Our Spin On 7 Days Of News

HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE DRIVING: Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants the Legislature to move toward replacing Oregon's gas tax. The guv likes a mileage-based fee that uses gas stations to read devices in vehicles that record miles driven in-state.

HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SMOKING: Kulongoski is also asking the 2009 Legislature to ban vending machines that sell cigarettes, arguing they make it easy for underage smokers to buy tobacco.

BOTTLE BAILOUT: Effective Jan. 1, Oregon's bottle bill will expand to include bottles of water and flavored water among the containers requiring a 5-cent deposit.

PEE-FREEZE: The Portland Tribune first reported the city's two weeks of cold put the much-ballyhooed "Portland Loo" in Old Town out of commission. The chill froze the public loo's automated flushing mechanism and snow covered its solar panels, depriving it of power.

WWeek 2015

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