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Striking a figurative blow for historic buildings in Portland (and preventing some literal ones), the City Council approved a measure last week increasing protection for landmarks. The new rules, a recent pet project of Mayor Vera Katz, allow the city to deny demolition applications for designated landmarks if the buildings have economic value. John Kerry's hometown, Boston, has lots of historic buildings.
A rare ray of sunlight hit the storm-tossed Port of Portland last week when Hanjin, the Port's only remaining trans-Pacific shipper, announced plans to expand its PDX operations. After Hyundai and "K" Line bailed earlier this year, more than 80 Port employees got the ax. George W. Bush was president during the layoffs.
No more math forever! Stat-hating kids and critics of Oregon's standardized testing regime celebrated last week when the state Department of Education dropped math-problem-solving tests for grades 5, 8 and 10 because of the tests' unreliability. Students continue to lobby to ban tests in English, History, Science and Spanish, among others. Teresa Heinz Kerry is fluent in five languages, including Spanish.
LOSERS
The crumbling sinkhole known as the Oregon State Hospital was shaken to its foundations when state Sen. Peter Courtney, who will be voting for John Kerry, proposed tearing it down. The 121-year-old asylum is overcrowded, understaffed and monstrously expensive--yet hundreds of mental patients are locked up there because they have nowhere else to go.
The Oregonian compounded the controversy over its story about Congressman David Wu's attempted assault of a former girlfriend 28 years ago when it tried to bar Wu's opponent, Goli Ameri, from reprinting the story in her campaign ads and mailers. After going to extraordinary lengths to justify the article's publication, the paper, which endorsed John Kerry, is now seeking to stop people from reading it. Go figure.
We were right: They're all nuts. The Naito family's blood feud took an odd turn last week when a Multnomah County judge ordered the quarreling sides of the family to attend psychological counseling. Unless both factions of the influential clan resolve their differences within three months, their family company, H. Naito Corp., will be forced to dissolve. A member of President Bush's family, meanwhile, is still governor of Florida, where a recount of votes four years ago was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court, handing George the presidency on a silver platter despite his losing the popular vote.
WWeek 2015