NEWS BUZZ

scoreboard | rogue of the week | murmurs

HOARDING THE MEDICINE

A hoard of government cash, intended to help Portland's mentally ill residents get access to powerful psychiatric drugs, remains largely unspent.

Last June, Multnomah County received a yearlong, $924,000 state grant to provide the latest generation of psychiatric drugs, known as "atypical anti-psychotics," to people with severe mental illness who could not otherwise afford them.

But by February, the county had spent only $68,000, less than 8 percent of its allowance, and served only 58 clients, according to an evaluation by OHSU researchers.

County officials now say they have worked out the teething problems, hiked spending to $232,000 and served roughly 200 people.

The clock is ticking, however. If the grant is not spent by the end of July, the balance will revert to the state. With Salem in a belt-tightening mood, it remains unclear whether legislators will renew a grant the county appears incapable of spending.

"It's embarrassing," says Jason Renaud, executive director of the Portland chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. "The Multnomah County mental health system is decrepit, and it's no surprise they can't provide outreach."

Atypical anti-psychotics--which include Zyprexa, Clozaril, Risperdal and Seroquel--are more effective and produce fewer side effects than older drugs like Haldol. Studies indicate that patients treated with atypicals are less likely to be arrested, wind up in hospital or commit suicide.

The downside is that atypicals are way more expensive: anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per patient per year, roughly 10 times the cost of Haldol.

While private insurance and the Oregon Health Plan routinely cover atypicals, many people with mental illness either do not qualify for the Plan, have not filled out the paperwork, or are sitting in jail--which automatically disqualifies them.

County officials say tracking down mentally ill people not already covered by the Oregon Health Plan has been a major problem. In addition, they say, the program does not provide enough money for social workers to find and establish a rapport with potential clients.

While OHSU researchers observed "serious difficulties" in Multnomah County's efforts to implement the program, they described operations in Washington County as "proceeding smoothly and effectively."

--Chris Lydgate

UNKIND CUTS
Facing a cash-flow problem, state bean counters may stop letting disabled poor people apply for benefits designed to keep them from becoming homeless.

Bureaucrats at the Oregon Department of Human Services, which runs the General Assistance program, are contemplating a three-month halt to new applications in order to close an estimated $400,000 shortfall.

Based on the division's monthly stats for new applicants, approximately 680 dirt-poor people would be affected.

"It's really bad news," says Karen Berkowitz, attorney for Legal Aid. "It's such a helpful program for our clients."

The state's GA program is a lifeline for approximately 2,700 poor disabled people. On average, 228 new people are accepted each month on the condition that they are disabled and have less than $1,500 worth of possessions and $50 in cash.

Once accepted, clients receive monthly checks of $309 until they are able to qualify for federal disability payments. This can take years, so delaying GA benefits could be a "disaster" for those most in need, says disability lawyer Alan Graf.

Dan Kaplan, deputy administrator of the state Senior and Disabled Services Division, says no final decision has been made but sounds pessimistic that a cutoff can be averted, as most of the state's available cash is "already spoken for."

Welfare advocates suspect GA recipients are being targeted due to a stereotype that they are drunken bums. In reality, many, like Kari Morris, a 37-year-old mother of three, have no substance-abuse issues.

Morris cannot work due to a degenerative back condition that makes it difficult for her to sit or stand for any length of time. The doctor who made the diagnosis already has given her a wheelchair. Soon she will no longer be able to walk.

"If it wasn't for general assistance," says Morris, "I would literally be living in a box on the street."

--Nick Budnick

SCOREBOARD

WINNERS

LOSERS

1. Light-rail fans perked up when Vancouver, Wash., Mayor Royce Pollard suggested that it was time for the 'Couv to consider laying some tracks. Vancouver voters spiked light rail in '95, but with census data showing a huge influx of transit-happy Oregonians, enlightenment may be at hand. 2. A team of fraudbusters from Oregon State Police, Oregon Department of Human Services and the U.S. Social Security Administration announced last week that they'd nailed 97 scammers in the past year, saving $7.5 million in bogus disability claims. 3. Nervous utility customers cheered when Senate President Gene Derfler and Public Utilities Commission Chairman Ron Eachus, the two biggest backers of electricity deregulation, agreed to delay implementation of less fettered competition in Oregon.

1. Take that, Frankenstump! Saboteurs felled 900 genetically engineered cottonwood and poplar trees at three Oregon State University test plots last week, claiming that the trees were "a dangerous experiment." 2. Just when Chief Mark Kroeker thought the bad press had stopped, allegations of hazing in the Portland Police Bureau's SERT squad prompted a special internal-affairs investigation last week. 3. Pony Express Courier Corp. lost its appeal of a judge's decision barring the company from examining the confidential social-service files of Corrine Trabert, whom one of the company's drivers accidentally killed in 1997 while she was walking her daughter to school.

dirty blue genes
The international debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food is moving from the headlines to the ballot box. An initiative to require warning labels on genetically modified food grown or sold in Oregon will hit the streets this week.

The initiative, along with a sister bill that would affect only the city of Portland, is being circulated by Donna Harris and Parker Bell. Harris has been concerned about dangers in her diet since being diagnosed with a benign brain tumor last year.

"The consumers have a right to know what's in their food," says Harris. "Under the bill, if a tomato contains a flounder gene, it will have to say, 'This product contains flounder.'"

Because of the lack of labeling information, how broadly GMOs have pervaded the food supply is as unclear as the effects of eating them. That, according to Harris, is the problem.

The two activists hope to tap into a groundswell of consumer fear. Last year, taco shells were pulled from Safeway shelves because they were found to contain Starlink, a genetically modified corn intended for animal use.

Although no injuries were reported, the Starlink flap showed that full disclosure could mean the kiss of death for GMO products. Biotech giants such as Monsanto are certain to fight the bill if it qualifies for the ballot.

American food producers already label foods bound for the European market with GMO information, but if this measure passes it will be the first time such a requirement is imposed domestically. National labeling standards on calorie or fat content are set by the Food and Drug Administration, which has long rejected such a standard for genetically engineered food, insisting that such food is not nutritionally different from normal foods.

--Patty Wentz

ROGUE OF THE WEEK
Seen a rogue on the loose?
Contact our roguemeister,
John Schrag
jschrag@wweek.com

The press release from d-CON mousetraps seemed innocent enough. Portland squeaked into the "Top 10 Worst Mouse Cities in America" last year, according to supermarket sales of rodenticides.

Here at Rogue Central, these tidings were greeted with a lusty cheer. Visions of potential rogues danced before our eyes: hordes of invading mice, or lazy cats, or perhaps even fussy cat-owners who are declawing their felines to save their precious furniture.

Sadly, local pest experts say there has been no explosion of mice. Instead, they believe that Portlanders are waking up to the grim fact that we are surrounded by rodents.

"Quite frankly, mice are everywhere," says Chris Wirth, supervisor of Multnomah County's Vector and Nuisance Control. "There's no big boom."

Hmph! Well, we thought, let's chase the feline angle. By declawing our cats, aren't we disabling the vital T-cells that prevent swarms of mice from invading our homes and destroying civilization?

But this trail also went cold. Contrary to popular belief, declawed cats can hunt mice, says veterinarian Rick White of the Cedar Mill Veterinary Hospital.

OK, scratch that. Increasingly desperate, we turned back to the press release for clues. And we suddenly noticed the strange absence of rats. Surely, if there are Bad Mouse Cities, there should be Bad Rat Cities.

In fact, the creative spellers at d-CON, makers of the all-new MOUSE-PRUFE II mousetrap, confessed that the survey included both mouse and rat products.

In other words, Portland isn't just infested with mice, it's also crawling with rats! But d-CON, worried about a publicity backlash, was too polite to say so. With great satisfaction, then, we declare d-CON (a.k.a. Reckitt Benckiser Inc. of Wayne, N.J.) our Rogue of the Week, for sugar-coating the truth and leading our intrepid reporters through a maze of rodent-related trivia without even giving us some cheese.

TAKIN' IT TO THE MAT

After sustaining two major body slams, New Dimension Wrestling has bounced off the ropes and come back swinging.

Starting April 5, the city's newest independent wrestling promoter will be staging bouts at the Paris Theater every Thursday.

The move to the downtown punk nightclub will mark the first time that weekly pro wrestling has graced the metro area since Championship Wrestling USA packed up its ring in the waning days of the Reagan era.

So as not to conflict with the viewing diet of diehard WWF fans, PARISite Purgatory will feature UPN's Smackdown on its widescreen from 8 to 10 pm, followed by a combination of DJs, live music and hardcore wrestling until midnight.

New Dimension has been without a venue since the arrival of the police at its Feb. 16 heavyweight title tournament at the Straight Blast Gym (see "Busted Wide Open," WW, March 7, 2001). Straight Blast owners responded to that night's unscripted mayhem by banning the underground hardcore wrestling promotion from future use of their facility.

Then, on March 10, AT&T Broadband's cable Channel 15 refused to air any more installments of NDW TV, a potentially crushing blow to a regional promotion that relies on local television coverage for advertising revenue and local exposure. Mark Beneck, the station's manager of paid programming, says the move was based on content concerns and on NDW's inability to pay market rates for its timeslot. He declined to detail what the infomercial outlet considered offensive in NDW's programming.

But according to Jonny Fairplay, head of Pacific Northwest operations for the Greensboro, N.C.-based wrestling promotion, AT&T Broadband objected to bloody footage from the fateful Feb. 16 match and the questionable tastefulness of one wrestler's gimmick: Coach Mike, "the child-molesting coach with the most."

Fairplay hopes the deal with the Paris will re-energize NDW fans. "It's kind of goth-inspired," he enthuses about the new digs. "I like to think we're a dark and evil promotion. I mean, Jeez, we've got Coach Mike."

--Sam Soule

Murmurs
WINNER OF BEST UNSUPPORTED GOSSIPPER

* Finding Forrester may have been shut out of the Academy Awards, but Portland still got its props. As the stars walked the red carpet into the Shrine Auditorium, Benicio Del Toro, who later took home a prize for his role in Traffic, gabbed about the good time he's been spending recently in sweet ol' Portland, filming The Hunted.

* In his never-ending quest to bring Major League Baseball to Oregon, Lynn Lashbrook will begin hosting a daily 4 to 5 pm sports-talk show called The Dugout on KKGT 1150 AM, the same station that brings you Bill Sizemore (who always swings from the right) each morning. The show debuts April 2. Guess what the main topic will be?

* As first reported here last week, organized labor is backing county commish Diane Linn in a big way ($20,000 from AFSCME alone) in her bid for county chair. Linn's rival, JoAnn Bowman, says her biggest check so far is a $1,000 contribution from a secret supporter. But in the race to replace Linn in District 1, the unions are staying neutral. Word is that labor would have given a nod to Maria Rojo de Steffey, but when education lobbyist James Sager jumped in last week, several labor unions decided to take a pass, leaving Rojo de Steffey with a moral victory, but no cash.

* He's back! Well, almost. Nader Aider Greg Kafoury says he's been talking with the great one about restarting the successful road tour of 2000 and hitting the major venues across the country. Word is Ralph N. will be in Oregon in May for rallies in Portland and Eugene.

* Inner eastside businesses are already voicing their fury with the city's River Renaissance vision, unveiled this week at City Council. The reason? All the drawings show the eastside's warehouses replaced with office buildings and parks.