Night Cabbie | Murmurs Night Cabbie BY Willie Milkis willie_milkis@hotmail.com OK, THIS IS NOT the kind of fare you want to start your night. I get a manager of a parking garage downtown as my first fare. She's just getting off work; I'm just getting on. She gives me the address of a nursing home in Southeast. I start to wind my way through traffic. She's telling me where to go, where to turn, as if I've never driven in downtown Portland before. Then she tells me how she called another cab company the day before from way out on Skyline, and how she waited over 45 minutes. "I'll never call that company again!" I start to defend the other company and the unknown cabbie, explaining the way cabs respond to calls (or don't), but she's made up her mind the other company is incompetent. Then she tells me that we're going to visit her husband, who's dying of brain cancer. "Yeah, you'd be surprised how fast it takes you down. Last week he was fine, and now...." She tells me how the cancer spread to his kidneys, liver, lungs. I don't want to hear any of this. I make uncomfortable and vaguely sympathetic noises so I don't have to say anything, and as we get close to the address she starts micromanaging my driving again, telling me where to turn on streets I've driven a thousand times. She makes me miss the street and we have to go back. By the time I drop her off I want to go home and shoot myself, but my shift's just started. Deputy in the Dawg-house It's not been a good year for Multnomah County Corrections Deputy James Borja. In August, he was placed on leave while the sheriff's office investigates the beating of an inmate. Then, on Sept. 27, he was arrested and charged with striking his wife. But Borja, 36, managed to dodge one bullet last week when an internal investigation cleared him of consorting with a former inmate. Borja is one of two deputies bearing the tattoo "Brotherhood of the Strong" who were on duty during the alleged beating of cabdriver Dennis Poe at the downtown jail on July 11. Borja was not arrested or charged in that case, but he remains on administrative leave pending investigation ("Brotherhood of the Strong," WW, Aug. 23, 2000). On Sept. 27 Borja was arrested on charges of domestic violence and menacing after his wife, Maria, accused him of striking her and also throwing a plastic bowl that missed her and hit their 5-year-old daughter. Last week the charges were reduced to two misdemeanor counts of harassment, to which Borja pleaded not guilty. Questions about Borja's relationship with an inmate surfaced after he was bailed out of jail by Janis Spann, 23. According to court filings, he told jail personnel she was his girlfriend and that he'd been living with her for two months in Vancouver. That set off alarms in the sheriff's department, because the name Janis Spann has been used as an alias by Lisa Tarris, who spent four months in Multnomah County jail earlier this year. Establishing a romantic liaison with an inmate can be grounds for dismissal. But last week the sheriff's department determined that Borja's friend was not Tarris. "Tarris has used several aliases besides Spann, but they're not the same person," says spokesman Dan Oldham. Called on his cell phone, Borja said "I don't have a girlfriend" and referred other questions to his attorney, Whitney Boise. --Nick Budnick   LET'S STAY TOGETHER When the Rev. Al Green--he of the white suits, megawatt smile and ethereal voice--performed at University of Portland's Chiles Center last Sunday night, he probably didn't know he was making some of his fans question their faith. What Green might not have realized is that his performance on Oct. 8 fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, when Jews fast from sundown to sundown and ask for forgiveness for their sins. For this Jew, and probably many more, it took some soul searching to decide whether God would mind if I skipped synagogue and went to a soul concert. Eventually I decided God wouldn't care where I sat, so long as I was praying. The concert was a religious experience. After scoring front-center seats, I literally was rubbing the reverend's feet as he stood on the stage above me, gyrating like a teenager, his eyes shut like a blind man, crooning "I'm so tired of being alone." (He even sweat on me; God forgive me for my idolatry!) At first, I could not evade my Jewish guilt. When Green sang about Jesus and asked the audience to join in, I substituted Israel instead. But as the evening wore on, my inhibitions dropped away. I joined a posse of churchgoing women in the front with shouts of "Hallelujah" and "Amen" when Green asked us to love. After the show I wrangled my way backstage, where I got to meet the 54-year-old soul savior. "Reverend Green," I said rather shyly, "I have to tell you, I'm Jewish--but I think I saw the Holy Ghost tonight." He looked at me and smiled. "I got one of these," he said, reaching into his shirt. Out came a huge gold chai, a symbol consisting of two Hebrew letters that represents good will and peace. He signed my ticket, and I knew I was not lost but rather found. --Caryn B. Brooks Pulling the Plug on PGE For years, environmentalist Larry Tuttle has been a voice in the wilderness calling for the city to create its own public power utility. He may as well have proposed that the city launch its own space ship, for all the support he got. But now, against a backdrop of headlines about skyrocketing power bills, Tuttle looks like a prophet--and like a prophet, he has attracted some powerful adversaries, who plan to take their first shot at him next week in court. In February, pointing to a 1999 study showing that Portlanders could expect a 9- to 30-percent savings on their power bills, Tuttle submitted a city ballot initiative. Slated for the May 2002 ballot, the initiative says the city must set up its own utility if Portlanders pay electric rates 10 percent greater than public power costs elsewhere in the state. That set the stage for a showdown with Portland General Electric, which is trying to strangle the initiative with red tape. PGE has filed a legal challenge, arguing that the City Council already has the power to set up its own utility and therefore the measure is unconstitutional. Touting PGE's contributions to the community, spokesman Kregg Arntson says he's confident that the company would win any vote on the issue, "but we'd also have to run a multimillion-dollar campaign. ... I think we have an obligation to our shareholders, our customers, to not make this matter a legislative one, when the city of Portland already has the power to do what this measure is proposing." Tuttle for his part says the City Council lacks the will to act. "Elected officials in this city are not going to do anything to cause heartburn for Pacificorp or PGE," he says. The challenge is scheduled to go before a Multnomah County judge on Oct. 17. --Nick Budnick Children's Theater at Critical Stage The halls of the Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center on Northwest 18th Avenue and Everett Street echo with the excited shouts of youngsters dressing up and performing on stage. But the eager laughter may soon fall still if a handful of neighborhood activists have their way. The center is locked in an escalating power struggle between its largest tenant, the Northwest Children's Theater, and a group of neighborhood activists for the right to sit on the center's board, which manages the facility and serves as the property's owner. The disagreement began last year after three theater supporters were elected to the center's 11-member board. The former head of Neighbors West/Northwest, Jolene Classen, accused the theater of stacking the board and said that board membership should be restricted to people in the neighborhood. The theater countered that neighbors showed scant interest in the facility and that their right to sit on the board is enshrined in the center's bylaws. Now the activists are threatening to rewrite the bylaws--and hinting that it may be curtains for the theater. The theater "has not bargained with us at all," Jeff Boly, the vice-chair of the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, told the Northwest Examiner, which is edited and published by Classen's husband, Allan. In fact, the two sides struck a deal at a tense meeting in June, tentatively agreeing to allow the theater three seats on the board. But less than a week later, lawyers representing Boly sent a letter to the theater indicating that Boly would block ratification unless the theater agreed to rewrite the bylaws. "We're very worried about our future here," says the theater's managing director, Judy Kafoury, "and we question the motives behind this group trying to take control of the property." --Steffen Silvis NEW TWIST in LAURELHURST BOMBING For two weeks, the motivation for a bomb that severely injured Laurelhurst resident Barry Hornstein has remained a mystery. In a separate incident, Kennewick, Wash., police reported that last weekend, a device designed to look like a bomb was left near a house that Hornstein's son Jack was visiting. This week, however, school officials revealed details to WW that may shed light on the incidents. At the end of the past school year, flyers appeared around Grant High School. According to Cliff Madison, chief of the schools' police force, the flyers alleged that Hornstein's son Jack, a Grant student who is now 17, had inappropriate relationships with two 13-year-old girls. Madison says that as a result of the flyers, the school district police opened an investigation but said they found no evidence to support the claim; Madison also says that Hornstein denied the allegations. School officials have turned the results of their investigation over to city and federal law-enforcement officials, according to district spokesman Lew Frederick. At press time, the Hornstein family had not returned WW's call seeking comment. --Nigel Jaquiss and Nick Budnick NERVY GIRL HITS THE STREET A new local women's magazine arrived on the scene in September. But before you rush out to grab a copy in hopes of learning the latest makeup trends, be warned: Nervy Girl! is not about lip gloss or hair spray. "I was tired of going to the supermarket and seeing '10 Days to Thinner Thighs' and 'How to Make Him Commit' on every cover," explains Nervy Girl!'s editor and publisher, Kristin Schuchman. "Those magazines might have some good things in small doses, but they are really just catalogs. I wanted something to read." Staffed entirely by volunteers, Nervy Girl! combines the irreverent tone of women's zines like Moxie and Bitch with a handful of intellectual grit. The first issue features a cover story on Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke, an article on local women's shelters and dueling accounts of a fishing trip taken by Schuchman and her fiancé. Schuchman, a 31-year-old with a master's degree in journalism, first became fed up with the "fantasy life" pushed by popular women's press in 1991, when she came across a Cosmo piece entitled "Do's and Don'ts on a First Date." "One of the Do's was to laugh hysterically whenever he said something meant to be funny. One of the Don'ts was to never appear smarter than him," says Schuchman. "I started ranting a little and complained to a friend that someone should publish an alternative. She said I should do it." Schuchman hopes to raise Nervy Girl!'s circulation from 5,000 to 10,000 within the year. Its second issue, slated for Nov. 4, will focus on reproductive health. --Christie Scotty STILL TRAPPED IN A CHRISTIAN BOARDING SCHOOL After spending two days in the Bible Belt village of Jay, Fla., Linda Wiener is no closer than before to understanding why a 16-year-old Portland girl is locked up in a Christian boarding school there. Wiener, a former prosecutor and child advocate, flew to Florida late last month for vacation and spent a couple of days trying to visit Allison Tobey, a former classmate of Wiener's daughter at St. Mary's Academy. Accompanied by Inga Zvejnieks, the aunt of another St. Mary's student, Wiener drove to Victory Christian Academy, the remote "tough-love" institution that Tobey's parents sent her to in August (see "Trapped in Christian Boarding School!!!," WW, Sept. 13, 2000). At Victory Christian, Wiener says, the women spent an hour speaking to Dr. Michael Palmer, the school's founder. They asked to see Tobey and to present her with 50 cards and letters from students at St. Mary's. After consulting with Tobey's parents, George and Kathleen Tobey of Tigard, Palmer declined to allow the visitors to see the girl. (The Tobeys have not returned WW's phone calls, nor are they speaking to Allie's classmates' parents.) After Palmer invited the two women to leave, they staged a mini-protest outside the school's gate. While Wiener acknowledges the awkwardness of inserting herself into another family's business, she returned to the Northwest more concerned than ever about Tobey's well-being. She says the recent death of a boy in a Bend tough-love school underlines her fears. "I see major parallels in the two stories," she says. "We regulate public schools and just about every other type of institution. But it seems in these schools, we're imprisoning near-adults without due process." --Nigel Jaquiss Murmurs WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN? * He's back!!!! Lars Larson returned to prime time Monday with his first "Lars on Your Side" segment during KOIN-TV's evening news. Larson, who's focusing on government screw-ups, went after Clackamas County officials for allowing some Street of Dreams hilltop homes to be built without sprinklers, despite a warning from local fire officials that they might not be able to handle the steep incline leading to the McMansions. Not exactly defending the "little guy," but it's a start. * In what many political observers see as Diane Linn's opening shot at running for county chair in 2002, the District 1 commissioner parted ways last month with her chief of staff--and longtime political survivor--Ramsay Weit, replacing him with John Rakowitz, former business liaison for Beverly Stein, and added X-PAC vice-chair Laura Bridges to her staff. That gives Linn a team with broad policy experience and ties to the business community and Multnomah County's Latino population. * Nothing about the current mania for testing and accountability in our schools is particularly amusing, but Alfie Kohn, a Boston writer and educator who is one of the nation's leading--and funniest--critics of standardized testing, will enliven the dry topic Thursday, Oct. 12, when he speaks at Lewis & Clark's Flanagan Chapel at 7 pm. Tickets are $15 at the door. * CEO Gregg Bleakney says the next stop for his Pearl District dot-com WhereNext is not bankruptcy court. The Internet travel information provider did miss payroll and lay off some employees last week, Bleakney confirms, but he insists the company will continue operations. * Literary Arts Inc. has just announced the finalists for the 14th annual Oregon Book Awards, which includes many nominees from among Portland's literati. Jeff Meyers and Primus St. John will vie for the poetry prize, while Craig Lesley and Kathleen Tyau have been nominated for fiction. Other finalists include Jody Seay, Judith Barrington, Andrew X. Pham and Sandra de Helen.