Who's glowing and who's blowing in the New Year.

[January 4th, 2006] WINNERS

* Nuke haters are glowing with glee over plans this spring to raze the 500-foot Trojan cooling tower 40 miles north of Portland. One activist described the nuclear plant, which closed in 1993 amid safety concerns, as "a symbol of human folly."

* Burning in the New Year for medical-marijuana users . A state law in effect Jan. 1 allows them to possess 24 ounces of green, up from three ounces in 2005.

* Oregonians with a loan monkey on their backs are getting help. The Oregonian reports that credit unions are taking on payday lenders, which charge annual interest rates of up to 500 percent, by offering low-interest, short-term loans.

* No donor fatigue here. The 26 nonprofits in WW's holiday Give Guide collected $78,000-plus from about 900 donors this year (For more details, see Murmurs, Page 10). That's way up from about $25,000 and 256 contributors last year. Nice job, folks. See Murmurs, page 10, for more.

LOSERS

* The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office is hemorrhaging cops. Eleven of 68 deputies—that's almost one out of six—went on paid leave while under investigation in recent shootings. A 12th, David Verbos, is in jail on $1 million bail, facing charges of armed robbery. And we're afraid of street kids?

* It's Hail Mary time for the Portland Archdiocese: A bankruptcy judge ruled on Friday that schools, churches and other parish assets aren't separate from the Archdiocese. The ruling against the Catholic Church greatly expands the pot for settlements with victims of predatory priests.

* Oregon football can quit bitching now about getting dissed when it didn't get into a top-tier bowl game. The Ducks laid a huge egg in the second-rate Holiday Bowl, losing 17-14 to unranked Oklahoma thanks to the coaches' decision to play quarterback roulette.

* More nickel-and-diming ahead for people needing to ride TriMet or buy a stamp. The New Year brings them a 15-cent fare increase and, starting next week, a 2-cent boost in stamp prices.