QUEENS FOR A DAY: Ghana, which launched its Women's World Cup bid in Tigard, registered its first-ever Cup victory Sunday. IMAGE: STEPHEN VOSS

Good-government guardians gasped at their great fortune as Gov. Ted Kulongoski axed a bill that would have relaxed rules on lobbyists' gifts. Despite legislators' desire for more pressure-group goodies, the guv stood firm against the Amalgamated Forces of Evil.

Ghana's Black Queens, who prepped for the Women's World Cup in beautiful Tigard, finished their tour of the 16-team tourney with a 2-1 win over Australia. Captain Alberta Sackey laced in a couple of highlight-reel goals as 19,000 fans at PGE Park partied deep into Sunday night.

With last Thursday's unanimous Senate confirmation of U.S. Attorney Mike Mosman to a federal judgeship, the way would seem clear for his deputy, Karin Immergut, to succeed him as Oregon's top lawyer. A former Democrat, Immergut made powerful Republican pals by grilling Monica Lewinsky on behalf of Ken Starr.

LOSERS

Despite pleas for clemency to the magazine gods, the Oregon Ducks tackle-football team suffered the infamous Sports Illustrated cover jinx. The Ducks, dubbed "dazzling," "rich" and "cool" by SI, absorbed a savage 55-16 thrashing from Washington State University on Saturday.

For one National Guard infantry unit in Cottage Grove, a weekend a month playing with automatic weapons turned into one year in a sweltering war-torn hell when 700 Oregon reservists shipped out for Iraq.

Anti-taxers bent on putting the Legislature's $800 million income-tax increase on the ballot took a detour last week. A challenge from the union-backed Voter Education Project caused the antis to scrap verbiage on the sheets they were using to gather signatures. They'll try again with less-confusing language in an effort to beat a Nov. 25 deadline.

Reservoir lovers ran into the brick wall known as Commissioner Dan Saltzman. Despite pressure to keep Mount Tabor's water supply in the open air, the commish insisted his mind is made up: The water goes underground. Sunday's three-block-long drum procession up Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard didn't seem to make a difference.