Murmurs: Cashing In Our Egg McMuffin Vouchers.

1. The long-awaited findings of an Oregon Department of Justice criminal investigation into former Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen’s affair with former county staffer Sonia Manhas are nearly complete. WW has learned that part of the reason the investigation is taking so long is that investigators looked into alleged illegal drug use by Cogen. WW has confirmed the DOJ questioned Cogen’s associates about his alleged drug use based on information from a witness. Cogen—who in July said he welcomed the DOJ investigation—has refused to speak to DOJ investigators. His attorney, Janet Hoffman, declined to comment, as did the DOJ.

1. At the Oregon State Bar’s annual meeting Nov. 1 in Wilsonville, delegates were scheduled to vote whether to support  same-sex marriage. But so many delegates left the gathering early that the bar could not hold a binding vote. That failure angered members of OGALLA, the LGBT Bar Association of Oregon. “OGALLA and many members of the Oregon State Bar were very disappointed that the delegates didn’t have the chance to support marriage equality,” says OGALLA co-chairwoman Trish Walsh. Walsh says she hopes the bar will take another crack at the issue.

1. The campaign to legalize marijuana in Oregon next year is turning into a big-bucks effort. The group New Approach Oregon has reported spending nearly $100,000 on the lobbying firm Oxley & Associates and has hired high-profile political consultants Mark Wiener and Liz Kaufman to run a 2014 ballot measure should the Legislature fail to refer legalization. This week, Phil Harvey, who parlayed a fortune made in porn to become one of the world’s largest nonprofit purveyors of birth-control devices, became the latest tycoon to ante up, giving $50,000 to New Approach Oregon.

1. From the department of shameless self-promotion: Longtime WW co-owner and Editor Mark Zusman was inducted Nov. 1 into the University Oregon School of Journalism and Communication’s Hall of Achievement. Zusman, poet and author Madeline DeFrees, and Roberta Conner, who runs the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute in Pendleton, were honored for “their outstanding accomplishments and exceptional contributions to the field of journalism and the communities in which they live.”

WWeek 2015