Oregon’s most indefatigable Republican pol has finally identified a pursuit worthy of his talents. Here’s the word from the man himself.

MANNIX LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Salem, OR — With backing from dozens of supporters, Kevin Mannix today declared his intent to launch a campaign for the position of Lieutenant Governor of Oregon in the 2010 election.

“I believe my political aspirations have finally found an appropriate target: Lieutenant Governor, a position in which I can help make a meaningful difference for the people of Oregon,” declared Mannix. “I’m proud to say my campaign will have support across the full spectrum of the rural law enforcement community. By starting early, I’m certain we will bring together corrections officials and district attorneys from coastal, southern and eastern Oregon to create a winning campaign.”

Mannix will benefit from double-digit name familiarity built through five previous campaigns:

1996 Attorney General

2000 Attorney General

2002 Governor

2006 Governor

2008 5th Congressional District

“They say you can’t learn if you don’t try and then fail once in a while,” said Mannix. “I believe I am living proof that there’s always something left to learn in politics.”

“Some people might say that the office of Lieutenant Governor is largely ceremonial, but that’s exactly what they said about Citizen Advocate,” added Mannix.

As he has done in the past, Mannix has filed several tough-on-crime ballot measures to help build support for his political campaign. Kevin Mannix proudly serves as chief petitioner on two measures for 2010 (initiative petitions 13 and 14) increasing penalties for certain sex offenders and driving under the influence.

“Someone needs to send a clear message to lawmakers in Salem that sexual predation and driving under the influence are just plain wrong,” said Mannix.

“Through this campaign, I’m confident that voters will come to see that I am the best possible person to fulfill the responsibilities of Lieutenant Governor.”

For more information, visit www.mannixfororegon.com

And don’t forget to check today’s calendar or review this unsuccessful 2005 bill.

If you’re not at City Hall or watching Wednesday’s City Council meeting on your computer as I am now, you just missed an interesting discussion of Commissioner Randy Leonard’s plan to condemn the “Made in Oregon” sign and bring it under the City of Portland’s ownership.

In indicating she would vote no on Leonard’s resolution, Fritz raised a previously over-looked question: Would Portland be able to put a red nose on the deer at Christmas time using public money?

Experts seem to indicate Fritz is on to something. Which explains why I’m already having visions of Lars Larson’s crusade against The City That Works (to Destroy Christmas.) Terrifying.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman, as expected, indicated he, too, would vote no on the resolution when the issue comes before City Council again next week, when Mayor Sam Adams is back from Washington, D.C. He attended meetings Monday and Tuesday and plans to attend meetings Thursday.

Before officially doing so, he digged into Leonard, saying “the only reason this is before us now is Commissioner Leonard’s feelings were hurt.” Ouch.

Leonard later indicated that statement hurt his feelings.

An interesting new chapter in commissioners Dan Saltzman and Randy Leonard’s “bromance” this morning: The battle of the Half-Staff vs. the Half-Cocked.

Up first at City Hall was Saltzman’s flag-lowering resolution [PDF] to honor Portland children who die as a result of violence.

It didn’t get the warmest reception. Commissioner Nick Fish questioned the wisdom of lowering Portland’s flag for one group, knowing that tragedy strikes many groups — including the homeless and victims of domestic abuse — whose members might want Portland’s flags lowered to honor them. Fish called himself “old-fashioned” in wanting to honor the current traditions of flag-lowering. “It’s a big deal when you talk about lowering our flag,” he said, before adding he thought there needed to be additional discussion.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz pointed out that the city flag is tethered to the state flag outside the Oregon Convention Center but that the city doesn’t have the authority to lower the state flag. She also wondered aloud about the impact of lowering the city’s flags on the judicial outcomes for the perpetrators of the alleged crimes.

Next up was Leonard’s “bright” idea to condemn the “Made in Oregon” sign in order to bring it under the city’s control — a move that has been widely criticized. (The University of Oregon has pushed for changes to the iconic sign to reflect its presence in Portland, and Leonard was hoping to stop them.)

Saltzman was the first to ask questions about how the city would pay for the condemnation and asked to offer an amendment that would specify no general fund dollars would pay for what he called a “frivolous” move.

He was followed by Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, who said she supported Leonard’s efforts to preserve the sign’s current symbolism.

Eighteen people are signed up to testify. We here at WW are on the edge of our seats waiting to know how this turns out. We’ll update you later.

In addition to being April Fool’s Day today, there’s something else noteworthy about this day — It’s two weeks until the annual April 15 filing deadline. And as it turns out, if you haven’t filed your return yet, you’re probably far from alone in Portland.

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You know what time it is? It’s basketball time. And you know what that means? It means I’ll be occasionally writing things. But not clever things, thank you. Because it’s Tuesday and (fun fact!) Tuesday is my third least favorite day, after Monday and Sunday. This blog, accordingly, will be about 15% less smart than my usual offerings, which means it will not be smart at all. LET’S GET READY TO BASKETBAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

The team introduced something called the “Regurgi-Cam” prior to tip-off. It featured members of the crowd eating food, but in reverse. There was a kid spitting out cotton candy and an old man producing entire french fries with his mouth. It was creepy.

INTROS
After seeing all the routines with teams like Cleveland and Phoenix, we’re all waiting to see if the Blazers will do some similarly crazy antics. Tonight there are a couple random salutes and an end-of-introductions bouncy castle simulation, but nothing on the level of the Cavs’ starting a fire with Boobie Gibson’s hands or simulating a home run while Lebron James mans the camera.

And really, wouldn’t it just be weird to see the Blazers doing any of that stuff? Seeing Joel Przybilla pretend to do anything is kind of a strange concept. I don’t think acting is really in his blood.

FIRST QUARTER
Joel wins the tip after some bobbling, and LaMarcus Aldridge is the guy to take it up court. He misses the L.A. special from a few feet out, and on the other end, Mehmet Okur is holding his nipples as he runs back on offense. Don’t want chapped nips, Mehmet. Not tonight. It’s a big game.

10:15
Deron Williams gets intimidated by Joel Przybilla’s close-shaven head and focused expression, missing a layup. After the initial LaMarcus miss, the Blazers have looked like a well-oiled machine. B-Roy, Marc and Steve Blake have all been themselves. As I type this, LaMarcus Aldridge runs past a befuddled Carlos Boozer for a pretty baby layup.

8:15
Someone grabbed the Blazer steal (stupid blogging, making me miss it), and the ball wound up in the hands of Steve Blake for his second long-bomb. The game gets off to a very pretty (and loud) start for the Blazers, and they take a nice 15 - 4 lead into Jerry Sloan’s first timeout. At this rate, the team will score 180 tonight. I’d like to see that.

6:59
As well as the team has played lately, I could be perfectly happy with focusing soley on LaMarcus Aldridge. Every time he has the ball, something good happens. An when he doesn’t have the ball, but he’s thinking about the ball and where it might be? Something good happens. Let’s follow him, shall we?

5:52
Okay, this could be B-Roy’s night. He already has 11, and they’re going to him every time up. But yeah, LaMarcus. We’re following LaMarcus.

LaMarc sets a screen on Andrei K, then gets open. Instead of rushing a shot, he kicks the ball out, and on the second pass it gets to Nicolas Batum, who runs the baseline for an easy dunk. Next time up, Aldridge cuts to the hoop and gets on the line for two. Sinks ‘em both.

But it’s the more intangible play that impresses me. The one-handed pass cross-court, the back-to-the-basket size-up. He has two assists in this game, but he’s contributed to far more field goals than that.

On defense he’s up against his second man, Paul Milsap. He boxes him out expertly, but the moment he sees the ball touch Greg Oden’s fingers, L.A. has burst up the court, ready for a lob-pass. When he does get the ball, he backs up Milsap then spins around him to the hoop, losing the ball on the dunk attempt and hitting two more from the line.

2:46
Nate takes his first timeout of the game. In this brief stretch of down time, I can safely tell you that there’s an energy in this building I haven’t felt before. It has been loud for quite some time, but now there’s something else in the air. This team, and the fans that support them, are starting to realize just how good this team could be. And now that the crowd has seen it, they want blood. They want Nic Batum’s scrappiness, Joel Przybilla’s meanness and Brandon Roy’s grace out of every player on the court, and they want it to be completely, ridiculously violent and unrelenting. This crowd used to be all “oh, we love our stand-up Blazers.” Now they’re all “Faster, Blazers, kill kill kill!”

SECOND QUARTER
I had some technical difficulties but I’m back up and running now. Letsee, whadid ya miss. Well, the Jazz are only down 10 now, halfway through the second quarter. You can hear a handful of Jazz fans in the crowd when Andrei Kirilenko dunks it to bring it to eight. Weird. Where did they come from?

Also, Sergio Rodriguez has hit a couple of three-pointers, but he’s also had a couple of turnovers. As such, Nate brings his entire starting lineup back in, except for Batum, who is replaced by Travis Outlaw.

6:34
Brandon Roy pulls up over Andrei Kirilenko and nails a mid-range jumper. What happened to Kirilenko? Wait, don’t answer that, he’s had every injury known to man. There was a time when he would have slapped Brandon Roy’s shot into the fifth row and been totally expressionless doing it.

The Blazers start picking up speed again, up 50 - 38 with five and a half left. But Utah is pretty quick, too. It’s just that Ronnie Brewer has been uneffective and Kirilenko often chooses not to shoot. Korver checks in with 4:35 left, though, and he’s not exactly afraid to let it fly.

4:07
I’d be surprised if the Jazz can get through the first half without picking up a technical foul or two. They seem genuinely upset about the officiating (in kind of a bitchy way), and they’re getting extra physical on the court.

3:18
Travis Outlaw, who’s wearing his jersey out like a summer dress, gets pulled off the bench in favor of Nicolas Batum. In the paint, Deron Williams tangles with Steve Blake, and the crowd is pissed when the latter is called for a foul. The replay shows Williams extending his arm and pushing Blake, but it also shows Blake flopping about. On the other end, Williams immediately grabs Blake’s arms, and he’s called for it. The crowd is stoked.

2:31
The Jazz call a timeout, down 11. This isn’t the throttling this crowd wanted to see sprout from that speedy first quarter, but it’ll do, they guess. The arena’s mild cheering evidences a nervousness with anything less than a full-on ass-whupping, and given the Blazers’ tumultuous history, it’s easy to respect that apprehension.

36 seconds
Only blood will do! The crowd freaks out on a near-steal from the Blazers after it turns into some circus play near mid-court. But Joel Przybilla looks pumped up by the whole thing. He fouls Kirilenko pretty good. The crowd, apparently, doesn’t think it was hard enough. On the other end, Travis Outlaw nails a pull-up jumper to end the second quarter.

Also, the Jonas Brothers are coming. But not until after this co-ed halftime game of Ultimate Frisbee competition is over.

HALFTIME
The Portland Ultimate Frisbee Federation, a.k.a. PUFF. In England that would be funny.

THIRD QUARTER
I’m sorry, but Violet Palmer is falling for every trick in the book tonight. Calling it like a middle school game, where the slightest touch is a foul. And things are getting chippy with Carlos Boozer. The Jazz didn’t pick up that tech in the first half, but I still see it in the cards. And it’ll involve either Deron or Carlos. As I type this, Matt Harpring tackles a couple Blazers with a forearm, and Violet Palmer, out of position to make a call, again calls an offensive foul on Steve Blake. I’m not sure what game she’s watching, but it’s not in Portland.

8:30
One for the highlight reel. Nic Batum fumbles a pass to Brandon Roy, who in turn drops a flashy behind-the-back to Steve Blake on the arc. Blake does what you’d expect him to do: drains the corner three. Pretty stuff.

8:23
A smiling Greg Oden from days of old pops up on the big screen to direct fans’ attention at the rafters for the Wells Fargo parachute drop-thing. The chorus to Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin” plays on loop, annoying me a lot. One parachute lands on the court and an embarrassed stage hand shows up to remove it.

7:40
The Blazers are playing lock down D in the paint, from Joel Przybilla’s usual blocks to some scrappiness from LaMarc and even Brandon Roy. They’re also throwing some real dangerous passes around mid-court and getting away with them. And stealing the ball a lot. That, I swear to you, is the secret to just about every Blazers win. When they steal the ball, they find a way to win.

And bam! Just like I told ya. Steve Blake steals, takes the ball up court and makes a dangerous but gorgeous pass to LaMarc for the big one-handed slam. It’s a ballet out there, and in a few short minutes, the Blazers have stretched their lead to 21 points.

21, though, is not enough. So B-Roy kicks a quick pass to a running LaMarcus Aldridge, who flushes this one (as the kids say) with a two-handed stuff. LaMarcus and B-Roy are both over the 20 mark now.

4:55
Joel Przybilla and Carlos “Booz Cruise” Boozer get called for double technicals, then continue chatting and they are each thrown out. I’ll take that swap, though. I’ll take our number one draft pick on the floor in place of Boozer. Joel doesn’t take a lot of shit. Man, did I call that one or not? If Deron falls apart I’ll be two for two tonight.

3:18
The genesis of the Joel-Carlos trouble was Booz Cruise tossing a ball at Przybilla while he was on the ground. The Gorilla gets that an awful lot, doesn’t he? I sincerely don’t see him as a hateable guy, but I guess when you play rough you’re not going to make a lot of friends.

2:41
Jerry Sloan gets up in Ron Garretson’s face, pointing a finger right at him a couple of inches away. Sloan’s eyes are glassy and I’m hollering, wondering just how drunk he is. Sloan gets thrown out, the crowd cheers, and a media guy down the way informs me that his brother died today. That’s terrible. Jerry Sloan has had a really, really rough run lately and a blowout loss from the Blazers must seem like one more slap in the face. If I were him I wouldn’t stick around for any post-game interviews, I’d get on the bus and open up a bottle. Anyone who watches this game has an awful lot of respect for Sloan, and I hope the guy gets a few good breaks to balance out all the awfulness he’s had to put up with lately.

11.3
Channing Frye can outmanuever Andrei Kirilenko, and he does. Nice little wiggle in the paint, Chan.

FOURTH QUARTER: Blazers 94, UTAH 75
My guess, having watched Nate coach for a few seasons, is that he’s pretty nervous right now. You’ve got a playoff-bound team that just lost its coach and best forward. One would imagine that these guys are about to get pumped up. 19 points is by no means an insurmountable lead, and the Jazz have not played up to their ability thus far. Paul Milsap would be a starter on about, oh, 24 NBA teams, and he may want to prove that point right about now. Greg Oden has four fouls, and the third-string backups are largely untested.

10:55
One minute in and all is well. Channing Frye hit a nice mid-range jumper and Travis Outlaw makes a couple of free throws. Add an International House of Sergio/Batum back-door pass and alley-oop into the mix and the Blazers are up 23. Sergio is dancing around and it’s working, as he dishes the drop-off to LaMarcus for another easy flush.

8:34
The crowd started doing the wave again a couple minutes ago. I think the wave could be a factor come playoff time. “Sure, they’ve got Yao Ming, but we’ve got THE WAVE!”

Blazers up 27 points. It has been a very good week.

LaMarcus Aldridge is the leading scorer here, with 26 points, five boards and a couple of assists. He’s so fun to watch right now. I’m going to go ahead and say it: I like him more than Tyrus Thomas.

7:14
Deron Williams looks hopeless out there. He’s dribbling around, doing fancy crossovers, but there’s no one to go to. The rest of the team seems confused. They’re standing around and waiting for the ball at the perimeter.

But oh, there’s a Kyle Korver three.

Still, if the Jazz are going to wait until they’re down 29 to attempt a comeback, I don’t see it in the cards.

Oh, Kyle Korver drains another.

Blazers up 109 - 90.

4:33
On TV the Kings are playing New Orleans, and they retired Vlade Divacs’ jersey at halftime. He was out there with Doug Christie, Chris Webber and the rest of the gang. I’m reminded, as I often am, about how fleeting these guys’ careers are. Vlade had a long one, but on the sidelines with the Kings’ announcers, he looks out of place, his jaw drooping, his eyes heavy and red. He’ll never really fit anywhere but on a basketball court, and my guess is that he’ll never feel as at home as he did on the court. It’s some sad, deep shit, basketball.

2:52
Back in Portland, Greg Oden is looking like the Greg Oden we thought he might be. He shows finesse around the rim as often as brute force. It’s the fire, though, the eagerness to rebound and fight even when he misses his first attempt, that’s going to make this crowd feel good about him. And I think about Greg, 10 or 15 years on if his body can handle that kind of career, and how out-of-place he’ll seem off the court. This basketball shit is some real shit, man.

Sorry, I’ve been on a cursing tear lately. I’ll try to stop. Especially when it doesn’t make any sense.

2:07
Again, this crowd isn’t happy with anything but blood. The Blazers have this one in the bag with two minutes left, but the home crowd wants Michael Ruffin to 360 windmill over Jarron Collins, then tear his eyeballs out with a fork. That’s better than leaving the arena, I guess.

CHANNING WATCH:

Channing has four points, an assist and four fouls. So it’s hard to say, really.

1:09
Jerryd Bayless drives to the hoop and pulls a double-clutch layup while taking a lot of contact. Ball goes in. And one. Crowd gets the blood they wanted. I feel sorta sorry for Brevin Knight, but I like the move.

That’s pretty much game, folks. Hard to have an exciting end to a 20+ point blowout, but getting there was a blast. The playoffs should be a blast. And if the Blazers keep winning their division games like this (with a little help from the Nugs, who would have to do some losing), they could even wrap up home court. And tonight is more evidence of why that would be huge.

FInal score, fans, is 125 - 102. Another big Blazer win, and another fun game to watch. I hope Jerry Sloan is ok, I honestly do. He’s an old-school badass and I like him. My thoughts go out to the guy.

‘Night!

A couple of weeks ago, we made the Oregon Education Association Rogue of the Week for trying to muscle Oregon Connections Academy, an online charter school that’s liked little by the union and the Oregon Department of Education. Oregonian columnist Elizabeth Hovde followed up with a column.

Here’s an update on the situation from Rob Kremer, who is an advocate for ORCA.

Updated April 1 at 10:14:

In an email responding to request for comment on the post below, Rep. Smith points out that the bill he carried to the floor was amended on March 25, eliminating the provision the would have required those convicted of bestiality to register as sex offenders (as indicated by the brackets at the top of the “engrossed” version.) The final version of the bill deals with the seizure and forfeiture of criminally abused animals. Smith explained his brevity when introducing the bill in a House floor session yesterday:

(1) consensus bills aren’t the place for spending precious words (and I’m trying to set records for shortest carries), and (2) there was wide room for humor on the original version of the bill (mistakenly written, according to the proponents), but there was justifiable fear that none of it was appropriate.

The normally loquacious Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-East Portland) was uncharacteristically terse today when he carried House Bill 2529 (PDF) to the House floor for a third reading.

Often when lawmakers carry a bill to the floor, they’ve sponsored or co-sponsored the bill and provide their colleagues with an explanation of the bill along with a plug for its passage. Smith couldn’t sit down fast enough today, perhaps because the bill he carried wasn’t exactly filling the noblest call of public service. The measure would, among other things, require that those convicted of bestiality register as sex offenders.

“It’s a good bill, should pass,” Smith told his colleagues.

Smith, a co-founder of the Oregon Bus Project, has been described as a young man in hurry, although as this discussion from the House Judiciary Committee indicates, his assignment to carry the bill may have resulted from tardiness.

When no legislators asked any questions today on the House floor about the bill, Smith was asked if he wanted to “close” or add any other information.

“I’m good,” he said.

Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(photo courtesy East PDX News)

On President Obama’s first trip overseas, his administration has riled at least one British journalist by describing the UK as “slightly smaller than Oregon.”

As in, smaller than the most backward, insignificant state that the British public has never heard of. (Idaho, after all, had a movie named after it. The director was from Oregon, but who cares.)

U.S. correspondent Toby Harnden’s hilarious (by British standards) online piece for the Telegraph mocks an inch-thick briefing book reporters received on their White House charter flight to England.

But if Harnden took the drivel written there as an insult to Brits, self-respecting reporters might just as easily be offended by assumptions therein made about our intellect.

Harnden describes (using authentic English punctuation) the Idiot’s Guide to Britain the Obama team dished out:

The United Kingdom, we are told, is “slightly smaller than Oregon”. As for the the British climate, it is “generally mild and temperate” and “subject to frequent changes but few extremes of temperature”. A “group of islands close to continental Europe”, Britain has been “subject to many invasions and migrations”.

We’re taken through the Roman invasion (”brought more active contacts with the rest of Europe”), the Norman invasion (led to “active involvement in European affairs…for several hundred years”) and various travails with the Welsh, Scots and Irish before the British empire reached its zenith in Victorian times.

Then it all started to go wrong. “The losses and destruction of World War I, the depression of the 1930s, and decades of relatively slow growth eroded the United Kingdom’s preeminent international position of the previous century”.

No more mention of Oregon, which admittedly has played a rather small role in British history.

Now that Commissioner Randy Leonard is officially a part of the 21st century with his new blog, he’s using it in Portland-rific fashion to “push back,” as the locals call it, against critics who dislike his efforts [PDF] to take control of the “Made in Oregon” sign.

His savvy internetness ways (which produced the photo illustration above) have convinced at least one subset of the Facebook generation — the editorial board of the University of Oregon’s newspaper, The Oregon Daily Emerald– to friend him, as it were.

As if seemingly “lame duck” Oregon men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent didn’t have enough problems, now there’s this duck and goose-shooting incident that allegedly involves three of his players.

And that of course makes us wonder — given the Ducks’ woeful 40 percent shooting this equally woeful season — whether the ducks and geese really ever had to worry about getting hit.

The term “green” can mean just about anything and often carries about as much weight as a bundle of balloons.

But in America’s never-ending quest to quantify sustainability, Nalgene has released America’s Least Wasteful City Study. And sure enough, Portland ranks third overall on the list compiled by the reusable container company, behind only San Francisco and New York City.

The study focused on 23 waste or waste-saving habits, ranging from shopping practices and transportation, to recycling and energy use.  U.S. cities were compared against one another with a sampling of 3,750 individuals questioned. 

Portland ranked #1 in seven categories, including buying second-hand products, purchasing locally grown food and using reusable containers. Also, 78 percent of Portlanders considered themselves “eco-conscious” and 88 percent of us plan on doing more for the environment next year.

Inside the limitless universe that is your head, conjure up the most perfect item that you could buy, beg or steal for your girlfriend/sister/best friend’s birthday. Now multiply that item by about 5,000 and you have Crafty Wonderland, the second-Sunday DIY craft fair held in the basement of the Doug Fir Lounge. How did we ever get through Christmas without it? Has it only been three years since its miraculous inception?

Come celebrate Crafty Wonderland’s 3rd birthday this weekend, with 40 of its most talented artists and vendors (including Kate Bingaman-Burt and Jill Bliss, whose slim wallet is pictured above). Sublime Stitching, the Austin, TX-based indie sewing institution, will also be handing out freebies. That’s all in addition to “special surprises,” according to the press release. Never fear. I doubt that these surprises will involve wedgies.

The other remarkable thing taking place at the birthday extravaganza will be the presence of Faythe Levine, the director of the documentary Handmade Nation. Handmade Nation will hold its Northwest premier on Friday, April 3rd, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, and Levine is sticking around until Sunday to talk about her film and sign copies of the accompanying book. (Check out tomorrow’s edition of WW for a Q&A with the writer/documentarian). Presumably Levine will able to hang out with some of the crafty superstars that she has featured in the film, of which Bliss and Bingaman-Burt are two. Handmade Nation will also be taking over the free DIY table, with a project hosted by Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty and Jen Neitzel of DIY Lounge.

So what are you waiting for? That perfect scarf/sweater/T-shirt won’t just spontaneously bust into existence, like the Big Bang. And the organizers have courteously moved from the second Sunday to the first, so you can scrounge up some, I don’t know, egg-shaped doohickeys for Easter. Come to Crafty Wonderland this weekend and check it out!

Crafty Wonderland’s 3rd Birthday Extravaganza, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E. Burnside, 231-9663, 11 am-4 pm Sunday, April 5. Free.

The background on why those community members are supporting LEP is in the above link. Suffice it to say, PPS was threatening to close LEP because of “financial difficulties” at the school. According to a summer audit, LEP High had a $143,000 deficit. But administrators from the charter school have said that figure was outdated; last week they put the deficit closer to $60,000 and said they were about to finish paying it off through massive fundraising that’s included ads on TV. (In operation since 2006, LEP had to go before the board on Monday for its three-year review process, as mandated by state law.)

Martín González, who’s up for re-election in May, was the only board member to vote against killing the school’s charter. The rest of the board voted to kill the charter, with some members urging LEP High to appeal the board’s decision when it could demonstrate its finances were in order. LEP High may do that as soon as this week.

A number of items came before the board Monday night that caused LEP supporters to grumble. Let’s take those issues, board member by board member:

Bobbie Regan said the way PPS shares anti-poverty dollars with charter schools “does seem inherently unfair.” Let’s use LEP as an example. The school says more than 60 percent of its students qualify as low-income. The district-wide average for PPS is 17 percent. Yet LEP gets anti-poverty funding as if it, too, had 17 percent — not 60 percent of students in poverty. “That’s not a Portland Public Schools issue, that’s a state issue,” Regan claimed.

Sonja Henning was on the verge of recognizing the holes in Regan’s claim, for a moment appearing poised to ask the right question: Does PPS keep the money that poor kids at LEP bring to the district? It took Superintendent Carole Smith to frame the question. But once she did, she acted as though she regretted it. “It’s a state issue,” Smith said. “So is that a no?” Henning asked. “I’m not asking to raise flares. The facts are what they are.”

That’s when Trudy Sargent, who’s running unopposed in her May re-election, chimed in. State law doesn’t let the district do anything different with anti-poverty dollars, she claimed.

Ruth Adkins then made a doozy of a statement. She said making sure charter schools and other public schools had equal funding would have “ramifications.” Like, maybe, equity?! I thought “equity” was PPS’s favorite word, after “green,” “sustainable” and “stable.” Sheesh.

David Wynde let it be known he didn’t appreciate LEP High supporters’ email blast denouncing PPS’s decision as if the district were the villain in this scenario. “There’s a need and a lot of evidence to show this school is a success,” he said. But, the business side of the school hasn’t been working, he added. And, “it’s not either or.” Both the educational program and the business component of a charter school must be viable. LEP, Wynde said, didn’t meet numerous deadlines to support its charter school re-application. And for that reason he was voting no.

Henning spoke again at this point. And while some people thought she might have been a dissenting vote in this decision, she said she was supporting the resolution. “This is purely a management issue,” she said. “We shouldn’t be at this point.” Unfortunately, Henning was also responsible for the most awkward moment of the night. When she indicated again she would be supporting the resolution, students in the audience clapped loudly, momentarily confused about what “supporting” the resolution meant. Ack.

Dilafruz Williams voted against LEP High in 2006 when it first went before the board. She praised the students from LEP that she’s met over the years. Then she voted to close their school.

Hunter is a nationally respected dramaturg, editor, playwright, writer and promoter of new work. He commissioned several new plays for the company, including Naomi Iizuka’s 36 Views, still one of the finest productions I’ve seen on a Portland stage.

Ward, a 25-year-old director and dramaturg, has served several roles with the company, from assistant director to dramaturg to casting coordinator.

In a press release yesterday, PCS PR Manager Trisha Pancio wrote, “Our current situation is not dire- it is in fact better than most of our colleagues across the country. But Chris and Greg are absolutely determined to make sure that we can make the hard cuts now so that we do not end up having to make truly damaging cuts later if the economy takes longer to recover than we all hope.”

Portland Center Stage isn’t alone in suffering—Artists Repertory Theatre eliminated at least one position last summer, Oregon Shakespeare Festival cut its budget by $1 million in October and Blue Monkey Theater’s Artistic Director, John Monteverde, has been working without a salary. Other cultural nonprofits, from museums to libraries, have seen even more severe cuts.

The company still has nearly $9 million left to raise to pay for the Gerding Theater at the Armory.

On his blog, Hunter attributed the elimination of his job to “a series of disastrous budgeting miscalculations paired with the moribund global economy,” and wrote that he plans to stay in Portland and work as an editor. I hope so—he’s a treasure, beloved by many in the community, and the sadness and anger at his dismissal is evident on blogs like Followspot. Ben Plont, a local actor and director, is calling for a boycott.

I’ve asked PCS for more details, and will update when they respond.

UPDATE: Pancio writes, “Over the course of this season there’s been at least one staff position eliminated through attrition or layoff from nearly every department.

It’s incredibly serious, and it just shows that we are dealing with the exact same issues of how to survive the downturn with core functions intact as other arts institutions locally and nationally. Ironically, we are dealing with this in spite of this season being the 2nd best season for single ticket sales on record (the first best being the Cabaret season).”

She adds, “JAW is funded and will happen this year no matter what.” Good news, amidst a lot of bad.

It’s been more than four years since Phish left the stage in Vermont in what was supposed to be their last show ever.

But the band is reuniting to the glee of its “phans,” planning a 25-show summer tour in 18 venues nationwide. The tour includes two shows at the Gorge Amphitheatre. Tickets for those Gorge shows went on sale last Friday at noon. But many eager phans were angry to learn tickets sold out in less than five minutes, only to re-appear immediately on Ticketmaster-owned web sites at prices inflated by scalpers.

Alan Shoaff says he waited patiently at his computer the morning the tickets went on sale. At noon he put in his order through Ticketmaster.com and waited. Within a few minutes the result came back; the show was completely sold out and he was directed to another website owned by Ticketmaster.

There, users are buying and selling tickets at prices that have skyrocketed from $49.95 to between $100 and $600.

“It is ridiculous because this is a form of scalping,” Shoaff says. “This is supposed to be a celebration this summer. We’ve waited for years, but instead we are all getting shut out.”

Even at Ticketmaster locations there are no guarantees. According to an online discussion on Craigslist, one Ticketmaster location only served eight people before the tickets were gone. Dozens more who had waited in line got nothing.

Phish, which has a notorious anti-scalper attitude, responded to earlier complaints when its tickets were released for a show in Colorado. “The high demand for the tickets on Phish’s return has overwhelmed the prevailing ticketing systems and revealed their flaws. We are putting pressure on the ticketing providers to improve their systems,” they stated via their website last week.

In the meantime, for those phans who were hoping to be swimming in tickets, it seems like the Phish pond has run dry.

The Bus Project last night won two Pollie Awards, which — while not quite as well-known as an Academy Award — is a big deal for anyone involved in political campaigns.

The awards from the American Association of Political Consultants honored the Bus Project for mobilizing thousands of young voters with its Trick or Vote  campaign on Halloween to get people to vote. That program won the Bus Project two Pollie awards: Best Volunteer Recruitment and Best Use of Humor in an Automated Call.

A short Bus Project-produced film,  “Maybe it’s Your Civic Duty Not to Vote,” was also nominated for an award after slapping John Stossel’s mustache off his face in response to his 20/20 segment encouraging young people to stay home on election day.

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Of course, we’ve always known the Bus Project knows what it’s doing.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman has an interesting take on Portland’s soccer plans and the all-important $15 million hole in those plans.

Merritt Paulson, the Timbers’ owner and son of Hank Paulson, says it’s the city’s obligation to fill the $15 million hole — not his.

But when Saltzman spoke with WW this morning, he said the opposite — that there was no obligation from the city to find public money to fill the funding gap. Saltzman created the gap when he introduced an amendment that pulled a new urban renewal district around PGE Park from the plan.

Given that Saltzman is the crucial third vote on the five-person City Council (both Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish voted against the proposal), Saltzman’s thinking on the matter would seem to matter more than Paulson’s.

It’s also worth noting that Saltzman brought up naming rights at PGE Park this morning as a possible source of funding for Paulson. In 2000, PGE agreed to pay $8.5 million over the course of 10 years for the right to have its name on what used to be Civic Stadium. Paulson says the $800,000 he still collects from PGE each year for that right helps him cover his $900,000 annual rent from the city. The original deal with PGE expires next year.

Coming Up Easy, the first feature film by local filmmaker Rebecca A. Rodriguez, debuted in 2004 and won a few awards, including Best Feature Film at the Reel Women International Film Festival in 2005. As any indie filmmaker knows, awards do not necessarily mean that a film does not suck. Coming Up Easy, whose title is a reference to bulimia, is saved from the land of suck by two factors. One factor is the fantastic acting of Anya Profumo as heroine Lily Garcia. The other factor is the plain, painful realism of most of the script’s dialogue.

Lily is a woman with a abusive past, who has managed to eke out a life for herself in Portland, Oregon. She works as a cashier in a thrift store. She is mildly bulimic. Her only friend is Alfred, the Magical Homeless Black Person, whom she regularly meets in the Title Wave Bookstore so that they can quote cryptic one-line verses at each other. Her long-suffering boyfriend, Michael, has a receding hairline. But her fragile contentment is shattered by the arrival of her sister Denice (Pam Mahon), who has been evicted from her house in Sacramento, California. Denice drives up from California with her abusive, drug-dealing husband Kyle (David A. Greene) and their passel of pierced, feral children.

If you are at all well-adjusted, you will find yourself screaming “Why, why, why??!!” throughout this film. Lily has a gun that she constantly fantasizes about using, if only to force Kyle to leave the house. Instead, she passively watches Kyle deal drugs, leave needles on the counter, and, oh, beat the crap out of her sister. She repays Michael for his constant, loving support by screaming at him when he gets peanut butter on her spoon. You can do better, Michael! Why, why, why??!!

You know that a movie is full of messed-up characters when the only person who makes a lick of sense is Denice and Lily’s chain-smoking, soap-watching Dragon Lady of a mom (Meg Foster). She urges Denice to leave her husband and tells Lily to stop puking, and for this advice Lily moans that Mom is totally insane. She may be, but not more so than anyone else.

Still, Anya Profumo as Lily exudes a lush, knowing world-weariness that transcends the lunacy of her actions. And for all its drama, the actors have no problem inhabiting the script. In one scene, Kyle has called the cops on himself. As Denice gasps, between laughter, “He’s a f*cking idiot!”, we, and Lily, realize the real joke: She is staying with this idiot. It’s only when Rodriguez attempts to devolve into poetry that the dialogue falls flat. “When I try to talk to her, her head falls in her hands. Like the head of a broken flower,” Lily confides in Alfred. Do elderly black people ever have other things to do than nod sagely while young white folks decompress? Who knows?

One reason indie films are appealing is because they looks and feels like real life. Coming Up Easy was made for a half-million, with actors, sets and dialogue that look and sound like places we’ve been. Granted, you would hope that no one you knew had been through abuse, bulimia, and more abuse. But on the plus side, if you need a wake-up call to figure out that hey, your life isn’t so bad, you now know where to go.

Coming Up Easy opened at Living Room Theaters (341 SW 10th Ave) on March 27. Showtimes available at www.livingroomtheaters.com.

It’s not everyday that mild-mannered Earl Blumenauer gets compared to Charles Bronson.

But the Christian Science Monitor, in this piece on Twittering politicians, says the Portland Democrat stalks his Twittering prey — be it Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or Arizona Sen. John McCain — just like Bronson.

Unless they have a death wish, let this be a warning to all AIG execs.

The article, “Suicide claims UP senior: Well-respected student was marketing management major, active on campus,” was also pulled from www.upbeacon.net. Later, the entire edition of the Beacon — which devoted a separate story to another campus tragedy, the case of a missing freshman — was removed from the newspaper’s website.

A Beacon editor with the paper says administrators called the article on the student’s death “distasteful and sensationalistic,” although the story does not describe the details of the student’s death, only that he took his own life. The University of Portland is a private, Catholic institution, and suicide is against the teachings of the Catholic church.

Students say the story was respectful and that university officials are squashing their First Amendment rights.

The newspaper is not the only student group to face censorship. In 2004, UP threatened to pull funding from a campus group that wanted to stage a production of The Vagina Monologues.

A spokesman for the university was not immediately available for comment.

Remember those endless attack ads between then-Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and then Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley? The ones that made you so sick you killed your TV during their 2008 U.S. Senate race and didn’t buy a new one till Obama’s inaugural address?

Now the winner of that race, Merkley, emailed supporters today seeking their help to pay for those attack ads and retire his campaign debt. Merkley’s re-election fight in 2014 is just around the corner, after all.

Sure, Senator, never mind that you’ve been in office less than three months. Take our last $5 and retire that debt. We’ve got plenty of cash.

Here’s the email we received today from Merkley. The subject: “I Need Your Help.”

Dear Friend,

Because of your support, we won one of the toughest races in the country last November.  Your trust keeps me focused and working hard every day to get our country back on track.

But as a result of the millions of dollars in attack ads that my opponent and right-wing outside groups ran against me in the 2008 election cycle, my campaign had to go into debt in order to keep fighting.

Please help me retire my debt.  Make a contribution today!

During the campaign I promised you that I would fight to make our government work for working Americans again.  And so far, we’re off to a good start.  We have already begun putting America back on track in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

We’ve passed the badly needed economic recovery bill and increased America’s investment in education, infrastructure and energy. We’ve also passed tax cuts for working individuals and families and helped states avoid some draconian cuts to health care, education, and programs that are essential for our most vulnerable citizens.  We won’t be able to undo the damage of the last eight years overnight, but we are now on the right path.

I promise that I will continue this fight each and every day I serve in the U.S. Senate.

I’m asking you, Friend, to help me retire my campaign debt by making a contribution of  $50, $25 or $10.

Thank you for your generosity,

Senator Jeff Merkley

In that way, a fund-raising walk, like the 2009 Walk MS Portland, is a middle finger from the victims, to a disease that would like to render them disfigured or crippled. Yes, MS is bad, but it’s not the sum total of your identity. A press release from from the Oregon chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to WW gave “another side of the story:

“I’m so tired of MS being so negative,” says Sandy [WHO HAS MS].  “Oprah recently did a segment with Montel Williams on MS, and everything he said was true, about the spasms and pain, but every case of MS is so different.  I had a ton of people calling me after that, telling me how sorry and unaware they were of the pain I was going through—but that’s not my life.”

The 2009 Walk MS Portland will be held on Saturday, April 4, starting at Pioneer Courthouse Square (715 SW Morrison St). Registration opens at 8 am for the 10 am. While registration to walk is free, prize levels start with a minimum donation of $75. For more information, see www.walkMSoregon.com or call 800-344-4867.

Photo courtesy markthehat, Flickr.com

So, while I love the sheer size of a bacon cheese Whataburger, the waste that goes along with it made me miss the environmentally conscious Burgerville, which recently started using compostable straws (I swear that if you chew on them for long enough they taste like corn) and has always been vocal about using local and organic food products. They’ve got a whole web page on its super-bitchin’ website devoted to some of these ideas. The composting projects began a couple of years ago on the back-end, as the website says:

In 2007, Burgerville launched an employee-led composting and recycling program that will be in place in all 39 restaurants by the end of 2008. The goal is to reduce the volume of restaurant-generated waste that goes to local landfills by 85%. To reach that goal,, employees at each restaurant determine how and what to compost and recycle, and work with the program manager to coordinate training and managing the separate waste pickups. The organic waste is transformed into nutrient-rich material that becomes available for use in gardens and fields. Paper, plastic and metals are recycled into numerous products.

But until recently—aside from some literature printed on napkin dispensers and window posters—the customer hasn’t really been hit over the head with Burgerville’s eco-conscious business philosophy.

Then this morning, I stopped into the Rose Quarter area Burgerville whilst waiting for a bus. And near the front door, a confused-looking dude in a paint-splattered ball cap looked quizzically at the spot where the trash can used to be. “It’s a little confusing, but you’ll get it,” the woman behind the counter told him. After some instruction on where to put his soda cup, she turned to take my order. “Sorry, we just started composting.”

Not only does the Burgerville on MLK now offer customers composting, it’s making it near-impossible to avoid. Gone are the big fast food trash cans, replaced by multi-colored bins with photos and instructions written on them. Observe:

As you can see, Burgerville is giving its customers explicit instructions on what to toss and what to reuse. Especially interesting to me is the throw-away bin. Using the word “Landfill” and coloring the bin black make me think that I’m doing something wrong by putting anything in that bin. Whereas the compost bin is all green and has that cute little triangle logo and everything. The recycle bin looks sort of like a Willamette Week box (side note: WW uses recycled paper, which is why the print sometimes looks terrible. Earth crusaders care not for print quality, thank you very much!).

It sounds weird, but I’m proud of Burgerville. The company is basically forcing environmentalism on its dine-in customers, and it will now be impossible to eat at Burgerville without thinking, momentarily, at least, about the environmental impact of food packaging. The question is whether anyone will take the time to put their waste in the right bins. A quick inspection of the contents of each led me to believe that folks will get it right about 80% of the time. Which probably sucks for employees. But they can sleep well knowing that their company is at least trying to get fast food on the right track.

If this experiment works, what’s to keep the state of Oregon from forcing big chain fast-food companies to institute the same kind of composting programs? Perhaps that’s a pipe dream, but it’s a huge breath of fresh air for me to see that a company, not a state government, is coming up with ways to make its business more sustainable.

And the employees seem like they’re on board. The young lady who took my order said the chain was “trying to figure out what to do with the cups.” If you’ll notice in the photo above, the chain’s cups—and the little ranch packets and such—are about the last bastion of non-eco-friendly packaging they use.

The knock, of course, is that your average Burgerville meal is a buck or two more than its counterpart at a Wendy’s or (shudder) Jack In The Box. But man, I’m pretty stoked to have that money wind up in the hands of people who seem not totally evil.

I also like the fries.

Commissioner Randy Leonard says the proposal for plugging the $15 million hole in the financial plan now includes raising the ticket surcharge at PGE Park and the new baseball stadium above 7 percent and imposing a new food-and-beverage tax at the two stadiums.

I just asked Mayor Sam Adams if the proposal for a new food-and-beverage tax would extend to the Rose Garden. And while he did not say yes, he also did not say no. “We don’t know,” he said.