Skip to main contentWINNERS
Though news that the feds are watching an Islamic charity based in Ashland unleashed waves of SHEER PANIC and UNBRIDLED TERROR, Oregonians should rest easy. Their beloved state landed some $32 million in homeland-security funds, courtesy Congress. Why, with that kind of bankroll, Bruce Wayne could redecorate the Bat Cave.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski totally scored when Oregon's biggest business lobby, Associated Oregon Industries, gave him a bitchin' $400,000 mobile home to ride around the state in. The 40-foot pleasure cruiser, modified to include a love seat and wireless Internet access, can accommodate 15 passengers and is officially way sweet.
Heavily armed high-school sweethearts everywhere basked in victory when a judge tossed a case against Parkrose High students Meuy Saechao and Alex Coopersmith. Portland cops found an arsenal of semiautomatic rifles and a trove of pot brownies in Saechao's bedroom, but His Honor decided the Finest lacked legal authority for the search.
People who like small, colorful trains celebrated, as the city gave a green light to the proposed Streetcar extension to the new RiverPlace development. The $15.6 million project will add six-tenths of a mile of track to the car's route and will be carting people to the land between a major freeway and a Superfund site by March 2005.
LOSERS
Portland drivers suffered at the hands of "America's mayor" on Monday morning. Visiting potentate turned motivational speaker Rudy Giuliani apparently brings New York City traffic with him wherever he goes--security concerns snarled I-84 and other thoroughfares.
Do we need some accounting lessons at City Hall? The City of Portland discovered last week that it will rake in about $2.7 million less in property taxes than it expected to. Back in September, Mayor Vera Katz announced that everything was looking good, budget-wise. Whoops.
Frozen-treat manufacturer Rainbow Glacier took a frosty slap from the EPA last week. Sure, $9,851 seems like a small price to pay for letting 1,200 pounds of ammonia seep into the Vancouver soil. But the company has also agreed to shell out about 18 grand for new safety equipment.
Even though it waltzed to victory in last week's public-power election, Portland General Electric finds itself hurting in the pocketbook. PGE was ordered to revise its rates or offer refunds on money it's been charging for the long-defunct Trojan nuke plant.
WWeek 2015