It ain't easy being green.

[May 30th, 2007]

WINNERS

Bottoms up, Fred Meyer. Oregon grocers won a victory over scruffy, can-collecting entrepreneurs when the state House approved a very limited update to the bottle bill. Grocers and bottlers got most of what they asked for: Deposits will remain a nickel, and though water bottles were added to the list of redeemables, other non-carbonated drinks were kept off. Where were you, homeless lobby?

It was group-hug time in Salem as Gov. Ted Kulongoski, PacifiCorp and environmentalists celebrated the passage of Senate Bill 838, which requires 25 percent of Oregon's energy be green by 2025. The trio was last seen singing an enthusiastic round of "Kumbaya."

While other students unleash greased pigs in the halls as their end-of-year prank, Wilson High seniors pursued a high-minded endeavor: planting flowers in the shape of a peace sign outside their school. The administration cracked down. The news media descended. And the students got one last lesson—in mass communication.

Jail Blazers, Fail Blazers no more. Is it hot in here, or do we have Trail Blazers No. 1 draft pick fever? (For a more nuanced view of GM Kevin Pritchard's likening the top draft pick to the creation of the world, go to page 13.) Now, which pick has the longest rap sheet?

LOSERS

NW Women's Journal publisher Michele McKaeg Larson got a bitter dose of good old-fashioned "family values" when her magazine's printing company, Journal Graphics, nixed a spread featuring a nude profile of local stripper Viva Las Vegas. Strippers are one thing, but naked strippers—that just crosses the line (see WWire at wweek.com for more details).

As if finding out you're considered terrorists isn't bad enough, local greens had another tough week. First, Hayduke-style arsonists Stanislas Meyerhoff and Kevin Tubbs both got decadelong sentences for their various eco-motivated torchings. And then über-enviros were indiscriminately blamed for a rash of SUV burnings in Southeast. Chill out everyone, Al Gore just wrote a new book. Everything's going to be OK.

No help for Oregon Guardsmen or other soldiers in Iraq hoping for a reprieve. The Democrats won't use their new congressional majority to bring them home early. Both President Bush and the caissons go rolling along.