Other Than Jimmy Hoffa, It's All Here.

[May 24th, 2006] Sellwood Baptist Church pastor Mike Wilson told the U.S. Senate Finance Committee the painful story of the death of his mom, Helen, last year after surgery at Northeast Portland's Physicians' Hospital. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs that committee in charge of federal hospital spending, learned of Helen Wilson's death after WW first reported it on Oct. 19, 2005 ("Doctors, Inc."). Grassley ordered a federal investigation, which led to Physicians' closure this month. The senator calls Mike Wilson's testimony May 17 "invaluable." "Facts and figures can't match the power of a personal story ," Grassley says. "His generosity in sharing his family's tragedy helped our committee members and the public understand the high stakes of getting specialty hospital policy right."

Convicted felon Andy Wiederhorn's crusade to rejoin the Multnomah Athletic Club made the front page of The Wall Street Journal Monday. Readers of the well-done story about Portland's movers-and-shakers can pick from several highlights. Among them: litigator Steve English's decision to work at a discount for the MAC in defending its decision to boot Wiederhorn, who was convicted of filing a false tax return and paying an illegal gratuity. Or there's the description of a tiff in the club parking lot between Wiederhorn's wife, Tiffany, and Debbie Caldwell, the wife of Wiederhorn prosecutor Lance Caldwell. The story's money quote comes from Wiederhorn himself, when he boils down his quest to regain MAC membership: "It's about justice."

Is it just Murmurs, or is conservative activist Lon Mabon starting to resemble a certain robot once portrayed by the governor of California: implacable, unstoppable and not particularly tolerant of human diversity? While the rest of us were distracted May 16 (that was Election Day, for those of you who didn't vote), Mabon resurfaced from political obscurity (and a six-week stint in jail for contempt of court in 2002) to propose two new initiatives for the November election . One would bar open discussion of homosexuality in Oregon schools. The other would amend the freedom-of-speech clause in the state constitution to allow freedom of opinion, but not of conduct or action. If the petitions pass the secretary of state's constitutional muster, backers can start gathering signatures June 8. Mabon refused to speak to WW.

Ever wonder just how much Portland hates President Bush? Here's one admittedly unscientific gauge from Google Trends, a new feature under development by the popular search engine (google.com/trends). Using Google Trends' ability to track the volume of specific search terms over time and by location, we learn that Portlanders searched for "impeach bush" more times in the past two years than citizens from anywhere but Madison, Wis. Before patting themselves too hard on the back for their political savvy, Portlanders should also know they googled impeachment only one-tenth as many times as they used the search engine to ogle Ashlee Simpson.

Notorious divorce lawyer Allan Knappenberger (see "SOB, Esq.," WW, March 22, 2000) has lost his appeal of a one-year law license suspension. The state Supreme Court recently agreed with the Oregon State Bar's disciplinary panel that found Knappenberger's failure for nearly nine years to file a legal order, despite numerous requests from his client, was "inexcusable." In determining whether to uphold the panel's one-year suspension, the court cited two prior instances in which Knappenberger was disciplined, resulting in 90- and 120-day suspensions. Knappenberger's attorney, Peter R. Jarvis, says, "We wish the court had reached a different conclusion." Knappenberger is "figuring out what to do next," Jarvis says.

^WEB-ONLY MURMUR!

All aboard the Vision Vessel! Public Media Works will debut the vessel, a roving multimedia recording booth that allows young Portlanders to record their 2 cents on the city's future, at Alberta Street's Last Thursday on May 25. Public Media Works (which filmed the brilliantly funny videos for May 1's Candidates Gone Wild! event) is also offering residents ages 17 to 35 a chance to participate in the project on the Web at www.visionvessel.org.