IMAGE: SCOTT TEPLIN

* Murmurs hears that late last year, Portland cops staged a sting on one of their own, when a 911 dispatcher sent an officer to an "abandoned" car that had been rigged with marijuana and cash. The cop took the money and weed back to the precinct--but did not turn it in or report it as seized property. Instead, at the end of the shift, he walked out of the precinct and was promptly detained. Detectives found the stuff in his locker, complete with seized-property forms--so the district attorney's office lacked evidence to prosecute. Now, seven months later, he's at a desk job pending a disciplinary investigation, and the question is, why did he leave the stuff in his locker? The sting, you see, was no coincidence: It was reportedly sparked by his ex-girlfriend's allegation that--you guessed it--he'd stolen cash and drugs on the job. So with a bitter ex on the loose, did he smell a trap? Stay tuned....

* More than 20,000 riders may have thronged the opening day of the ballyhooed North Interstate MAX line, but almost all of them were oblivious to the last-minute drama that capped the ahead-of-schedule, under-budget construction of the 5.8-mile route. On Friday, TriMet officials discovered a computer glitch that prevented the new trains slated to make North Interstate's inaugural runs from communicating with traffic signals. They pulled the virgin cars off the line--where they'd been running ghost-ship-empty tests--on Friday afternoon, flew new parts up from Sacramento, installed them and restored service in time for Saturday's gala opening.

* Murmurs hears the race to replace defrocked Portland Business Alliance panjandrum Kim Kimbrough is down to three finalists: PBA lobbyist Mike Salsgiver, formerly of Intel; Mark Williams, head of Metro's Metropolitan Exposition-Recreation Commission; and Sandy McDonough, of Pacific Gas & Electric Gas Transmission.

* For City Commissioner Erik Sten, it wasn't enough to endorse Tom Potter for mayor last week in a direct snub to his council colleague, frontrunner Jim Francesconi. Sten also loaned the Potter campaign money for a carefully selected mailing to 26,000 young voters. If Potter does not win, look for Mayor Jim to make Sten the first-ever commissioner of Dignity Village.

* "I live in Harlem, but I'm at home in Portland," said dreadlocked violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, who headlined a $150-a-head benefit for the Time Based Art Festival on Saturday night in the Pearl. "I can tell you when I go back to Harlem, all I ever do is talk about Portland." The hip young musician won the hearts (and ears) of local art fans at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's TBA Festival last year. Roumain, who's in town through May 18 on a PICA-sponsored residency, will be entertaining creative types with daily afternoon practice sessions in the Wieden& Kennedy building atrium.

* For the past few years, high-school sports junkies have gotten a twice-weekly fix from reading Cliff Pfenning in the Portland Tribune. Pfenning, who has written about prep sports for 15 years, is obviously a man with a serious obsession. On May 10, he will re-launch Oregonsports.com, which he promises will bury the daily's half-hearted coverage under a deluge of obscure statistics, penetrating analysis and killer profiles. Pfenning, author of the Oregon Sports Almanac, will remain a Trib staffer, at least for now.