The Howls Of Joy And Justice.

[September 20th, 2006] WINNERS

True, moronic calls from the refs helped Oregon swipe a last-minute 34-33 miracle win on the football field Saturday against traditional powerhouse Oklahoma. But luck trumping skill didn't faze the actual Ducks fans, who stuck around for the once-in-a-lifetime comeback rather than leave early to beat the traffic.

The family of 16-year-old Cindy Lou "Brightstar" Sohappy-Gilbert , who died of alcohol poisoning in 2003 while locked in a holding cell at the federally run Chemawa Indian School in Salem, won some amount of peace last week. The feds agreed to pay $1.8 million to her family after allegations she went untreated despite what turned out to be a blood alcohol level of 0.37 percent—nearly five times the legal limit to drive in Oregon.

The animal known to biologists as Canis lupus (and to cows and farmers as the Big, Bad Wolf) might be making a comeback in Eastern Oregon after three previously unsuccessful attempts. One animal is confirmed to reside in Wallowa County, with a second rumored to roam the nearby mountains.

LOSERS

Qwest must be feeling as ticked as we do when we can't get the communicatons giant to listen to us gripe about a bill. The federal courts ruled this week that Portland and other Oregon cities have every right to charge Qwest and other phone companies millions in franchise fees for their use of streets for phone lines.

The tale of a 51-year-old ER nurse who strangled an intruder in her Southeast Portland home Sept. 6 took a Desperate Housewives-style twist last week. Police revealed that Susan Kuhnhausen's estranged husband Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. allegedly hired the intruder, Edward Dalton Haffey, to bludgeon his wife to death with a hammer.

It was a bad week for bad guys. Three of them died in Oregon, all under the watchful eye of the law: One "combative man" died while in custody of Portland Police; in Tigard, Washington County Sheriff's deputies shot and killed an 18-year-old knife-wielding boy; and an inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary hanged himself. What gives?