WINNERS

1. Mayor Vera Katz's Jan. 26 call for treating the Willamette River as the city's crown jewel was more sensible than visionary. City commissioners Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten aren't complaining, though: With Katz upping the waterway's profile, it will make it easier for their river-related bureaus to get top billing in what's bound to be a brutal budget year.

2. You're legal, dude! On Jan. 27, for the first time since 1976, skateboarders could roll along the streets of Portland without fear of police slapping them with a $297 ticket, thanks to a new law passed by City Council last month.

3. All in all, it was not a bad week for Bill Sizemore. First, The Oregonian's analysis of Gov. John Kitzhaber's budget revealed $70 million in proposed fee increases, handing "Ballot Measure" Bill a ready-made script for his effort to get public votes on fee hikes in 2002. Then, on Friday night, Sizemore's headquarters escaped an arson blaze with only minor damage.

LOSERS

1. It was gut-check time for regional carnivores with last week's revolting revelations about practices at Northwest's largest meat-packing plant. Cattle are supposed to be unconscious when butchered, but a video taken at the Wallula, Wash., plant shows bloodied bovines kicking, mooing and all but calving while being butchered. Gardenburgers, anyone?

2. Two words of advice for local homeowners with electric furnaces: "pellet stove." The Bonneville Power Administration, which earlier this winter projected 30 percent rate increases next fall, last week revised that figure to a possible 63 percent hike in October.

3. Great news for the state: It's successfully moving people off the welfare rolls! Unfortunately for poor folks, a new study shows that one-third of the former welfare recipients are now unemployed--and half of those who do work remain below the poverty level because all they can get is crappy, low-paying jobs.