Out with squaw, in with Wu.

[February 1st, 2006] WINNERS

We'll roll the dice and call Mayor Tom Potter a winner for proposing a $69 million-a-year city income tax for schools without much evidence it can pass. Potter has always said kids come first, and here's the proof—a controversial, shaky four-year tax measure backed largely by his personal credibility.

In 2004, U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) crushed Goli Ameri, a photogenic, well-financed Republican challenger with a compelling personal story. This election shapes up even better for Wu. He looks like he'll get state Rep. Derrick Kitts, also a photogenic GOP challenger who promises to raise big money but whose story includes a failure to make a go of his lawn-mowing business, a DUI and headlines for living off of campaign contributions.

Native Americans on offensive-names patrol, in concert with National Forest officials, got the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to OK changes for 16 Central Oregon locations with titles that include "squaw." While Squaw Flat Canyon is now Carcass Canyon, there are still more than a hundred squaw names left in the state.

Rain-lovers. For the rest of us, enough already.

LOSERS

Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to make the Pacific a sanctuary and raise auto-emission limits—OK, we get it, he's an enviro. So how on God's once-green earth could his economic-development agency be recruiting Bay Bridge Enterprises, a company that breaks up ships that are an environmental nightmare? As The Oregonian has reported, nobody else wants this filthy business but Oregon.

Almost a month after a thief stole thousands of patient records from a laptop bag in an employee's car, Providence Health Systems finally went public with the freaky news. Among the questions to answer: why hospital officials first said the records were encrypted when they weren't, and how anyone thought it was a good idea to have employees take files home as backup storage. See Murmurs, page 13.

Here's a new PR problem for a Catholic church. Citing budget woes, St. Stephen's Catholic Church on Southeast Salmon Street will evict a transitional school for homeless children from its property this summer.