Taloned Agents Last Friday the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office finished up the final day of Operation Talon, a joint effort between the sheriff's department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It's basically the merger of the two agencies' databases: people with outstanding felony warrants and people on food stamps. Late last month, all the local felons on the food-stamp list received a bogus letter telling them that a Y2K problem had messed up their benefits. When about 50 of them showed up at the old federal courthouse in downtown Portland to fix the problem (and collect a cash bonus) they were arrested. While local lawmen were grateful for the help from the federal aggies, County Commissioners Serena Cruz and Diane Linn thought the sting was downright sneaky ("Cuffs with Those Fries?," WW, Feb. 2, 2000). That was Phase I. In Phase II, agents from the Sheriff's Office, USDA, Social Security Administration and Portland Police Bureau went knocking on doors of felons listed on food-stamp applications in the tri-county area. At the end of the week they'd netted a total of 215 people with outstanding felony warrants. --Patty Wentz Making It Rite Ex-employees of the Mallory Hotel may have trouble getting their former boss to listen to their demands, but they certainly caught the attention of the Portland City Council. The council was planning on holding a Feb. 10 budget hearing at the Mallory Hotel on Southwest 15th Avenue, where a labor dispute has been brewing for three months between owner Albert Gentner and a small group of employees and ex-employees upset over wages and treatment of workers ("Tidings of Protest and Joy," WW, Dec. 22, 1999). When the disgruntled workers learned of the council's plans, they contacted the elected officials' offices and informed them that to get to their meeting site they'd have to cross a picket line. On Feb. 7, Mayor Vera Katz moved the meeting down the street to the Scottish Rite Center. "Lil" Pete, a spokesman for the striking workers, was thrilled with the news. "I'm a little surprised, looking at their past record," he says, "but I'm personally delighted." --Walidah Imarisha Murmurs SCUTTLEBUTT WITH AN EDGE From contender to pretender? Less than six weeks after being a finalist for Portland's chief of police, Ron Monroe resigned late last month from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department, the apparent victim of a power struggle at that agency. Mayor Vera Katz told WW she'd been unaware that the former assistant chief was on the outs with his superiors when she considered hiring him in December. The buzz in the TV biz is that The Buzz is in trouble. Lars Larson's morning television show on Channel 6 is in third place for its time slot during this month's ratings sweep. Larson is rallying his fans to boost the numbers--if he fails, there could be some big changes in the morning. Site of the week: U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio is tagging along on a Coast Guard "inspection" at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. You can share his adventures and take a "virtual tour" of the USCGC Polar Star at www.house.gov/defazio/antarctica. Bill Sizemore has made some new enemies--more than 1,000 of them, in fact. Two of the state's leading green groups--1000 Friends of Oregon and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters--have started a political action committee to take on two of his initiatives. The Oregon Community Protection PAC says Sizemore's "takings initiative" and administrative rule initiative both would hurt the environment. Stat of the week: For the second time in a row, Gary Achziger was the top-paid city employee of the year, ringing up $135,012.58 in 1999. The 911 dispatchers' coach worked 2,216 hours of overtime last year, padding his $50,514.57 base salary with $84,498.01 in overtime--a $10,000 jump from a year ago. The Californians are coming! Word is that The Oregonian is chasing Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke to replace Dwight Jaynes. Plaschke interviewed for the post a couple of years ago after Julie Vader washed out on the O's sports page, but reportedly held out for bigger bucks in L.A. Also on the O's short list: Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury-News and Mark Kreidler of the Sacramento Bee. Quote of the week: "It's the biggest cliché in the world for television news to cover an airplane crash. It's the second-biggest cliché in the world for newspapers to slam us for it." --Kerry Oslund, KOIN-TV news director, in response to Margie Boulé's criticism of TV coverage of Alaska Flight 26 . Fighting Like Cats and Dogs 1999 was hard on Liberation Collective founder Craig Rosebraugh, and the new century hasn't been any easier. In mid-January, Portland's most aggressive protester was kicked out of the collective, and last week the FBI and ATF kicked in the door of his house. Rosebraugh founded Lib Co, as some call it, as a place for activists to plot out social change by peaceful means; however, he often spat out communiqués for the more violent-minded Animal Liberation Front and Environmental Liberation Front to the national media from the collective's fax machine. "Craig made some unilateral decisions," says Tiffany Smith, a member of the collective. In the talk-till-you-drop world of collectives, unilateralism is a sin. The HQ at Northwest 3rd Avenue and Burnside Street has always been an activist hangout. But during the past year, Rosebraugh had become disenchanted with some of the hangees--"kids who think activism is about patches on your jacket," as he put it. Rosebraugh says the "kids" changed the collective space into more of a political retail shop specializing in records. "He didn't want any couches here or anyone listening to music," Smith says. Rosebraugh won't talk about how he gets his information from so-called "eco-terrorists," but Smith says that when collective members asked Rosebraugh to sit down and talk out the tension at the collective, he refused. Then Rosebraugh changed the padlock, so the others couldn't access the space, according to Smith. Days later, Rosebraugh turned in his keys and quit the collective. Throughout Portland's activist community, the word spread that Rosebraugh was on a power trip. "It got pretty brutal," says Rosebraugh, still recovering from a broken arm he suffered at the hands of a Portland police lieutenant in October. "But if it's being on a power trip to want to do real activism, then, yes, I was on a power trip." On Feb. 2, the feds displayed their own brand of power, raiding both Rosebraugh's Northeast Portland home and the collective HQ in Old Town. At both locations, they sought data that would lead them to members of the shadowy ALF and ELF. --Philip Dawdy This Ain't the Hokey Pokey! Word on the street last week was that the Portland City Council intended to extend its moral hygiene campaign beyond escorts and lingerie models and into the strip clubs. The rumor stemmed from the council's unanimous approval on Jan. 26 of an ordinance aimed at curbing prostitution. After the council meeting, chief deputy city attorney Madelyn Wessel met with Jennie Clark of the Portland Area Privacy Alliance, which is trying to block the ordinance in court. Clark says Wessel told her that the ordinance would apply to table dancers who, for $20 a pop, put on genitalia shows for individual patrons. "We were getting mixed messages from the city," Clark says. And so the rumor flew, from strip clubs classy to strip clubs trashy. City Attorney Jeff Rogers tried to clear the air. "The ordinance doesn't apply to the things that nude-dancing clubs are designed for," he told WW. The ordinance won't cover table dances performed out where the club audience can see them, according to Rogers and Sgt. Ed Brumfield of the police bureau's Drugs and Vice Division. What it is likely to apply to is table dances done in private, both say. Wessel says she explained the distinction to Clark and is frustrated by PAPA's tactics. "They're stirring up lots of people who this doesn't apply to," Wessel says. This still leaves the question of who gets to determine what is a private or public table dance. Mike Sanderson, a regulatory-program examiner at the Bureau of Licenses, told WW, "We might have to bring in outside experts." --Philip Dawdy Metro-Active Agreement In his draft budget to be released this week, Metro Executive Mike Burton is expected to propose abolishing the Metropolitan Exposition-Recreation Commission and absorbing its functions into his own tri-county agency. MERC, which oversees the Oregon Convention Center, Expo Center, Civic Stadium and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, already is technically under Metro's control. But it was set up to operate with an independent entrepreneurial bent under the direction of a volunteer citizens' commission whose seven members are nominated by the City of Portland, Metro, and Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. Last week, Burton and his staff began previewing the idea to Metro councilors, who must approve his budget. Burton, who declined to comment prior to unveiling the proposal at the Metro Council meeting Feb. 10, is pitching the idea as a money-saving measure. Citing a "tight budget situation," Metro Councilor Rod Monroe thinks Burton may be on the right track, since Civic Stadium is soon to be privatized to make way for Triple-A baseball. "Perhaps the added bureaucuracy of MERC might viewed as unnecessary baggage," he said. Councilor Jon Kvistad opposes Burton's proposal to gobble up MERC, saying the commission "should be independent to the extent that we can maintain fiscal oversight." MERC supporters, already mobilizing, say the proposal could hamper the commission's businesslike operations and cost money, not save it. Their concern is that Metro will take more of the revenue generated by the MERC facilities to fund other programs, such as planning. Burton's proposal is likely to draw fire from some local government officials who are already wondering what's going on. On Jan. 10, City Councilor Dan Saltzman and representatives from three county commissions signed a letter to top Metro officials including Burton, expressing "interest and concern" at the fact that Metro is not moving to fill vacancies for the MERC seats representing Clackamas County and the City of Portland. "We are concerned that holding these nominations in abeyance makes it harder to do the public's business," the local officials wrote. "We respectfully request that Metro resume processing local government nominations ...without further delay." --Nick Budnick Read Her Lipstick Heads up, all Washington sisters. Christine Gregoire, the attorney general in that state, is proposing legislation that will make things very, very simple for you. Cheerleaders for the Women's Dinner Club pyramid scam in Oregon often say that the gifting group is legal in Washington ("The Sisterhood Scam," WW, Jan. 19, 2000). In reality, gifting groups are as illegal in Washington as in Oregon, but the wording of the current Washington law is vague enough that many Portland women have been convinced their scam was legal as long as they did their money exchange across the river in Vancouver. A bill Gregoire just proposed in the Washington Senate would specifically include gifting clubs in the definition of illegal pyramid schemes. "We're trying to reach people who are getting carried away by the rhetoric," says Sally Gustafson, the senior assistant AG in Washington. "Organizers tell people it's legal and not in the statute. This will help those people to not be pressured into joining into the organization." On the other side of the gender tracks, WW has heard that there is a lower-dollar version of the dinner club cruising through Portland and the rest of the region that's geared toward the fellas. For a $2,000 buy-in, a man can join a "race" and move up from the pits to grand prix driver. In Boise, Idaho, police recently arrested four participants in the Pit Stop Club. In Oregon, the attorney general's office is continuing its investigation of all gifting clubs. --Patty Wentz Corrections In last week's Scoreboard (Feb. 2, 2000), we mistakenly credited the Oregon Supreme Court with the decision to allow gays and lesbians to sue employers for job discrimination. In fact it was the Oregon Court of Appeals' decision. Also, the Miss Dish column incorrectly stated that Ken's Home Plate would be closed on Monday, Feb. 14. The restaurant will be open for takeout only, serving a Valentine's Day menu. Call 236-9520 for more information. WW regrets the errors. Clarification Our Phys Ed guide (WW, Jan. 26, 2000) listed some classes at the Nature's stores at 17711 Jean Road and 3535 NE 15th Ave. that have since been canceled: Intermediate belly dancing; capoeira; and children's rhythm and dance, which begins a new six-week term on Feb. 21. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published February 9, 2000