Really scary.

The cleanout of holdover stinkers in the Portland "urban renewal" bureaucracy continues, as Norris Lozano, the "colorful" head of the shadowy "Portland Family of Funds," has reportedly taken a hike. The story in Willy does not discuss whether he ever paid those tens of thousands in taxes that the State of Oregon was after him for. But someone by the same name (although listing a different employer) had a couple of thou for Gordon Smith, I see.

You think our sheriff's nuts? Here's a kindred soul of his down south. (Via Joe Wilson.)

Beautiful stuff.

If you don't mind letting the black ones cross your path, there's a group holding a confab tonight on what to do about stray and feral cats in your neck of the woods. Described as a "teach-in," this one's going to be at the Potrland Central Library, starting at 6:00. They say they'll have refreshments as well as videos on trapping and neutering these furry creatures, and returning them to the outdoors. Meow!

Here's one for the ages. As the City of Portland goes broke, it's now running out to enter into a no-bid contract to install electronic sensors in the downtown parking garages that will tell how many open spaces there are in the garages at any given time.

The results will then be flashed on an electronic sign on the Morrison Bridge.

How have we lived all these years without this essential service? And the company that's getting the no-bid deal? An outfit called DGM Systems. This is the same outfit that peddled all the "smart" parking meters around the city's core. Lo and behold, at least at one time DGM was reportedly controlled by the then-mayor of Seattle, Paul Schell.

Here's an upcoming event I wish I didn't have to miss. While federal regulators continue to fight the Whole Foods-Wild Oats merger, the lawyers behind the deal are holding a half-day seminar in New York to brag about their work.

Not one but two Oregonians mentioned in this editorial in today's Times.

The morally and politically dead shall speak.

If you're a regular flyer on Horizon Airlines, this story can't make you too comfortable.

Edwards won the debate. Hillary lost.

On Monday, we relayed an e-mail that a reader had sent us about the infamous cheer that O columnist Renee Mitchell had reported about in her ill-advised column about supposed racism in the opposition to the renaming of Interstate Avenue after Cesar Chavez. The thrust of the e-mail message was that the cheer had been in response to a speaker's complaint about the lack of a fair process in the decision-making, rather than any threat never to call MLK Boulevard by its real name.

But the reader had her dates mixed up. She said that the cheer had gone up at an Oct. 9 meeting, when the Mitchell column had been published on the 8th. That couldn't be right, and so we e-mailed her pointing out the discrepancy. Here's part of her reply:

Mea culpa -- I've attended so many meetings and read so much on this issue, I got my timelines mixed up....

Here is a transcript of the comment on which Mitchell reported, made at the first public comment meeting on Wed Oct 3. There were big cheers at the end -- but I doubt seriously they were in response to the Union Avenue statement made early in this individual's comment.

From digital recording of 3 October 2007 meeting at Ockley Green School. Recording captured by a local journalist. Editorial comments in ( ), audience responses noted in [ ].

“My name is John Rinehold (spelling?) and I support honoring Cesar Chavez. I oppose changing any more Portland streets. We were surprised by the Rosa Parks change. I even oppose renaming Union because these are streets that were part of Portland’s history and Portland’s character [silence from audience], and I challenge anyone here who is talking about how this will be a great memorial and encourage people and help people with knowing about their culture to tell me all the information about McLaughlin, Couch, Ankeny, uh, Pettygrove. All of these people have streets named after them. Where’s their history? How do kids aspire to be like McLaughlin? Nobody cares. Kids don’t care what a street is named. Kids have no idea what it means.

What I would like to see is something that is more appropriate, something that meets an honor. Naming a street, especially a street that is, I don’t know, maybe average, people -- people won’t even know why it was renamed. It will eventually fade into the sands of time.

I also would like to point out that it is not a very democratic process when we’re allowed to see a presentation that supports the name change but no presentation at all that speaks about the history of Interstate Avenue, the history of Portland, or any of the opposition.” [applause, cheers from crowd]

Another miserable outcome for me in the pro football underdog pool last weekend. Oakland -- yeah, right.

We're starting to get a bit desperate here, people, but if you see a winner in caps here, let me know. They have to win their game outright -- the points are just there to tell you what I'll win if I pick the underdog and it wins that game:

9 BALTIMORE at Pittsburgh
7 MINNESOTA vs. San Diego
5.5 INDIANAPOLIS vs. New England
4 CAROLINA at Tennessee
3.5 NEW YORK JETS vs. Washington
3.5 ARIZONA at Tampa Bay
3.5 JACKSONVILLE at New Orleans
3 DENVER at Detroit
3 PHILADELPHIA vs. Dallas
3 HOUSTON at Oakland
3 SAN FRANCISCO at Atlanta
2 GREEN BAY at Kansas City
1 BUFFALO vs. Cincinnati
1 SEATTLE at Cleveland

My guesses off the top of my head are Indy or Minny at home. Given how far behind I've fallen in the rankings, any game under 3.5 points probably isn't worth my taking unless it's the only sure thing up there. And none of those dogs looks that good to my untrained eye. As always, however, I am open to expert suggestion.

Here's some medical news from earlier this month that you'd think I would have heard about by now.

This one's in the Washington State Assembly.

Check me out aquí.

Now that OHSU has a health club and aerial tram, it's suddenly discovered that it's out of money. In today's paper, the president of the institution (who makes what? $600,000 a year?) seems to be saying that it has only enough funding to run for another 20 months.

No OHSU after June 30, 2009?

Looks like a bailout is in order. Will they go for it in the upcoming "special" session of the Legislature, or wait until the next "regular" session? And how much will they try to bully the City of Portland's taxpayers into paying?

Hold onto your wallets, folks, because the bill for this one is going to be a doozy. We can't let OHSU fail. It must become a world-class biotech and nanotech center, creating thousands and thousands of new jobs and serving all the poor Oregonians who presently suffer without health care.

Like the tram, it's the linchpin of the state's economy! Without pumping more money into OHSU, we are all quite clearly doomed.

Those who have been following the Interstate Avenue-Cesar Chavez Boulevard renaming flap here in Portland will find some familiar arguments in this story about a renaming issue down in Palo Alto.

You're up against the wall now. Bernie's going down, but you know he won't go quietly. Margie's been talking. Leonhardt passed the lie detector, and his story is checking out.

You're not going to lie to the state bar, are you? Don't do it, man. It's not worth it.

The high-tech, vibrant, creative, sustainable Shangri-La known as the SoWhat district is shaping up to be a colossal bust. Not only are the condos not selling, but now the big OHSU campus that was going to be the only interesting thing about the place has been placed on indefinite hold as well:

OHSU President Joe Robertson told The Oregonian that the university has sufficient resources for the next 20 months, but that its current financial course is "not sustainable."

Robertson declined to speculate how the university might address the growing losses or say whether cost-cutting alone could close the gap. OHSU will complete unfinished space in its new hospital wing, he said, because that will bring additional profits. But the university will not go forward with other plans, including a medical school campus on Portland's waterfront, until it stabilizes its finances.

"We cannot embark on development that will strain our finances," said Robertson, president since September 2006. "Our university has to be self-sustaining."

Now that the intellectual property goons at Boston Beer are backing off their absurd bullying of KEX's Mark and Dave over the frivolous claim of trademark infringement involving their Sam Adams-related web domains, it's time to move on to Phase 2 of the Boycott Sam Adams movement.

And that, of course, is to boycott the candidate as well as the beer.

Picture where we'll be a year and half from now, with Sam the Tram at the helm of our leaky municipal ship. More Jim Francesconi, Vera Katz, Homer Williams, Gerding and Edlen -- only less stable. Hundreds of millions more will be wasted -- all of it borrowed. The heavy loads of bullpuckey emanating from City Hall will get denser, and more odiferous. The caricature that the city has already become will become so extreme that even the east coast groovy people (whose opinions matter more around here than those of the folks who pay the taxes) will start to poke fun.

The public debt will break $10,000 per resident. The monthly mortgage payments will eat up almost all of the city's property tax revenues. Basic services will decline even faster than they have in the Potter years.

The whole place will become as unstable as the man himself. The stage will be set for a major breakdown.

So boycott the other Sam Adams, too. Boycott the stupid gas tax "town halls," and dead bicyclist press conferences, and tram rescue stunts. Tell him what we told the corporate bullies at the beer company: No thanks.

The O's posted the lengthy draft report on the state investigation into the hot pants of Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto. The full document is here. The executive summary by O reporter Les Zaitz is here.

Some lowlights:

▪ He knew about Neil.

▪ He told Fred Leonhardt about Neil.

▪ The former Mrs. Neil ratted Bernie out, but she won't say what she told him.

▪ There's evidence that Bernie lied about Jeddeloh and his wife.

Hey, "Dallas" is gone, but we'll always have Portland.

The state said Giusto wouldn't sign an affidavit swearing to his statements and wouldn't submit to a polygraph examination.

We have an unconfirmed report that the meanies at Boston Beer are dropping their trademark complaints about the Sam Adams for Mayor internet domains. More details as they become available.

No problem.

Our recently added City of Portland Debt-O-Meter (a fixture to our upper left sidebar) has become one of our favorite toys ever, but it's had its drawbacks. First of all, it's been static -- the numbers haven't changed automatically to reflect debt and population trends. And second, the data on the meter has been old.

The police and fire unfunded pension liability figure that we've had posted was as of June 30, 2006, as was the city population figure. The long-term bonds and interim debt figure was more current; it went back only to October 3 of this year.

But we all know that the current numbers are higher than that. As we discussed in this post, over the last seven years the police and fire pension liability has been growing at a rate of 9.16 percent a year; the long-term bonds and interim financing, at a rate of 5.18 percent a year; and the population at a rate of 1.32 percent a year. Thus, the numbers on the meter have been too low.

That changed, as of this morning. Introducing the all-new, self-updating City of Portland Debt-O-Meter, now posted for your perusal! This thing looks at the time on your computer and brings you up-to-the-minute estimated tallies of all the relevant figures -- including the debt share of each Portland resident (almost $8,108 at this writing). It updates itself every 30 seconds, or you can just click below the meter, where indicated, to have it update instantly.

As new city financial statements and population figures come out, we'll update the baseline entries with new hard numbers. But in the meantime, these should be pretty good estimates of where we stand. I'm sure the City Hall apologists will wrack their brains trying to figure out a way to debunk these numbers. If they can come up with a convincing case to change them, we'll gladly do so.

But I doubt they will.

So everybody have fun with the new and improved City of Portland Debt-O-Meter!

An alert reader points out that the inevitable coronation of Sam the Tram as Portland's next mayor is sure to bring at least one familiar face back onto the scene -- and we don't mean that in a good way. Here's a photo out of the current Sellwood Bee of the Tramster's announcement party at Roots Brewing. Look who's lining up for his PDC chairmanship:

If you don't think the worst excess of the Vera Era are about to resume, you're not paying attention. The only one missing (at least, never photographed) will be Goldschmidt.

In case you missed it, there was a big writeup of running great Alberto Salazar in yesterday's Times.

One of the mysteries of the latest Renee Mitchell incident was exactly what it was at a recent public meeting on the proposed Interstate Avenue name change that made the audience cheer the loudest. Ms. Mitchell originally indicated that it was someone refusing to call MLK Boulevard by its right name, but she later confessed that that wasn't it.

Of course, in the course of making her non-apology, she didn't say what indeed it was. A reader writes in to fill us in:

"Does anyone know what comment elicited the loudest cheers?"

At the 1st public comment meeting, the pro-name change group had a few minutes to present its arguments. The no-name change group did not get a chance to present their opposition. Individuals pro and con were then allowed mike time to state individual opinions.

The 2nd public meeting (described in Mitchell's column) began with presentations from BOTH groups, pro and con name change. Then individuals, pro and con, got to speak.

The comment that got a big cheer at the the 2nd meeting was someone pointing out this difference in meeting formats.

Full disclosure: I didn't attend the entire length of either the 1st or 2nd meeting. But since then I've spoken with many who did. Attendees tell me that the 1st meeting felt like a one-sided sales pitch in favor of the name change. The crowd seemed happy in the 2nd meeting to have someone describe the perceived bias in the 1st meeting. Thus the big cheer.

They're not getting away with it so easily any more. Yay.

UPDATE, 9:10 a.m.: A commenter below questions whether the "second meeting" referred to in the e-mail was the one Mitchell wrote about in her first column, which was published on Oct. 8.

I sure hope there's film at 11.

Here's a baby blog -- less than a day old.

It looks like that chunk of the Willamette Meteorite we blogged about a while back won't be changing hands after all.

And enjoy a romantic seafood dinner.

Here's a Portland native who's made quite a splash with a little gem of a movie. (Coming soon to a theater near you.)

Big is not beautiful to this commentator.

And man, they are cutie pies.

The folks who busted the Portland Parks Bureau last year for sneaking around trying to sell off part of Mount Tabor Park are now being co-opted into a vision-planning-type thingie -- with lots of meetings, no doubt, to talk and talk and talk and talk about the future of the nursery, maintenance yard, and "long block" in the park. The bureaucrats are making many love sounds, but you know they'd just love to sell off some of that land to raise money to pay for the SoWhat poodle poop park, and while they're at it lay off the parks workers for contractors. The minute the neighbors miss a meeting, wham! Condos.

Of course, no public involvement process would be complete without the hiring of an expensive outside "facilitator." Heaven forbid city government should figure out how to run a public meeting itself.

Here's the official announcement inviting us all to get involved with the latest planning effort. Among the ominous words found therein:

Some of the questions the steering group will be considering as part of the update to the Master Plan include:

▪ What are the maintenance and horticultural needs for the Portland Parks & Recreation system?

▪ What are both the current and historic activities at the Yard and nursery and long blocks?

▪ Does this site and its current and/or potential uses fit with the Parks 2020 Vision?

The final composition of the steering group and the selection of project management and community engagement consultants will be conducted jointly by community members and PP&R staff.

What to buy for those radio hosts who have everything?