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[November 16th, 2005] WINNERS

Economic indicators for downtown Portland headed upward with word of plans for the area's first new high-rise office building in five years. The 15-story building, slated for construction at Southwest 1st and Main, shows somebody out there has confidence in our new, new economy.

The University of Portland women's soccer team overcame some screwy scheduling by the NCAA to win two playoff games on the road. Despite being the country's No. 1 team, the Pilots needed to win a pair of away games before getting to host a third-round match this Friday.

A Multnomah County judge gave the go-ahead for Providence Health System to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by uninsured patients accusing the health-care giant of unfair billing. The proposed settlement is the first agreement among 60-some similar suits nationwide and will guarantee lower rates for a two-year period.

We breathed a sigh of relief when authorities tracked down a missing 17-year-old Bend girl who's an exchange student in Brazil. Our question: How a girl who regularly rode a bus 40 miles to attend a Mormon church ended up hand in hand with a suave Brazilian waiter at a police station hundreds of miles from her host family.

LOSERS

The two Oregon couples who won the $340 million Powerball jackpot sure turned into miserly losers once they became mega-winners. They sent their publicist out to the national morning talk shows demanding first-class airfare, free rooms in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, a meal allowance, limo service, tickets to Broadway shows and a personal tour of the city.

Lewis and Clark history buffs must now sort out a schism among feuding re-enactors. Earlier this year, the guy playing Meriwether Lewis ditched the guy playing William Clark in North Dakota, canoeing away with a stalwart crew of three men and a dog. The problem? Irreconcilable differences over the role tribes should play in the bicentennial. (See www.wweek.com for more.)

Darwin, you're not in Kansas anymore. Science marched backward in Kansas last week when the state's board of "education'' voted to approve new standards that will raise doubts about evolution.