Preening Moms, Careening Officials.

[May 3rd, 2006] WINNERS

The spirit of protest is alive and well in the People's Republic of Portland. Lefties could choose from a menu of downtown demonstrations Friday through Monday that included taking it to the streets over Guantánamo, Darfur and immigration crackdowns (for more, see page 13).

Portland's "interim" police chief sure is acting like a permanent hire. Rosie Sizer , filling in while the city investigates sexual-harassment allegations against Chief Derrick Foxworth, has now kicked out three assistant chiefs in less than a month and promoted a cadre of her own supporters.

Asian Americans have helped Adidas eye the error of its ways. The shoe giant will stop selling its limited-edition "Yellow Series'' sneakers (see Murmurs, WW, April 19, 2006) after several groups were offended by the shoes' caricature of an Asian man with a bowl haircut, buckteeth and slanted eyes. Gee, who would take offense at that?

Breast-feeding moms now have the all-clear from Fred Meyer. The grocery chain recently apologized after an onslaught of complaints about ordering a breast-feeding mother to cover up, and promised to revise its policy on nursing moms.

LOSERS

Bars that have been dinged by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission drank from the cup of schadenfreude last week when commission head Teresa Kaiser resigned following the worst possible career move. After causing an accident recently on the Sellwood Bridge, Kaiser blew twice the legal limit and was charged with drunken driving.

Just when Portland Public Schools looked to be crawling out of a financial hole, the custodians it replaced in 2002 got the OK to drag the district back in. The state Supreme Court last week declined to reconsider its decision faulting the district for canning the custodians, exposing PPS to untold millions in back wages.

Think you had a bad week? Call Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn. Compounding the fallout from WW's story last week that quoted former aides saying Linn had told them to alter public records, the chair ticked off county DA Michael Schrunk by wrongly accusing one of his deputies of supporting Ted Wheeler, Linn's challenger this election (for more, see page 8).