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WINNERS
1. Last week the secrets and
lies ended for Oregon adoptees when the Oregon Court
of Appeals ruled to uphold 1998's Measure 58. More than
1,460 adoptees who applied to state vital records
began watching the mail for their original birth certificates.
2. Police Capt. Mike Garvey scored a symbolic victory
when Y2K turned out to be no big deal at the 911 center.
Overseeing police Y2K plans was Garvey's first semi-visible
responsibility since he was stripped of his Central Precinct
command in 1996 after being accused of consorting with male
escorts. Though Garvey won't get much credit for things
working out, he would have taken the blame had things gone
wrong.
3. Portlandia, the huge copper statue perched atop
the second floor of the Portland Building, rated a rare
mention in the
Jan. 2 New York Times Magazine when a certain Tom
Wolfe held forth on the sorry state of modern sculpture.
Not to worry, fair taxpayers: The acerbic traditionalist
seems to like the statue.
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LOSERS
1. Gotcha. The day after unsealing the original
birth certificates of Oregon adoptees, the court
of appeals slapped them shut again, pending a Supreme Court
appeal by six anonymous birth mothers. More than 1,460
adoptees hunkered down for another long wait.
2. Just days after getting a boost from the near-total
lack of Y2K failures, government credibility took
a hit from events in Umatilla, where, within a few days,
an Army chemical-weapons depot hosted both a terrifying
false alarm and a leak of deadly nerve gas. An Army spokesman
shrugged off the leak as "routine," but 650 unconvinced
workers staged a walkout.
3. Perennial punching bag for Portland's anti-government
types, the tri-county growth-and-garbage agency called Metro
again finds itself in Bill Sizemore's sights. His newest
initiative would kill the bureaucracy's cash cow, an excise
tax levied on trash and tickets to the Oregon Zoo.
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