Gossip should have no friends.

[April 6th, 2005] * Odd couple: Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and former Democratic congresswoman Elizabeth Furse are on the same side-and it's not the first time. Smith is floating a bill called the Mark O. Hatfield-Elizabeth Furse Scholarship and Excellence in Tribal Government Act, which would hand $50 million in federal funds to the Furse-headed Institute for Tribal Government. The institute was founded at Portland State University in 2001 with $1.3 million that Smith also helped Furse get from the feds. In 2002, Furse surprised many by endorsing the pro-war Smith over fellow Democrat Bill Bradbury just days after Furse made an anti-war speech. Furse says there's no agenda behind the bill besides helping tribes, while Smith staffer Chris Matthews says any contrary speculation would be "out of left field."

* Looking to trim expenses for a while, Oregonian subscribers? Cancel your subscription (tell 'em something like you're already mourning the demise of Personal Style), then wait for a letter or a phone call informing you what a valued customer you are (who knew?). Then comes your actual value in a world where newspapers are desperate to halt circulation decline: Restart your subscription and get 10 weeks of daily-Sunday delivery for just $20, instead of the regular $30. Newspapers are always trying to recapture ex-customers, but the turnaround between cancellation and an offer you can't refuse seems to have accelerated recently.

* The past few weeks have been big for the taser , the stun-gun that soon will be carried by every Portland police officer. First, newspapers detailed conflict-of-interest concerns over how the manufacturer, Taser International , has been paying cops already on city payrolls to promote its products. Second, the International Association of Chiefs of Police urged police departments to consider excluding old people, children and pregnant women from being shocked. So how about in PDX? Portland Police taser trainer Tom Forsyth says the manufacturer did pay him to train cops in other cities-but only after he set up Portland's program. "I am not a salesman," he says. Meanwhile, Chief Derrick Foxworth is considering a policy that places no restrictions on whom cops shock, or how often.

* North Mississippi doesn't have a monopoly on cool wireless Internet projects (see story, page 12). Atop Southeast's Marshall High School, PSU techies are using a jury-rigged transmitter to beam a broadband signal four times stronger than the average home DSL line to OHSU, seven miles away. That's significant because, though wi-fi (which creates a little puddle of access around every transmitter) is everywhere, there's no dominant method to link wi-fi hotspots together over long distances-a particular problem in rural areas where telecoms won't pay what it takes to lay fiber optic cable. Says PSU's Manoj Garg, "This is really just an experiment that shows it can be done." The school is getting it done on the cheap, with donated gear and about $12,000 in grants.

* The trial of flamboyant defense lawyer Randy Ray Richardson, the once-star prosecutor turned alleged briber of witnesses ("Randy Richardson was a hotshot criminal-defense lawyer. Now he needs one," WW, May 28, 2003) starts next Monday, April 11. His father is a longtime friend of Richardson's former employer and current legal nemesis, District Attorney Mike Schrunk, but that was not enough to spare R-Ray-R his day in court.