Shelter from the storm (and its TV coverage)

[November 29th, 2006] A watchdog group plans a legal challenge to the re-licensure of the Portland TV stations that cashed in the money for all those political ads you just watched. The Money in Politics Research Action Project will base its objection on federal law that requires stations to fulfill a "public service" mission in return for using publicly owned airwaves. With the federal licenses of KPTV, KGW, KOIN and KATU up for renewal, MIPRAP's challenge will cite diverging patterns of mammoth spending on political ads and declining political reporting. "The trends are appalling ," says MIPRAP director Janice Thompson, whose group will present data on the trends at a public forum from 7 to 9 pm Wednesday, Dec. 13, at the American Federation of Musicians Hall at 325 NE 20th Ave. To learn more or to send a comment about re-licensing to the Federal Communications Commission, go to oregonfollowthemoney.org.

Maybe Lewis & Clark College students were too busy sleeping around (er...studying) to notice until now, but a professor's intimate portrait of them on insidehighered.com in August is causing a cyber-stir this month on campus . Poli sci prof Robert Eisinger writes in his Web piece, "Sharing Ambivalence," that many of his students, including one he calls Zak, candidly divulge private thoughts about their sex lives, drug habits and moral transgressions. "Students' absence of boundaries today alarms us," Eisinger writes. "They casually talk about and experience drugs and sex the way we talk about laundry detergent and books ." In but one angry reaction posted (insidehighered.com/views/2006/08/25/eisinger), a Lewis & Clark student wants the prof to apologize, writing that Eisinger "has violated a relationship so precious it will be difficult for him to repair."

Turns out City Hall isn't just for addressing potholes and noise complaints. City Commissioner Randy Leonard has a resolution scheduled for City Council consideration this Thursday, Nov. 30, that urges the U.S. to start withdrawing troops from Iraq . Leonard voted in 2003 against a resolution to oppose a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. But he says he's sponsoring this resolution because Portlanders have put hundreds of millions in tax dollars toward the war that could have been better spent locally. If the resolution passes, Portland will join with more than 270 municipalities that have called for similar actions of withdrawal.

Some of the loudest opponents of Portland Public Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips' school reconfiguration plans are quitting their kvetching—for now, anyway. A handful of Rose City Park Elementary parents had been concerned about the merger of their kids' Northeast Portland school with the lower-performing Gregory Heights Middle School, and worried that some parents would transfer their kids out in protest. But that threat to student enrollment appears to have fizzled after the parents met with Phillips. Among the reconfiguration's newfound perks: Parents will have an opportunity to rename the new K-8 school at Gregory Heights. The School Board is scheduled to vote at its 6 pm meeting Thursday, Nov. 30, on that reconfiguration and four others Phillips proposed.

Reminder alert: Please check out WW's Give!Guide at wweek.com, and donate to one of the 37 nonprofits profiled in the holiday help-out guide. As of Tuesday, readers have contributed more than $37,000. But if altruism isn't your thing, know that all donors get a free haircut from Bishops Barbershop, a card good for three hours of free parking downtown, and a Stumptown Coffee coupon, among other rewards. Bigger prizes await especially generous contributors. Please give.

^WEB ONLY MURMURS:

It's report-card time for our congressional delegation on what they've done, or haven't done, on bills aimed at helping to end the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. The full report on every member of Congress from the activist group Genocide Intervention Network can be found at darfurscores.org. But "A" grades went in Oregon to Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio. Getting B's were Democratic Reps. David Wu and Darlene Hooley, as well as Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. Bringing up the bottom in the state was GOP Rep. Greg Walden.