The news may not be announced officially for another month or so, but two high-level sources close to OHSU say the decision has been made: Dr. Peter Kohler, Oregon Health & Science University's president since 1988, will retire. Kohler, who turned 67 last month, won praise for building OHSU into the city's largest employer and greatly increasing research funding but ends his career on a sour note after lending his credibility to the Texas Pacific Group's ill-fated takeover bid for Portland General Electric last year.

Jeff Rogers, Portland's former city attorney, showed up over the weekend in Texas to support Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan's vigil down the road from President Bush's Crawford compound. Rogers was quoted in Sunday's Los Angeles Times saying he thinks it's "shameful'' the way Bush "hides'' and refuses to meet with Sheehan, whose son Casey died last year in Iraq. Rogers, who retired in 2004 as head of the legal office at Portland City Hall, was a Yale Law School classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton and is the son of the late William Rogers, secretary of state to President Nixon during the Vietnam War.

Portland cops are celebrating yet another victory in a disputed disciplinary case involving the job of Edgar Mitchell, a well-regarded officer and one of the bureau's few African-American cops. Mitchell got in an off-duty car accident while drunk on New Year's Eve 2003. On Aug. 10, an arbitrator ruled that the bureau's proposed firing was unprecedented and unfair in its harshness, especially considering Mitchell's good work history and entry into counseling. Can anyone remember the last time the city won a police-union arbitration?

When the Pacific Coast League ended Portland Family Entertainment's ownership of the Portland Beavers in May 2004, PFE's largest investor, Portland timber baron Peter Stott, took a financial beating. Stott is understandably miffed that the PCL still hasn't resolved the Beavers' future 16 months later. The league has a deal in principle to sell the minor-league baseball team to a group headed by Californian Abe Alizadeh. And Alizadeh in turn has agreed on terms with the city for a long-term lease on PGE Park. But people close to the deal say Alizadeh's group has been unable to reach an agreement with TIAA-CREF, the giant pension fund that bankrolled Stott and his partners. In a recent letter to PCL President Branch Rickey, Stott asked for a chance to get back in the game. "If you are unable to provide assurance that the proposed transactions will be closed by August 31, 2005...I would urge that the PCL open the process to all interested parties," Stott wrote.

The reasons for Multnomah County Human Services head Patty Pate's departure keep a-changing. First, County Chair Diane Linn wrote without explanation in an Aug. 17 email that Pate had been put on administrative leave from her $118,410-a-year post for two weeks. Then on Monday, Pate announced-through County Attorney Agnes Sowle-that she was resigning Sept. 30 and would be on medical leave in the meantime. Some grumbled after John Ball, Linn's then-chief of staff, hired Pate in 2003 that she lacked a background in social services. The buzz is that Pate, already unpopular after laying off 100-plus employees and canceling contracts with nonprofits, lost her sole ally when Ball left in June for another job in California. Union staff rep Valerie Andreas told WW Pate failed to provide workers with the support they needed. "Morale was extremely low," Andreas said. "The employees were overwhelmed and felt a sense of helplessness."

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Oregon health-care advocates fuming over the Legislature's inaction on making coverage more affordable and accessible will meet next month to weigh initiative options for the 2006 state ballot. "It's a bad situation, and the question is what are we going to do about it,'' one advocate told WW. In the mix is a proposal similar to one that narrowly lost last November in California. That proposition would have required companies with more than 50 employees to provide affordable health insurance and created a statewide buying pool for those who slipped through the cracks. Already on the table in Oregon is a proposal from three lawmakers to declare health care a "fundamental right'' for all citizens.

Wondering how Mayor Tom Potter and Commissioner Randy Leonard could have voted last week at City Council on Leonard's proposals to change the disability and retirement fund for cops and firefighters, since both draw pensions from that fund? In fact, state ethics officials say there's no conflict of interest for Leonard, a former firefighter, and Potter, the ex-police chief. That's because state law allows an exception when the person voting is not going to benefit any more from the vote than any other person in the class, in this case all the retired cops and firefighters. For the record, Potter's annual pension on top of his $100,000-plus mayoral salary is more than $92,000. The yearly pension for Leonard, who makes nearly $90,000 as a commissioner: close to $49,000.

The Portland Media Insider blog (pdxmediawatch.blogspot.com), which launched back in May promising an inside look into the city's newsrooms, is on hiatus. The blog's anonymous author tells the Blueoregon website (www.blueoregon.com) that Media Insider is "resting'' and goes on to say it was naive to believe an open discussion about newspaper and broadcast outlets wouldn't generate "puerile and awful comments from folks who have nothing positive to offer.'' But before media types put their heads back on their desks, take note: The blogger is considering a new format that either requires registration or some way to "block the jerks."

With school about to restart and no major financial fix on the horizon for the classroom, Democrats have been quick to blame Republicans in Salem for the failure of the $15-million-a-year Portland schools tax in the waning days of the legislative session. This, legislative observers say, glosses over two missteps that had nothing to do with the GOP. In a House vote on the session's final Tuesday, Portland Democrats neglected to issue a special call for all representatives to vote; as a result, the bill failed by three votes. Second, in the final days of session, neither Superintendent Vicki Phillips nor members of her board showed up to lobby the Legislature personally-which several Capitol observers say would probably have made the difference.