Hope Mel Gibson likes these.

[August 9th, 2006] The principal named last month to head Portland's Jefferson High School leaves his old Texas high school in worse condition than he found it. An annual report issued last week by the Texas Education Agency lists Roosevelt High School in Dallas as "academically unacceptable" for the first time since 1998. Leon Dudley , who's held five principal positions in seven years, led Roosevelt for two years beginning in 2004, when it had an "acceptable" rating based on students' test scores and graduation rates, among other measures. Dudley says his students made substantial gains on English exams but lost ground in math. "It's just a fine line between making it and not making it ," he says.

Here's an update on El Hispanic News publisher and Susannah Maria Gurule Foundation president Clara Padilla Andrews , who risked losing the building shared by her newspaper and foundation because she was $100,000 behind on payments (see "Sisterhood of the Unraveling Loan" and "Citizen Clara," WW, June 7 and 28, 2006): Murmurs has learned that Portland developer Mark La Noue is plunking down $825,000 for the property at 1200 SE Morrison St. That will pay off the loans and debt to a private lender that teamed with Multnomah County to help Padilla Andrews buy the building. County records also show the sale leaves "a substantial sum" for SMG. El Hispanic News has relocated to St. Johns, and a call to SMG was answered by a recording saying Murmurs had reached Hacienda Community Development Corp., on whose board of directors Padilla Andrews sits.

Portland Fire & Rescue Capt. Greg Ennis has been demoted to lieutenant after an investigation into charges that he harassed two female firefighters ("Murmurs" WW, April 19, 2006). The decision announced Tuesday by the Fire Bureau means Ennis, who's been on paid leave since April 19 during the investigation by the city, will get paid about $10,000 less a year, says bureau spokesman Lt. Allen Oswalt. Ennis did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.

If reader response to our visioning story last week is any measure, an initiative to ban smoking in Portland's bars could turn the normally lackadaisical Hawthorne District into a war zone, with personal-freedom advocates squaring off against lung-cancer opponents. In addition to the heat generated by even a "visioned" smoking ban, the story ("Re-Visioning the City that Wonks," WW, Aug. 2, 2006) drew more than 25 website comments and other suggestions for changes in Portland. Among them: adding a first-class car to MAX where riders could pay extra for a guaranteed seat, adding protected bike lanes to the city's freeways to allow cyclists to zip from one part of the city to another, and a general request for more public nudity .

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has banned all "airborne towables" on the 16 reservoirs it controls in Oregon, including Detroit Lake. The target of the ban announced last Thursday: kite tubing, a popular new sport in which a speed boat tows a crazy rider on a 10-foot inflatable saucer with handles that the rider pulls to give the craft lift. Riders can reach heights of 30 feet before splashing down, with their bodies sometimes in various states of disrepair. The ban follows the voluntary recall of the flying saucers at the behest of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which cited reports of riders suffering broken necks and punctured lungs as well as chest, back and facial injuries.

^WEB-ONLY MURMURS!

Can't find anything worth listening to while driving south on Interstate 5 near Woodburn? Beginning later this month, tune into KPCN-LP, 96.3 FM, a new Spanish-language radio station that promises to be a Latino NPR, of sorts. The station is the brainchild of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, Oregon's union representing tree planters and farm workers. Among its offerings are programs in Spanish, English and languages indigenous to Mexico, on topics ranging from immigration to youth culture. To help PCUN with a "barnraising" party Aug. 18-20 for the station, visit www.pcun.org.

Pit bulls and rabbits on buses, oh my! TriMet rider Sallie Stevens' recent complaint to TriMet about two teenage boys boarding the 72 line last month at Northeast 60th Avenue and Killingsworth Street with a pit bull in tow didn't change any policy. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which covers animals for people with disabilities or emotional issues, prevents transit systems like TriMet from asking for proof of a person's disability or an animal's service status. TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch says drivers can refuse to let the animal on only if the animal gets aggressive.