The siren songs of snoopsters.

[May 25th, 2005] * Hot on the heels of Portland City Council's vote to set up a publicly funded campaign-finance system for city elections, the Oregonian editorial page urged citizens to force a referendum on the issue. And the city elections office did get a flood of calls. But so far, the Oregon Restaurant Association seems to be the only caller with the heft to gather 18,000 valid signatures by the June 17 deadline.

* As the SWHRL Turns: In the latest episode of the squabble-ridden Southwest Hills Residential League, attorney Greg Kafoury has filed a lawsuit seeking to block newly elected officers and directors from taking power in the neighborhood group. The suit filed Monday comes after a contentious membership election last week. Members had bounced president Pamella Settlegoode over charges that she had failed to include notice of the election in the group's most recent newsletter, as well as alleged conflicts when she voted to employ her husband to represent the League in an earlier lawsuit against the city. Kafoury also represented Settlegoode when she won a million-dollar verdict in 2001 from a whistleblower complaint against Portland Public Schools.

* Soul queen Sharon Jones couldn't get enough of Portland last week. Minutes after coaxing the 300 people packing the sold-out Doug Fir to dance their hearts out to "Mean Man" and a funked-up "This Land Is Your Land," Jones abandoned her seven-piece band, the Dap-Kings, for a karaoke machine just across Burnside. The song she sang for a lucky Galaxy Restaurant crowd of just 25 people? A blistering rendition of Aretha Franklin's classic, "Respect ." The singer then headed back to Doug Fir, ordered a Hunter's Steak , and declared that she would go back to her hotel room, do some yoga, then eat the meat. Just who is this woman?

* Beware the blogosphere! The plot thickens in the online dispute between "Portland Communique" blogger One True b!X (a.k.a. Christopher Frankonis) and supporters of Opus Northwest, the developer chosen in a controversial decision to build the five-block Burnside Bridgehead project. Frankonis, an outspoken supporter of rival developer Beam, previously sparred with Opus PR man Nathaniel Clevenger. But after Clevenger logged off, an anonymous poster took up the cause, under the name "thinkbigPDX." Thinkbig accused Frankonis of accepting cash for his support of Beam's Bridgehead bid (but offered no proof). Using some clever Internet sleuthing, Frankonis last week outed "Thinkbig" as one Phineas Barnes, marketer for a local video-game company. Barnes, it so happens, is married to Carrie Barnes, an associate at Clevenger's PR firm. Confused? Read the whole bloody exchange at communique.portland.or.us.

And the winner of last week's Name the Caption contest is Ian Ruder, who wins a $50 gift certificate to Kells. The prize-winning entry: "Randall Edwards huddled with Bono last week in Tigard to help pen the lyrics to the supergroup's upcoming single, 'Where the streets have no shame.'" The actual reason Bono was in Tigard with Oregon State Treasurer Edwards: Bono is a partner in a venture-capital firm that was making a pitch to the Oregon Investment Council, which has its offices in the Portland suburb.

CORRECTION: A May 18 Murmur incorrectly listed the last time a City Council measure was referred to the ballot. The last time was 1982. WW regrets the error.