Red Ink For Sports, Red Faces For Feds.

[January 11th, 2006] WINNERS

Phew! Portland Citizens Crime Commission chair Jim Jeddeloh can breathe easier after the Clackamas County DA's office decided against prosecuting him on domestic-violence allegations. In declining to press charges, prosecutors cited potential problems because Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto reportedly promised to let Jeddeloh off the hook if he got alcohol-abuse treatment ("The Long Arm of the Law," WW, July 20, 2005).

Cycling advocates can take comfort that a judge's ruling Monday in a wrongful-death suit at least spotlights the problem of drunk, distracted and downright reckless driving. While unlikely ever to be collected, the $507,454 court award against convicted drunk driver Lindsey Llaneza went to the parents of Angela Leazenby, one of two Portland cyclists killed by Llaneza in 2003.

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman 's decision to delay a fix for the Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund lets him claim statesman-like high ground. And pushing back an election on FPDR reforms from May to November also preserves a chance of actually solving the problem, because any tax increase must be OK'd in an election where a majority of voters turn out (a rarity in May).

LOSERS

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland got slapped in an internal investigation for linking local Muslim attorney Brandon Mayfield to a 2004 bombing in Madrid despite evidence pointing to another man. The report said FBI agents' desire to pin the crime on a Muslim may have caused them to overlook errors in fingerprint analysis.

Rah! Rah! Red ink! Some of their teams may be winning on the field, but the athletic departments at Portland State University and Oregon State University are still losing money. Last year, the two sports programs needed a $7 million bailout, money that otherwise could have been spent on academic programs.

Here's an odd twist. The fact that fishing and hunting numbers are way down in Oregon spells bad news for Bambi and his woodland pals. The Sunday Oregonian reported a sharp decline in fees from hunting and fishing has meant less money for the environment we value.