SAM ADAMS CENTRAL: Set Your Bookmark Here for the Latest on Portland's Embattled Mayor.

The Bend Bulletin has an intriguing account of score-settling, Oregon-style in today's paper.

Bulletin reporter Nick Budnick (formerly of WW) details the efforts of House Speaker Dave Hunt (D-Gladstone) and House Majority Leader Mary Nolan (D-Portland) to turn the heat up on lobbyists who worked unsucessfully to defeat Measures 66 and 67. Among those lobbyists is "No" campaign manager Mark Nelson and Jon Chandler, who represents The Oregon Home Builders Association.

Democrats, who enjoy a 36-24 majority in the House, pushed hard for passage of the measures, which preserved $727 million in legislatively approved personal and corporate income tax hikes. Here are some excerpts from the Bulletin piece:

First piece of city election news today in Portland: Jesse Cornett, one of the seven candidates running against City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, says he expects to qualify for $150,000 in public financing for the May primary. That achievement, which requires 1,000 signatures and $5 matching donations, would make Cornett the only candidate to qualify for that financing this election season in Portland . And it vaults him into the position (at least until one of the other candidates shows the ability to raise the kind of private cash needed to take on an incumbent) of being Saltzman's...

Chael Sonnen, who's running for the Republican nomination in a suburban Portland district, got a big win on Saturday that had nothing to do with politics. The GOP hopeful in House District 37 (taking in parts of Washington and Clackamas counties) crushed his opponent in UFC 109 to get a shot at the middleweight title. And Sonnen also got a lot of attention to comments he made about mixed martial arts. To use two of the hoariest cliches in politics, that's a win-win for Sonnen, a proven battler.

We came. We listened. And we laughed empathetically as locals learned far too much information about their co-workers, elected representatives, newspaper writers, radio jockeys and Portland nonprofit heads last night at the Bagdad. That's where eight brave, heartsick souls —including Multnomah County Commish Jeff Cogen, Live Wire's Courtenay Hameister and WW's own Aaron Mesh— shared their worst dating stories at "It's Not Me, It's You," a surprisingly funny fundraiser for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon.

Here are 10 Things We Learned About Successful Dating Practices from these Portlanders:

In his second State of the City address, Mayor Sam Adams today wandered around Portland's urban landscape, introducing two "Joe the Plumber" characters and weaving those characters' needs for jobs, education and transportation into a tale of where he hopes to steer the city. Adams unveiled three new real-life programs to the standing-room City Club of Portland audience at the Governor Hotel: 1. A $33 million "Sustainable Development Fund" that will act as a pass-through for federal stimulus dollars. 2. A $500,000 "Portland Small Business Seed Fund." The mayor challenged local banks...