For Once, Ignore Your Mom And Don't Eat The Spinach.

[September 27th, 2006] Jefferson High School's new principal, Leon Dudley , is again making news in his former Texas hometown. The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday, Sept. 24, that Dudley was one of several Dallas schools administrators who made questionable spending decisions with grant money. The paper reports that Dudley spent several thousand dollars on a new laptop and other items at a Best Buy the same day his federal grant was to expire. The Morning News wrote that Dudley was bending the rules because the purchased items weren't on the program budget for his afterschool program. Dudley tells Murmurs that the purchases were for a parent center and that the person who oversaw his school grant knew about, and approved, his purchases.

In his latest message from a British Columbia jail, Oregon environmental activist Tre Arrow says he's adding a "y" to his first name. Why? "Adding the 'y' activates my fullest potential to manifest my true destiny," Arrow tells supporters in a Sept. 24 email. Arrow says he made his decision based on cabalistic philosophy , which teaches there is a direct connection between a person's name and the conditions of his or her life, such as health, job and personal fulfillment. "I know my true destiny is to be free," says Arrow, who was born Michael Scarpitti. "Trey" Arrow is in jail in Victoria, B.C., fighting extradition to Oregon, where the FBI wants him to stand trial for a pair of 2001 arsons.

Sisters of the Road recently started providing forms in its Old Town café to homeless clients interested in documenting any of their less-than-friendly encounters with police . Sisters' executive director, Monica Beemer, says the goal is to help advocates see if there are patterns of abuse against Portland's vulnerable people. The new forms come as Portland police face intense scrutiny in the Sept. 17 death of a mentally ill man whose chest was crushed in a struggle with officers after he had allegedly been urinating in public.

An update on Portland cop David Golliday , who Murmurs reported July 12 was up for promotion from officer to sergeant despite a history of sexual and physical aggression. Police Chief Rosie Sizer approved Golliday's promotion last month after reviewing a discipline case in which he had been demoted from sergeant to officer in 2001 following accusations that he molested another officer's wife. Sizer calls the earlier punishment a "just decision." The chief says she'd personally supervised Golliday when they were both at Southeast precinct and thought his performance was "exceptional." "I think there needs to be, in an organization, an opportunity for redemption," Sizer says.

Neighbors of the aerial tram got an unpleasant wake-up call Saturday at about 8:30 am when they heard a large crash in their Southwest Portland homes. Turns out the installation rope used to guide the cable for the $57 million project got caught in some trees, then was lifted by the wind and landed on a power line on Southwest Barbur Boulevard. Some neighbors reported seeing a small fire, but officials say there was no fire. Meantime, city officials now also say that utility poles at Southwest Gibbs Street and Corbett Avenue will come down by mid-October to accommodate the tram.

CORRECTION: The Sept. 13 cover story "The Killer Next Door?" incorrectly reported that Michael Burchett was on his knees when he was fatally shot. WW regrets the error.

^Web only Murmurs!

After years of negotiations and dealing with red tape, City Hall security guard Robert Tybie seems close to success with his plans for a Sunday art fair in one of the seven Smart Park garages owned by the City of Portland. In 2002, while working as a Smart Park garage manager, Tybi—a 60-year-old artist—got the idea to offer local artists the parking spaces on garages' top floors, which are often vacant on Sundays. Deputy City Attorney Tracy Reeve says the plan has City Hall's OK, though final contracts are still being drawn up for the Sunday ArtMart next July through October at the Smart Park garage on Southwest 3rd Avenue and Alder Street. For more info, go to sundayartmart.com.

High-school juniors and seniors in Portland Public Schools have until Oct. 1 to indicate they don't want their personal information disclosed to military recruiters. Members of the Recruiter Watch PDX coalition visited several high schools last week to tell students they can opt out of the recruiters' list by checking a box in their annual school registration forms, or by notifying the principal that they don't want their info released to recruiters. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires all school districts to give recruiters the same access to student information as colleges, unless a parent or the student retracts his or her name. Portland Public Schools, which until 2001 kept recruiters off campus, reports that 47 percent of students in 2005 opted out of the military database.

A Portland group dedicated to immigrant worker rights demonstrated outside a condo project in Lents on Monday morning. The purpose: to highlight the group's claim that eight day laborers weren't paid for a week's work at the site on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard near 93rd Avenue. Romeo Sosa, an organizer with VOZ, says the eight workers were not paid for their final week of work on the project managed by TSPN, LLC.

But a TSPN official who's listed in records as Naman Ahman says he's never employed day laborers. "I don't know what you're talking about," he says. When told about the protest, he laughed. "What?" he asked. "A bunch of Mexicans walking around?" (As an aside: we couldn't confirm the spelling of his last name because he hung up the phone.)