Lists. A Great Way To Organize The News You Follow.

[November 4th, 2009]

• Oregon gets its first cannabis cafe on Friday, Nov. 13—at 4:20 pm, naturally —thanks to the pro-legalization group Oregon NORML. Only people who are members both of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program and NORML may enter the former Rumpspankers space at 700 NE Dekum St. The cafe is 100 percent legal under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act and will be a resource for the medical marijuana community. Oregon NORML plans to host seminars and classes there. Entry fee on Nov. 13 for those who are eligible will be $25, which covers the first month of membership and an all-day entry pass.

• An update to our story about a lawsuit over the fact exotic dancers aren’t paid hourly wages (see “Strip Fees,” WW, July 1, 2009): stripper Zipporah Foster is again suing a couple of her employers. On Nov. 2 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Foster filed a lawsuit against the Safari Showclub in Southeast Portland and Stars Cabaret Steakhouse inBeaverton. The suit by Foster, who’s already suing Exotica International Club for Men in Northeast Portland, seeks 57,556 in alleged unpaid wages and penalties, plus “stage fees” she was allegedly forced to pay. There was no answer Tuesday morning at the clubs when we called for comment.

• One of the Portland Mercury’s newshounds, Sean Breslin , has also been writing for Metro . Metro has paid Breslin $21 per hour to write PR about meetings for the multi-tentacled agency’s website. For the Merc, Breslin has written about the state Legislature and cops. He’s also written about Richard Ellmyer, a gadfly who wants to see Metro’s role expanded. Merc News Editor Matt Davis says the moonlighting isn’t a conflict because Breslin is an unpaid intern and isn’t allowed to write about Metro for the paper. “I did not see an ethical problem,” Davis says. U of O journalism ethics prof Tom Bivins disagrees. “Either he is a journalist working for a paper or he is a freelance writer working for as many clients as he can get,” Bivins says.

• The results are in from last week’s contest to win photocopy paper from Portland Public Schools’ surplus sale (see “Left Out,” WW, Oct. 28). Woodlawn K-8 School in Northeast Portland and Boise-Eliot K-8 School in North Portland will both get reams of paper in recognition of online comments from their communities about the sale, which the district used to get rid of miscellaneous school supplies. Among the sale items was toilet paper that PPS said didn’t fit on its current toilet paper holders. “My colleagues and I at Woodlawn, yet another inadequately funded PPS pre-K-8 school, would have happily accepted those rolls of toilet paper ‘in loo’ of the Kleenex our office can no longer afford to provide,” wrote teacher Aubrey Pagenstecher.

• Sisters of the Road Cafe co-founder Genny Nelson is retiring after 30 years at the landmark Old Town nonprofit that serves food to the homeless. Nelson, 57, says it’s time to step down as associate director to focus on taking care of her health, and because she’s ready to “pass on the torch.” Nelson plans to start writing as a creative outlet to “see where it leads.” Nelson is an “awesome, amazing woman,” says Sisters executive director Monica Beemer. The cafe at 133 NW 6th Ave. will host a retirement party open to the public for Nelson on Dec. 12 from 3 to 6 pm.