Fanning the flames on two wheels.

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WINNERS

Oregon voters desperate for any alternative to the desultory cast of major-party candidates for governor received a glimmer of hope outta central Oregon. State Sen. Ben Westlund, a live wire who represents much of Deschutes County, has left the Republican Party to make an independent run for guv.

Yelps of "Academic censorship!" got the feds to restore $93,000 for an Oregon State University logging study. The money had been yanked after some profs and feds tried to bury the study's findings that logging hurts, rather than helps, trees recovering from forest fires.

Supporters of public finance for city elections look like they'll laugh last and best. Their opponents' signature-gathering effort to put a repeal of so-called "voter-owned elections" on the May ballot appears to have fallen short despite spending about $350,000. Read more at wweek.com.

LOSERS

Kids in Portland Public Schools awaiting an actual plan from the grown-ups responsible for their education can keep waiting. City Hall and the School Board have long known a harmonic convergence of expiring schools taxes was coming, but now don't even have a Plan C other than an education "summit" this week. Shhhh—if we're all quiet, we can hear middle-class parents responding by frantically dialing up private schools.

Attack of the placenta snatchers? The Oregonian reports the ghoulish news that Portland's Cascadia Placenta Registry collected hundreds of pregnancy afterbirths between 1996 and 2003, without first getting the mothers' consent. The data repository, created and financed by malpractice insurers, used the placentas to prepare reports for potential lawsuits involving problem deliveries.

A small Portland bike company, Mountain Cycle Inc., is caught in the spokes of California-based Specialized Bicycle Components. Specialized says Mountain Cycles' "Stumptown" bike sounds too much like its "Stumpjumper" line of mountain bikes, even though the Stumptown name has been associated with Portland since the 1840s.

What's louder than a TriMet bus? The growing sound of downtown businesses and others in full freakout over the redesign of the transit mall.

02.14.2006 at 10:00 Reply

Story Forum Archive

Fanning the flames on two wheels.It is interesting that the same solutions are continually proferred for the underfunding of Portland Public Schools. They run the short gamut of more taxes, more short term taxes, or more tri-county short term taxes. It appears no one is taking the bait. The demographics of the region are shifting and fewer and fewer parents with school age children are effected by these shortfalls. Combine that with an intransigent school board and administration that won't or can't cut the deepest where there is there is the most fat. Unfortunately cutting into the hide bound senior fat ( administration including curriculum development specialists) results in them bumping young, enthusiastic new teachers. As such, you get 58 year old retired-on-the-job civil servant that hasn't seen the inside of a classroom for 10 years teaching your kids. My children are 99% done with local schools. My son was extremely well served at David Douglas High School. I will support whatever taxes are requested becuase I am patient and think that leadership will emerge to fill this vacuum at some point. In the meantime we can only hope. —Harley Leiber

Fanning the flames on two wheels.WAKE UP!! Jeeez, the schools in Eastern Oregon are in fat city living off Portlander's taxes. When is SOMEONE going to finally say that Don McIntire's idea is bullS**t, that we need to scrap the 'redistribution' plan, and get Portlander's the money that they paid for THEIR SCHOOLS!!!—Jeff D.

03.30.2006 at 10:00 Reply

Fanning the flames on two wheels.Well that's encouraging. Someone else in Portland, other than myself, has their lense in focus. Harley Leiber's response, " the demographics of the region are shifting" " Fewer parents w/school age children are affected by these shortfalls". The future is now. Middle-class communities with school age children are growing alright--but not in Portlnd proper. They're in the suburbs. Only renters, child free couples, and upper class families can afford to live in Portland.—Victor Walsh

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Fanning the flames on two wheels.