Murmurs: News That Is the Sunshine Of My Life.

BIRK
  1. The sponsor of a Portland benefit concert in May that featured Stevie Wonder is accusing a restaurant owner of selling tickets to the $500-a-plate event on the side and keeping the profits. According to a lawsuit filed Nov. 13 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Project Clean Slate, the charity that put on the event, says Frank Taylor, who owns the Quartet restaurant, charged $63,000 for Wonder’s appearance fee and Quartet’s hosting expenses. The lawsuit alleges Taylor broke the agreement by selling reservations independently without passing the profits on to Project Clean Slate (which helps people expunge minor convictions). The nonprofit is seeking $10,000 in reimbursement. Taylor’s attorney, Brian Chenoweth, denied the accusations and said Taylor will fight the suit.
  1. Portland-based Alta Bike Share has had a deflating week. As reported on wweek.com, the company is in danger of losing a $6 million contract in Vancouver, B.C. That’s because Alta’s Canadian partner, Bixi, which supplies bicycles and racks that Alta manages in eight cities, is “imminently insolvent,” according to The Province newspaper in Vancouver. Those financial woes are a warning to Portland transportation officials, who have been mulling a plan to loan Alta as much as $4.6 million to help with startup costs for a local bike-share system until it finds corporate sponsors (“The Big Bike Bailout,” WW, Aug. 14, 2013). Alta Bike Share vice president Mia Birk says Bixi’s troubles won’t stop Portland bike share from launching next year. “We have no plans to change suppliers from the team we originally proposed to the city,” Birk tells WW.
  1. The victories keep coming for Trail Blazers fans. When the team, on a seven-game winning streak, returns to the Rose Quarter on Nov. 22, fans will be greeted with free tacos. Korean taco-truck chain Koi Fusion says it will honor the Blazers’ new McMuffin promotion by accepting the McDonald’s coupons at its 15 taco stands. The ghost of the chalupa is appeased.
  1. Gov. John Kitzhaber has raised $240,000 for a 2014 re-election campaign but still hasn’t said if he’s running. His senior staff, however, is moving on. Chief of staff Curtis Robinhold is leaving for the Port of Portland; health-care adviser Mike Bonetto will replace him. Spokesman Tim Raphael is joining Seattle lobbying firm Strategies 360. As Kitzhaber looks for staff on health care and the media, he still needs someone on schools, after his top education adviser, Ben Cannon, joined the Higher Education Coordinating Council.

WWeek 2015

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