Taking stock of the week's most active local issues

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NAACP (WER-FAMILY)
Just six weeks after a mass resignation left the NAACP's Portland chapter in disarray, the local civil-rights outpost rebounded with the election of new officers. Critics of the old leadership team snagged a couple of the slots but showed some class by passing on the chance to trash their former foes.

Jobseekers Unlimited (RSUME)
A rare glimpse of sunshine for this perennial penny stock, after state economists announced that Oregon's unemployment rate fell from 8.1% to 7.9% last month, the first drop in over a year. Unfortunately, Oregon's unemployment is probably still the worst in the nation.

Amalgamated Drug Dealers (PUSHR)
A bolt of paranoia shivered through this highly efficient pharmaceutical distribution network when Jeremy Tomsha, 21, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide for selling MDA to Melissa Flaherty, 19, who collapsed and died a few hours later at a rave in a Southeat Portland warehouse. Tomsha is thought to be the first person in Oregon to be found criminally responsible for a fatal drug reaction. He will serve four years in prison.

Stan Bunn Inc. (STICKY)
Efforts by the state schools chief to focus on his re-election, rather than past ethical lapses, suffered another setback when the state ethics panel revealed that in 1999 STICKY took his daughter along on a free trip to an education awards conference in California. State law allows public officials, but not relatives or guests, to take such freebies.

WW Ticker Corp. (M-PEN8RBL)
Jubilant analysts popped magnums of champagne and singing the Marseillaise at the long-awaited announcement that the Ticker is going out of business. The column, which baffled WW readers with arcane acronyms and a heavy-handed stock-market metaphor, will be restructured in a complex leveraged buyout involving the Nose, Queer Window, and Brezny's Free Will Astrology, pending the outcome of an SEC inquiry into alleged accounting irregularities (which we strenuously deny). Look for a new feature next week!