Free the First Amendment at Western Oregon

Winners

1 Industry-outsourced alert: State health officials report Oregon’s over-the-counter pseudo-ephedrine ban has devastated neighborhood mom-and-pop meth cookeries. But there’s a silver lining for Mexican druglords —they’ve filled the market void. Buy local!

2Portland tennis enthusiasts get five big-time matches—and Andy Roddick this week—with the Davis Cup coming to town. That’s tennis at the Memorial Coliseum, which were both hot about 25 years ago.

3 Another score for South Waterfront’s critics. As The Oregonian reports, projected cost overruns for the neighborhood’s planned riverside “greenway” may rival those on the aerial tram. And now developers are suing a dozen people who they claim backed out on commitments to buy condos. Christmas comes early for Jack Bogdanski with these twin gifts of endless fodder for his blog.

Losers

1 If Oregon football fans were dealing with the stages of grief last week (“A Ducking Shame,” WW , Nov. 21, 2007) when their team’s national title hopes quacked up, imagine their dread now. The wounded Ducks head into the annual Civil War rivalry on Saturday against wounded-but-rested Oregon State, coming off the Ducks’ worst offensive performance in more than 20 years—a 16-0 loss to UCLA.

2 Pity the poor(er) Lake Oswegans : All city residents will contribute to the $100 million cost of replacing an obsolete sewer line under the lake. Unfortunately, the vast majority of residents will still get virtually no access to the private waters that serve only those folks on high-priced land around the lake itself. Think urban renewal in reverse.

3First Amendment lovers at Western Oregon University took another blow with the latest administration action against the school paper. As reported last week on WWire, Assistant Provost David MacDonald tried to hide the Western Oregon Journal from visiting prospective students because the cover photo showed nude rugby players (with the best parts covered). The move comes in the same school year as the university searching the paper’s newsroom and firing its adviser (“Rogue of the Week,” Oct. 3, 2007).