More Engaged Than Bristol And Levi.

  1. Cartoonist John Callahan asked for a Catholic funeral and he got one last week, even though much of his humor savaged the church. The irony wasn’t lost on St. Mary’s Cathedral pastor George Wolf, who said at the July 30 service that Callahan would often come to the church’s courtyard, just blocks from his Northwest Portland home. “I think he appreciated the church as well,” Wolf continued, “because it gave him a lot of material. ” For more coverage, go to wweek.com/callahan_funeral.
  2. City Council is set to consider Mayor Sam Adams’ initial proposal for the Oregon Sustainability Center, a building the city plans to share with Portland State University (see “Property Puzzle,” WW, July 14, 2010). Adams wants council colleagues to “commit contingently” to the center at the meeting this Wednesday, Aug. 4. But several commissioners have expressed concern about the 150,000-square-foot center’s tentative $75 million cost. As a result, City Council was expected to agree only to study possible designs, delaying debate about whether the city can afford to commit to the design.
  3. A Southeast Portland man who accused his lawyer of botching a lawsuit over brutality in jail has reached a $40,000 settlement with the Oregon State Bar’s Professional Liability Fund. Murmurs knows this because the man, Scott Willingham, refused the bar’s demand for confidentiality about his settlement. “[He] will not have his jaw wired shut a second time,” Willingham’s current attorney, Lake James Perriguey, wrote in a news release. The case began in 2006 when Willingham alleges a Multnomah County corrections deputy broke his jaw during booking for failing to appear in court for a DUII case. Willingham’s attorney at the time, Michael Shinn, sued the county for $1.25 million in 2008. But Shinn failed to serve papers when he went to Hawaii while under investigation for stealing another client’s money. The bar stripped Shinn in 2009 of his law license and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
  1. As we followed Basic Rights Oregon’s campaign this summer for gay marriage rights (see “Wedding Planners,” WW, July 28, 2010), we were reminded that there’s actually a swath of Oregon where same-sex marriage is legal. But good luck trying to learn how it’s going in that piece of Coos County. The Coquille Indian Tribe recognizes same-sex marriages—giving all tribal benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples—as long as one partner is a member of the 925-person tribe. But when asked by WW how many same-sex couples have been married since that went into effect in May 2009, tribal spokesman Ray Doering wouldn’t say whether it has married any more people since tribal member Kitzen Branting and her partner tied the knot last year.
  2. Media consolidation: Oregonian sports columnist/95.5-FM the Game radio afternoon host John Canzano and KATU weekend anchor Anna Song got married last week in Hawaii. The couple got hitched in Kauai on Poipu Beach in front of 32 family and friends. “Bride was gorgeous and made me weak in the knees when she came walking up,” reports Canzano. The “Bald-Faced Truth” also reports that guests wore sunscreen. The honeymoon is later this year.
  3. Breast-feeding mothers of Oregon can unite this Friday, Aug. 6, in an effort to set a new record for most women breast-feeding at one time. “The Big Latch On,” sponsored in part by Multnomah County’s Women, Infants, and Children program, comes at the end of World Breastfeeding Week. The local record-setting attempt runs from 10 am to 11:30 am at WIC’s locations in the county. The official count will begin at 10:30 am, when all mothers whose babies are “latched on” will raise their hands. While it’s unclear what the current record is for mothers breast-feeding simultaneously in one area, our own Google search gave numbers ranging from 1,299 in New Zealand to 3,541 in the city of Manila.

WWeek 2015

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