Heaven Is a Playground

»An eight-year feud over religion and the state high-school basketball tournament has flared up again. Portland Adventist Academy students filed for an injunction Feb. 4 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, asking a judge to force the Oregon School Activities Association to reschedule its upcoming 3A tourney games. The students don’t want to play between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday , the Adventist sabbath. Tom Welter, OSAA executive director, says the long-running dispute was argued before the Oregon Supreme Court last March. But the two sides still await a ruling, which has led to another impasse this year.

»LISTOS Academy , a community-based alternative high school in the Pearl District for at-risk Latino students, could be on the verge of closing , sources say. The public school, overseen by the nonprofit Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement, has 52 students in grades 9 through 12. Vickie Chamberlain, chairwoman of OCHA’s executive board, tells Murmurs the school remains open and operational with no current plan to close or change. Chamberlain also says OCHA wants to honor its commitment to provide services to Hispanics but adds, “We’re looking at options now with LISTOS and OCHA.”

»Leased for a song: KGW announced plans last week to build a Today Show -style street-level studio in Pioneer Courthouse Square in the empty Powell’s spot. But here’s what Murmurs found by looking at the five-year lease OK’d by Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who’s in charge of parks. KGW’s rent would amount to about $42,000 a month, but the TV station can opt to pay with in-kind services, like updating the videos in the Square’s visitor center and producing 15-second promos for Square events. KGW, the Portland market’s top-rated TV station, is owned by Dallas-based Belo Corp., which claimed $130.5 million in profits in 2006.

»A key test for Dems during this month’s special legislative session: a seemingly innocuous environmental bill that’s opposed by farm, forest, metals and co-op utility interests . House Bill 3610 would require state agencies to tell the Legislature how Oregonians would actually comply with a 2007 global-warming bill and require utilities importing power from out of state to account for the carbon generated elsewhere. To opponents, such requirements raise “complex issues and fiscal impact” beyond the session’s scope. Environment Oregon’s Jeremiah Baumann disagrees. “What you have here are polluting industries with their heads in the sand ,’’ Baumann says. “Opposing this bill puts you seven years behind George Bush.”

»Karl Rove award: Back in 2001, Portland mayoral candidate Sho Dozono’s unpaid adviser, Paige Richardson , was working for a Los Angeles mayoral candidate, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra. According to The Los Angeles Times , about 80,000 voters received robo-calls days before the election in which a woman posing as another local pol said, “Please don’t hang up. This is an emergency call.” The caller proceeded to slam Becerra’s opponent. Two Becerra campaign staffers told the L.A. County D.A.’s office that Richardson masterminded the calls, a charge she denied. Richardson, whose client lost, didn’t respond to WW’ s interview requests. Dozono says he was unaware of Richardson’s work in Los Angeles.