 |
|
|
Winners 1 Local shoppers and library patrons have one less hassle now that petition-circulating season is over. The mercenary gatherers have hung up their clipboards and are counting their money while state elections officials are counting their signatures. One man, however, isn't letting the grass grow. Bill Sizemore has already filed five petitions for election 2000. 2 When Maestro Stefan Minde suffered a nonfatal heart attack while conducting the Ring Cycle in Arizona (who said opera wasn't thrilling?), Portland's Sinfonia Concertante Orchestra seemed out of luck. Minde was supposed to lead the orchestra in its July 10 fund-raising concert. Fortunately, the show will go on. While the maestro is mending, Norman Leyden, associate conductor of the Oregon Symphony, has agreed to step up to the podium. 3 Downtown parkers caught a rare break last week: three days of free parking. Sundays, as usual, were free. Saturday, July 4, was an official holiday, so there was no need to plug the meters. And on Friday, city employees got the day off, so although the meters were still in operation, meter readers weren't around to issue tickets. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Losers 1 In combating criticism of its overseas factories, Nike has boasted of its leadership on the White House Apparel Industry Partnership--a group appointed by President Clinton to set up
a code of conduct for apparel factories. Last week, however, labor and human rights activists on the committee leaked to The New York Times a copy of proposals on stringent independent monitoring and living wages that Nike and other manufacturers are opposing. The proposals have deadlocked the task force, which is now eight months past its self-imposed deadline. 2 More bad news for Oregon criminals. First, it looks like Crime Victims United's initiative to toughen property-crime penalties will make the November ballot. At the same time, opponents of the tough-on-crime approach failed to gather enough signatures to put a repeal of CVU's 1994 mandatory minimum sentencing initiative, Measure 11,
in front of voters. 3 In the latest sign that energy deregulation will be a tricky process, PacifiCorp announced last week that second-quarter earnings will be as much as 30 percent--or $28 million--below analysts' forecasts. The local utility took a big hit when speculative trades in the East Coast energy markets turned sour. The losses occurred in PacifiCorp's unregulated subsidiary, which means shareholders, rather than ratepayers, will suffer. |
|
|
