How does Clinton spell freefall? O-B-A-M-A.

[January 9th, 2008]

Three sources tell Murmurs that state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) is under investigation by the FBI. And one of Portland’s top criminal defense lawyers says he’s been retained by Johnson, a member of the Legislature’s powerful Committee on Ways&Means and a potential Democratic gubernatorial contender in 2010. “I am representing Betsy Johnson in the investigation that is under way,” Johnson’s attorney Stephen Houze wrote WW in a statement. “Because it is a pending investigation, neither she nor I intend to comment on the merits of the matter. Betsy Johnson has done nothing wrong, and I am confident that a fair and unbiased investigation will vindicate her .” As is its practice, the FBI declined to comment. For more about Johnson (“Heavens to Betsy,” WW , May 30, 2007”) and a puzzling interaction she had with a senior maritime official, please see wweek.com

An Orthodox Jewish inmate filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 2 against an Oregon prison official for “elderly abuse.” Daniel Lee Holterman, a 68-year-old convicted murderer serving a life sentence at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, wants $500 because he says the Rev. S. Toth held a Christmas program—“or whatever the gentile [sic] call it” —in the prison infirmary. Prison spokeswoman Chane Griggs declined to comment on the lawsuit. Holterman has a track record of success in the federal courts. In 1998, a judge ordered Oregon prisons to serve kosher meals because of a lawsuit Holterman filed.

Is the third time a charm? Nick Fish , who lost two previous City Council races, is giving it another go, running to fill the seat of Erik Sten, who’s leaving by April 1 (“Sten Calls It Quits,” WW , Jan. 2, 2008). Fish will be running against Brendan Finn, chief of staff to Commissioner Dan Saltzman. Fish, a lawyer, will end his gig hosting his Sunday morning public-affairs show on KRCW during the campaign. “The station has a concern about FCC rules,” Fish says. But the show will go on with a replacement host or series of hosts, Fish says. Still to be determined: who the replacements are and whether the show continues to be called Outlook Portland with Nick Fish . Finn, however, will get to keep his job.

A key issue for Fish, Finn and other candidates is when the special election will be and how it will be financed. Commissioner Sam Adams, who beat Fish in 2004, says it may make sense to push the special election from May back to September, to give candidates time to qualify for public financing. That would help Finn, because it gives him more time to collect the needed signatures for public financing, and hurt Fish, who’s the front-runner in a compressed campaign. “I’m just trying to figure out how to have a fair, open race for this seat,” Adams says. A September election would cost an extra 300,000, leave the council operating with only four members for four months after Sten leaves—and piss off one voluble commissioner. “I am absolutely opposed to moving the election from May,” says Commissioner Randy Leonard, who’s endorsing Fish. “And for that matter, I’m opposed to making any changes to the public-financing rules for candidates for Sten’s seat.” (Those rules call for candidates to gather signatures by Jan. 31, a Herculean task in the freshly created race.)

We’ll stop nagging now. You responded in spades to our holiday pleas for donations to WW’ s annual Give!Guide with about 505,000 now heading to 49 nonprofits. For those keeping score at home, that half a mil raised in the guide’s fourth year more than doubles last year’s $228,000.