Taking stock of the week's most active local issues

-49%

Stoel Rives (SHARX)
Droves of punters spurned Stoel Rives--Portland's largest law firm--after it agreed to pay a reported $12.5 million out-of-court settlement to trustees for the victims of union pension fund manager Jeff Grayson. Plaintiffs alleged that Stoel Rives helped financier Andy Wiederhorn borrow $160 million of union money from Grayson--but forgot to pay it back.

Merry Pranksters, Inc. (TRIPS)
Acidheads, rugged individualists and other assorted '60s holdovers suffered a massive psychic blow when prankster-in-chief Ken Kesey died in Eugene at age 66 from complications of liver cancer. "The stock?!" gasped one dazed analyst, between gulps of Kool-Aid. "Who cares about the fucking stock, man? Kesey's dead!"

Consolidated Bill Bradbury (LNGSHT)
Prospects brightened for Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's long-shot campaign to unseat Sen. Gordon Smith. Bradbury's stock perked up after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft targeted Oregon's assisted-suicide law for termination, using a bureaucratic end run to avoid opposition in the Senate. Now tied up in court, the move will rekindle memories that Sen. Smith supported a Congressional push to spike the law--despite the fact that 60 percent of Oregonians voted for it.

OHSU (PILHIL)
Fearing the possibility of a strike, anxious investors sent Oregon Health Sciences University share prices spiraling downward after negotiations stalled between OHSU and its 1,500 registered nurses. OHSU has offered a pay hike of 11 percent over the next two years; nurses are demanding 29 percent. Nurses may strike by mid-December if the two sides can't agree.

Dogs Unlimited (GRRR)
Heedless of the recession that has thrown thousands of "masters" out of work, Dogs Unlimited pushed ahead with its long-standing corporate strategy: a hostile takeover of Consolidated Humanity. Think we're barking up the wrong tree? How else to explain a $181,000 bronze sculpture of a dog bowl, fed by precious Bull Run water, to be installed in the North Park Blocks?