[October 10th, 2007]

Winners

1. PacifiCorp customers in Multnomah County will divvy up a $2.2 million settlement, thanks to the Utility Reform Project raising hell with PacifiCorp for overcollecting county business taxes. Do the math and it works out to an average refund of only $2.50. Wanna stretch that pocket change? Go out and buy an energy-saving light bulb.

2. Smoke ’em if you got ’em—in your pocket. Clients of Salem tobacco lobbyist Mark Nelson are on track to spend more than $10 million to defeat Measure 50, the “healthy kids” initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot. And that means a clean financial bill of health for Nelson, who gets a chunk of that cash.

3. Gay-rights advocates can breathe a little easier. A campaign to overturn the state’s domestic partnership laws failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. (Go to Queer Window, page 33, for more.)

4. Europhiles got another option this week to bore us all with details of their fantastic trips. Northwest is adding nonstop service between Amsterdam and PDX. In-flight hash brownies, anyone?

Losers

1. Mayor Tom Potter’s office says the high-tech hucksters at MetroFi won’t succeed after all in building a free citywide wi-fi network. Turns out that no amount of empty promises—much less a signal booster—could make those magic beans grow.

2. Nudists and genital show-offs got the short end of a Happy Valley City Council decision designed to stop one nude gardener. A new city code banishes genital exposure “in a public place or place visible from a public place.” Does that include the Taco Bell drive-through?

3. The Bridgeton neighborhood in Northeast Portland suffered defeat when a judge sided with Peninsula Drainage District No. 2 (see Rogue of the Week, WW , Aug. 15, 2007). The residents had hoped to save 100-odd trees from the chopping block, but the judge declined to stay their execution by chainsaw.

4. More bad news for Trail Blazers season-ticket holders , and the season hasn’t even started yet. Just when they’d gotten over learning that top draft pick Greg Oden would miss the season, 2006-07 Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy suffered a foot injury on the first day of training camp. This year’s marketing slogan: Caveat emptor.