Let March Madness begin.

[March 8th, 2006] Among the biggest recent skeptics of publicly financed city elections on the Portland political blog www.Bojack.org was a reader named "Murphy." But when Murmurs placed its cursor over Murphy's name, the return email address was for Laura Imeson, campaign manager for the First Things First Committee. That's the committee that, in a recent Murphy's Law-like campaign, failed to place a repeal of publicly financed elections on the ballot despite spending nearly $350,000. Imeson says her comment criticizing the public-finance system for failing to track donors' citizenship was her doing, not the committee's. As for Murphy? That's the name of Imeson's late 14-year-old Labrador .

Is there a brief thaw in the on-again, off-again hiring freeze at The Oregonian? Perhaps if your last name is Sulzberger.

Arthur Sulzberger , the 25-year-old son of New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., is now a reporter at the Providence Journal, but was making the interview rounds last week at The O. No word yet if there's a job offer in the mix. But before anybody thinks the Sulzberger scion is an empty suit, a Feb. 2 profile in the Boston Phoenix calls him "a skilled reporter uncomfortable with public attention who has built a reputation as a well-liked, curious, hard-working and unassuming young man."

They may be taking hostages in a well-heeled part of Northeast Portland over the possible closure of Hollyrood Elementary . After Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips visited the school in Grant Park last week, a Hollyrood parents group launched "Operation Lemonade" to fight any talk of a closure as the district tries to save money. Step one: Parent Prashant Dubey says some donations from Hollyrood's annual fundraiser last weekend will be considered conditional "pledges" until the district decides the high-performing but small school's fate.

KXL radio host Lars Larson and the Trail Blazers are generating a lot of commentary on the www.OregonMediaInsiders.com media blog. Larson is the most outspoken conservative in town with a soapbox and he happens to work at the radio station owned by Blazers owner Paul Allen . The billionaire owner has been begging local governments for some kind of bailout, leading bloggers to ask whether Larson is a true-blue conservative or is afraid to bite the hand that feeds him. Larson tells Murmurs: "I don't favor the public financing of sports facilities. Period ."

A Portland group pushing a city initiative that would make busting adults for marijuana a lower priority for police has gotten a little help from its friends. Citizens for a Safer Portland organizer Chris Iverson, also running for City Council this spring, says his organization has gotten a grant (it's not saying how much) from the D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project and will use the grant to pay signature gatherers to get a measure on the city's November ballot.

Utility customers should feel unprotected after last week's hearing by the state agency that's regulating outfits like Portland General Electric. Public Utility Commission staff told the City of Portland to quit picking on PGE because the commission has ratepayers covered. Yet PUC staff rubberstamped the practice of PGE and its parent Enron in which they pocketed local, state and federal taxes, ignoring PGE's recent decision to refund ratepayers $10 million in Multnomah County income taxes it kept. But the real chiller from the PUC staff report: "Even if the PUC found that a utility had committed fraud in its rate filing, it is questionable whether the agency has the authority to order refunds for the harm."

Debates! Talent show! Beer! Candidates Gone Wild, the most exciting political event in the history of Western Civilization, is back, at the Roseland Theater May 1. For details, go to www.wweek.com.

^WEB-ONLY MURMUR

An outsider who used to be an insider has answered WW's call for a challenger ("Calling All Candidates," WW, March 1, 2006) to step up against reigning Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto in this May's primary election. Donald Lee DuPay quit the Portland Police Bureau in 1978 after more than 15 years on the force, saying he got sick of the its increasing militarization. Now DuPay works as a social worker and co-hosts a cable access show called Cannabis Common Sense. His viewers started calling in and urging him to run, which he did by filing his candidacy on the deadline Tuesday.