Skip to main content* When it comes to free expression, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission giveth, and it taketh away. The state's powerful booze regulator recently loosened handcuffs keeping liquor stores from flogging their wares in the press. Believe it or not, OLCC regs used to prevent liquor agents from advertising the fact that they sold, you know, alcohol. Even as gin peddlers revel in heady liberalization, others are fighting the OLCC's rules restricting strippers' right to fondle themselves on stage. A legal challenge just started its journey through the courts, which could lead to a rewrite of Oregon's free-speech laws.
* The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife is hosting a series of youth pheasant hunts that has some animal-rights types in a downright fowl mood. Raised in pens, the forest-unready pheasants will be released into designated areas, including a parcel on Sauvie Island, so kids know just where to look. Matt Rossell of In Defense of Animals characterizes the "hunt" as kids walking up to bewildered birds and blowing them away. ODFW maintains the event will be sporting and challenging (especially for the pheasants). A noon rally is slated for Sept. 18 outside ODFW's Clackamas office at 17330 SE Evelyn St.
* PICA's much-buzzed TBA festival was like homecoming week for some heavy players in the world of art and performance. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant kibitzed with former First Lady of Oregon Sharon Kitzhaber at Saturday's posh dinner party. Alt-rocker Stephen Malkmus showed up Sunday in the Pearl District warehouse space Machineworks for an after-party with Big Apple art rockers Fischerspooner, who broke out some break-dance moves.
* Danny, we hardly knew you: Looks like Danny Glover is leaving Portland (most likely heading to L.A.). The actor has put the Dunthorpe home he shares with significant gal pal Gina Warren on the market. For a mere $1.5 million, the 6,000-square-foot French Normandy style abode is yours.
* Crash! That giant crumpling sound was the unceremonious junking of a proposed reform of business taxes paid to the city and county. For the past two years, the Portland Business Alliance has made this reform a top priority, but a recently ended test of the revised levy showed that the PBA's proposed switch to a payroll tax would generate only about half the projected revenues. That's good news for manufacturers and restaurants who fought the change but a painful defeat for PBA chief Kim Kimbrough, whose effectiveness on the job is currently the subject of a PBA survey conducted by the polling firm Davis and Hibbits.
* It's true that Circuit Judge Sid Galton has been hit with a judicial-fitness complaint, but contrary to courthouse rumors, defense lawyer Clayton Lance didn't file it. Instead, court records show the complaint was lodged by Christopher Mengis, a seasoned veteran of the criminal-justice system. Galton presided over a case in which Lance defended the reputed gang-banger on allegations of kicking and threatening his own mother. Mengis, according to a court filing, has accused Galton of six judicial-code violations, including swearing at prosecutor Ellen Osoinach (Galton has reportedly denied the accusations). Lance did obtain a mistrial for Mengis, who turned around and filed a complaint against him, too.
* Although it won't be official until next month, Murmurs hears that the Portland Art Museum's new board chairman will be Bob Pamplin Jr., owner of Ross Island Sand and Gravel and the Portland Tribune. Pamplin has already poured $25 million into his Museum of the Confederacy in Virginia and millions more into private collections of Native American and Chinese art.
WWeek 2015