmodern Jukebox at the end of fall term, these possibilities won’t seem so strange. Bandleader and pianist Scott Bradlee and his revolving cast of musicians take hit pop songs and reimagine them into jazzy, bluesy, sometimes completely unrecognizable numbers.

Over the last decade, the New York-based group has been prolifically posting their videos on Youtube, and creatively bringing pop music lovers and haters alike under a single umbrella of appreciation. Tickets range from $33 to $43 depending on the section you choose, but you will certainly get your money’s worth.

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đ&#x;”Š MUSIC

Setlist

Caring is Creepy Australia Name for You Kissing the Lipless Mine’s Not a High Horse Gone for Good Mildenhall Saint Simon Painting a Hole Cherry Hearts The Rifle’s Spiral Baywatch Theme Song Half a Million Phantom Limb Simple Song Patti King taps out a beat on tambourine. The Shins perform at McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Ore. on Sept. 25, 2017. (Sarah Northrop)

Encore

The Fear New Slang Sleeping Lessons (with American Girl snippet from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers)

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đ&#x;”Š MUSIC James Mercer of The Shins sings to the crowd at McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Ore. on Sept. 25, 2017. (Sarah Northrop)

Review: JAMES MERCER’S STAGE PRESENCE BRINGS MCDONALD THEATRE TO LIFE AT THE SHINS’ CONCERT ➥ ZACH

PRICE, @ZACH_PRICE24

The Shins headline at McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Ore. on Sept. 25, 2017. (Sarah Northrop)

Thousands of University of Oregon students and employees dreaded attending classes Monday for the first day of fall term. But for the fortuitous group of ticket holders set to see Portland-based group The Shins, the first day of the 2017-18 school year came with a silver lining.

That evening, as the house lights fell and audience members turned their attention toward the stage, a high-pitched, bellowing scream came from behind the drawn curtain. “Ya’ll ready?� the voice proceeded to ask the nearly sold-out McDonald Theatre. The curtain pulled shortly after, revealing frontman James Mercer to be the source of the noise.

Instantly the crowd broke into cheers as the band kicked off the show with an energetic performance of  “Caring is Creepy.� A psychedelic skull backdrop, floral props and a terrific strobe-filled light show enhanced the band’s powerful stage presence.

The indie rockers quickly followed with fan-favorite “Australia� and a new single “Name For You.� After cruising through three songs without stopping, Mercer welcomed the crowd to the show. “I feel good ‘cause I’m not far from home,� he added with a smile. Two guitarists, a bassist, a pianist and a drummer joined Mercer on stage. Playing violins, synths and even a harmonica, The Shins’ members showcased an impressive grasp of multi-instrumentalism throughout the show.

While the band’s instrumentation impressed, it was Mercer’s emphatic performance style and diverse vocal timbre that ignited the energy within the concert hall. He pronounced each stanza of lyrics into the microphone with authority. Swaying and jerking along with the inflections in his voice, Mercer’s expressive body language illuminated

the significance of his words.

A plethora of candid audience interactions and humor-filled conversations with bandmates met Mercer’s engaging musical performance.

Notably, a moment of laughter resounded through the theater following a performance of the Baywatch theme song. “Did you know David Hasselhoff is actually from Eugene?� Mercer jokingly said. “He’s gonna be so excited when he finds out.�

The audience — filled with both old and young fans alike — continued to hoot and holler through every break between songs.

If a brief moment of silence echoed from the stage, a celebrated cry of “I love you guys!� was a certainty.

The setlist consisted of a balanced mix of the band’s older hits, die-hard fan favorites and songs from its 2017 record, “Heartworms.�

One of the most memorable moments of the night came with the band’s performance of its most popular hit, “Simple Song.� With the crowd loudly belting the lyrics, Mercer flexed his arms as he sang: “I told you about all those fears / And away they did run / You sure must be strong when you feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun.� The performance closed their initial set.

After a short-lived exit, The Shins returned to stage for an encore. Before letting out another word, Mercer held his beer up to the mic and tapped its lid several times before cracking it open then taking a sip – signaling a cheers to the crowd.

For the finale, The Shins performed a rendition of “Sleeping Lessons� that featured a verse from Tom Petty’s “American Girl.� The band finished the show and took a well-deserved bow. “Thank you very much,� Mercer said before leaving the stage. “That was a blast.�

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