Candidates aren’t the only thing going wild

[April 23rd, 2008]

• A major Port of Portland tenant has agreed to pay a fine for illegal ocean dumping uncovered nearly five years ago by retired Portland dockworker Jerry Cressa (“Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” WW, Aug. 15, 2007). Houston-based pipeline giant Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP will pay a $175,000 fine and give $65,000 to a state environmental fund rather than face a federal felony charge. Cressa pushed the feds to prosecute Kinder Morgan for allegedly bribing a ship captain in Portland with $1,100 to dump 159 tons of contaminated potash into the Pacific Ocean in 2003. The deal doesn’t thrill Cressa, who says it “shows that the integrity of our government and society can be bought for a few pieces of silver.”

• Handshakes, banquets and riot cops : On Sunday, April 27, Mayor Tom Potter returns from an oddly timed eight-day trip to China , given international protest of the Beijing Olympics over China’s record in Tibet and Darfur. Potter spokesman John Doussard says that backdrop came up in discussing the trip to Suzhou, one of Portland’s nine sister cities. “This was the 20th anniversary of the sister city relationship. That couldn’t be moved,” Doussard says. “There’s never a good time for the mayor to travel...you can pick a time, and there will be something going on in the world.” Potter traveled with 11 other Portlanders, including his wife, Karin Hansen, and the city’s director of international affairs, Mila Greisen. They’ll also visit an industrial park in Shanghai. Picking up the tab for the trip is the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association.

• Portland’s sports talk radio may soon get more crowded. Currently, sports geeks can listen ’round the clock to KFXX (1080-AM) or on KXL (750-AM) weekday evenings to Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano’s show. The chatter among radio types, however, is that KXL and Jammin’ 95.5 general manager Tim McNamara will flip Jammin’ to at least a partially sports format and will hire KATU (Channel 2) sports anchor Katy Brown and former KFXX host and (Vancouver) Columbian sportswriter Ken Vance to do a daily local show. Neither would confirm they’re doing the new show, but neither denied it. “KATU is the only place I’m employed right now,” Brown says. Vance, now a reporter at The Reflector in Battle Ground, Wash., referred Murmurs to McNamara, who didn’t return a call.

• Four-term Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake is under the gun in his re-election bid: The Oregonian, Nike and the Beaverton Police Association, among others, have endorsed Drake’s opponent, City Councilor Dennis Doyle. But the Beaverton cops, known for their zealous use of photo radar, might want to tread carefully around their anointed candidate. Records show that Doyle, 59, racked up a DUI in 2002 in Lincoln County, after blowing a blood-alcohol level of .12 percent. He completed a diversion program in 2003. Doyle says he “made a mistake” he deeply regrets when he had to rush his wife to the hospital for a broken arm. To read his entire statement, click here to download a PDF version.

• Sisters of the Road has surpassed its goal of registering 300 people (see “Vote by Shelter,” WW, March 26, 2008) by the April 29 deadline for the May primary. Patrick Nolen, a community organizer for the Old Town nonprofit service provider to the homeless, says they’re at about 320 new voters and counting. “We’re aiming for people who are homeless,” Nolen says, “[But] if anybody shows up and they’re not registered, we’re going to register them.”