The weekly state of our union.

[January 24th, 2007] OK, so $25,600 is nowhere near the fortune Mississippi Records owner Eric Isaacson and his friend Warren Hill dreamed of when their Velvet Underground acetate record earned a much-reported $155,406 bid on eBay in December. But, unlike the higher bid, the more recent one for 25 grand-plus is valid and a done deal. Isaacson, who says most of the profit has gone to his Canadian friend Hill (who bought the record for 75 cents at a garage sale), is keeping the name of the winning bidder a secret. Meantime, Hill plans to spend the next four to six months living off his earnings in Taiwan, where he'll be honing his skills as a cutthroat pingpong player. No joke.

The field of contenders hoping to succeed Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers in 2008 has attracted an intriguing name: John Kroger , a 40-year-old associate professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School. Although Kroger moved to Oregon in 2002 and has never run for office before, his experience prosecuting New York mobsters and former Enron execs gives him a strong résumé; a couple decades toiling in the Democratic Party trenches here and on the East Coast gives him a network. Kroger says he's "strongly considering" entering the race.

The Oregonian ran an excellent story on the top of page A1 Tuesday: a thoroughly reported account of a Department of Corrections official alleged to have taken $675,000 in kickbacks. The only problem is the Eugene Register-Guard broke the story on Saturday, a fact the O acknowledged in an online story on Monday but omitted from its Tuesday print version. In journalism land, failure to attribute another paper's scoop is an ethical no-no . Oregonian reporter Tony Green referred questions to his editor, who did not respond.

Worthy of note: Female judges outnumber men on the Multnomah County Circuit Court following the election of judges Cheryl Albrecht, Judith Matarazzo, Adrienne Nelson and Leslie Roberts in November. For these keeping score at home, the gender balance of power stands at 19 to 16.

In 2005, Oregon legislators passed a law letting owners of qualifying historic properties get a second 15-year property-tax freeze on top of the 15 years already allowed by existing law. After reading follow-up coverage in The Oregonian and WW ("Home Sweet Home," Jan. 11, 2006), one of the law's sponsors, Sen. Vicki Walker (D-Eugene), has introduced Senate Bill 416, which would limit the freeze to a total of 15 years from now on. Walker says she's "embarrassed" by the earlier bill and calls the earlier 15-year extension of the benefit "another example of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer and the middle class getting screwed."

Last year in Tom Potter's "State of the City" speech, the mayor said he wanted to hear in the next year from at least 100,000 Portlanders for his "Visioning Project." One year later, at last Friday's "State of the City", Potter said 15,000 Portlanders provided input to the $1.2 million project. So what happened? Potter spokesman John Doussard says city "visioning folks say a rule of thumb is about four people engaged for every questionnaire completed, so that kicks it up to 60,000 or so," with more visioning to come over the next two months. Re-vision, anybody?

CORRECTION: WW's story about the Portland Aerial Tram last week ("Voyage of the Trammed") incorrectly reported when the tram would open to the public. After free rides this weekend, the tram opens to all Monday, Jan. 29.