Winners Write History, Losers Read It

[December 7th, 2005] WINNERS

Next party for the champion University of Portland women's soccer team : at noon Friday in Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Nostalgic Dems got a whiff of imagined past glories when ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber kept hopes alive that he might challenge current Gov. Ted Kulongoski in their party's primary. With Kitz saying he'll make an announcement in early 2006, maybe D's can use the time to recall what exactly the ex-guv accomplished during his two terms.

Average gas prices in Portland fell last week to $2.15 per gallon, with some scattered sightings of the elusive $1.99 gallon. Penny-pinching drivers who track those things must be salivating into their change purses. You know the ones: They've got tip calculators built into their wristwatches. They keep the receipts for everything.

LOSERS

From bad to worse for Portland General Electric. First, WW reported the utility's top officials were no bunch of innocents in Enron's tax dodges ("Pants on Fire," Nov. 30). Now, City Commissioner Randy Leonard is on the utility's ass, asking City Hall lawyers to look into a potential criminal conspiracy.

Bus drivers gone wild! Last week, TriMet agreed to pay Rosa Wigmore $700,000 to settle her lawsuit. And why's that, you might ask? Wigmore is an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor who got chucked off a bus by a now-former driver and insulted by that same worthy ex-employee.

Rape victims unsure about filing charges might be even more hesitant now, thanks to justice Beaverton-style. Municipal Judge Peter Ackerman last week convicted a 19-year-old woman of filing a false police report even though she still maintains three men assaulted her in her boyfriend's bedroom.

Here's a blast from the past. Shane Stant, a plotter in the "let's help Tonya Harding win a gold medal" scheme, can't join the Navy SEALS because he can't shake a felony conviction. Last week, a Multnomah County circuit judge refused to clear Stant's record of a second-degree assault for whacking skater Nancy Kerrigan's knee with a baton in 1994.