Author Archive

Phil Busse

Phil Busse

Phil Busse has spent the past 20 years as a journalist, attorney and educator—and doing his tour of duty with alt-weeklies.

He has served as the Editor for the Source, a popular weekly newspaper in Bend, Oregon and was the founding Managing Editor for the Portland Mercury. While in law school, he wrote crime and legal stories for the Eugene Weekly and started his writing career as the first environmental beat reporter for San Francisco Weekly.

In 2006, Phil started the Media Institute for Social Change (MediaMakingChange.org), an educational non-profit. Based in Portland, Oregon, the organization hosts college students each summer to teach them how to produce public interest film and radio documentaries—and, in 2013, helped launch XRAY.FM, a talk and music radio station that won Willamette Week’s readers choice for Best Local Radio Station in 2015.

Phil is truly surprised that he ended up as a newspaperman; as a kid, he believed that he would grow up to be a spy, and has spent a lifetime acquiring the proper skills—he is certified SCUBA diver, knows how to tie a bow tie and can mix (shake) a mean martini.

Phil graduated from Middlebury College in 1992 and earned his law degree from the University of Oregon in 1997.

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If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get fit without putting undue strain on your existing aches and pains, then an exercise bike might be just the thing. Because you’re technically sitting down during a bike workout, you’re not placing additional pressure onto your joints, and you

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A keen runner shouldn’t be discouraged to head out for his regular run even when the temperatures fall below zero. As the cold, long and dark winter months are approaching it should be every active runner’s top priority to gear up adequately and go for his or her regular run

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Does the idea of exploring nature and conquering mountains fill you with great excitement? Well, you might want to consider hiking. This activity is great for everyone—kids, adults and seniors all love it and even teens tolerate it (like everything else in their tortured little lives). And hiking is especially

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On Saturday, October 12, Southern Oregon Pride hosts its annual parade in Ashland, noon – 3 pm. It is the 50th year since Stonewall protests helped define the tenacity of LGBTQ rights. Since then, the community has had ups and downs, victories and setbacks; in the late 1970s and throughout

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For the past quarter-century, Ashland New Plays Festival has presented plays in progress, scripts that are at their final step before stepping fully costumed on to stage. It is a rare and unique glimpse into the process of a script hatching into a fully-staged production—and, for four days this month,

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An Applegate Valley resident and faculty member at Southern Oregon University, Melissa Mathewson recently released Tracing The Desire, a tell-all collection of essays that amount to a memoir about her decision.  At 6 pm Saturday, September 28 at The Shiny Barn (724 Yale Creek Road, Jacksonville) she is hosting a release

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Bear Creek is a defining natural feature for the region, but it also has been defined by pollution and trash over the decades. Not so much anymore! Do call it a comeback: Over the past several years, Bear Creek has enjoyed a restoration, and in no small part because residents

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  Part cosmopolitan hipster, part grizzled hobo, and part wily storyteller, the band Blitzen Trapper has, as much as any Oregon band, captured the soul and sound for the state over the past decade. Their music is at times gritty and rocking, at other times easy-going folksy, and sometimes both

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The last time that the union for non-faculty workers at Southern Oregon University went on strike was in 1995, but they are concerned about what they see as inequalities in wage increases—and, are at the brink of a strike. To understand how, why and if the strike will occur, the Rogue

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  Derek Deon has a sound: He calls it “dream-pop.” And it is on full display in his debut album, Floating in the Backseat While the World Goes By.  “This is an album that arose out of wanting to create something that embodied a feeling of nostalgia for long drives