Our weekly Olympian effort.

[July 30th, 2008]

• The head of a big Oregon union is suing Black & Decker and Home Depot for injuries from his lawn mower. Joe DiNicola, president of Service Employees International Union Local 503, wants $160,000 in his federal lawsuit for his hand getting cut in 2006 while clearing a jam in a mower. Readers may remember DiNicola’s penchant for litigation. He ticked off some union members when he unsuccessfully sought $110,000 in overtime pay from the union (“Rogue of the Week,” WW, June 27, 2007). Michael McClinton, attorney for the companies DiNicola is suing, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

• Let’s say you’re pissed that a bartender switched your rum and Coke to a virgin. Well, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has launched a new blog (olccblog.blogspot.com) for booze-related reader comments. The OLCC’s Joy Evensen says, “We want to use comments that inspire a conversation and promote education through public dialogue. As long as no profanity is used, we will post it.” As for comments channeling Murmurs’ hypothetical bad bartender, Evensen says, “At this point we are very open, but that is an interesting question. Don’t give ’em any ideas. ”

• Not so fast: Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who’s in charge of the city’s cable franchising office, says his plan to build public fiber-optic (see “The Hole In the Fiber Doughnut,” WW, July 23, 2008) doesn’t include using municipal bonds to cover the estimated $500 million cost of running fiber-optic cables to every home and business. The city expects upcoming solicitation for proposals to generate some alternative funding schemes in September.

• Last week Commissioner Sam Adams ditched (temporarily, he says) his $464 million transportation package after a survey found insufficient support for a new fee to pay for it. Now, to plug a hole in the city’s transportation budget, Adams wants to tap a windfall in fees that utilities pay Portland. Adams’ new plan, which the City Council considers Wednesday, July 30, would only claim the utility fees above what the city had expected to take in from them. And it would take only up to the $4.3 million needed to prevent transportation cuts. (BTW, an interesting tidbit from Adams’ survey: Asked the most pressing problem facing Portland, more people chose “other” than transportation, the economy or education.)

• Smiles for the camera: In August, the Port of Portland will begin installing 187 new closed-circuit TV cameras around PDX airport and upgrading another 70 existing cameras. The project’s $1 mil cost (for which the feds will reimburse the port) includes wiring, and installation of poles and landscaping. The new cameras also can record and store video, according to Port spokesman Steve Johnson. So, think carefully before picking up that Penthouse at the Hudson News.

• The so-called Pitchfork Rebellion attracted hundreds of sympathizers Sunday, July 27, to Pioneer Courthouse Square for its protest against a federal plan it says will increase Oregon logging sevenfold. This rally by the Lane County-based group of forest-dwellers was much mellower (think acoustic guitar) than its last public gathering May 30 in Eugene. That demonstration pitted the feds, Eugene police, and a Taser against a U of O freshman (to see who won, go to WWire).