Cops, 1; Reformers, 0 Now that the ballot campaign to set up an independent watchdog over the Portland police is dead, reformers are shifting their attention to City Hall. The Police Accountability Campaign 2000 would have set up a watchdog agency separate from the Portland Police Bureau to investigate complaints of misconduct. But on Friday the initiative campaign came up just short of the 20,950 signatures needed to put it on the ballot. The current system, known as the Police Internal Investigations Auditing Committee, has little credibility with the public--in part because it is not allowed to perform its own investigations--and the initiative supporters were trying to revamp it entirely. Now they are focusing on a work group set up by Mayor Vera Katz in the wake of the May Day meltdown. With the death of PAC 2000, however, there's no question that the push to reform from within has lost some clout. "I don't want to admit defeat and I don't want to say that we're mortally damaged, but it would have been better to have the stick out there while we're cultivating the carrot," says work group member Alan Graf, an activist with the National Lawyers Guild, which has formed an alliance with the NAACP to push for a more moderate set of reforms than PAC 2000. The work group, which took public input this week, is scheduled to make a final recommendation Aug. 8. For more information on the committee, call 823-4126. Graf and other activists predict that if the work group does not deliver credible reforms, the PAC 2000 campaign will return from the dead. "There are more elections to come," he says. --Nick Budnick More bad news for the car king The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took another swipe at auto magnate Scott Thomason last week. EEOC officials in Seattle ruled that that a female former Thomason employee was discriminated against on the basis of both gender and religion (the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, is Jewish). Potentially more damaging is EEOC district director Jeanette Leino's finding that "a class of female employees was subjected to sexual harassment." In other words, gender discrimination at Thomason may be widespread, and the EEOC is receptive to hearing similar complaints against the car company. In April, after reviewing a sheaf of complaints made by African-American and Hispanic former employees, the EEOC ruled that the company had tolerated racial discrimination ("Bad News for the Car King," WW, May 3, 2000). Thomason's attorneys and Bill Stark, the Salem lawyer who represents African-American and Hispanic complainants in that case, are negotiating but have reached no settlement. Last week's case marks the third gender complaint against Thomason Auto Group, which is a subsidiary of the Asbury Automotive Group, to be substantiated by the EEOC. As with the racial discrimination cases, the EEOC will direct the parties to negotiate; if talking leads nowhere, the EEOC may join in a lawsuit against the company. Brian Perko, Thomason's general counsel, says the auto group is cooperating fully with the EEOC. "We take these findings very seriously," he says, "and will make every effort to resolve them." Former employees aren't convinced of the company's sincerity, however. "Thomason speaks about the changes he made, but nothing has changed," says Brian Pool, an African-American who filed complaints about his treatment while a Thomason salesman. "He claims he has policies in place, but this latest ruling goes to show that the people who are supposed to be addressing these problems are not." Stark, who also represents the woman whose complaint was upheld last week, agrees with Pool. "The events described in this complaint occurred after we had already notified the company of the possibility of a class action based on race, national origin and gender," he says. --Nigel Jaquiss Looking for a few good men... Drive-time devotees of Oregon Public Broadcasting radio aren't used to having their liberal lattes spiced with a little old-time religion, but close listeners of the traffic report last week noticed that it was underwritten by the Promise Keepers. You remember the Promise Keepers. It's the Denver-based evangelical group, headed by a former football coach, that claims to have gathered more than 3.5 million men for multimedia stadium extravaganzas where they learn how to live clean, love Jesus and take their rightful place as the head of the family. In years past, the organization had little trouble filling a stadium. In 1996, more than 33,000 Christian men did the wave for Jesus in Eugene's Autzen Stadium. Since then, however, the Promise Keeper bandwagon has gotten stuck in a rut, which explains the organization's current media blitz on OPB and other outlets to entice 19,000 men to its July 21-22 shows in the Rose Garden (at a cost of $69 a pop). According to national spokesman Steve Chavis, in the old days, advertising on Christian radio was enough to fill the stands, but not anymore. "Christian radio has been long dominated by female numbers," he says. "If you want the men, you advertise on sports talk, news talk and rock 'n' roll radio." To that end, Promise Keepers sponsored the traffic reports done by Metro Traffic Control, which monitors the gridlock for most Portland stations, including OPB. Promise Keepers is also facing competition from Women of Faith, an X-chromosome upstart that stole the PK format and improved on it, much as Eve gracefully remodeled one of Adam's ribs. "Women of Faith are cooking," says the stoic Chavis. But there's a reason for that, he says. "Sisters have always had an easier time of getting together. We walk alone. Men walk alone." Women of Faith will hold its Portland rally Aug. 25-26 at the Rose Garden. --Patty Wentz BUZZ 1-800-BAD-DATE It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that prostitution is a dangerous, even deadly, profession. But streetwalkers and call girls are not the only ones vulnerable to sexual predators: Escorts, lingerie models and street kids are also easy targets because of their reluctance to go to the authorities. Now a volunteer group of Portland sex workers, prostitutes and social workers has found a way to fight back against jack-ass johns with the Portland Bad Date Line (650-7003). Callers tell the hotline about violent, abusive or otherwise dangerous clients, giving a physical description, an account of the assault and any other details. Volunteers then undertake the laborious task of calling the hundreds of local escorts and lingerie models listed in Exotic Magazine and the T&A Times to alert them to the incident. Volunteers also post reports in agencies such as Outside In, Yellowbrick Road, Multnomah County Health Department HIV Outreach and Danzine. The assaults make chilling reading. The May report, for example, relates the following incident: White Caucasian male was described to be about 50 years old, 5 foot 10 inches, has a flat bottom and a beer belly: balding with white hair, no facial hair, believed to have venereal warts on groin area. He drove 1978 Ford Mercury, it's two-toned cream and brown and had a busted taillight. [Partial plate number]. The female worker was raped. She told the john she had HIV in attempt to deter him from raping her. He said he didn't care and raped her. The date occurred on 1/14/00. The hotline was started because many sex workers are afraid to report incidents to the police. "The reality is that it's not a comfortable situation," says volunteer Anna Vail, the health programs coordinator at Outside In. "At best, they do nothing," agrees Amanda, a 28-year-old prostitute who volunteers her time for the project. "At worst, they bust the people who are going to them for help." Portland Police Bureau spokesman Detective Sgt. Mike Hefley vigorously disputes the idea that officers do not take these crimes seriously. "That is not accurate," Hefley says. "It's critical to get this type of information. But we can't do much about the problem if people don't want to share this information with us." The hotline appears to be quite effective, however, at sharing the information with local sex workers. Ten out of 13 escorts contacted by WW at random said they had received calls from the hotline, which has reported on 15 separate incidents since its inception in October 1998. --Chris Lydgate Let's Get Tanked! Earlier this summer, to the dismay of many longtime Portlanders, city officials ordered Sam Naito to take down the Old Town water tank before it fell down. But don't sweat. The local landmark's owner is replacing it with a new one. He wonders, however, whether he should repaint the words "Old Town" on the new tower, leave it blank or emblazon it with a new phrase. In a gesture of civic good will, WW has offered its services. Send us your ideas for what should go on the tank. We'll print the best and send the whole batch on to Sam. Hint: If you want your clever prose to be readable, keep it short. Send your ideas to: Tanks for the Memories: Mail: 822 SW 10th Ave., Portland, OR 97205 Fax: 243-1115 E-mail: tanked@wweek.com   Night Cabbie BY Willie Milkis wmilkis@hotmail.com THE MONEY I make tonight goes to pay my electric bill. But tonight I don't take corner calls. Tonight I don't pick up people from the street unless they're obviously coming out of a club and have money. Tonight I don't work in certain neighborhoods. Tonight I don't stop for anyone except gay men and young females, because I'm not in the mood for any good cab stories, I just want to get home safe and alive. Tonight, and until those people who shot that cabbie are caught, if I don't like how you look, you won't be getting in my cab. Talk all you want about profiling and unfairness (I took all those classes and wrote all those papers), and you'll still be walking home. Tonight anyone who's less than extremely nice gets kicked out of my cab, because I'm suddenly sick of risking my life and not at least getting respect for it. Tonight I'm suddenly sick of hearing complaints about cabs, cabbies and cab companies from people who've never driven one themselves. There's a cabbie in the hospital who only started this job two weeks ago. Somebody profiled him as an easy target. Somebody decided his life is worth a hundred bucks or less. I'm out here driving a cab around, knowing that there are three people out here with me who shot a cabbie last Thursday. They might have just walked by, or I might have passed them on the street, but they're here somewhere. They might be on the bus next to you, or maybe calling another cab. Driving a cab is statistically one of the most dangerous jobs in America, four times as dangerous as being a cop. How many of you run the risk of dying just to pay your electric bills? Murmurs A SINISTER SNAP OF THE LATEX GLOVE* What's old is new again: The club known as Paradigm (a.k.a. The Womb, a.k.a. LaLuna, a.k.a. Ninth Street Theater) is going back to its roots and reclaiming its old Pine Street Theater moniker. Insiders say promoter Mike Thrasher is putting together a deal for the music venue, located at 215 SE 9th Ave. * It hasn't taken long for Ruth Ann Dodson, former top Neil Goldschmidt aide, to leave her mark as the unofficial adviser to local school czar Ben Canada. The recent appointment of Ranee Niedermeyer as director of communications and government affairs for Portland Public Schools (salary $87,000) was Dodson's idea, insiders say. The move raised eyebrows because Niedermeyer's last job was chief of staff to Senate Republican leader Brady Adams--no friend of Portland schools. * These days, not all the probing fingers on Pill Hill belong to medical students exploring prostate glands. Turns out the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the same government outfit that scrutinizes military contractors, is now conducting a proctol--uh, investigation--into alleged overbilling at Oregon Health Sciences University. The Pentagon joins a lengthening roster of examiners, including the state Medicaid Fraud Unit, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, all jostling each other to get a good look at OHSU's billings. * Portland hip-hop linchpin Jus Family Records and Bombay Entertainment have joined forces with music-biz biggie Universal Records. The triumvirate will co-release several albums, beginning in January with DBA's Doing Business As, featuring Cool Nutz, Bosko and Poppa LQ. Solo albums from each member are planned to follow. * Union organizers won another victory over management at Powell's Books last week, when the feds ruled that longtime small press and 'zine czar Marty Kruse had been unfairly dismissed. The National Labor Relations Board says Kruse, one of the store's original union activists, should be reinstated with full back pay. The NLRB also ruled that a pro-union employee in shipping had been unfairly passed over for promotion, and that management was not applying its time clock rules with proper consistency. No word on whether Powell's plans to challenge the board's decisions. * Before he turned to politics, Rick Lazio, the makeshift Republican opponent running against Hillary Clinton for New York's open Senate seat, had a more honorable profession. In the late 1970s he served as a general assignment reporter for the Vassar Miscellany News. At the time, Portland's own OEA lobbyist Lori Wimmer was editor-in-chief. Wimmer says the New York press is hounding her for biographical details about the former cub reporter.