News That Will Never Accept A No. 2 Spot.

[August 20th, 2008]

Smith Frozen Foods, the Eastern Oregon food-processing plant owned by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), violated state enviro regulations July 29 when plant wastewater went into a nearby creek. The incident, first reported Monday on WWire, remains under investigation at the plant. And Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t yet issued any fine. But the “milky discharge” at Pine Creek comes at a bad time for Smith, who’s seeking re-election. The DEQ calls the discharge a serious “Class 1” violation, meaning it “can harm aquatic life, contaminate drinking waters, and impair recreational, commercial and agricultural uses of water.” Smith Frozen Foods attorney Tom Lindley says the spill was smaller than the one last year that generated a $3,000 DEQ fine. “The critical thing is it was self-reported within minutes of discovery,” Lindley says.

Sho Dozono’s mayoral campaign nose-dived in April when reporters learned his restaurant, Bush Garden, was $18,000 behind in rent and taxes to the city. Dozono’s restaurant is in the same city-owned garage on Southwest 10th Avenue that houses the Real Mother Goose craft shop and Doug Peterson’s teetering-on-eviction convenience store. Murmurs has learned Mayor Tom Potter approved a year-long rent reprieve last month for the building’s tenants. Why? Because he and city finance director Ken Rust agreed that nearby construction—and the Portland Development Commission’s indecision about how to redevelop the property—had imposed an “undue hardship” on tenants. While tenants still must pay property taxes, the city will lose $186,360 in rental revenue.

Looks like the long-proposed Portland Public Market has found an enthusiastic ally who may finally lead it to a home. Mayor-elect Sam Adams says a proposed site underneath the Morrison Bridge’s west end “is absolutely the most doable site suggested to date.” Right now it’s two parking lots. But market enthusiast Ron Paul says the space could be transformed into two open-air markets with a building that would connect them. Before you start planning to buy your locally grown veggies year-round under the Morrison, know that there are a few hurdles, as in funding and the fact that Multnomah County owns the space. MultCo Commish Jeff Cogen, who’s in charge of sustainability for the county, calls the idea exciting but one that must pencil out.

Good news for Madison High School students who walked out of class June 3 to protest the involuntary transfer of guidance counselor David Colton. The counselor—an outspoken critic of Madison’s administration, which is struggling with declining enrollment under a “small schools” model—will remain at Madison this upcoming school year. This despite Colton’s plan to sue Portland Public Schools and one Madison administrator after the district wanted him to work in its central office. Colton is already back at Madison, where he’ll lead the Northeast Portland school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and its drug and alcohol education program. Colton still may sue. But PPS spokesman Matt Shelby says district officials “determined there was a need at Madison, and David Colton fit that very nicely.”

J Graigory—the out gay son of state Rep. Donna Nelson (R-McMinnville)—created big news last week for political insiders panting for news about Barack Obama’s veep choice. Graigory—a TV producer overseas on a project—was at a Democratic Abroad dinner in Sweden with Kevin Lampe, who was identified in the dinner invite as a “political strategist and media relations expert” for Obama. Graigory posted after dinner on his Facebook diary that Lampe said Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be VP and that Obama also wouldn’t offer the No. 2 spot to “any woman.” That got picked up by Los Angeles Times blogger Peter Nicholas, who reported Lampe denied he was working for Obama. But Graigory tells Murmurs that Lampe “probably didn’t think anyone from the States would be paying attention to what he is saying in Sweden.”