Where Irish Eyes Are Smiling.

[March 15th, 2006] What a difference four years makes. When Gov. Ted Kulongoski won the Democratic nomination in 2002, he had solid backing from labor, including an early endorsement in December 2001 from the Oregon AFL-CIO. Now that he's running for re-election in the May primary after holding office for three-plus years, Kulongoski can't seem to get the AFL's backing, even though his onetime labor liaison Tom Chamberlain is now president of the 135,000-member labor federation. When state AFL leaders met last Friday, no endorsement followed. Chamberlain's response to the endorsement silence: They'll consider the question again in April.

David Boyer , Multnomah County's finance director since 1988, raises troubling questions in his announcement that he's retiring 18 months early. The letter of resignation he submitted Friday before withdrawing it hours later says Thomas Bruner , senior policy director for County Chair Diane Linn, asked him to "misrepresent information that I provide to the Board and/or community." The issue for Boyer, who will retire in June, is where the $5 million Linn promised to shcools would come from. Linn called the complaint a "misunderstanding," but Boyer says he's just stating facts. To read the full letter obtained by WW under a public-records request, view www.wweek.com/media/7339.pdf.

As if a résumé of being Miss Hawaiian Tropic and the former Mrs. Jean-Claude Van Damme weren't enough for Darcy LaPier Snodgrass, the Molalla native and pro-rodeo barrel rider is now getting ink as a Hollywood scandal victim. A March 12 New York Times article describes how private eye Anthony Pellicano allegedly carried out wire-tapping and intimidation for dozens of high-placed Hollywood clients. Pellicano apparently targeted LaPier and then-husband Mark Hughes, the late Herbalife founder, at the behest of Hughes' jealous ex-wife. Contacted after a Houston rodeo, LaPier said she hadn't followed the scandal. "I don't really keep up with anybody," she tells Murmurs, "except me."

Environmentalist and accused arsonist Tre Arrow marked the second anniversary of his 2004 capture in Victoria, B.C., by launching a hunger strike Monday. Arrow emails supporters that his protest isn't of conditions in the Canadian jail where he's fighting extradition to Oregon to stand trial on arson charges. "I protest, rather, the US government, the FBI and the complicit Canadian government for imprisoning me for two years of my life,'' Arrow writes. "I protest the fact that I have been denied reasonable bail...despite my emphatic declaration of innocence." Arrow's hunger strike will last 24 days, one day for each month in jail.

It's the end of an era April 4 at the Jasmine Tree Tiki Lounge , a long-standing fave of PSU students and staff at Southwest 4th Avenue and Harrison Street. The lounge's lease concludes at the end of April, and its day-to-day fate remains uncertain as it awaits demolition in the coming year for the new Portland Mall light-rail line. On April 4, local sketch-comedy troupe Extra Medium will perform its last show at the bar, one of four Polynesian-themed "tiki rooms" in Oregon, according to the online tiki-bar directory critiki.com. Extra Medium's Danny Norton says he wants to give the Jasmine Tree "an incredible send-off."

Bikers ride to the rescue to save the Trail Blazers ! Well, maybe. Bike-centric journo-slash-activist Jonathan Maus has scored a new deal that may draw a few new fans. The team is sponsoring a "Bike to Blazers" group ride for its Sunday, April 15, game at the Rose Garden, with $5 from each discounted Bike to Blazers ticket going to Get Lit , a safety-advocacy group that gives away free bike lights. Team owner Paul Allen, will provide the cyclists with free indoor parking for the game, a section to their sweaty selves, and Zach Randolph bobble-heads.

^WEB-ONLY MURMURS!

A Kaiser Foundation Hospitals patient is suing the foundation and her doctor for allegedly telling her she was too fat for him to read her MRI films. The lawsuit filed Friday, March 10, in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Marysue Tiedtke says Dr. Ronald Lohman told her in August 2005 there was nothing wrong with her other than that she was too fat. The suit seeking $5,500 from Kaiser says when the insulted patient and her mother tried to leave, Lohman twice slammed the door shut on the patient's foot and breast. A spokesman for Kaiser said its practice was not to comment on pending lawsuits.

The signature-gathering campaign for an initiative that would require Oregon school districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets "in the classroom" is expecting some cash from Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Utah-based Internet retailer Overstock.com. Ho-hum, right? Maybe not. Byrne got national attention after claiming last August in an online press conference that his company is the target of a massive conspiracy organized by a "Sith Lord." The Oregon initiative is a version of the nationwide campaign to pass the "65 cent solution" in all 50 states. Oregon campaign coordinator Amanda Parker said Byrne's First Class Education organization "most likely will" pony up some money for the initiative backed by state Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro) and Beaverton lawyer Keith Parker.

Hide, you leftie tax-lovers and right-wing telephone eavesdroppers. The Libertarians are coming, the Libertarians are coming! That's right, upwards of 800 delegates from around the country will converge at the downtown Hilton on July 1 and 2 for their party's national convention to hear luminaries. Richard Burke, executive director of the 16,000-member state party, sees nothing weird about Libertarians coming to the People's Republic of Portland. Burke tells Murmurs, "If we can hold it in D.C., we can hold it in Portland."

Murmurs has some cheery news (for once): Multnomah County chair candidate Ted Wheeler and his wife, Katrina, are expecting their first child in September. If Wheeler beats incumbent Linn, rest assured we'll ask him at the end of the year which is tougher, cleaning up stinky messes or taking care of the kiddo.

Some of the area's foreign-wars veterans are fighting a nasty battle that's gearing up for a court showdown next month. Here are the skirmishes leading up to this battle: On Nov. 30, 2005, the Oregon administrative office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars suspended 61-year-old Vietnam vet John Murphy as commander of Mount Hood Post 81 in Southeast Portland. The state VFW office won't say why. But Murphy claims the office, which oversees VFW posts throughout Oregon, blackballed him for seeking an impartial audit to check if two post members were stealing rare war artifacts and money. Then, in December, Post 81 withdrew its money from two accounts at two different banks and put it all in certificates of deposit with a third bank until an accounting could be done. The state VFW office's attorney, Joseph Mabe, says Murphy then presented documentation to that third bank, Town Center Bank, to suggest he still had authority to act on the post's behalf. Town Center has now filed papers in Washington County Circuit Court trying to determine the rightful owner of the CDs, which total more than $100,000. A hearing is set for April 3.