• The second effort to recall Mayor Sam Adams has gone dark for the holidays, but campaign spokeswoman Avel Gordly tells Murmurs she is “very encouraged” at how many people have offered to volunteer and how much money donors have pledged. Gordly, a state legislator for 17 years before retiring in 2008, declined to offer specifics but says she will soon. “We’re not quite there yet,” Gordly says. “But we plan to file [campaign documents] after the first of the year. This is going to the ballot.”
  • The attorney for the female subordinate whom former state agency head John Minnis allegedly harassed and possibly assaulted says her client is pursuing a criminal complaint against Minnis in San Diego. Attorney General John Kroger declined last week to press criminal charges in Oregon against Minnis, who abruptly resigned as director of the state’s police certification agency last month (see “Minnis: ‘My Wife is Gonna Freakin’ Shoot Me,’” WW, Dec. 9, 2009). But Dana Sullivan, attorney for Minnis’ accuser, says there’s still the matter of her client’s business trip with Minnis last month to San Diego. “It’s unclear what the charges might be,” says Sullivan, who isn’t a criminal lawyer. “But a criminal investigation [by California authorities] needs to be done promptly.”
  • In what’s become the equivalent of a yearly spanking for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, a special grand jury Dec. 15 rolled out an annual report blasting the county-run jail system as wasteful and inefficient. Penned with guidance from the county DA’s office, the report aims to undercut the county Department of Community Justice by suggesting the county opt out of jailing felons and running parole and probation services, turning those responsibilities over to the state and saving $4.5 million a year. But community justice department officials maintain they can run those programs more efficiently than the state. To read more, go to wweek.com/juryreport.
  • The Portland School Board approved its eighth charter school, the High School for Recording Arts, by a 6-to-0 vote Monday. A single board member, Dilafruz Williams, voiced objections to the new school’s lack of academic breadth, but was absent for the Dec. 14 vote. The new charter school is scheduled to open in fall 2011, when Portland Public Schools launches the first part of its high-school redesign. “My goal was to present the district with an application they couldn’t say no to,” says project director Erica Jayasuriya.
  • WW’s Give!Guide is nearing the $350,000 mark in donations from our way cool readers. But with 79 just-as-awesome local nonprofits needing help, there’s still a lot that your donation will do. So please go to wweek.com and contribute what you can before the deadline of midnight Dec. 31. You’ll feel better breaking in the new year if you do.