Where gossip is delivered to our doorstep.

[June 2nd, 2004] * The story of Frank and Ruth, the homeless father-daughter duo found in Forest Park, seemed like it was heading for a Disney screenplay. Now it looks more like an episode of Without a Trace. The two were discovered a month ago after having spent four years camping under a tarp. Police Sgt. Michael Barkley found them a place to stay in a friend's motor home in Washington County, and donations started pouring in from well-wishers concerned about the 12-year-old girl. Last Monday afternoon, May 24, the two hit the road again, reportedly after expressing concerns about a deluge of publicity, the potential stigma for the girl, and news helicopters flying overhead. Last Thursday, May 27, a group of "hashers"--off-road runners--reported seeing them at their old camp, but an officer who went to the site the next day didn't find any sign of them.

* It happens all in the time in pro sports: A lousy team keeps its players and fires its coach. Murmurs hears that Team Francesconi is following that model. When the million-dollar mayoral candidate returns from a post-primary European jaunt next week, he will name replacements for campaign manager Phil Donovan and communications director Ed Grosswiler, who take the fall for his having no achievements and no plan. Pollster Lisa Grove will reportedly remain on the payroll.

* The case of the bankrupt billionaire continues.... Murmurs has learned that creditors of the now-penniless Rose Garden and its parent company, Paul Allen's Oregon Arena Corp, have arranged to meet with representatives of two arena management firms who would help take over management of the venue rather than accept Allen's settlement package. Spokespeople for the two groups, SMG and Global Spectrum, were unavailable to confirm the meetings, but Murmurs has it on good authority that the parties will confab in New York City on Thursday.

* The June issue of Men's Health has given out grades for "the relative industrial toxicity of the 101 largest cities in the United States" and Portland got an "F." The rating was based on the amount of nasty stuff being released into the air, water and land. (Joining the Rose City at the bottom of the class are Houston, Chicago, Denver, Baltimore and, it seems, about every city in Florida). While it didn't come as a surprise that Honolulu got an "A," could someone please tell us why Irving, Texas, and Yonkers, N.Y., each got an "A+"?

* Portland's favorite eco-flipper, Christopher Swain, is at it again, this week jumping into New York's Lake Tear of the Clouds, the highest source of the Hudson River. If all goes as planned (which it rarely does) he'll arrive in the Atlantic, 315 miles later, in August, having publicized the plight of the historic river. Last year, Swain swam the 1,243-mile Columbia.