* Last week, TriMet filed an unusual complaint with the state Employment Relations Board against its drivers' union. At issue: $357,000. Under contract terms set in 1998, TriMet gives the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 money to fund a program helping drivers' kids and elderly relatives. In December, the transit agency asked for records documenting the money's fate. But despite a volley of letters, TriMet claims it still hasn't received proof the program exists. "If the money's not there, what happened to it?" asks TriMet attorney Jana Toran. "If it is there, why hasn't it been used?" ATU attorney Susan Stoner says every penny's accounted for. "They were precipitous in filing this," says Stoner, who contends that miscommunications and union officers' busy schedules delayed their response to TriMet's info request. "This complaint will be dismissed as soon as they look at it."

* When hundreds of Oregon National Guard troops returned from Iraq last week, both The Oregonian and The Portland Tribune ran moving photos of Lt. Chris Boeholt greeting his girlfriend, Michelle Bingham. And both-as ultra-popular politics/media blog Wonkette.com pointed out in the case of the O-did some prudish cropping of Bingham's short dress. What-can America not handle the news that soldiers' girlfriends like to look hot when their squeezes come home from war? We thought this was about freedom!

* In its effort to carve a hole in Oregon's minimum-wage law, the Oregon Restaurant Association has found some unlikely front people. Lisa Schroeder of Mother's Bistro and Rod Brackenbury and Terry Hughes of Cadillac Cafe testified in Salem Monday for ORA's bill that would let them pay tipped workers less. The restaurant owners maintain it's not about profits, arguing that if they paid servers less, they would voluntarily pay higher wages to cooks and backroom types. Oregon's AFL-CIO is at the forefront of the fight (see above) against the ORA's proposal.

* Central City Concern, already battered by budget cuts, is bracing itself for the outcome of a state audit of its Medicaid billing practices for treating poor people. The prominent Portland nonprofit announced 17 layoffs last week, bringing its total up to 36 since the end of February. And another round is planned for next month. The audit, which could result in a hit to future payments from the state, is due to be completed by early April.

* While the Bush administration and national TV networks have taken heat for airing fake news, Portland TV station KOIN also has fallen short, according to Columbia Journalism Review. The magazine's current issue dings KOIN for "repackaging" as news a city-funded video, narrated by retired celeb newsjockey Walter Cronkite, to explain Portland's effort to stop sewer overflows into the Willamette. In fairness to KOIN, the segment, shown Christmas Day, does allude to its being a city-funded video, but the distinction was probably lost on viewers. Cronkite, in case you were wondering, donated his services-though city environmental czar Dean Marriott did reward him with a nice bottle of Scotch.