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[December 12th, 2007]

You’ve heard of flipping real estate—how about flipping Ferraris ? That’s what three men tried,according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 8 by Ron Tonkin Gran Turismo. Tonkin’s Ferrari dealership in Northeast Portland is suing the three for allegedly buying a new Ferrari F430 Spider F1, then selling it in Texas for at least $50,000 more than the sale price. According to the lawsuit, Ferrari North America and Tonkin sell only to end-users, in order to prevent a black market for the limited-edition imports. None of the three defendants—Richard Scheu, George Sakouyan and Greg Marshall—could be reached for comment.

Memories for sale: The Northeast Portland childhood home of Beverly Cleary —author of Ramona Quimby, Age 8; Henry Huggins and other popular children’s books—is on the market. The 1,700-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow (with hot tub and spa) went up for sale in early November. Owner Mary Oberdorf, a retired English teacher, appreciated the history of the home at at 3340 NE Hancock St. and its cool connection to Cleary. But she’s selling to move to upstate New York to be closer to her family. The house’s initial price: $372,000. The current listing: $348,000. At that number, a sale is pending.

Charter schools got no love Monday night from Portland Public Schools’ Board of Education. The board unanimously rejected four new charter applications in a two-hour smackdown that strayed into the bizarre. One example: board member David Wynde filibustering for 10 minutes on the plethora of choices already available for school-shopping parents and students. “These are not the times and these are not the places” for adding more school choices, Wynde said. “I don’t believe in a completely free-market system.” Before 2004, the School Board approved eight out of 11 charter applications. Of the 17 applications since 2004, the School Board has OK’d only two.

One of The Oregonian’s three managing editors is leaving. While it has been rumored in national journalism circles for more than a month, the O newsroom learned only last week that Stephen Engelberg was quitting to take the post of managing editor at Pro Publica, a new national investigative reporting enterprise. Engelberg, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, had been perhaps the O’ s highest-profile hire. During his tenure, The O won the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for its coverage of the James Kim disappearance. No word on Engelberg’s replacement, though we hear the paper is looking within for the hire.

While the O buys out reporters and other dailies lay them off, Citizen Bob Pamplin’s Portland Tribune is staffing up: ex WW er Chris Lydgate and longtime Statehouse reporter Steve Law of the Salem Statesman Journal are joining the Trib .

Man, our readers are generous—having donated more than $160,000 as of Tuesday to our holiday Give!Guide. But we’re nagging you to dig even deeper for the 49 local nonprofits. by going to wweek.com/giveguide and contributing.