Good Times For Squeaky Bikes, Bad Ones For Squawky Birds.

[June 21st, 2006] WINNERS

Portland Public School teachers head into summer celebrating more than their annual respite from illegible student compositions and spitballs. Teachers and the School Board struck a remarkably quick deal on a two-year contract that provides annual cost-of-living increases, and the district picking up 93 percent of their health bennies.

The city's elections office has recovered more than $68,000 in taxpayer money from failed Portland City Council candidate Emilie Boyles. But good luck collecting the $90,000-plus, including penalties and interest, still owed by Boyles, who officials say broke multiple public campaign finance rules in last month's election.

Nothing like a Bike Summit to show how cool it is to be a bicyclist in Portland . Still, cool could be always cooler. Many of the 400 cyclists and local pols attending Saturday's summit at PSU say the city could make life even better with improvements like more "bike boulevards."

LOSERS

The other shoe finally dropped for Derrick Foxworth. Mayor Tom Potter demoted Foxworth from police chief to captain, complete with a $40,000 salary cut. The now former top cop must rue the day he set eyes on a subordinate prone to filing official complaints (see page 10 for more).

Portland's allure for the "creative class" seems to need a little makeup. The New York Times reports that Google is setting up shop in The Dalles. And The Oregonian reports that Laika Entertainment will expand its animation empire-to-be into Tualatin instead of in its current Northwest Portland home.

Multnomah County Commissioners Serena Cruz Walsh, Maria Rojo de Steffey and Lisa Naito are getting the kind of heat usually felt by their nemesis, Chairwoman Diane Linn. The reason: They're proposing a big cut in county money to Linn's politically popular Schools Uniting Neighborhoods, which program defenders say looks like so much spite toward Linn.

The world's remaining 270 California condors lost one more chance at survival when a 9-day-old chick in the Oregon Zoo's breeding program was found dead outside its nest last week. The parents, #137 and #147, stilled their sorrow by partially eating the offspring's remains.