UO E-clips, Nov. 22-24

Police issue slew of citations at party with alcohol near UO campus (Register-Guard (A loud party near the University of Oregon drew about a dozen Eugene police officers late Saturday and early Sunday, amid suspicions that illegal kegs of beer were also on the premises. Some residents said they were detained in the cold night air for several hours and not allowed to accept warm clothing or to relieve themselves. Police said they responded to the Campbell Club, a student cooperative at 1670 Alder St., sometime around midnight to find more than 200 attendees at a party at the complex. Police said they were responding to noise complaints and also to information suggesting that five kegs might be on the premises in violation of state liquor laws.

Counties inch toward regional planning (The Tennessean): Sara Dunn and her neighbors were among the last to know about a housing complex for ex-convicts proposed just a couple of miles from their Wilson County homes. Because the organization behind it wanted to build in Davidson County, she learned about it through word of mouth, not from her elected officials. ... Competition among towns and counties can be a tough hurdle to overcome when it comes to regional planning, said Carl Hosticka, who teaches public policy at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Missing the line: Electronic tickets leave no room for fun (The Oregonian): Sometimes I think the Internet is the devil. Ok fine, it has revolutionized the way we access information -- we now have the potential to do more than ever thought possible a quarter century ago. But, I am worried that it has come at the expense of a lot of first-hand experience. ... This year the University of Oregon has changed the way that it distributes the tickets that are available for football and men's basketball games. The system used to be such that a student would have to wait in line at one of two ticket offices to receive a ticket. At nine a.m. the Monday morning before a game, the tickets would become available. (Read All)

Gamers network for Civil war (Register-Guard): It’s probably the quietest Civil War party in history. Computer game enthusiasts of all types congregated Saturday at the University of Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union ballroom for the inaugural Civil War LAN -- a 24-hour Local Area Network gaming party in which players from the UO competed against rival gamers from Oregon State University. The event, staged a week before the annual UO-OSU Civil War football game, is believed to be the first intercollegiate LAN tournament connecting computer gamers from two schools through one network.

Motorists warily wait to see how low gas prices will go (The Register-Guard): Brook Matthews, a Springfield housekeeper, was among the motorists who swarmed the Gateway Arco on Friday, drawn by something not seen in these parts for several years: gas selling for less than $2 per gallon. The plummeting price of gas means Matthews no longer has to decide between buying a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk, she said. ... Glen Waddell, associate economics professor at the University of Oregon, said the lower gas prices are the result of consumer behavior. When gas prices shot up, people started driving less, decreasing demand and driving down prices.

Frugality is in - nationwide and in Wisconsin (Associated Press, appearing in The Wisconsin State Journal): Frugality is making a comeback. Fearful that economic conditions could get worse and stay that way, Americans are showing an enthusiasm for thriftiness not seen in decades. This behavioral shift isn't simply about spending less. It emphasizes stretching every dollar -- spending more at discount chain stores, buying secondhand clothes or trading down to store brands. Consumers are clipping more coupons and swiping their credit cards less. ... Timothy Duy, an economics professor at the University of Oregon, is convinced "the economy is moving away from consumerism."