NEWS BUZZ

murmurs

HAIL TO THE THIEF
It looks as though "Little Beirut" may be back on the map.

After months of fractious splits, Portland's lefty community joined in a symbolic group hug Jan. 20 at Pioneer Courthouse Square and collectively spat on a shrub. Five hours after Bush the Younger's inauguration, as many as 1,000 protesters from across the fashion spectrum gathered in the wind and chill to loft signs of defiance--"Hail to the Thief," "International Election Monitoring in 2004"--and applaud attacks on the administration's first 300 minutes.

The speeches fell into the well-worn grooves of a general call to the barricades, best expressed by activist Lloyd Marbet, who urged the masses to watch for potential attacks on environmental laws and be ready to take to the streets.

The horde of mainly twentysomethings cheered Marbet's comments, screaming their support and then taking turns on the bullhorn. "These are not normal times," said Bear Wilner, 26. "Pay attention to your facts: Make sure you are more credible than the forces arrayed against us."

A small bloc clad in black did not like what it heard. "Fuck the liberals!" shouted John Paul Cupp and "Dumpster" Dave. A dozen or so hardcore anarchistas tried to disrupt the rally with calls for revolution. But unlike Sept. 26, when large groups of anarchists detached themselves from an anti-WTO/IMF protest in the square, the black bloc failed to get a rise from the riot cops.

Twelve Portland police officers coolly watched the proceedings, not even intervening when a protester torched an American flag.

The police allowed a splinter march of 100-plus to deliver a petition to Niketown, raise a ruckus about labor practices and march south on Broadway to The Oregonian's offices. Blocking the street, they shouted down what was termed the paper's shabby reporting on the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Bill Bradley, a veteran Portland lefty, said he was thrilled by the new crop of activists and the day's cohesion. He and others said they hope the city's left wing can remain in lockstep until George W. visits the city that, during his father's administration, earned a national reputation for its massive, colorful and largely peaceful protests.
--Philip Dawdy

Beyond a shadow of a Doubt
District Attorney Mike Schrunk has decided not to challenge a ruling that one of his deputies had predicted could cost the state millions of dollars.

In December, Multnomah Circuit Court Judge Michael Marcus found 12 protesters not guilty after their misdemeanor charges were reduced to violations. By reducing the charges, prosecutors faced a lesser standard of proof, called preponderance of evidence, rather than the normal criminal standard, beyond a reasonable doubt.

In his ruling, Marcus reasoned that the protesters had the right to the higher standard. That's because the initial misdemeanor charges allowed police to arrest them, jail them and share their pictures with other law-enforcement agencies--including the FBI--investigating "domestic terrorism."

At the time, deputy prosecutor Kevin Demer told WW that the case could cost the state millions if protesters were given access to court-appointed attorneys and jury trials (see "Arresting Development," WW, Dec. 13, 2000). But Fred Lenzser, Schrunk's chief deputy in charge of misdemeanors, told WW that his office now views the ruling as a minor threat, applying only to those cases where someone is jailed for several hours before being issued a violation. Moreover, he argued, the ruling would only apply "in front of Judge Marcus." (Indeed, by not challenging the

ruling to the Oregon Supreme Court, Schrunk avoids the possibility that Marcus' ruling might become the law of the land.)

But civil rights lawyer Alan Graf, who made the closing arguments in the case in December, says that given Marcus' solid reputation, he expects other Multnomah County judges to follow his lead.

--Nick Budnick

RULES of ENGAGEMENT
Beverly Stein has a handicap no other candidate for governor has.

No, it isn't that she's urban, female and so liberal that anyone outside of the county line will peg her as a communist.

It's that running for governor--or any elected position--is against the rules for Multnomah County commissioners.

The county charter has a unique provision that prohibits commissioners from running for office while sitting on the board. Irked by the county board's role as a mere rung on the local political ladder, a group of anti-government types in East County passed a slew of reform ballot measures in 1982, making Multnomah County the only Oregon government entity to have this type of prohibition.

That's a problem for Stein's gubernatorial designs. So, to meet the letter, if not the spirit, of the law, she's postponed filing for the governor's race with the state elections office in Salem. The deadline to get on the May 2002 Democratic primary ballot isn't until March 2002, the same year Stein has to leave office due to term limits (another '82 reform). The charter allows her to file her candidacy in her final year in office.

Stein says she's doing nothing wrong. "[The charter] says very clearly you shouldn't file, which means be fully engaged in a campaign," Stein says. "I'm not fully engaged in a campaign. I'm working my 80 hours a week. I'm running the county."

That's not to say that Stein is making only a half-hearted bid for the state's top elective office.

The gubernatorial election isn't until November 2002, but she has a campaign office and a new campaign coordinator on the payroll. She says she raised $80,000 in the 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas because she thought she'd be prevented from trolling for dollars during the legislative session. With the ban now lifted, thanks to Attorney General Hardy Myers, she intends to keep at it.

--Patty Wentz

Crazy like a fox
Last week the New York Times ran a profile on the new First Lady, comparing her to Mamie Eisenhower. Reading between the lines, however, it wasn't hard to imagine Lady Bush placed in the Mary Todd Lincoln and Kitty Dukakis column of political wives.

Mrs. Bush, the story reported, arranges her shoes in their original boxes according to hue, purchases her Christmas cards by February and is in the process of scanning photographs of her wardrobe into a computer.

Not only do obsessive habits like these leave little time for developing a universal-coverage health care plan, they strike us as being, well, a little compulsive.

But Dr. Robin Shallcross, associate director of Pacific University's psychological

service center, says we're jumping to conclusions. She, too, read the story and saw little reason for concern--at least from a clinical perspective. The personality traits attributed to the former librarian may be obnoxious but, she assured us, are not symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

More interesting, Shallcross says, is how Mrs. Bush's personality is so strikingly opposite from that of her low-key husband, the new "What, me worry?" president.

"That explains how he has been able to get where he is," Shallcross theorizes. "It may be a more traditionally feminine role than many of us would like to see, but she has been helping him, in her very organized way."

--Patty Wentz

Name that Station
By now, every reporter west of the Rockies has been summoned to see the remarkable renovations in progress at the city's historic ballpark. But those taking the MAX could be forgiven for getting confused--the adjacent stop is still called "Civic Stadium," six months after the facility got a new name.

In July, PGE plunked down $8.5 million to plaster its name on Civic Stadium, which the city has ceded to Portland Family Entertainment under a 20-year operating agreement. The naming-rights deal, the largest ever negotiated for a minor-league facility, will pump more than $700,000 into PFE's coffers this year--but not everybody is playing along with what city officials have billed as the model of a public-private partnership.

Despite requests from PFE bosses Marshall Glickman and Mark Gardiner, Tri-Met has declined to change the signs at the adjacent MAX stop or the recorded announcement on the train from "Civic Stadium" to "PGE Park."

It's not as though PGE wouldn't like a little more bang for its buck. "We would certainly want that name to be changed," says Kregg Arntson, a PGE spokesman. But at Tri-Met, there's no urgency to change any references to Civic. "Right now were going to keep the name the same until we see how the public decides to use the name 'PGE Park,'" says Tri-Met spokeswoman Mary Fetsch.

--Nigel Jaquiss

Murmurs

LIES, ALL GODDAMN LIES!!!

* Heeerrre's Hardy! Attorney General Hardy Myers is trying to keep Ed McMahon out of Oregon. Bashed during his reelection bid for being soft on consumer protection, the state's top lawyer is now in court trying one of his biggest cases ever, against Publisher's Clearing House for engaging in unlawful business practices. Myers is seeking an injunction prohibiting the company from doing business in the state until the case is resolved--which could be several months.

* Breaking up is hard to do. Just ask Jann Mitchell. After years of penning The Oregonian's relationship column, Mitchell was demoted to general-assignment reporter last fall--a move that led to her resignation. On Friday, Jan. 19, Mitchell, 56, filed a complaint with the state civil-rights division, claiming the paper pushed her out the door because of her age. Meanwhile, some Oregonian refugees seek revenge in other ways. Ellen Emry Heltzel, unceremoniously booted by the O when it redesigned its Sunday arts section last year, has signed on with several fellow expapriates at the Portland Tribune, where she will be books editor and write a weekly column.

* With the unexpected success of the new Fox Tower Theatre, Regal Cinemas has decided to reopen the KOIN Center Cinema as a first-run theater, hoping to catch some of the business Fox Tower has to turn away. KOIN was turned into a dumping ground for second-run films when Fox opened. It's not clear how long the good news will last: KOIN's lease on the space is almost up.