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WINNERS
1. The Portland Youth Gun Anti-Violence
Task Force won a commitment Monday for another year
of city funding, and for a good reason: The desperately-seeking-an-acronym
panel gets results. In the past three years, drive-by shootings
have dropped by 73 percent, from 136 in 1996 to 32 last
year.
2. Local bastards are one step closer to equal rights
after the Oregon Supreme Court refused a petition from anonymous
birth moms to keep birth certificates under wraps.
3. Slick move: In aMachiavellian maneuver,
second-amenders from the Oregon
Gun Owners threw the local campaign for gun control
into confusion by complaining that the paper on which Petition
99 was
printed did not meet state Elections Division guidelines
because the paper was too smooth.
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LOSERS
1. Tri-Met was derailed last week when a House appropriations
subcommittee slashed the federal budget for the proposed
North Portland MAX line from $40 million to $5 million.
MAX backers hope to sneak the money back in the Senate.
2. Earl M. Phelps III, one of the three men with
checkered pasts who became heroes by tackling escaped rapist
Richard Cantu on a MAX train in February, is back behind
bars. Phelps, a petty thief who split $21,875 in reward
money with his two compatriots, violated the terms of his
parole, missed a hearing in March and is now in the Multnomah
County Justice Center.
3. Advice to aspiring graffiti artists: After watching
Joshua Kelly--allegedly the "Jasper" tagger who had no love
for Vera Katz--face 21 Krylon-related felony charges, you
might consider a newspaper career. That's where the First
Amendment lets you criticize mayors and remain free.
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