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It's easy. Join us! Register a team of 10 or more employees before Friday, Oct. 7 at 11:59 p.m. on Komen Oregon's website.

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CAWOOD is partnering with Komen Oregon to promote Eugene's second annual Race for the Cure event. Last year, the event made history as the largest inaugural Race for the Cure among Susan G. Komen for the Cure's affiliates. After last year's success of more than 7,000 participants and $500,000 raised to support Komen's mission to end breast cancer forever, Eugene has a reputation to uphold.

More than that, breast cancer is a cause that needs to be addressed in our community. Oregon has the second-highest incidence rate of breast cancer in the nation. Lane County alone is home to nearly 34,000 uninsured women ages 18-64 who are likely putting off life-saving screenings to detect breast cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages.

Money raised through Race for the Cure will help fund screenings and treatments, as well as breast health education events and national research to find cures.

Supporting Komen is also a good investment. For the fourth year in a row, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has received the Charity Navigator four-star rating. It also ranks highly on the Harris Poll for trust and brand equity amongst other nonprofits.

We think that's a win-win for all: your company, the community and Komen Oregon.

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Market of Choice's kitchens offer high quality foods made from scratch. They use only the best ingredients, right down to the cooking oil. So what happens to all that oil after it's used?

As part of its sustainability efforts and support of local vendors, Market of Choice partnered with Encore Oils, a subsidiary of SeQuential-Pacific Biodiesel, which now collects about 140 gallons of used oil per month. It is then transferred to the SeQuential-Pacific Biodiesel plant in Salem, Ore.

From there, it is processed into biodiesel and distributed around the state. Creating biodiesel in place of petroleum diesel reduces the production of carbon dioxide by 89 percent.

Essentially, this used cooking oil helps reduce dependence on foreign oil and decreases greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the biodiesel produced contains 89 percent less CO2 than petroleum diesel and helps reduce the negative health impact from automobile tailpipe emissions.

The best part? Market of Choice's partnership with Encore Oils ensures that all transfer processes and resulting fuel remain in the state, keeping dollars in the region and helping the local economy.

This effort is significant because most used cooking oil is controlled by large corporations that ship the product overseas for use in makeup production or livestock feed. The unused portion is often placed into landfills, contaminating water supply.

To support this full-circle effort, you can fuel up at your local SeQuential station or shop your Market of Choice knowing that many of the products on its shelves are delivered by trucks powered by biodiesel - now that's full circle!

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On Aug. 18, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio joined Oregon elected officials and some 150 community stakeholders and residents to celebrate the opening of the new southbound Interstate 5 Willamette River Bridge.

Rep. DeFazio looked to the future of the Willamette River Bridge project. "When this bridge is complete, it will facilitate the movement of the next four to five generations of I-5 users," DeFazio said. "That's a great achievement." He also praised the large number of jobs created by this project.

State Rep. Terry Beyer highlighted the statewide economic benefits of the new bridge, while Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg and Eugene City Councilor Alan Zelenka talked about how the bridge project has improved nearby parks and the local economy.

On the night of Aug. 29, crews removed traffic barriers and southbound Interstate 5 traffic started moving across the new bridge. Work is now under way to switch northbound traffic to the new southbound bridge in early October. Demolition of the temporary I-5 detour bridge will begin after northbound traffic switches to the new bridge. The project will be complete in 2014.

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If you're a music lover, this one's for you. Pandora is essentially a radio station that only plays the type(s) of music you like.

After establishing a login, a user creates a station specifying their choice of artists or songs. Pandora will then play its recommendations as the user listens. The user can respond to each track with favorable (thumbs up) or unfavorable (thumbs down) buttons, which determine if it (or that artist) should be played again. These user actions provide Pandora with information about what songs/artists to recommend next. According to Pandora, "over 400 different musical attributes are considered when selecting the next song. These 400 attributes are combined into larger groups called focus traits. There are 2,000 focus traits. Examples of these are rhythm syncopation, key tonality, vocal harmonies and displayed instrumental proficiency." So if you've built an Elton John station, Pandora will hold off on recommending Metallica.

In addition, a menu is provided with choices such as "I'm tired of this song", "Why was this song selected?", "Move song to another station," and more. Users also have the opportunity to buy each song from iTunes or Amazon.

Pandora's library currently contains ~80,000 artists and over 800,000 tracks.

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