A SPIN ON THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF NEWS.

[July 27th, 2005] WINNERS

Beaverton-based Nike rejoiced as one of its premier standard-bearers, cycling icon Lance Armstrong, won his seventh Tour de France. Nor does it appear Armstrong's retirement will take him out of the public eye-he's saying his next race may be a campaign for elected office.

Deadbeat water customers have a new ally in City Commissioner Randy Leonard. Now in charge of the ever-beleaguered Water Bureau, Leonard wants to curb the practice of shutting off water to customers behind on their bills.

The staple Timbers cheer of "Go home, ya bums!" was louder than ever last Saturday, thanks to the record-setting 15,376 boozy soccer fans who packed PGE Park. They turned out to see the hometown boys play a scoreless exhibition match with Sunderland AFC, a member of the prestigious English Premier League. But where the hell was Timber Jim?

LOSERS

Some 390,000 Western Oregon Catholics might be dusting off their rosary beads with news they are named defendants in the Portland Archdiocese bankruptcy case. That doesn't mean they're on the hook for claims, but they could witness church assets being used to pay sex-abuse settlements now totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oregon enviros became political roadkill this week when the governor and state lawmakers announced their tentative budget deal. The state won't pursue a California-style rule mandating clean-burning cars; a long-delayed pesticide reporting program has been highly watered down; and state forests will continue to be logged like tree farms, further threatening endangered critters.

Speaking of endangered critters.... High heat led to stagnant, fish-fatal conditions that claimed more than 100,000 Klamath River fish last week. Among the dead: thousands of endangered sucker fish up a fecal creek as farm runoff contributed to explosive algae that rapidly decayed, stifling oxygen levels in the hot, fetid water just north of the California border.