Cheap shots, never offsides.

[December 11th, 2002] WINNERS

1) It was a good week for the Brothers Bragdon: first, Metro honcho David Bragdon led the agency through its most nettlesome chore, expanding the urban growth boundary by 29 square miles. Then guv-elect Ted Kulongoski picked Peter Bragdon, a lawyer for Columbia Sportswear, to be his chief of staff.

2) Rip off your shirt and show your sports bra! The University of Portland Pilots (that's the women's soccer team, for the sports-deaf among you) won the Division I national title, defeating Santa Clara University 2-1 in overtime. The Blazers could learn a lot from the ladies about sportsmanship--both on and off the court.

LOSERS

1) The rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl could have been prevented if overworked parole officers at the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice had a better system for keeping track of sex offenders, according to an internal report. Instead, convicted rapist Ladon Stephens got away with murder. In addition to killing Melissa Bittler, Stephens is accused of raping four other women while he was supposedly being supervised.

2) Talk about lousy timing. First, a pencil-pusher at the state Economic & Community Development Department was charged with embezzling $228,000 of taxpayer money; then auditors blasted the state Department of Human Services for sloppy contracting practices. With headlines like these, the outlook for Measure 28, which will ask voters to fork over $624 million in new taxes, is grim.

3) The dreams of many Sasquatch seekers were dashed when Michael Wallace went public with a family secret: His father, Ray, who died last month, and uncle, Wilbur, strapped on a pair of giant wooden feet in 1958 and created the tracks in Northern California that launched four decades of "Bigfoot" mania.

4) Advocates for victims of domestic violence cringed when Washington County prosecutors announced that they'd drop felony charges against Jail Blazer Ruben Patterson for allegedly assaulting his wife. Patterson, already on probation for attempting to rape his family's nanny, dodged at least 350 days behind bars.