Primary news in a secondary state.

[March 21st, 2007] Lake Oswego's Gen. Merrill McPeak may end up working as a national security adviser for the Democratic presidential campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (left). After meeting last week with Obama in Washington, D.C., McPeak ("Happy Birthday, War!" WW, March 7, 2007) says he's impressed with the candidate. But McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff who broke with Bush over the Iraq war, says he and "four or five" other retired generals have agreed to stay neutral until they meet candidates from both parties April 14-15 in New Hampshire. They want to ask those candidates their views on humane treatment of prisoners and the Geneva Conventions (nice to know somebody remembers those).

We have an update to a cover story about Measure 11 mandatory minimum sentencing ["Two Crimes, Two Punishments," WW, Nov. 29, 2006]. One of the protagonists, Zack Driver, had his 7 1/2-year sentence reduced this week to three years, according to Multnomah County Assistant DA Norm Frink. Driver was 15 when he was originally sentenced last year for sitting in a car while his buddy Kenneth Xiong allegedly robbed a Southeast Portland convenience store. So, why the sentence reduction ? Driver had agreed to testify against Xiong, who was finally arrested in Merced, Calif., last month on a warrant for second-degree burglary in connection with the Portland heist. Frink says Xiong will be extradited to Oregon later this month.

A black-history assembly last week at Jefferson High School took an unwelcome turn for Principal Leon Dudley when students loudly booed his face on a film featuring interviews with Jefferson teachers and staff. Since Dudley took over in August, students have complained about his decision to end open-campus lunch and suspend the use of cellphones at school. The booing at the March 15 assembly came the same day that Jefferson canceled a school dance scheduled for the next night . Dudley was out of the office all day Tuesday and couldn't be reached for comment. But a school secretary says the dance cancellation had nothing to do with the booing.

As Oregon legislators try to impose a 36-percent annual interest rate cap on all short-term loans, lobbying tactics are heating up. One TV ad, paid for by title lenders, features a diabetic patient thanking the industry for helping her buy much-needed insulin. But that shameless ploy pales compared to the efforts of lobbyist Erica Hagedorn, who works with über-lobbyist Mark Nelson. Male lawmakers report that Hagedorn toured their offices last month with two beauties she identified as former Miss Georgias (the Peach State is a hotbed of predatory lending). Hagedorn didn't return Murmurs' calls. But Sen. Brad Avakian (D-Beaverton) says the guests made a good impression. "They were dressed professionally, appropriate in every way and made as convincing an argument for their cause as I've heard," says Avakian, who remains committed to a 36-percent cap.

Japanese-Americans from Oregon who were locked in internment camps during World War II would get a small token of belated justice in a bill sponsored by state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem). The measure, HB 2823, would let state universities award degrees to any of the 110,000 Japanese-Americans who were interned 65 years ago if their college education was interrupted. It also lets families request degrees on behalf of those who have already died. While Clem doesn't know if there are a bunch of 70- or 80-somethings waiting to get their bachelor's degrees, he says his measure is a symbolic nuestra culpa. Says Clem, whose late father-in-law was interned for four years (though not pulled out of college): "We are at least going to make good on this one thing."