Start the summer-camp songs. And if you're on the Clackamas, make them drinking ones.

[July 11th, 2007]

WINNERS

Happy campers , c'mon, get happy. Last weekend, you got the opening of Oregon's first state park in 30 years with L.L. "Stub" Stewart State Park in Washington County. The new park, within 40 miles of Portland, features 50 campsites and, for those who can't leave home behind, a bunch of RV sites. The Great Outdoors, here we come!

After 17 years of wandering in a wilderness of temporary sites and hostility from Portland Public Schools, a school that serves homeless kids now has a permanent home. The Community Transitional School breaks ground soon on a home in the Cully neighborhood, with generous financial help from the oft-maligned Portland Family of Funds, an offshoot of the Portland Development Commission.

Less is more for financially desperate Oregonians who now have fewer payday and car-title lenders to borrow from, at those low, low annual interest rates of 521 percent. A 36-percent interest rate cap passed by the Oregon Legislature on those operations have caused at least 60 payday stores to close up shop, according to The Oregonian.

LOSERS

New Trail Blazer phenom Greg Oden, apparently suffering from tonsilitis, drew a chorus of whistles in his NBA Summer League debut last weekend. But the whistles didn't come from adoring fans, they came from the refs. In his first two games, Oden picked up a total of 19 fouls, matching the 19 points he scored in the two games. Note to Blazers! Put a hold on those championship banners.

Portland cops got hit by an appeals court for their sorry state of relations with local African-Americans. Citing a suspicion of racial profiling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month threw out an illegal weapons charge against a 40-year-old black man in a ruling that the Portland Tribune reports was lauded by the city's African-American leaders.

Party or drunken mob? You drink, others decide. Clackamas River rafters had more than a hangover to deal with as ClackCo cops and The Oregonian lambasted alcohol-fueled floaters for causing a "near-riot" on the riverside on Independence Day.