More illuminating than PGE.

[November 13th, 2002] WINNERS

1) Some rare good news flowed into the city's Water Bureau : Boeing and Cascade Corp. agreed to pay $6.2 million to settle claims that they had polluted city wells a decade ago. The money will provide a little relief to ratepayers , burdened by some of the highest costs in the country.

2) After defining the word "moribund" for years, the Galleria will soon be cooking up a storm. Sam and Verne Naito announced that they will lease 60,000 square feet to the Western Culinary Institute. WCI's 700 students and customers of the school's restaurants should provide badly needed foot traffic for the mall that time forgot.

3) Shopkeepers along North Interstate Avenue have reason to celebrate, as road and sidewalk improvements along the new light-rail route were completed six months ahead of schedule. The $350 million project, including MAX service from the Rose Garden to Portland International Raceway, is slated to open in 2004.

LOSERS

1) Developer Homer Williams suffered a rare setback at City Hall when Mayor Vera Katz deep-sixed his plan to erect a 200-foot-tall hotel-and-condominium building at RiverPlace. Willams' plan exceeded the area's existing height limits by 50 feet, which infuriated west-siders who feared the loss of river and mountain views.

2) Oh, behave! Portland's conflict resolution office is so, well, conflicted that the City Council voted to take it outside. A private nonprofit will now settle neighborhood spats, while the 25-year-old city Neighborhood Mediation Center will be shuttered.

3) Bill Sizemore's career continued to spiral downward when state Attorney General Hardy Myers asked a judge to shut down the anti-government activist's political nonprofit, based on money-laundering and other sleazy behavior exposed in a lawsuit filed by the state teachers' unions. No criminal charges have been filed.