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That's good news for Jean Kempe-Ware, the college's director of public relations, who last January was responding to hundreds of media inquiries each day ("Our Monica Moment," WW, Jan. 28, 1998). In the aftermath of Zippergate, Kempe-Ware led the college's effort not to become synonymous with the woman at the heart of the Clinton sex scandal. Her efforts paid off. An internal analysis of media coverage from September 1997 to August 1998 shows that nearly 60 percent of stories mentioning Lewis & Clark did not make a reference to the president's favorite intern. So which non-Monica stories did Ware successfully pitch? The college's new small-business-law program drew notice from The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur magazine; communications professor Peter Christenson made a splash with It's Not Just Rock 'N' Roll, a book about the effect of music on adolescents; sociology professor Robert Goldman took to the airwaves to deconstruct the Nike slogan; sophomore Sarah Warnock's struggle to overcome multiple sclerosis--and join the women's basketball team--made the cover of Reader's Digest; and the college announced its first Rhodes Scholar, Laura Provinvino. As national attention shifts to what happened inside the White House, college officials hope the worst of their Monica headache is over, but they aren't relaxing their guard. Special precautions are still in place, Kempe-Ware says, to keep unscrupulous hackers out of alumni information databases. --Chris Lydgate No Future for
You! Shoppers were caught by surprise. "I'm very disappointed they're closed," said Paul Kearney, a regular customer. "They had the best prices in town." Said another customer, "I'm just wondering why they would shut it down after they spent so much time building it." Based in Burnaby, British Columbia, the Future Shop owns 100 stores in North America. The company is also closing its four Utah stores, but spokesman Gary Patterson says the problem in Portland was the building more than the business. "The store was a substantial under-performer, due partially, if not totally, to physical problems," he says. Patterson contends that the 35,000-square-foot store was cursed by a leaky roof from the beginning. Even before moving in, Future Shop took the building's owner, Ralph Schlesinger Co., to arbitration. Patterson says the retailer was awarded cash (he wouldn't specify the amount) and a later occupancy date. The leaks continued after the store opened, Patterson says, resulting in repeated water damage to the store's walls and floor. Electrical problems also led to a small explosion in the store. Landlord Barry Schlesinger disagrees that Future Shop won the arbitration, saying instead that the two companies "split the baby." Whatever the case, the dispute between the companies isn't finished. Future Shop has 14 years remaining on its lease. Downtown rents run upwards of $20 per square foot, which means the companies have close to a $10 million problem to resolve. Schlesinger claimed ignorance of his tenant's plans. "They haven't contacted me, so I really can't discuss it," he says. Patterson declined to let WW inspect the closed store, saying that he didn't want to jeopardize his company's legal position. In the meantime, Patterson says Future Shop's three other Portland-area stores are thriving. The company hopes to replace the closed location with a new store in Jantzen Beach. --Nigel Jaquiss Salvaging a
Career Moltzen, the district supervisor for the Mount Hood National Forest, has been transferred to San Francisco to be the deputy regional forester for the Pacific Southwest region. For her, it's a promotion. For environmentalists fighting to stop the harvest of the Eagle Creek timber sale, it's a victory. The 1996 sale, east of Estacada, has been controversial from the beginning because it borders the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness area and falls under the salvage-timber rider, a congressional mandate that temporarily made timber sales easier by limiting the public-appeal process. Many critics of the sale claim Moltzen could have stopped it. Calling her decision "Roberta's rampage," OWF's Joe Keating has led protests at the downtown Forest Service office. He has also called for a massive postcard-mailing and e-mail campaign to Moltzen--and her higher ups--calling for her to defend the sale. Moltzen has repeatedly refused to hold public meetings since the sale went through (see "Tea for Trees," July 8, 1998). Keating says that Moltzen's bosses received about 300 postcards and innumerable e-mails and that they knew there were more to come. "I think they anticipated the pressure was going to increase," he says, "which it would have." For her part, Moltzen says she wasn't pushed out by Keating. She says she wanted the promotion to San Francisco and that her application was probably helped by the environmentalists because her colleagues and friends in the Forest Service had risen to her defense. Once Moltzen leaves this fall, Keating plans to meet with her current boss, Robert Williams, and try to calm the relationship between the environmentalists and the Forest Service. OWF wants the agency to swap Eagle Creek for another, less environmentally sensitive sale or buy back the sale from Vanport Manufacturing. But before the negotiations begin, Keating says, there is going to be some celebrating over Moltzen's departure."We're going to have one heck of a going-away party for her--and it will be glorious!" --Patty Wentz Supreme Opportunity The bone of contention is Measure 6, a 1994 initiative that severely restricts contributions from outside Oregon in statewide races and from out of district in legislative races. State courts ruled the law invalid, but Myers' predecessor, Ted Kulongoski, appealed the decision. That appeal was rejected last month by a three-judge federal appeals panel, but one judge wrote a strong dissenting opinion pointing out the merits of Measure 6. Strong enough, say reformers, that Myers ought to take the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of establishing a national precedent. "We regard it as one of the most significant breakthroughs in quite some time," says John Bonifaz, executive director of the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston. "We definitely support calls for the attorney general to seek review by the Supreme Court. When you look at evolving case law, often a breakthrough comes from a strong dissent." Myers won't commit, however. He told WW his decision will have more to do with brains than backbone. Myers believes a Supreme Court appeal is a long shot and doesn't know if it's worth spending staff time on it. Additionally, while Myers has a reputation as a long-standing advocate of campaign-finance reform, he personally disagrees with Measure 6. He doesn't think it addresses a fundamental problem--that the average person can't run for office without truckloads of dough--whether the money is from in state or out. Myers prefers public financing for campaigns. Reform advocates want Myers to take a stand. "There is no middle ground," says Al Mobley, a former independent candidate for governor. "His decision will speak very clearly to that majority of us who supported changing the system so as to reclaim the time, attention and loyalty of those we elect to represent us." "It was the voters' intention to place limits on contributions from outside the voters' district, and that needs to be taken seriously," adds Maureen Kirk, executive director of OSPIRG. "It's an important step for all kinds of campaign-finance-reform efforts to go forward." --Bob Young
originally published September 16, 1998
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