Catching up with some of our favorite ne'er-do-wells.

Last week, we aimed the Rogue spotlight at Gary Shafer, a University of Portland campus cop who turned Mr. T on a group of nonviolent protesters and wrestled with them for their drumsticks and peace banners ("Rogue of the Week," WW, March 12, 2003). After an internal investigation, UP fired Shafer for his role in the scuffle. Here at the Rogue Desk, we're never shy about patting ourselves on the back--but, truth be told, the firing happened on March 11, the day before WW hit the streets. (They must have known it was coming!)

Meanwhile, Scooter--the Jammin 95.5 jock whose on-air interview of a mentally retarded woman outraged advocates for the disabled (WW, Feb. 26, 2003)--still has his job, but one of the men who led the backlash against Jammin has lost his. Howard Klink, former director of Developmental Disabilities Services for Multnomah County, contacted at least one Jammin advertiser and set up a meeting between Jammin management and staff and disability advocates to discuss the station's treatment of the woman. On March 7, however, Klink lost his job in a sweeping layoff of high-level county managers. Reached at home, Klink told WW that he will continue his advocacy for the disabled and looks forward to meeting with Jammin personnel. "In that kind of radio, they're going to do what they're going to do," he says, "but we need to agree where the line is."

Another recent Rogue, Oregon's Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (Feb. 5, 2003), is getting nowhere with its proposal to require that all public-safety employees in Oregon be U.S. citizens. Oregon law already mandates that all police, probation, corrections and parole officers be U.S. citizens before they are certified by the state, so HB2239 would have the effect of adding 911 operators and dispatchers to this list. The bill has languished in the House General Government Committee ever since critics noted that some legal aliens have served as valuable interpreters in the centers and that foreign-born noncitizens can serve in the armed forces.

WWeek 2015