Out of the sewer, into the septic tank.

[May 19th, 2004] * Last week, alerted by an Australian "hasher"--meaning someone who runs off the trail--the Portland police sent ATVs deep into Forest Park and found a homeless father and his 12-year-old daughter. Seems they had been living under a lean-to there for four years, but stayed clean and were doing home-schooling. The amazing thing? A pediatrician examined the girl and found not only no signs of abuse, but that she is as smart as a 16-year-old, as mature as an 18-year-old, and has no cavities. To cap off this feel-good story, Sgt. Michael Barkley, who led the squad, found them a place to stay in a motor home owned by a friend.

* Poor Ted. First the Guv loses his mentor with Neil Goldschmidt's disgrace, and now his top lieutenant is jumping ship. Murmurs hears that Peter Bragdon, Kulongoski's chief of staff, will take an executive post with Columbia Sportswear, his pre-Mahonia Hall employer.

* On May 11, City Commissioner Randy Leonard got into it in the hallway with Police Chief Derrick Foxworth after a City Council meeting in which Leonard questioned Foxworth's taser policy, as well as the chief's conduct of labor-management relations. Asked about the incident, Leonard says it went like this: "He said, 'I don't appreciate you doing that to me in public.' I said, 'Excuse me?'" Foxworth later scheduled a get-together with Leonard May 27, which will either amount to a make-peace session--or round 2.

* Former Police Chief Penny Harrington was getting calls last week saying WW was calling her a "slug." Murmurs had run a blurb about her under the column tagline "like slugs from a sewer." But the phrase was actually an inside joke referring to a David Reinhard column in The Oregonian filled with colorful language, bashing WW for having the temerity to expose Neil Goldschmidt's pedophile past. Penny, you're no slug--we are!

* As Murmurs went to bed, the Portland's mayor's race was looking very interesting indeed. After spending $900,000 on warm and fuzzy TV commercials and high-priced campaign talent, City Commissioner Jim Francesconi's campaign for mayor was rumored to be in "meltdown" mode. Even as he blanketed the airwaves, public polls showed his lead over Tom Potter was shrinking, and his internal polls reportedly showed the two running dead even.