Smokin' hot news.

[September 14th, 2005] Environmental activist Tre Arrow is exultant about his recent move back to a Victoria, B.C., jail. "I have been able to get my feet in the grass, and the sun directly on my skin without any tint or fence between myself and grandfather sun ," Arrow wrote supporters in a Sept. 4 email. "The cell faces south, therefore I can receive grandfather's rays...much of the day." Canadian officials recently moved Arrow from a jail in a Vancouver, B.C., suburb to the Victoria jail where he was held last year after being arrested on charges of shoplifting bolt cutters. Arrow is fighting extradition to Oregon , where he faces federal charges related to the burning of logging vehicles and equipment in 2001. Corrections officials won't explain the move but note they move prisoners to be nearer their attorney (Arrow's attorney, Tim Russell, is based in Victoria), to facilitate court processes or to free up beds at a busier prison.

One of the more interesting current battles pits county health departments against former state Sen. Paul Phillips' advertising firm, PacWest Communications , over who gets $6.9 million in anti-smoking money from the state. At a meeting of the state Public Health Advisory Board this month, Oregon Restaurant Association lobbyist Bill Perry spoke against the money going to the counties for a two-year period. That's interesting for two reasons: First, tobacco-industry documents show that Perry, whom Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed to the health advisory board last year, has had a hand-in-glove relationship before with the industry in fighting the same county anti-smoking programs that Phillips is now competing with for cash. Second, PacWest employs Perry's wife, Angie. Contacted by Murmurs, Bill Perry strongly denies wanting to steer the money to PacWest to oversee the state's ad campaign.

If you don't feel like setting your alarm early this weekend to check out the debut of The Oregonian's High Definition Sundays , here's some advance word from the daily's troops on their new marching orders. In an effort to bolster lagging Sunday circulation, the paper wants its staff turning out Sunday stories that are shorter and get to the point faster . Also in the mix is a stronger focus on the Metro section and a redesign that links the psychedelic O on the newspaper's yellow boxes with a new features section.

A sign in the Southwest Taylor window of the Vat & Tonsure cites "personal reasons" for the restaurant's recent demise (see Scoop, WW, Aug. 31, 2005). Turns out that Vat owner Rose-Marie Barbeau Quinn , a Canadian national who's lived in Portland since 1976, faces a forced return to her native land. Quinn's immigration problems stem from her marriage to longtime Vat partner Mike Quinn, just before he died in 1991. Their union didn't last long enough for the feds, a problem she fended off with help from Oregon's congressional delegation. But unless lawmakers act again, she must return to Canada by the end of October. "I don't see how I can do this in that time," she says. "If you saw my house, you'd understand. It's full of antiques, paintings, probably 2,000 books and 2,000 records."

That purplish cloud wafting over Waterfront Park last Saturday was Portland's first annual Hempstalk , a daylong festival celebrating all things weed. But Hempstalk was almost stymied by those unsurpassed harshers of buzz, zoning regulations. Days earlier, organizers learned Hempstalk would be nixed because they were late applying for a zoning variance to allow the festival's live music. An organizer who goes by the name Lexx says one of his compatriots was "so busy that he was forgetting to do what he needed to do." Organizers managed to hash (sorry) out an 11th-hour deal with the mayor's office and the Bureau of Development Services, who, according to Lexx, were very accommodating. Hempstalk was saved.

Wanted by the Portland Business Alliance : a replacement for City Commissioner Erik Sten , candidate must hate public power and publicly funded elections. The business lobby, in its shopping for a candidate to oppose Sten next year, recently contacted a leader in the gay community to see whether state Sen. Margaret Carter's opposition to gay marriage would be a problem (duh!). Also making the rounds seeking support is Carter's sister member of the Senate Democrats (see the Dubie Awards , WW, Aug. 3, 2005), Ginny Burdick. She's an employee of Gard & Gerber, the PR firm that orchestrated PGE's defeat in 2003 of a local people's utility district and ran interference for former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt last year.

The latest word out of Beaverton's Southridge High School is that principal Amy Gordon has received dozens of angry emails over her stopping the school's production of The Laramie Project, a play based on the killing of a gay college student in Wyoming. After Gordon held an "emergency'' staff meeting Monday to discuss her decision, staffers say she has reversed course and expect the play to be produced some time this year.

Did PGE Park miss out on a blockbuster U.S. soccer World Cup qualifying match against Mexico? Rose City soccer circles are abuzz with rumors to that effect-and it does seem that a pile-up of scheduling conflicts and facility problems helped push the Sept. 3 game to Columbus, Ohio (where it drew a sellout crowd of more than 20,000). Drew Mahalic of the Oregon Sports Authority, the outfit charged with luring marquee events to Portland, says there was never a formal deal for the men's national team to battle archrival Mexico at PGE. But Mahalic does acknowledge that it could have happened, if not for Portland Beavers baseball games and the fact that the Park's artificial turf must be covered by real grass before hosting top-level fútbol. That operation takes several days, which makes baseball/soccer conflicts tough to resolve. "It's a perennial problem for us," Mahalic says. "Years ago, when we were advocating for the park's renovation, we told City Council that if they put in grass, we would host World Cup games."

Speaking of soccer, Portland Timbers fans will get a final chance to wreak verbal havoc this week on the Seattle Sounders. The I-5 rivals-linked by fate, sort of like the Montagues and Capulets-will clash in the first round of the United Soccer League's First Division playoffs. The winner of the two-game, most-goals-wins series will face Montreal, the league's top team, with a title shot on the line. After a troubled season, the Timbers found their guns last week, piling up nine goals in two games. Is that bad news for Preston Burpo, the weirdly named, bald and temperamental Seattle goalkeeper, the player Timbers fans love to hate the most? Find out at 7 pm Friday, at PGE Park.

Next Tuesday, Clark County voters will weigh in on a .2 percent sales tax increase to pay for Vancouver's bus agency, C-Tran. If the vote fails, C-Tran says massive service cuts-including the elimination of all routes to outlying Clark County and a reduction of service that brings 2,500 commuters a day into Portland-and layoffs will take effect on Sept. 25. Opponents of the tax hike claim the whole thing is a red herring, a stealth effort on behalf of C-Tran's real goal: extending the MAX light-rail system to Vancouver. "Everyone connected with that campaign is also connected to light rail," says leading opponent Larry Martin. The retort: "That is simply-quote me-bullshit," says Michael Worthy, co-chair of the Save C-Tran campaign. Worthy says the increase, an additional two cents on a $10 purchase, is needed after years of budget cuts to the fast-growing county's transit system.