Montgomery
Words
The question was obvious--and politically incorrect.
Last month, Portland Police Chief Charles Moose was meeting
reporters in Montgomery County, Md., where he will take
the top policing position in August. After being introduced
by Douglas M. Duncan, Montgomery County's top elected
official, Moose was thrown a live grenade. According to
The Washington Post, one reporter asked the police
chief whether he was hired just because he is black.
Moose, who has been known to blow up in front of the
Portland press corps, reportedly fielded the query graciously.
"I judge people by the content of their character," Moose
was quoted as saying in response. "I can only hope everyone
in this room and everyone in this community feels the
same way."
Moose, who has a doctorate and six years as Portland's
chief under his belt, is certainly qualified for the job,
but there was reason to raise the issue. In 1994, when
Duncan took office, he fired the county's first black
police chief in order to appoint Carol Mehrling, the first
female chief, who is white. More recently, the department
has been under fire from citizens for racial insensitivity,
including harassment of minorities and the shooting deaths
of two African-American motorists this spring. When Mehrling
refused to address the charges publicly, the NAACP took
up the cause. This prompted an investigation by the Department
of Justice, which is still underway.
Although Mehrling retired, some believe she was forced
to leave by Duncan. With his sights reportedly set on
higher office, Duncan has sought to make amends with the
minority community, which makes up 27 percent of the area's
population.
Moose was unavailable for comment.
--Maureen O'Hagan
Split
Vote
Following the pattern of several other top
Northwest political couples, Sen. Ron Wyden and his wife,
Laurie Oseran, announced last Friday that they were separating
and planning to divorce.
Wyden and his wife have been married for 20 years and
have two children.
The news did not come as a shock to some. Sources, who
asked not to be named, said the marriage has been rocky
for a while.
"It's a private matter, and I would hope everyone would
respect the family's privacy," says Josh Kardon, Wyden's
chief of staff.
The life of a Northwest political spouse in the nation's
capital seems increasingly difficult these days: Former
U.S. Rep. Jim Bunn's marriage fell apart shortly after
he arrived on Capitol Hill in 1995. His successor, Rep.
Darlene Hooley, filed for divorce a few months after taking
office in 1997. The same goes for U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer,
who took office in the same year. Brian Baird, a Democrat
who represents southwest Washington in Congress, also
was divorced shortly after his election last year.
Kardon said he didn't expect the pending divorce to have
any negative impact on Wyden's political career. In November
1998, the Portland Democrat easily won re-election to
the Senate seat formerly held by Bob Packwood.
Sources told WW that the timing of the announcement
indicates an apparent lack of enmity between the two:
If Oseran had been bitter about the split-up, she would
not have waited until after the election campaign to seek
a divorce.
Wyden and his wife own homes in Portland and Washington,
D.C. Oseran reported assets of at least $1.04 million
last week in personal financial-disclosure forms that
U.S. senators are required to file. Wyden listed his only
asset as a joint bank account he and his wife valued at
less than $15,001.
--Bob Young
Revenge
of the White Mice
It's no exaggeration to say that medical
science owes a huge debt to white mice. For decades, researchers
have looked to the resilient rodents to shed light on
everything from heart attacks to diet pills.
But now it seems that mice do not always behave as they
should. In a paper published in the June 4 issue of Science,
Portland researcher John Crabbe describes an experiment
that should have been very, very dull. Using genetically
identical sets of mice, Crabbe and his colleagues ran
a series of routine behavioral tests in three different
laboratories, in three cities. To their surprise, the
scientists found that each lab yielded different results.
"We definitely expected to replicate ourselves," says
Crabbe, director of the Portland Alcohol Research Center
at the VA Medical Center. "We fanatically controlled everything
about the environment."
Researchers made sure the mice received identical food,
bedding, living conditions, handling and sleeping hours.
Yet mice in Edmonton, Alberta, were livelier than the
genetically identical mice in Portland and Albany, N.Y.
In another test, one strain of mice that zipped around
after a shot of cocaine in Portland lazed in their cages
in the other two labs. And so on.
The experiment did turn up some consistencies. Mice born
in the lab behaved the same as genetically identical cousins
bought from the store, and certain behaviors--such as
fondness for alcohol--remained constant across the continent.
But overall, Crabbe says, the implications are unsettling:
Unpredictable environmental factors, such as the quality
of the tap water or the altitude of the laboratory, could
be tainting countless experiments.
Researchers may never look at their white mice quite
the same again.
--Chris Lydgate
Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of the Opposite Sex
Despite
news reports to the contrary, the issue of gay marriage
is far from dead in the state Capitol. Rep. Kevin Mannix,
a Republican from Salem, is proposing yet another measure
to keep gays from ever getting legally hitched in Oregon.
Last week, Mannix failed to muster enough GOP votes to
pass House Joint Resolution 29. The resolution would have
sent voters a proposal to do two things: first, amend
the Oregon constitution by recognizing marriage only between
men and women; second, overturn the state Supreme Court's
Tanner vs. OHSU ruling, which required same-sex
partner benefits for public employees.
This week, Mannix is pushing House Joint Resolution 4,
which, he says, would simply define marriage in the state
constitution--it's already in the state statutes--as the
union of a man and a woman. For now, he's backing off
same-sex partner benefits. "I'm convinced now that Tanner
needs to boil over and scald a couple people before they
pay attention," he says.
But David Fidanque of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Oregon says HJR 4 may have implications for benefits.
The current draft requires the state to establish laws
that recognize, enhance and support marriage. Fidanque
says a constitutional provision restricting marriage to
heterosexuals could supersede the equal protections granted
in the state bill of rights, which were the basis for
the Tanner ruling.
"Whatever the Legislature does could have repercussions
beyond just the marriage statute, unless it's done very,
very carefully," he says.
HJR 4 is scheduled to be heard June 16 in the House Judiciary
Committee for Civil Law. If the resolution passes both
chambers, the measure will go before voters this fall.
--Patty Wentz
Corrections
The rumor of Rocky Horror's death has been greatly
exaggerated. In our piece about the Clinton Street Theatre
closure last week ("The Last Picture Show"), we stated
that the Saturday night Rocky Horror Picture Show
series was killed. In fact, Rocky Horror is the
only film that will live on at the theater.
Another grave error on our part occurred when we incorrectly
listed the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery as a "city-owned
cemetery" in our Summer Guide ("Rest in Peace," June 9,
1999). The cemetery is actually owned and operated by
Metro.
WW regrets the errors.
