calling them like we see them

[June 19th, 2002] WINNERS

1) After 16 straight months of job losses, Oregon employers posted a payroll increase for the second month in a row in May--to the relief of 122,000 unemployed Oregonians . Non-farm jobs jumped by 4,600 while the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent--still among the worst in the nation but better than the year's high of 8.1 percent.

2) When liberal attorney Nick Fish entered the race for the open seat on Portland's City Council, it actually may have been good news for one of his opponents, State Rep. Randy Leonard . That's because Fish swims in the same political pool as the other main candidate for the seat, County Commissioner Serena Cruz; Fish could lure away some of Cruz's progressive support, boosting Leonard's chances in the September election.

LOSER

1) Portland's long-suffering Major League Baseball boosters were smacked by a beanball when city officials announced plans to help Microsoft mogul Paul Allen bring a National Hockey League team to the Rose Garden. The prospect of hockey could divert public and private resources away from the dream of a Portland MLB team.

2) In an effort to slow galloping drug costs (projected at $900 million in the next two years), Oregon Health Plan administrators last week released a new formulary--a list of cheap, effective drugs that can do the job of their more expensive cousins. That's good news for the roughly 375,000 impoverished Oregonians on the plan and bad news for pharmaceutical companies whose bottom lines have grown fat on spendy designer medications.

3) Džde, where's my unitard? Thieves with a fetish for feathers and fans nabbed more than $11,000 worth of costumes and props from under Cirque du Soleil's artistic tent late Saturday night, leaving Dralion performers a tad exposed.