Hogging the headlines.

[June 29th, 2005] At the risk of being self-referential, WW has been fuming at news that some state lawmakers were trying to keep us from busting local hydro-hogs in our annual roundup of water wasters. A bill backed by Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) and others would have let water districts keep their ratepayers' bills secret. Fortunately, the bill appears headed for a muckraker-friendly revision. The Senate Rules Committee is likely to rewrite the measure to allow districts to protect Social Security and driver's-license numbers in customer records-but still let us (or anyone) find out the names of those splashing the most.

Former Portland police crime analyst Joe Midgett is feeling vindicated. Midgett lost his job in January (see "Feeling MS-cast, WW, May 4, 2005) because his supervisors thought his multiple sclerosis prevented him from doing his work. This month, Midgett finally got a copy of an independent medical evaluation from June 2004, a document he had previously requested with no success. The evaluation says a previous job assessment had forced Midgett to perform "highly suspicious" tests "designed, specifically, by an employer who seeks to limit Mr. Midgett's ability to pursue his work."

Environmental activist and accused arsonist Tre Arrow appeared in a Vancouver, B.C., courtroom Monday for the start of his three-day extradition hearing with his facial hair freshly plucked. That's right, plucked . Razors are disposable, explains one of Arrow's supporters, Laura Maxwell, so the committed environmentalist wouldn't use one. "They obviously wouldn't give him a straight razor," Maxwell says. The FBI wants Arrow back in Oregon to stand trial in connection with a pair of arsons four years ago that caused $260,000 in damage to logging and cement trucks.

Even though Oregon is among eight states to get an A for women's reproductive rights on a pro-choice group's scorecard, the head of that national group says there's cause for concern. Nancy Keenan , president of NARAL Pro-Choice America , said during a visit last week to Oregon that anti-abortion forces may try to win in statewide ballot questions what they could not win in the Legislature. Keenan's top concerns: Oregon voters could be asked to let pharmacists deny women emergency contraception or require parental permission for young women to get birth control.

The agenda for Mayor Tom Potter's long-promised "business summit" hardly seemed designed to calm local capitalists' angst over business income taxes, development fees and job creation. (Instead, the topics were empowering youth, sustainable industry and the ever-popular creative economy.) But the talkfest last Friday did generate some modest praise. "I think it was a good first step, but it needs to be broadened," says Sandra McDonough, director of the Portland Business Alliance, which usually leads the chorus of complaint about Portland's biz climate. "A lot of important segments of our economy just weren't there."

Now that Potter's bureau shuffle is complete (see The Nose, page 15), Portland voters can expect a combined levy in 2006 asking them to pay for both parks and the city's Children's Investment Fund. That's because

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman has been handed the Parks Bureau (where employees are probably still weeping tears of joy at not ending up under Randy Leonard's loving care), and the children's fund is Saltzman's social-services baby. "It's not a done deal, but we're thinking about it," says Saltzman's chief of staff, Jeff Cogen. A merged levy would probably cover Parks operations costs, not capital needs.