[August 6th, 2008]

Winners:

1. Keeping up an apparent Stumptown tradition that no cop can get indicted or fired for using force, an arbitrator gave Portland police Lt. Jeff Kaer (see “Brother in Arms,”WW, April 11, 2007) back his badge. Mayor Tom Potter fired Kaer last summer for fatally shooting Dennis Young outside the home of Kaer’s sister. But an arbitrator ruled last week that Kaer instead should have been suspended for a month, and put Kaer back to work, with back pay. For more, go to WWire.

2. Keep ya head up: Once word spun out that Democratic state Sen. Floyd Prozanski planned to introduce a mandatory bike helmet law, the bicycle lobby’s wind-in-your-hair faction led a pre-emptive strike, and the bike-friendly lawmaker backpedaled faster than you can say “traumatic brain injury.”

3. Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen deep-fried Big Restaurant when he managed to pass new rules requiring chain eateries to post calorie counts on their menus (see “Food Fight,” WW, July 16, 2008). The measure, opposed by the Oregon Restaurant Association, passed 4-1 after Commissioner Lisa Naito first tried to kill the rule, then tried but failed to insert a trans-fat ban, and finally voted in favor of Cogen’s plan. Confused? So were we. Brainfreeze.

Losers:

1. Oh. My. God. Mercedes White Calf, a University of Oregon student from Portland who was a Rose Festival princess last year (and won a full-ride college scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to boot), has been accused by Eugene police of felony theft for receiving stolen merchandise. White Calf, 19, hasn’t lost her Gates grant, but festival officials were “surprised and disappointed” at the news.

2. Not-so-gentle Ben? State Sen. Ben Westlund, a Democrat running for Oregon treasurer, has some ’splaining to do after the Associated Press reported details of advances he made on a female legislative staffer in 1997. When their encounter first surfaced in 2006, Westlund and the woman, now-state Rep. Deborah Boone (D-Cannon Beach), downplayed it. But a letter written by Boone in 1997 details three times she says Westlund stroked her hip or leg.

3. As first reported online at the Portland Tribune, a potential money source for a proposed hotel by the Oregon Convention Center may turn out to be as helpful as a concierge on meth. Part of the financing for the hotel hinged possibly on a local tax on rental cars. But state Sen. Rick Metsger (D-Welches) says that tax may only be spent on transportation construction projects. Apparently, valet parking doesn’t count.