Everything's here except Fidel.

[May 2nd, 2007] Gates giveth and Gates taketh away . While the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stole Portland Public Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips (see page 8 for more), the foundation is also giving a local student a real "opportunity of a lifetime." (Ironically, the same words Phillips used to describe her own job-hopping.) Mercedes White Calf, an 18-year-old Jefferson High School senior, recently was awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship. The mega-scholarship is essentially a blank check meant to pay for selected students' entire higher education through graduate school, including expenses such as books and travel. White Calf, who's also Jeff's Rose Festival princess, is thinking about U of O or USC to study film and business.

National Federation of Independent Business Oregon lobbyist J.L. Wilson 's board chairman wrote state legislators last week to blast WW's story disclosing that Wilson was registered to lobby for dozens of clients (see "Double-Dipping Lobbyist," WW, April 25, 2007), in violation of his employment terms. NFIB/Oregon board chair Dave Easton says in the letter defending Wilson that he doesn't believe Wilson has ever lobbied against NFIB's interests. But Easton acknowledged not knowing Wilson's client list until WW's story. "It is the board's intent that J.L. continue to represent NFIB on a contract basis," wrote Easton. Meanwhile, national NFIB spokesman Mike Diegel declined to comment on whether Wilson will face any consequences for deceiving his employer. "That's a personnel matter," Diegel told Murmurs.

The latest weekday and Sunday circulation numbers at The Oregonian are down, but not as much at its fellow dailies nationwide. The latest circ numbers for the country's 25 biggest papers are down more than 2 percent daily and more than 3 percent on Sundays. The O's decline for the six-month period through March is minus 1 percent for daily (319,625 readers) and minus 2.29 percent on Sundays (375,913 readers). To read details of Executive Editor Peter Bhatia's newsroom restructuring plan, see WW's WWire at wweek.com/wwire/?p=7784.

If you bought the O Tuesday, you may have found a one-page insert criticizing the daily. The antiwar "Surge Protection Brigade" (see Q&A, WW, Feb. 21, 2007) slipped the "Oregon Extra: Special Peace Edition" insert into about 1,000 boxes in Portland, Oregon City and Vancouver early Tuesday morning. The protest group spent more than $100 to open the boxes and insert mock articles criticizing the "mainstream media" for ignoring the ugly by-products of war. The O didn't respond to calls for comment.

Ex-City Council candidate Nick Fish has soared to the top of the local talk-fest ratings. Fish's Outlook Portland with Nick Fish (KRCW, cable channel 3) outdraws Larry King, Anderson Cooper and most other nationally broadcast public-affairs programs in the Portland area, according to recent Nielsen ratings. (Only Hannity & Colmes and The O'Reilly Factor outdrew Fish.) Starting in July, Outlook Portland will move from its 6:30 am Sunday slot to 9 am Sunday. Disclosure: WW's Nigel Jaquiss appears periodically on Fish's show. Draw your own links between that fact and Fish's rise.

CORRECTION: WW incorrectly reported April 11 in "Brother in Arms" when Kent Kotsovos pushed his girlfriend's foot to the accelerator. That happened after Kotsovos was shot, according to a police interview with the girlfriend. WW regrets the error.

WEB-ONLY MURMURS:

A blast from Portland's recent past will head up the search to replace departing Portland State University prez Daniel Bernstine. Murmurs has learned the leader of the search committee will be ex-City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, now on the state Board of Higher Ed. Francesconi expects the hunt to take at least six months. See the News Q&A for Murmurs' nominee.