Winners

1. The Portland School Board voted 6-1 to hire Pacific Telecom exec Diana Snowden as the district's interim superintendent. Snowden edged out three other applicants (the district won't disclose their names). The lone dissenting vote came from Joseph Tam, who says he wanted the job to go to an educator. Reportedly, two of the other three finalists did have experience in education.

2. Budding artist Owen Wuerker, a third-grader at Alameda Elementary School, celebrated his first published work last week. The son of Portland illustrator Matt Wuerker drew the cover art for this year's Portland Roast Festival program.

3. Parents gearing up for the Christmas-season gift frenzy got a boost from Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, who on Nov. 17 joined 38 other states in suing Toys 'R' Us and leading toy makers for conspiring to inflate prices by keeping some popular toys out of discount retailers like Costco.

Losers

1. There are plenty of folks who'd like to deck Ron McCarty. Last week, the wacky ex-rep was foolish enough to pick a fight with one foe mean enough to actually do it. Fellow Democratic ex-rep Ron Kotulski got the best of McCarty in a tavern brawl following a spat at the Mount Hood Community College Board. McCarty, who serves on the board, and Kotulski, who is an instructor, have often clashed on college-related matters.

2. One of Nike's big-name athletes finally lashed out at the shoemaker. Green Bay Packer Reggie White, a star defensive lineman who has a Nike endorsement contract, said that if the company really cared about American inner-city kids, it would hire them, rather than overseas workers, to make its sneakers.

3. When they get the lights attached it, the towering ponderosa pine may look OK, but initial reviews of the city's official Christmas tree were not terribly charitable. The word from Pioneer Courthouse Square is that the 77-foot tree, imported from Idaho, is scragglier than Charlie Brown's.