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WINNERS
1. There's a new fairy godmother for techie babies
with big ideas but no business acumen. SmartForest Ventures,
a venture capital group led by former Apple exec Deborah
Coleman, will grant high-tech start-ups a half-million in
seed money and provide handholding down the happy road to
an IPO.
2. Score one for victims of sloppy lawyers:
The Professional Liability Fund, which provides malpractice
insurance to Oregon's attorneys, used dirty tricks against
clients who sued their lawyers. Last week the fund coughed
up a $1.41 million settlement and promised to stop using
the worst of its tactics.
3. Relief is in sight for Stumptown's beleaguered
barflies: the booze should flow more freely next
year, thanks to a new Oregon law that allows killjoy NIMBYs
less time to kvetch about new liquor licenses to local government
and the OLCC.
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LOSERS
1. No more money until they come up with a pink
triangle merit badge! The local Boy Scouts council
is on the verge of losing $252,000 in United Way funding
after several board members objected to the happy campers'
policy of excluding gays.
2. Delta pulled the plug on its international flights
from Portland, leaving more than Japan-bound briefcase-luggers
in the lurch. The cancellation also eliminated several feeder
flights into Portland, including the daily non-stop to JFK.
3. It's déjà vu all over again for
Washington County Sheriff's deputies. Last week they
turned away stripper Jessica Rydman, wanted in connection
with the murder of a Portland bank executive, when she tried
to surrender at the county jail. Deputies even returned
her handgun. In February, a corpulent deputy forgot to cuff
a violent serial rapist who escaped on foot, only to be
apprehended on MAX, embarrassingly, by an ex-con and his
friends.
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