Amid The Challenges, A Commitment To Show Up.

• City Auditor Gary Blackmer, who cosponsored Portland's program for publicly financing campaigns, announced Tuesday he would resign May 18 after 10 years in office. His announcement comes as Portland officials consider asking voters in 2010 to OK public financing in the future. The election to replace him will be May 19.

• New U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is carrying a campaign debt of 586,000. And his Democratic colleague in the House, new Rep. Kurt Schrader, owes 273,000, mostly in loans he made to his campaign. Both lawmakers should be easily able to raise the cash to repay those debts listed in their latest fundraising reports, say campaign strategists. Meantime, ex-Sen. Gordon Smith, the two-term Republican who lost to Merkley, owed about $1.6 million, primarily to himself. Oregonians who went to Merkley's Jan. 6 swearing-in included statewide AFL-CIO boss Tom Chamberlain and Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Simon, widely mentioned as the likely next U.S. District Court judge in Oregon. 

• One deal that died when Mayor Tom Potter's term ended last week was the $120 million police training facility in Scappoose (see "An Offer the City Could Refuse," WW, Oct. 22, 2008). No other commissioner has much enthusiasm for the controversial proposal, which the city negotiated for more than a year with developers, including one of Portland's largest property owners, Joe Weston. "We're considering other options," says Brendan Finn, new Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman's chief of staff.

• Potter has one consolation. New Mayor Sam Adams is honoring him by re-christening a stretch of Ross Island as "Mayor Tom Potter's Beach." The city has long wrangled with Portland Tribune owner Robert Pamplin Jr., the island's owner, to turn the island's gravel pit into a park. And under Potter, the city finally managed to acquire 45 island acres in 2007.

• It's déjà vu all over again for former Oregon City investment adviser Wes Rhodes (see "The Collector," WW, June 27, 2007). Just 17 months ago, Rhodes pleaded guilty in federal court to mail fraud and money laundering. Now, Rhodes is scheduled to withdraw that plea Jan. 8, and plead guilty again to the same charges of bilking local investors of at least $24.6 million. The new plea deal for Rhodes, who's switched attorneys, comes with a proposed 10-year sentence, if U.S. District Court Judge Ancer Haggerty agrees. Rhodes is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 17.

• Three months after former WW staffer Reet Rana was found slain in California, police have a potential lead. Rana, 34, an editorial assistant at WW in the late 1990s, was found dead Sept. 13 in the woods in Humboldt County. On Dec. 30, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office announced Ryan Carroll, 24, as a person of interest in its investigation. Carroll was hitchhiking north near where Rana's burned-out 1996 Saab was discovered. And police believe he was dropped off in the Portland area on Sept. 11. "I really want to talk to the people who gave him a ride," says Det. Cheryl Franco, who can be reached at 707-268-3644.

• WW readers—you are amazing! You've given more than $805,000 to 55 local nonprofits through our Give!Guide. That shatters the $518,000 raised last year. And this year's total is sure to increase when mailed-in donations are counted. Thanks for your incredible generosity.

• Former Oregon basketball star Fred Jones is in default on a loan of $148,211.22 on a three-bedroom condo in Gresham, according to Multnomah County records. Jones, who played with the Trail Blazers in the spring of 2007, just got cut by the Los Angeles Clippers, his fifth team since Indiana picked him in the first round of the 2002 draft. Jones' agent, Sam Goldfeder, declined comment.

WWeek 2015