[June 4th, 2008]

WINNERS

1. The trickle continues: Sen. Barack Obama picked up three more Oregon superdelegates in the past week (see WWire for more) en route to securing the Democratic presidential nomination. At press time, Obama led Sen. Hillary Clinton 7-2 on the state’s superdel scorecard, with three more Oregon superdelegates still undecided. Check WWire for the latest.

2. Haberdashers and small-game hunters must’ve smiled when the Oregon Zoo announced it’d give away the few free-roaming peacocks left on the grounds, not long after one of the blue birds scratched a boy. According to Gourmet magazine circa 1951, “Peacock can be cooked like turkey, except that it tends to be dry-fleshed and requires frequent basting with butter.”

3. Former WW writer Susan Wickstrom got some overdue props, winning the regional Society of Professional Journalists’ First Freedom Award for service to the First Amendment. Western Oregon University canned Wickstrom last August after the student newspaper, which she advised, printed an exposé on how the college left students’ private information vulnerable (see Rogue of the Week, Oct. 3, 2007). Meanwhile, WW picked up 15 SPJ awards.

LOSERS

1. TriMet riders might be steamed by last week’s announcement that fares will probably increase about 14 percent in September. But they should consider themselves lucky: That’s a lot less than diesel prices, which are up 90 percent in the past year. Memo to gripers: Try walking.

2. Portland cops no longer get free Slurpees at a Northeast Portland 7-Eleven. A decade-old arrangement between the store owner and former Police Chief Charles Moose, which came to an end after an internal police inquiry last summer, became public last week in a lawsuit filed against the city by a former police officer.

3. The long-troubled effort to provide Beaverton’s endless sprawl with an urban core—the development known as “The Round”—is back in the news. The O reported that for the second time in a year, a lender is foreclosing on the property’s current developer, Dorn Platz properties of California.

4. Students attending Eastern Oregon University, where annual tuition and fees are about $5,000, face a new assignment next year: Find a lender willing to offer them student loans. In response to a shaky market and diminishing profits in the student loan sector, some giant banks have dropped EOU from their list of approved schools. Translation: Banks are run by heartless, money-grubbing jerks and college students make easy targets (see “Fleeced,” WW, May 28, 2008).