MURMURS

[March 9th, 2005] * The line snaking around the corner from the Old Town Clinic at Northwest 3rd Avenue and Burnside Street has been a downtown tradition for 20 years. Now, reeling from cuts to the Oregon Health Plan, the nonprofit Central City Concern will close the venerable dispensary in mid-April and move its medical staff, which serves 4,000 patients, to two existing downtown health centers. Central City has also eliminated 15 full-time administrative positions and placed a temporary cap on admissions of new uninsured patients. Health-services director Ed Blackburn says he wants to preserve patient care, "but it's going to be a struggle to accomplish that."

* Drinkers of Portland, the only thing you have to fear is fear itself: after spending a few weeks in regulatory purgatory, New Deal Vodka, Portland's first locally distilled vodka, is on liquor-store shelves. The flagship slurp, reviewed in WW a few weeks back, (see "Happy Days Are Here Again," WW, Jan 26, 2005) sells for $19.50 a bottle. The 10th Avenue Liquor Store has already moved more than a case of the hometown spirit.

* A small bird tells Murmurs that President Bush will soon announce a long-rumored ambassadorship to former Oregon congressional candidate Molly Bordonaro. Bordonaro, 36, a consultant at the Gallatin Group and a high-level Bush Oregon operative who previously served as a board member for the mortgage giant Fannie Mae, will reportedly be posted to Malta, a Mediterranean island with a population of about 400,000 but reportedly also with a hopping tourist-nightlife and scuba scene.

* Controversial Multnomah County Circuit Judge Sidney Galton has reportedly asked to extend his leave from hearing cases while he fights a pending disciplinary case with the state Judicial Fitness Commission ("Sid Vicious," WW, Jan. 19, 2005) in which he was accused of swearing and bullying a lawyer to engage in unethical courtroom tactics. Galton may need to the extra time to think up a good explanation for why he first denied the allegations, then admitted them, then denied them again. Only one is true, and when lawyers in ethics cases are not truthful, they face increased punishment-will the same happen to Galton?