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WINNERS 1. Vindication came to the King-56 widows last Friday in an ABC 20/20 segment titled "The Wives' Crusade." The fawning portrayal included testimony from an aviation-crash expert hired by ABC who said the wives' explanation for the C-130's fatal crash (an electrical malfunction) was more plausible than the Air Force's claim that the crew ran the plane out of gas. 2. The Port of Portland finally made a good move last week in its public relations volley with Ross Island Sand and Gravel. Last week the Port ended its six-year practice of paying the company to use its lagoon as a dump, saying the gravel company can no longer be trusted to handle toxic waste safely. 3. The Rose City's reputation as a fertile music town got a boost from Spin last week. In the magazine's January issue, a list of the "20 Best Albums of 1998" includes XO by ex-Portlander Elliott Smith (ranked No. 2) and Featuring "Birds" by our own Quasi (No. 12).
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LOSERS 1. Fans of Major League Baseball got the brush back last week when an advisory panel urged the city to let Portland Family Entertainment renovate Civic Stadium. Unlike the other group bidding on the ballpark overhaul, PFE has pitched Major League Baseball as only a remote possibility. Still, it ain't over 'til baseball fan Vera Katz weighs in. 2. The city's Bureau of Environmental Services appears to be flushing tax dollars down the toilet. More than two years after a WW cover story ("The Mess at BES," Feb. 21, 1996) focused criticism on the bureau's management of the $1 billion Combined Sewer Overflow Project, a city audit released last week found that indeed the sewer project is costing more than it should. Auditors found that the bureau was far too lax and generous with consultant contracts, paying perhaps millions of dollars more than it should. 3. On the same 20/20 episode that heralded the King 56 widows, reporter John Stossel trashed "underused" light-rail lines while pictures of Portland's new westside MAX flashed on the screen.
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 16,
1998