WINNERS 1. Playing up his status as both a governor and a former emergency-room doctor, John Kitzhaber got good reviews on Capitol Hill last week as he defended Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law against federal lawmakers seeking to crack down on physicians who prescribe deadly doses to terminally ill patients.	LOSERS 1. Back at home, Gov. John Kitzhaber didn't fare so well. Reneging on an earlier promise, Senate Republicans said Thursday they wouldn't agree to a special session until after the November elections. Kitzhaber wanted to meet next month to approve a new site for a proposed women's prison near Wilsonville.
2. Promoters for Bumbershoot announced last week that local musicians Kelly Joe Phelps and Pink Martini made the cut for the headliner-stacked lineup at the annual summer festival in Seattle, sharing the spotlight with acts such as Bonnie Raitt, Buck Owens, Third Eye Blind and Live.	2. Local skydiving businesses had to endure two days of horrible press last week before local authorities disclosed that Kimberly Powell's July 16 death was no accident. Police said Saturday that they now believe the Vancouver woman's death was a suicide.
3. Lon Mabon may have failed to qualify his anti-abortion and anti-gay-rights measures for this year's ballot, but last Saturday 80 percent of the Oregon Citizens Alliance board voted to keep the group alive. Those who'd like to write Mabon's political obituary should note that he raised more than $153,000 for his two failed initiatives--almost all of it from small individual contributions.	3. The state Court of Appeals picked $475,000 from Fred Meyer's pocket last week. That's the amount the local retail giant must pay Yolanda Blume, who was detained at the store's Hollywood outlet three years ago after she couldn't produce a receipt for her chicken strips. As it turned out, she was never given a receipt.

 

originally published July 22, 1998