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WINNERS 1. Since a record-breaking cold snap hit Portland this week, space-heater retailers have posted record sales. Beaverton's Home Depot, for example, has completely sold out of space heaters, heat lamps and "almost any kind of plumbing," according to employee Zach Poulsen. The store has sold 700 heaters this year, compared with 450 in 1997, Poulsen says. Electrical generators have sold out, too. "Everybody in the area seems to be out of stock," he says. 2. And then there were seven. Last week opponents of Measure 58 gathered steam by adding three anonymous birth mothers to the lawsuit against the state. The most dramatic--a victim of paternal incest--is sure to keep the debate in the emotional, not constitutional, realm. 3. Some local luminaries got national exposure during last week's
impeachment frenzy. Karin Immergut, the Multnomah County deputy
DA turned special prosecutor, was mentioned in The New Yorker
last week. Portland cartoonist John Callahan, meanwhile, penned
a piece on Bill Clinton's White House sleepover for Saturday's Washington
Post. |
LOSERS 1. Chalk one up for the little guys. Bowing to pressure from North Portland neighborhood activists and Jeff Gordon groupies, the City Council last week black-flagged Paul Allen's proposal to plop an amphitheater in the middle of the Portland International Raceway. 2. There must be something in the drinking fountains. After enduring months of negative publicity around a robbery spree allegedly perpetrated by four of its students, Grant High School is again in the news. This time a 31-year-old man who is wanted in three states took on a new identity and re-enrolled at the school after graduating 12 years earlier. 3. Last week the Portland Police Bureau completed a criminal investigation of an officer and again turned up empty-handed in the third well-publicized case of this kind in the past few years. This time, Sgt. David Howe was cleared of criminal misconduct relating to an allegation of sexual impropriety. Sgt. Michael Barkley and Capt. Mike Garvey were also cleared of criminal misconduct after extensive investigations. Steven Gomez, Steven Regalado and Brad Benge weren't so lucky--they were all convicted of crimes. |
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 22,
1998