Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote.

[May 14th, 2008]

• Radio silence has been broken over last week’s sudden and mysterious disappearance of KPOJ morning show co-host Heidi Tauber . After pissed-off progressives wondered on the blogosphere why Tauber had been airbrushed out, co-hosts Thom Hartmann and Carl Wolfson said during their program Monday (as captured at worldsmaddestdog.blogspot.com) that they both miss Tauber and couldn’t say anything more. Program producer Paul Pimentel echoed those we-wish-her-well-but-mum’s-the-word lines in an email to Murmurs. As for Tauber, she says management told her she wasn’t doing the news like they wanted. “I cried for two days,” says Tauber, a 20-year vet of local radio. “Now it’s time to dust myself off.”

• Attention, election conspiracy theorists: The Multnomah County Elections Division was infiltrated—by an airborne 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis. On Saturday, May 10, the car driven by 72-year-old Shirley Knudeson of McMinnville crashed through a window in front of the elections office after colliding with a 2001 Volvo V40. The police report does not say which car caused the accident at 1040 SE Morrison St. But Elections Division spokesman Eric Sample says the Grand Marquis jumped a curb and smashed through the window, which is now secured with a temporary plywood structure. Sample says there have been accidents at the intersection before but adds, “Usually they don’t come through the window.”

• As first reported in this week’s Catholic Sentinel, Walsh Construction is off the job building a new HQ for Planned Parenthood , on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Anti-abortion church groups have long protested outside the construction. Walsh officials wouldn’t tell Murmurs why they’re off the project. But David Greenberg, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette Inc., rejects any link to the protests. He says it will be cheaper for Planned Parenthood to contract the work out itself, which remains on schedule to finish in early 2009.

• Buck Rogers at PDX : Being so close to wetlands, Portland International Airport is a notorious bird magnet. In March 2007, a Boeing 737 struck a flock of geese; the flight was canceled and repairs cost half a mil. In May 2006, an Airbus 319 “ingested” a red-tailed hawk ; repairs cost $83,000. But help has arrived: PDX has become the first U.S. airport to deploy an experimental $5,000 laser gun with a one-mile range. The bright green beam is aimed in front of the birds—not at them—and the birds perceive the beam as a solid object headed their way.

• “Ritalin kids” strike Scientologists: About 30 demonstrators rallied downtown last Saturday as part of the latest worldwide protest against Scientology. The rally, part of a global cyber-protest, outside the Portland Church of Scientology prompted local church Rev. Gwen Mayfield-Barnard to remark, “It only takes one of these little guys to be off his Ritalin and then he stuffs his daddy’s gun in his pocket and starts blasting people.” Uh, that prompted more than a few responses on WWire.

• A baseball brouhaha has shut down a popular field for Little Leaguers in Northeast Portland. The field at Hollyrood-Fernwood School was renovated this year, which meant more games at the corner of Northeast 32nd Avenue and Hancock Street. And that got neighbors such as Nancy Froeschle complaining about too many foul balls in their back yards. She tells Murmurs she doesn’t “have anything against baseball,” but was tired of hearing “people yell at their kids” and picking up about 15 baseballs a week from her yard. The neighborhood raised such hell that the fields are now vacant and guarded by 6-foot fences. Hollywood Little League says usage hasn’t increased and that it’s willing to put up a large net, if needed. Matt Shelby, a Portland Public Schools spokesman, says the district has decided to stop games on the field until both sides can “cool off” and sort out whether PPS and Hollywood Little League had the correct building permit for the renovation.

Read the PPS memo to Northeast Portland here.