Who's on track, who's derailed.

1) Portland has proven once again that San Francisco's got nothing on us when it comes to trolleys. Congress doled out $540,000 to help pay for a six-tenths-of-a-mile extension of the Portland Streetcar line. The new tracks, to be laid by 2005, will run from Portland State University to RiverPlace on the Willamette River.

2) Richard Rosenthal, director of the Independent Police Review office, made history last week when he recommended for the first time that a police disciplinary finding be overturned. The case involved a complaint in which two paramedics said a cop in Southeast Precinct was rude to a woman with apparent mental problems (she was cutting herself), saying things like "Don't blame us for your problems." Police union President Robert King and Southeast Precinct Commander Stan Grubbs told the IPR citizens' committee that the cop was just taking charge, but Rosenthal's panel disagreed.

3) But not all the Portland school news is bad. Local donors announced last week that they'd raised enough money to save Portland Outdoor School's spring session. Along with matching donations from Columbia Sportswear and Nike, the student-led fundraising effort garnered more than $214,000, enough for a three-day, two-night version of the normally weeklong program, which will serve 1,900 slug-lickin' sixth-graders and 400 high-school student leaders.

4) Banned from the rink, she's found a new home in the ring. Tonya Harding lost a split-decision bout on the Tyson-Etienne fight card, but in pro boxing she finally has a legal outlet for her pent-up aggression.

LOSER

1) Tree-sitters and Earth Liberation "elves" were snitchslapped when former Portland State University student Jacob Sherman told the judge at his sentencing that he regretted firebombing logging trucks and equipment in spring 2001. Sherman said he yielded to peer pressure from, among others, local ledge-sitter-turned-fugitive Tre Arrow (above).

2) Only weeks after losing its head of cardiac surgery, OHSU got that sinking feeling once again. Pill Hill officials learned last week that Dr. Christine Cassel, their star medical-school dean (the recent subject of a glowing profile in the daily paper), will soon be hightailing it to Philly to become director of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

WWeek 2015