Who's Reeling In Cash And Who's Got Borrowing Trouble.

[July 5th, 2006] WINNERS

Republican gubernatorial nominee Ron Saxton received a summertime gift in his struggle to convince conservatives he's not a "Portland liberal." A new union hit piece uses Saxton's own words to paint him as public employees' worst nightmare, which lets him come off as the taxpayers' best friend when it comes to union bennies. And that sets up a nice contrast for Saxton with labor-friendly candidates like incumbent Gov. Ted Kulongoski and independent Ben Westlund.

Any sentient basketball fan knows the Trail Blazers are too young and untalented to start winning any time in the short term. So team management did the next best thing for suffering Blazers fans : They gave them long-term hope last week by making more trades for players with potential than a fantasy-league geek.

Oregon and California fishermen will reel in a small down payment on the $81 million they want in disaster relief. While congressional lawmakers from both states barter to get the full $81 million from the feds, they collected $2 million last week for their coastal-fishing constituents devastated by new trolling restrictions aimed at protecting king salmon.

LOSERS

Looks like it's everybody for themselves in Multnomah County when the Big One hits. The county's Office of Emergency Management is, well, a disaster, when it comes to preparing for natural or man-made disaster, according to a consultant's study first reported last week in the Portland Tribune.

Current and future college students will look back fondly to last week and say, "That's when college was affordable." Rising interest rates hit both existing student borrowers and new ones last weekend like that surprise exam you always freak out about in your dreams.

Oregon's sex offenders can't be happy that their neighbors with Internet access can, at the click of a mouse, finally find out where they live and what they did. With sexoffenders.oregon.gov going online last Thursday, our state became the 49th in the union to host a sex-offender site. Way to beat the rush, Oregon.