That new digital "smart" meter that the electric company's installing on the side of your house may be a little too smart, and a little too loose, for many people's liking. For one thing, it's going to enable the folks at the power company to figure out a lot more about you than they've ever known before:

"Instead of measuring energy use at the end of each billing period, smart meters will provide this information at much shorter intervals," the report notes. "Even if electricity use is not recorded minute by minute, or at the appliance level, information may be gleaned from ongoing monitoring of electricity consumption such as the approximate number of occupants, when they are present, as well as when they are awake or asleep. For many, this will resonate as a 'sanctity of the home' issue, where such intimate details of daily life should not be accessible."

Of course, with every wireless communications device, there's going to be a security risk. What's to stop a hacker from cruising a neighborhood and figuring out which homes are temporarily unoccupied because the electricity usage is unusually low?

Perhaps the biggest casualty of the new devices will be jobs. An alert reader who's been asking questions of PGE about this copied us on an e-mail message in which a company spokesperson told him: "While new jobs will be created, approximately 120 positions will be affected. To date, more than half of those have been successfully placed in new positions in and outside of PGE, or have retired. PGE will continue to need meter readers until August 2010, and we continue to provide ongoing career transition support for the employees who have not yet found other opportunities." Uh huh.

From South America, an idea on how to cure the recession and eliminate obesity at the same time.

Wherein a poorly maintained MAX train very nearly leads to disaster for a three-year-old boy. Way to go, Crocodile Hansen!

Rep. Peter DeFazio is, like many of us, sick of watching our children's future being looted by Goldman Sachs and their cronies at the Federal Reserve. He sees the current Treasury Secretary as a big part of the problem. He's right.

I wish DeFazio was going to be the next governor, instead of Doctor No.

We all had a good laugh nearly five years ago when right-wing Oregon talking head Gregg Clapper was busted on a drug-related charge in connection with an animal poaching investigation targeting another local tighty righty, motelier Mark Hemstreet. The hunting charges were dropped, but Clapper did wind up getting a citation for the evil "residue" in the four marijuana pipes that the police seized when they raided his place.

Clapper and Hemstreet sued the state police for malicious prosecution in the hunting case, and their lawsuit made for a nice payday. The state settled for $295,000 in cool cash earlier this month. No one admits liability when they settle civil suits like this, but it's obvious that the troopers stepped way over some lines. (They did make hunting charges stick, however, against three people targeted by the same investigation.)

Clapper's been pretty insistent that everyone who reported the original charges now be sure to report that he's been cleared. He's been sending out e-mail messages all over the place. (Funny thing, the state attorney general's office, which defended the civil lawsuit, hasn't included the latest on the Clapper matter in its daily barrage of press releases.) I asked Clapper to send along a photo of himself to illustrate my post on the settlement, and he gladly obliged. That's him on the left, and Hemstreet on the right, blissfully interacting with nature:

"Thumper" Humphreys, the Portland cop who brutally killed James Chasse, has just been yanked off the street after shooting a 12-year-old girl with a beanbag gun at close range.

It's a good thing he didn't kill someone else. It's been known for years that he's got issues that put lots of people's well being in jeopardy. Will this be the end of his career as a policeman? Don't be silly. The union will probably give him another prize.

Of course, they're probably only busting him now to try to soften the multi-million-dollar verdict they're looking at after a sensational trial in the Chasse civil case. This town is so sad sometimes.

We got our first closeup look at downtown Portland's new Director Park today. It beats the parking lot that was there before, but we must say, it's about as sterile a public space as has ever been created in this town. It needs a fountain. Or some planters. Or something.

And it doesn't have curbs, which is a little disarming at first. It's just a matter of time, we suspect, before some out-of-town grandma on a cell phone figures out a way to drive right up to where she isn't supposed to be.

You'll be pleased to know that Tri-Met is a blip, hard, the bomb, diggity dank, and like, totally deck.

A reader writes:

I love the BBC. Their reports all always true and fact filled. This study comes at just the right time of year, holiday season.

I see that Portland's massive investment in streetcars and condo towers is already beginning to show important benefits.

Lord, have mercy.

The City of Portland hasn't staged a bond issue in a while. The whole rigamarole in which the bureaucrats publish a formal offering document and go out and borrow millions from some bank or other robber baron outfit -- the last one of those that I've seen was way back in July. That was when the city borrowed about $27.8 million to help the inadequate cash flow in its cancerous police and fire retirement system.

Four whole months without running to Wall Street for another eight-figure fix? My goodness! The city's long-term indebtedness appears to be stalled at a mere $2.9 billion!

But don't you worry, debt fans. On closer inspection, it becomes clear that the city's borrowing machinery is still in good working order, and we'll be cracking the coveted $3 billion level in no time.

There are several reasons for this prediction. First, although I'm not the world's greatest expert in this area, I think that the lawsuit over the city's abuses of the "urban renewal" processes was a big part of the temporary debt slowdown. And that lawsuit has now been bought off. Indeed, the big homeless hotel and spa down by the Greyhound station, which the lawsuit so famously stalled, is going to have its groundbreaking tomorrow. This is confirmation that a big obstacle to further reckless borrowing has been removed.

Second, don't think that the city can't slither out and borrow tens of millions just because it hasn't gone through the formal bond process. As we've highlighted on this blog in the past, the city has several sizeable letters of credit outstanding, and when it needs dough without a lot of hoopla and public process, it just draws on them. No muss, no fuss, no City Council discussion, no public vetting of what the money's being borrowed for. Eventually, the city pays off the line of credit with permanent bonds, but by that time the money's been spent, and as a practical matter, there's no way to say no to the bonds. So much for public input.

And since the first of the year, the city has been tapping those hidden lines of credit with great gusto. According to figures we received earlier this week from Eric Johansen, the city's debt manager, the outstanding balances on the lines of credit increased by nearly $21 million between January 1 and November 1. The breakdown of where it went is here; the biggest line items are $10.1 million for the city's "enterprise business solution" computer system (from all appearances, a classic bureaucratic money pit), and another $5.3 million for whatever is going on with "urban renewal" out in Lents.

Third, there are going to be some additional bonds sold between now and year-end. According to Johansen, "[t]he City expects to sell about $19 million in limited tax revenue bonds in December for the Public Safety System Revitalization Project and the Enterprise Business Solution Project (financial system)." Cha-ching. Not to mention the permanent financing for the homeless tower; that's going to involve another $36 million mortgage. I presume that those bonds get sold next spring; in the meantime, we tap another line of credit, I guess.

Finally, there's plenty of new debt on the horizon for 2010 and beyond. The city recently announced that it's looking for a new consultant who will certify the "feasibility" of new "urban renewal" borrowing. This consultant will apparently be hired to swear on a stack of IOUs that building more junk apartments will sufficiently jack up the tax base that big property tax dollars can be corralled in the future to pay off money that's being borrowed now and handed to Fireman Randy's real estate pals.

Anyway, in the document requesting bids for that consulting gig, here's what the city said about the looming "urban renewal" credit card spree:

Is everybody o.k. with upping the ante like this? At our house, when we start running low on cash for basics, we go easy on the toys for a while. Not in Portland. No, sir. In this town, when in doubt, you put it on plastic -- it's like getting stuff for free.

No wonder the city's looking for a new CFO. A debt workout specialist would be good -- pretty soon, we're gonna need one.

It took a couple of months for me to notice, but I see that I'm no longer blue enough to be listed as a "Lefty Blog" by the boys and girls over at BlueOregon. Apparently I was defrocked on September 14.

Was it something I said?

Oh, well. Those of you who go over there regularly, please do let me know when things worth reading show up on that site. It's kind of like the Merc -- I can't bring myself to check it too often.

The "leaders" of the City of Portland are such bullies sometimes. And when they're wrong, they won't own up to it. They'll throw up one desperate lie after another, rather than face the truth. It's a cause for real civic shame, for every one of us who lives here.

I'm really surprised that Fish and Fritz are sitting by and watching this happen. What they think they're achieving by letting it go on is truly mystifying. It doesn't take long to be brought over to the dark side, I guess. Nick, Amanda, you're losing your souls. Is it really worth it?

We interrupt the relentless flow of stories of the financial disaster at OHSU with a flash from Dave Frohnmayer: He thinks the murky, semi-autonomous, nonaccountable "governance" model on Pill Hill is so wonderful that it ought to be extended to the state's other big universities.

Yes, let's replicate the kind of boondoggles perpetrated by Peter Kohler and the rest of the Goldschmidt crew systemwide. Let's make the U of O public when it wants to be, and secretive when it wants to be, just like OHSU. It's working so well.

And of course, the Scone, a Goldschmidt man from way back, thinks it's a wonderful idea.

Just think: Maybe the U of O will soon be opening a research campus in Florida.

Chewbacca got handsy.

New population estimates for Oregon and its cities and counties have been released by the head-counting gurus at Portland State. They say that the City of Portland's population as of July 1, 2009 was 582,130 -- just 1.08% higher than the 575,930 PSU estimate for the same date a year before.

Over a three-year period, population growth within the city limits has slowed to a compound annual rate of under 1.28%, down slightly from the more than 1.29% three-year rate computed a year ago. Over the last five years, the city's population (as estimated by PSU) has grown at a compound annual rate of only 1.12%. At that rate, the city's population will double in 63 years -- in the year 2072 -- not at the much earlier time that the city's planning cabal will tell you whenever it suits the pushers of the latest real estate swindles.

As we have noted here before, the U.S. Census Bureau does not necessarily buy the Portland State numbers. Census estimates of the city's population are lower. For example, the Census' July 1, 2008 number for Portland was 557,706 -- 18,224 fewer people, or 3.16% lower, than PSU's figure on the same date.

We've tweaked our City of Portland debt-o-meter, in our left sidebar, according to the new PSU number and the latest resulting three-year compound annual growth rate. [Via the O.]

Spain joins Finland in giving folks a legally protected right to internet service at a regulated price.

Buying the bogus propaganda from Portland, our nation's capital has acquired three streetcars. They've owned them for three years. Problem is, they don't have any tracks, and so they're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to store them in the Czech Republic.

Report on it in the media, with photos.

From CNN.

"[What] my experience has taught is the more you fall into matrixes and following rules, [that] is where you get into trouble."

Translation: I am the law.

This is dangerous stuff, people. Take it from a guy from Newark.

Where is our fearless state attorney general?

I can't believe that the Democrats in the U.S. Senate are scrambling to avoid a filibuster to block health care reform. For Pete's sake, let the Republicans filibuster -- and let the Democratic senators who are with them stand in the harsh glare of the media spotlight the whole time. Most voters will come down squarely against the filibuster types, so let them play their little game and pay the price.

Sometimes you just have to duke it out with people. Health care reform can be achieved with 50 Senate votes, and guts. It should have, and could have, been done several months ago.

Here's this week's lineup in our charity pro football underdog pool. Lots of double-digit possibilities here for our players. Which of these 'dogs (in caps) do you think can win its game outright?

11.5 TAMPA BAY vs. New Orleans
11 WASHINGTON at Dallas
11 SEATTLE at Minnesota
10.5 KANSAS CITY vs. Pittsburgh
10.5 NY JETS at New England
10 OAKLAND vs. Cincinnati
9.5 ST. LOUIS vs. Arizona
8.5 BUFFALO at Jacksonville
6.5 SAN FRANCISCO at Green Bay
6.5 ATLANTA at NY Giants
4.5 TENNESSEE at Houston
3.5 CLEVELAND at Detroit
3 MIAMI at Carolina (Thursday)
3 CHICAGO vs. Philadelphia
1 BALTIMORE vs. Indianapolis

Players, please be sure that your pick reaches me by Saturday at 11:59 p.m. -- or if you're taking Miami, by kickoff time on Thursday, 5:20 p.m. on the West Coast. If you send your pick by e-mail and request a receipt, I will gladly send you one. Picks can also be left in the comments to this post if you wish (although then other players will see them). If you need to consult our current standings, they are here.

May you have better luck than I have had this season. I may have to abandon my recent methodologies in favor of an older technique. As always, advice and kibitzing are welcome.

UPDATE, 11/20, 11:06 p.m.: None of our group picked Miami, and they won, earning a phantom 3 points. No oddsmakers are posting a point spread for Denver and San Diego, and so by our rules, that game is off our board this week.

Some of us are going to find it hard not to burn too much time playing with this.

Here's one that graced our e-mail inbox this afternoon. Stop me if you've heard this:

Two men are heading to a ski lodge in a blinding snowstorm. They see a house and figure they had better pull over. They knock on the door and a woman answers. They explain their predicament. She says that she is recently widowed, and it wouldn't be appropriate for two strange men to stay in her house, but they're welcome to stay in the barn and leave the next day. They say thanks and head to the barn.

Flash forward nine months.

One of the men (call him Joe) gets a letter from the woman's lawyer, reads it, and calls his friend (call him Frank).

Joe: Do you remember the time we stayed in that woman's barn nine months ago?
Frank: Yes.
Joe: Well, did you happen to leave the barn and visit the woman that night?
Frank: As a matter of fact, I did.
Joe: And did you happen to give her my name instead of yours?
Frank: Yes, I'm afraid I did. I knew I wasn't behaving properly, and I was embarrassed by my actions, so I gave her your name. I know that wasn't right of me. I'm sorry. But why do you ask?
Joe: Well, it turns out that the woman just died and left me all her money.

The former employer's computer system looks like a prime target.

I see the death panels are starting early.

Here's one that went for 1 percent of that.

Folks who get all worked up about what ridiculously good pensions government workers receive will get a jolt from this site. It sure would be interesting if someone set up a similar web page up here in the Beaver State. Hey righties, how about it?

I love that the folks at Costco stick up for us members. They've told the demons at Coca-Cola to take a hike because their prices are too high. Awesome.

Meanwhile, the Costco folks have started carrying this stuff -- containing 16 or 18 percent actual fruit juice, and cane sugar instead of the hideous high-fructose corn syrup. I can drink one every now and then with far less guilt. Know-it-alls, please don't spoil it for me.

I have not shopped on Portland's Northwest Trendy-Third Avenue in a while, have you? About twice a year, I head over there to pick up some Kiehl's shaving cream -- one of the most wonderful substances on the face of the earth -- but other than that and one Christmas shopping run annually, the hassle of parking the car in that neighborhood immediately cancels out any desire to go there.

Soon, we will have another psychological barrier installed -- parking meters. Always hungry to find money for the black hole known as streetcars, Mayor Creepy is determined that the no-armed bandits are going in in Northwest. And after that, on Northeast Broadway. And after that, on Hawthorne. And after that, in every shopping district in town. Sooner or later, he thinks, you'll get rid of your car and take two buses to buy a crockpot or a cigar.

Eventually, he'd like to install a turnstile on your front door.

See you at Freddy's, at the mall, or on whatever retail street City Hall hasn't leeched onto yet.

Mother Nature paid our neighbor's sweet gum tree a visit over lunch hour today:

That long limb was about a foot in diameter at the base. Good thing no one was underneath. The thing fell straight onto the sidewalk.

That tree and its twin next to it really were a bad choice for street trees when they were planted, who knows how many decades ago. They were cute when they were small, but now they are big and dangerous.

Here's a grim little animation about our nation's unemployment.

My back's really been bugging me the last several days. Maybe I need to take a walk to the drug store.

Armchair sports pundits who have criticized the somewhat spacey play of Blazer forward Travis Outlaw are now going to get to see what the team can do without him. Travis has broken the same bone in his foot that kept Martell Webster off the court all last year, and that means no Ennio Morricone fanfare at the Rose Garden for the next two months, at least.

It will be interesting what Coach does to the lineup with one of his very favorite bench players in sick bay. And star Brandon Roy, who's been looking a little down in the mouth lately for other reasons, has one more cause for a funk; he was clearly disappointed that Outlaw, his close friend, will be missing.

After Outlaw went down the other night, Webster got only 11 scoreless minutes of play, and that's got to be a concern. One wonders whether he is still not 100% in the foot department. Which leaves Juwan Howard -- a calm and experienced veteran, but not somebody who's going to be running the fast break with Andre Miller, that's for sure. Maybe Rudy Fernandez will quit pouting and use his extra court time to become a major scoring machine. We Blazer fans can only hope.

This would make a great campaign platform for a Portland City Council candidate. One wonders how the current incumbents would fare on the program.

Although I am a certified night owl, even I don't get much out of television past 1:30 a.m. But tonight it might pay for me to stay up 'til 3, to catch live college basketball action between my alma mater, the St. Peter's Peacocks, and the Monmouth Hawks. It's the least I could do -- the students are holding a pep rally at 4 a.m. their time. The crazy start time gains the schools exposure on ESPN's "24 Hours of Basketball" celebration. Go, Peacocks!

The use of utility easements for hiking -- and the liability of adjacent homeowners if somebody gets hurt doing it -- is turning into a true Portland City Hall snafu. It seems that Mayor Creepy's transportation bureau has been goading a nonprofit group to build trails along the easements in the southwest hills, but without getting the property owners' consent and in many cases without even getting city permits. Meanwhile, the city's been handing out maps encouraging folks to traipse along the trails, which often include stairs.

A reader who owns a home on one of these trails writes: "There have already been injuries on these trails, including one life-threatening injury that occurred to an elderly woman just below me."

It's an ugly situation, and apparently it will take action by our enlightened solons in the state legislature to straighten it out. Good luck with that.

Always has, and always will -- including the next ripoff, carbon credits. At least, so says a smart guy named Matt Taibbi. He concludes:

It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going.

Another Sunday of pigskin play produced some points for several players in our charity pro football underdog pool. Jacksonville, Cincinnati, and Washington pulled the upsets, leaving our standings as follows:

Doug and Bad Brad scored for the third consecutive week.

Since nobody's got the Monday night game, that's how things will stand when the new lines go up Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Rest up for more deep football thoughts, players.

Apparently this ad has been on the air for months, but I saw it myself for the first time the other night. I laughed so hard I cried:

I'm sure some little people and their friends are offended, but at least the ones on the screen got paid.

The fourth week of our charity pro football underdog pool sees important action today, with our players picking these 'dogs (in caps):

9.5 TAMPA BAY at Miami - Robert, Gary
9 SEATTLE at Arizona - Flynn, Michael W., Sidney, genop's mom
6.5 JACKSONVILLE at NY Jets - Kevin, Gordon, Doug, genop
6.5 CINCINNATI at Pittsburgh - Rick, Bad Brad
6.5 BUFFALO at Tennessee - Michael K., jmh, Dan, George, Andy
4.5 WASHINGTON vs. Denver - Mark
3 NEW ENGLAND at Indianapolis - Hank

To gain the points listed, a player's choice must win its game outright.

I did not hear from Annie, and so unless I missed something, she's sitting this week out. Nobody took these 'dogs:

16.5 DETROIT at Minnesota
14.5 ST. LOUIS vs. New Orleans
11 CLEVELAND vs. Baltimore
3 CHICAGO at San Francisco (Thursday; Chicago lost, 10-6)
3 GREEN BAY vs. Dallas
2.5 PHILADELPHIA at San Diego
2 CAROLINA vs. Atlanta
2 KANSAS CITY at Oakland

The standings of our players to date are here. Enjoy the games, everybody.

UPDATE, 12:22 p.m.: Bad Brad informed me this morning well before game time that he had sent me his Cincy pick yesterday afternoon. I either didn't get it or accidentally deleted it, but have decided it's on the up-and-up.

The best team in the Pac-10 conference won another big football game today. They racked up 55 points against USC, after putting 51 on the board against the Eugene Undertakers.

I doubt they'll make it to the Rose Bowl, though. That honor is going to these guys. Don't you think?

In case you need to consult them, here are the standings. And here are the rules for breaking ties:

Pacific-10 Conference -- Rose Bowl Selection Procedures

If a Conference team is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) ranking system it shall participate in the National Championship Game designated by the BCS. If that is not the case, the following procedures will determine the Pacific-10 Rose Bowl Representative. The Pacific-10 Rose Bowl representative shall be that member's team with the best won-lost percentage record in Conference games. If, however, the records in Conference games of two or more members are identical, determination of the Rose Bowl representative shall be as follows:

a. Two-Team Tie.
The winner of the game between the two teams shall be the representative.

b. Multiple-Team Ties.
(1) When three or more teams are tied in Conference play, if one has defeated all others, it shall be the Rose Bowl representative. If that is not the case, a comparison of the tied teams' records against the other tied teams shall be made and the team having the best record against the other tied teams shall be the Rose Bowl representative. If two or more teams are still tied after this comparison, the appropriate two-team or multiple-team tie-breaking procedures shall be repeated among those teams still under consideration.

(2) If more than two teams are still tied after the process above is completed, each remaining tied team's record against the team occupying the highest position in the final regular season standings shall be compared, with the procedure continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, each team's collective record against the tied teams as a group shall be used.

If at any point in the process the multiple-team tie is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie-breaking procedure shall be applied.

If more than two teams are still tied after comparing their records all the way through the Conference standings, the team among the tied teams with the highest ranking in the final BCS standings shall be the Rose Bowl representative.

If a tie remains, the teams most recently earning Rose Bowl or Bowl Championship Series automatic selection shall be eliminated.

Here's a Portland native making waves. Somehow I missed her -- up to now.

This time on C-Tran.

Merritt, buddy! Go for it!

It's even got "linchpin" on it.

Here's a collection of stunning and disturbing photographs that is sure to lead to all sorts of widely disparate reactions. For me, it reinforces my thankfulness that I live in the United States, and it makes me want to pay more attention to where the stuff I consume comes from.

... what would you do with it?

Portland's taking stimulus money and building sidewalks with it in several parts of town. I'm assuming (recklessly, perhaps) that there are no condo weasels pulling the strings on this one. But that leaves the question: Of all the places in the city that could use sidewalks, how were these locations chosen?

Don't sing "You're Out of the Woods" yet, folks.

It provides an air-tight alibi.

It seems that Metro can't even run the zoo without screwing up. But the taxpayers keep handing them play money with one bond after another. Leave it to the zookeepers to be good at fleecing the sheep.

An alert reader has sent me what appears to be a draft of a report by former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling on the future of the state's public employee pension system. And the news is most definitely not good. Keisling confirms what the O told us a few weekends ago: that more and more tax dollars will have to be poured into the maw of the bureaucrat retirement machine, and soon. Unless taxes go way up to cover the increased expenses, government services are going to face some serious cuts. And there's a bunch of outstanding debt in the picture -- bonds that, unlike most private parties' debts, have ever-increasing annual payments as the years wear on. Maybe the feds will inflate our way out of this one, but that $20 loaf of bread is going to be hard to afford.

Of course, Keisling's greatest fear is that the state pension system might some day wind up being less than 60% funded. Up here in Portland, we laugh at that number. Our police and fire pensions are 0% funded. The current unfunded liability for the cops and firefighters is more than $2½ billion, and growing every year.

The fundraising frenzy that surrounds public schools these days sometimes goes way too far.

That's what the chart accompanying the print edition of this story says:

The table says he went "dunkless" for two of his many seasons in the league. Were either of those in Portland?

Reporting from Corvallis, it's Al Jazeera.

If your fantasy football team is toast, and your fantasy pro basketball team is already looking a little weak, perhaps you can salvage some respect with a good performance in this league.

Can you imagine being a kid in a public elementary school and watching the school burn down in the middle of a school day? Fortunately, life and limb was spared. The school community appears to have been well prepared for everyone's safe evacuation.

But is anyone prepared for what happens next? The students are going to be bused daily to what was once an abandoned school building five miles away. A lot of the students' and teachers' school things have been destroyed, including backpacks, jackets, and school supplies. It's going to be a hard winter for some of those young people.

The Trib reports today that the nonprofit group Schoolhouse Supplies is collecting money and goods to help replace what was lost. We hear a lot about "for the children" this and that, but this is one case in which the validity of that claim is pretty obvious. Our readers have been known to be quite generous when reminded of a real need, and so if you're in the mood to do something that will make you feel good the rest of the day, click here:

And from the looks of things, it isn't good.

A Medord doctor explains what's at stake in the health care reform debate.

That'll be $522,886.00.

Paper or plastic?

In a sea of rosy press releases from the state treasurer's office -- "everything's wonderful, we're able to borrow all we want" -- stands an island of doubt.

Let him do it.

The City of Portland has announced that it's picked up three new parcels of land adjacent to existing parks, for park expansions. They're all on the Idaho side of I-205. The long-suffering folks out that way deserve a little love now and then, and so these appear to be good moves.

No money shortage, no labor strife is enough to stop the public relations juggernaut in our many local government agencies. Here's a 9-by-27 full-color glossy mailer that arrived at our place yesterday:

I wish they'd stop selling me the schools, and just operate them.

John Kroger has given $5,000 to John Kitzhaber to run for governor again. Through a public records request, we obtained have a copy of the check:

The latest round of dithering over where to blow $60 million for a new home for Little Lord Paulson's minor league baseball team has officially begun: The mayor of Vancouver, Washington wants to give it a go. Wasn't that guy running for mayor on a platform of fiscal restraint? That was quick.

Meanwhile, as noted here over the summer, the "minor" soccer league in which Paulson's Portland Timbers team plays is literally falling apart. A sobering thought as the City of Portland plunges eight figures into another goofy remodel of PGE Park for a "major" soccer league that's equally risky, only with much larger stakes.

And in other news, an alert reader points out that over here, the building permit application for the PGE Park renovation has a "cancel permit... pending" notation on it. Anybody know what that's all about?

They're running another "special" at Atwater Underwater this week. Even at a "mere" $230 a square foot, I couldn't imagine living there. To me, it's as awful as ever. Of course, to the investors in the project, and to city taxpayers who are hundreds of millions into the SoWhat District, "awful" doesn't begin to describe this colossal flop. Go by streetcar!

So say these guys.

Over the weekend, we noted that the p.r. firm Gallatin Public Affairs had become Portland's new Gard & Gerber, fronting for scoundrels like Merritt Paulson and the police union. In a piece by Nigel Jaquiss in today's WW, the reasons for that sudden rise to prominence become a little clearer. One of the Gallatin dudes, Greg Peden, has an inside track to Portland's new Richard Daley, Fireman Randy:

[L]ast year, when Portland Beavers and Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, whose investment in Portland is far smaller than [Paul] Allen's, sought to bring Major League Soccer to Portland, Leonard championed a far greater city subsidy for Paulson than the one Allen requested earlier.

The difference is Leonard’s friendship with lobbyist Greg Peden, who represents Paulson.

Leonard says he got to know Peden in Salem in the '90s, when Peden worked for then-Gov. John Kitzhaber and Leonard served in the Legislature. Peden later became the City Hall lobbyist for the Portland Business Alliance.

Without Leonard’s loyalty to Peden, it is unclear whether MLS would ever have gained traction in City Hall.

"Greg has always been and remains a very straightforward and honest guy," Leonard says. "It was very helpful for Merritt’s cause that he first had Greg meet with me so that I could ask questions knowing I was going to get straight answers."

Anyway, the Peden connection and lots more unflattering stuff about the Fireman, who's getting a divorce, losing weight, and otherwise showing signs of a midlife crisis, are in the WW story, here. Jaquiss's bottom line: "Observers increasingly worry that he wields too much power — and is accountable to nobody."

Amen. This guy needs a sports car, a new girlfriend, and a new gig to play around in while he collects a nice six figures in his two public pensions. Selling the city down the river to his buddies, and mowing down businesses that he capriciously decides he doesn't like, need to stop.

Meanwhile, Willy Week promises more dirt next week. Oh, the drama.

Who'da thunk it? Goons 'R' Us is also into bribery. These guys are almost as bad as Halliburton.

From this not-entirely-safe-for-work blog from the Big Apple:

In a way what the city has done by adding all these bike lanes is sort of like dealing with the asbestos in your basement by purchasing a brand-new living room set -- in both cases you'll just be a little more comfortable before you die. Secondly, if New Yorkers start bragging too loudly then Portlanders may actually begin moving here en masse. In the short term this will result in a surge in the number of white people with dreadlocks for which New York is ill-prepared, and our city's 311 help line will be overwhelmed with complaints about things like inadequate cargo bike parking and sub-par coffee quality. In the long term, cycling casualties will skyrocket once these riders learn the hard way that they are not protected by Invisible Cloaks of Smugness as they are in Portland, New York City will abandon cycling as a result, and our hard-fought bike lanes will fall to mopeds and Vespas.

It's time for the players in our charity pro football underdog pool (current standings here) to start wracking their brains figuring out which of the following underdogs (in caps) can win its game outright, without the benefit of the point spread:

16.5 DETROIT at Minnesota
14.5 ST. LOUIS vs. New Orleans
11 CLEVELAND vs. Baltimore
9.5 TAMPA BAY at Miami
9 SEATTLE at Arizona
6.5 JACKSONVILLE at NY Jets
6.5 CINCINNATI at Pittsburgh
6.5 BUFFALO at Tennessee
4.5 WASHINGTON vs. Denver
3 CHICAGO at San Francisco (Thursday)*
3 GREEN BAY vs. Dallas
3 NEW ENGLAND at Indianapolis
2.5 PHILADELPHIA at San Diego
2 CAROLINA vs. Atlanta
2 KANSAS CITY at Oakland

Readers, feel free to chime in with suggestions.

* - This pick due by kickoff, 5:20 p.m. Thursday.

UPDATE, 11/13, 12:47 a.m.: No one took Chicago, and so everyone's still in the hunt for Sunday.

Portland's wide array of colorful food carts is attracting national attention. It's quite the testament to the city's entrepreneurial spirit. It's also a sign of how difficult it is to run a traditional restaurant these days. And at least a few Portlanders complain that the carts are undercutting the traditionals, who have many more rules and regulations to live by.

One reader suggested to us earlier today that "maybe lawyers can save on overhead by practicing out of carts, too." Don't laugh.

Flowers by Dorcas moved over the weekend, into part of the site vacated by the ill-fated Rock and Roll Cafe on Sandy Boulevard in Portland's Hollywood District. And with that, they are out of their downtown location on Broadway. Good luck to them in their new location in these tough times.

If there are two things that the City of Portland is big on these days, it's spending money on planning, and spending money on public relations. Yesterday, the two came together in our mailbox with this glossy mailer:

On the address side, the details:

Didn't we just do this whole "conversation" thing with Mayor Grampy's "Vision Quest" plan, which was translated into every language but Klingon? That was quite a charade. The people said, "Stop wasting money on condo towers and toys for rich people!" and the Portland State planning cabal twisted it into "Our diverse population, innovative businesses and forward-thinking leaders work together to ensure livability for all." So true, comrade. Too funny.

So go ahead, blow some more time with these people. If you go and tell them what they want to hear, you'll be a big hit. If you go and tell them something else, you can bet you'll be ignored.

Maybe Streetcar Smith will show you his decoder ring.

Blogging about stuff seems to make things happen sometimes. Just after we wrote last week about the anniversary of the first retirement under Social Security, along in the mail came our own annual statement of pay-ins and projected benefits from the Social Security Administration. We've been getting these since 1998, showing our annual earnings all the way back to our first soda jerk job when we were 16.

Beginning in 2003, there's been a blue note on the benefit statement: A warning that at the rate it's growing, the Social Security fund is going to go broke, and so our chickens have not yet hatched for the counting. And it just got worse. Here's what it said last year:

This year's version says:

It seems that the retirement cottage on the beach somewhere keeps getting further away every year. Good thing we love our job.

The last pro football underdog of the week -- Denver hosting Pittsburgh -- left its offense at the movies, and so there were no points earned tonight in our charity pool. That leaves the standings as listed below.

We'll post this coming weekend's games tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning. If I am not mistaken, there is a Thursday night game this week, Chicago at San Francisco. Players, if that's the one you're picking, we'll need your pick by kickoff time, 5:20 p.m. Thursday. All other games, the deadline is 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

One other note: Remember, our pool continues through the playoffs, including the conference championship games the weekend of Jan. 24. Of course, as the playoffs wear on, there are fewer games and less chance to make a move, but the final winner of the pool may not be determined until that weekend. There's a lot of football between now and then.

Don't worry, Portlanders. As much as the thrill of control over you appeals to them, city leaders will never push you into this -- it involves cars.

"It's the green, sustainable thing to do."

"Is not."

"Is too."

Joining the Republicans to vote no on health care reform: Brian Baird, the Democrat from the Lars Larson Show.

We attended a double birthday party over the weekend, at which one of the honorees received as a gift an Obama Chia. He was unimpressed. "It looks more like Smokey Robinson," he said.

  

Halloween arrived a week late at the Rose Garden arena, as the Trail Blazers spent the weekend in the costume of a bright, young, energetic basketball team. Fast breaks, lots of running and gunning, and they even acted as if Greg Oden was supposed to be part of the offense. As a result, the Blazers beat the old fogies of San Antonio and the newborn puppies of Minneapolis, in the process greatly entertaining the Portland faithful, some of whom had begun to lose faith.

As long as the new formula produces wins, the cheers will be loud and strong. And against many teams, starting the Blazers' three main guards and breaking like there's no tomorrow will get the job done.

But there are going to be nights when the Blazers won't be able to do mostly anything that worked for them over this weekend. Not everybody's going to let you beat them on the boards and race upcourt for easy baskets. And when they don't, will we see the other Blazers -- the Steve-Blake-walk-it-up-the-floor-dribble-around-give-it-to-Brandon-and-get-out-of-the-way Blazers? That group didn't seem to know who they were in the first five games of the season. One wonders whether the confusion will get any better when they're only doing this gig on a part-time basis. They did finish the win over the Spurs in that style, but the Spurs were clearly able to get back into the game when the Blazers turned down their red hot popcorn machine.

And then there's the serious question of what's going to happen inside Brandon Roy's head. Tonight, he scored 2 points. Not a typo. A week ago, he was carrying the team on his back, and had been for a couple of years. Now, in the run-and-gun Blazer offense, he may be less of a factor than Martell Webster. It's hard to picture Roy being relegated to grabbing rebounds and handing out assists. That can't go on for too long, can it? Will he be telling the reporters at practice, "It doesn't matter how much I score, as long as we win the games"? Seems unlikely.

But hey, tonight the glass is half full -- actually, a bit more than half full -- and so we're going to ignore that little grimace we saw when Webster came down hard on his bad foot, and call it a great night for the Blazers.

And on that note, it's time to wrap up our first edition of the Rate-a-Nate reader poll, which we started as the month began. In our first round of balloting, with 185 votes cast, Nate rated an average of only 5.4 on a scale of 10, with 10 being the best and 1 the worst. As previously announced, we'll run the poll again in a week or two, giving everyone a chance to vote again, and see how he's doing then. If the team keeps putting up quality wins, no doubt Coach's rating will rise.

Over the years, Portlanders grew to view with suspicion the public relations firm of Gard & Gerber. This outfit always seemed to be calling the media plays for the big money in the city's West Hills when they wanted to fleece the little guys down below. PGE, OHSU, Neil Goldschmidt, and many others called upon G&G to make the ugly truth go away as quickly as possible. State Sen. Ginny Burdick, a Goldschmidt lieutenant, worked there for a while, which made her candidacy for anything immediately unpalatable to us.

These days, Gard & Gerber is no more. Gard's still out there, but Gerber has gone the way of the husband in the Mattress World commercials.

If there was a void in the Portland villain flack ranks, however, it is being filled nicely by another outfit, Gallatin Public Affairs. This regional firm, which appears to be based in Boise, is currently fronting for Little Lord Paulson on his double-barreled stadiums boondoggle, and it's even got Vera Katz on the payroll to help grease the skids.

Now comes word that Gallatin's helping the Portland police union in its efforts to deny justice in the case of the two police officers who senselessly killed Jim Jim Chasse three years ago. You go, Gallatin. You're building up quite a base of goodwill here in Portlandia.

If so, he's getting a little loose with it.

Got an odd orange from the store this week:

What did Big Food do this time?

The players in our charity pro football underdog pool have spoken for another week, and here are their selections:

10.5 MIAMI at New England - Annie
10 DETROIT at Seattle - Robert, Gary, Sidney, Michael W., Andy
9 HOUSTON at Indianapolis - Flynn, Mark, Kevin, Rick, genop's mom, Gordon
5.5 TENNESSEE at San Francisco - Hank, Dan, Bad Brad, genop, Doug
3 CINCINNATI vs. Baltimore - Michael K.
3 DENVER vs. Pittsburgh - George, jmh

Remember, a player's team has to win outright in order for the player to win the points listed. This week's unwanted 'dogs were:

14 CAROLINA at New Orleans
10.5 TAMPA BAY vs. Green Bay
10 WASHINGTON at Atlanta
6.5 KANSAS CITY at Jacksonville
3.5 SAN DIEGO at NY Giants
3 ARIZONA at Chicago
3 DALLAS at Philadelphia

The standings so far:

Gary - 10.5
Michael W. - 10
Dan - 9.5
Doug - 9.5
genop's mom - 9.5
Gordon - 9.5
jmh - 9.5
Rick - 9.5
George - 7.5
Bad Brad - 3.5
Hank - 3.5
Everybody else - 0

And with that, I believe it's up to the big daddies of the NFL to take it to the stage. Enjoy the games, everybody.

Look on the bright side, Duck fans. Now you can quit whining about the BCS and concentrate on booking your plane tickets to the Poulan Weed Eater Fiesta Bowl.

Here's a Big Apple neighborhood fixture who'll be missed.

Paul Allen loses another one. Hey, at least the Blazers beat the Spurs.

The "multi-modal mecca" known as the City of Portland is about to turn a main road on the east side of the crumbling Sellwood Bridge into a bike boulevard.

A reader writes:

We just missed losing our Jack Russell terrier tonight. I let him out for his last potty break and went to my computer. Seconds later I heard him scream. I ran to the door and threw it open to find three huge coyotes in my SW Multnomah District front yard. Two ran out the gate and one jumped the fence with ease.

We checked the dog over and luckily there are no bites. But he sure is scared, and you know how fearless Jack Russells can be.

Maybe you can blog something about this, so that folks who might not be aware can avoid what might have happened to us.

Years ago, when I was part of a thought-provoking discussion group on ecology, a skeptic in our midst argued convincingly that concern for the earth was in essence a religion. The rest of us thought about it for a while, and then told him that we didn't care -- we still believed in living with the planet in mind.

Now we see that climate change is being designated a religion (or its equivalent) for some purposes under British law. Over in England, this means victory for global warming activists in some cases, but victory for the skeptics in others. It depends on the legal context.

What would that kind of reasoning mean here in the United States? Given our insistence on separation of church and state, it might mean that the constant sermonettes that we get from holier-than-thou governing bodies such as the Portland City Council might have to be trimmed a bit. Every time I roll out my recycling bins, I see a sticker that tells me, courtesy of Mayor Creepy and Fireman Randy, that "it's the right thing to do." I don't disagree with that, but I don't need the characters at City Hall to be preaching to me about it. If I relied on them for right vs. wrong, the afterlife would not be kind to me.

Outdoor swimming and diving.

You want divisiveness? Nothing beats MTV.

An alert reader wrote us today with concern about a case in which a man was sent to prison for willfully failing to pay his company's payroll taxes, even though he argued that he didn't have the money to pay them. Jack Easterday operated a chain of nursing homes in Northern California. He always reported the company's federal payroll tax liability accurately, but he paid only part of it. The IRS came after him to collect what was owed, and it put liens on the company's assets, but eventually it filed criminal charges against Easterday -- 109 counts of willful failure to pay over the payroll taxes that the company had withheld from employees.

Easterday put on testimony at his trial that the nursing homes were losing millions of dollars, and thus couldn't pay all their payroll taxes. The judge ruled that that didn't excuse him from criminal liability, and the jury convicted him on 107 of the 109 counts. The court of appeals agreed with the trial judge that in order to prove the crime of willful failure to pay over taxes, the government need not prove that the taxpayer had the ability to pay; it ruled that the fact that the taxpayer is too broke to pay is irrelevant to that crime. This week, the Supreme Court let that ruling stand.

I have no doubt that Easterday is not a saint, but I agree with the reader that in incarcerating someone for failing to pay taxes -- taxes that he or she freely reported to the government -- we ought to ask whether the person had the wherewithal to pay. Otherwise, aren't we putting people in jail simply because they can't pay a debt?

I got a flu shot this morning, and now, suddenly, I'm craving nacho cheese Doritos.

Overheard at the cllinic: someone calling it the "heiny" virus.

Here's the jail booking photo. Here's the sketch of the suspect. Same guy?

The group that wants to try again to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams is making things hard for itself. Not only is the enigmatic Jasun "Kiss of Death" Wurster, who ran the doomed first effort, continuing to be prominently involved, but now they've also got a Kevin Mannix pal doing the strategerizing. Throw in a Victoria Taft live remote and daily all-caps e-mail tirades from Jack Peek, and you're pretty much dressed for failure in lefty Portland. What next -- Bill Sizemore and Loren Parks?

Our blog posts about the quarterly results at OnPoint Community Credit Union -- a Portland-based financial institution that we consider at least some indicator of the state of the area's economy -- have led readers from time to time to request comparisons of OnPoint results with those of other credit unions. We've resisted that invitation on a number of grounds -- mostly because we're not really an expert on financial institutions. We've been pulling numbers off the voluminous reports filed with the regulators with interested but highly untrained eyes. Besides, it's a time-consuming deal.

But the challenge has been too good to keep down, and so with the important caution that we are not expert in these matters, just for kicks we'll compare some of OnPoint's financial data with that of three other Oregon-based credit unions that readers have mentioned: Unitus here in Portland, First Tech in Beaverton, and Oregon Community down in Eugene.

One number that we've been tracking for OnPoint has been its ratio of delinquent loans (two months or more) to total loans -- the higher the number, the worse the portfolio from a delinquency standpoint. Here are the percentages for all four of the credit unions in that department:

Another ratio that we've been watching at OnPoint is delinquent loans to net worth. Here are the percentages for the whole group on that score:

The side-by-side reviews turned up one curiosity: Not all of the credit unions are accounting for the industry's deposit insurance troubles in exactly the same way. OnPoint and Oregon Community both showed millions in "stabilization expenses" for the first time this year on their third quarter financial reports, whereas First Tech and Unitus had been showing that expense since the first quarter of the year.

Finally, let's take a gander at the year-to-date net income (loss) figures for the group over the first three quarters. Although given their varying sizes, we're likely talking apples and oranges, the trends are probably worth comparing:

You wanted comparisons? Well, there you have some, folks. Obviously, of the group, Oregon Community has got the biggest delinquent loan problems, is reporting its delinquencies more conservatively than the other three, or both. Relatively speaking, First Tech appears to paint the rosiest picture of the four.

If this sort of discussion makes you want to hunt around through the credit unions' financial reports yourself, just head over here and get started. Once you have the identification number of the institution you're looking for, lots of data can be gleaned here.

Handing out tax money to get people to buy cars was nothing more than robbing from our children to postpone the inevitable for the auto industry. But it was easy to sell: just make it a "green" program. Conserving energy! Stopping global warming! Saving the polar bears! And the flock of sheep we've become as a nation says, "Baaaaaa."

Not only did "cash for clunkers" enable gas-guzzler motorists to buy new gas guzzlers, but the program was also rife with fraud. Much like the first-time homebuyer handouts, which are now going to be made permanent and extended to existing homeowners who want a new house. Just keep printing dollars, America. Party on.

Economists, ya gotta love 'em. "That suggests the recession will likely end sometime in the third or fourth quarter of 2009, he said." Nothing like "predicting" the third quarter, five weeks after it's over. I predict that the Yankees will make it to the World Series.

Tri-Met's dismantling of urban core "frequent" bus service draws a big question mark here.

Tenth most toxic area in the land, second worst in the West only to Los Angeles. [Via the O.]

After three years of stonewalling, the City of Portland is actually proposing that the two officers involved in the senseless killing of James Chasse be suspended for a couple of weeks. Apparently the reason is going to be failing to get him to the hospital, not for literally beating the living daylights out of him and lying repeatedly about what happened.

This admission of wrongdoing comes as the family of the victim prepares for a March trial in a lawsuit that seems likely to cost the taxpayers millions.

The news that Commissioner Dan Saltzman is showing some spine after a decade of slumber on the City Council is making headlines, but the fact that it has taken the city three years to get to this point is quite telling. If the police here mistreat you, justice will be delayed at best, and more likely denied.

Of course, the police union is "disgusted" that even relatively mild discipline is being proposed. That goes along well with its other character, "disgusting."

"Hotlips Pizza in Portland, Ore., where sustainability is second only to extra cheese."

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the first retirement under the Social Security pension system. It was a woman named Ida May Fuller, and she filed her claim in Rutland, Vermont. She got her first check a few months later, for $22.54.

The new system worked out pretty well for Ida May. According to this source, she worked only three years under Social Security and paid only $24.75 into the system, but she lived to be 100 and wound up collecting $22,888.92 by the time she passed away. [Via Jim Maule.]

They'll sure be crowing on conservative talk radio today. "One-term President," "worm has turned," "mandate," yada yada yada.

I will say, though: It's become apparent that last year, many people in the middle were voting against George Bush more than they were voting for the Democratic Party. And if Obama knows what's good for him, he had better make hay with his majorities on Capitol Hill, PDQ.

In performing our quarterly checkup of the financials of OnPoint Community Credit Union -- a Portland institution that we watch as a gauge of the local economy -- we picked up on some news that shows the disturbing state of money institutions nationwide: On OnPoint's third quarter profit and loss statement, it took a $3,557,068 hit for an "NCUSIF Stabilization Expense." This charge appears to be of a similar nature to the much larger loss that OnPoint took in the last quarter of 2008, all attributable to the shaky condition of the national credit union deposit insurance system. Since that system has had to bail out a few large "commercial" credit unions that got into serious trouble about a year ago, all members of the insurance pool have had to show losses on their books, and this time around, pay special premiums announced in late September.

And that's not the end of it -- the insurance folks have warned:

Further credit losses are expected for the corporates, and insurance losses will rise, but NCUA is not giving specific estimates for 2010 and beyond, largely because such information may lead to credit unions having to recognize them when they are stated.

OnPoint currently shows an asset with a book value of $20,093,864 called its "NCUSIF Deposit." This past spring, the book value of that class of asset was suddenly slashed by nearly 67 percent to account for the "commercial" credit union failures up to that point. The big profit that the OnPoint brass had bragged about on their shiny annual report was turned into a loss overnight. One has to wonder whether something bad like that may happen again, not just locally, but throughout the credit union system.

Aside from that alarming news, at least on paper, OnPoint appears to have muddled through the quarter without too much further slippage from where it's been left after the freefall of a year ago. Still, the picture on delinquent debt isn't pretty:

Over on the profit and loss side, after taking the special deposit insurance hit into account, OnPoint's year-to-date net income through the quarter ended September 30 was $21,965,019, up 34.51% from the year-to-date figures in the same quarter last year ($16,329,466). For the third quarter alone, however, net income was $3,378,247, down 45.42% from last year's $6,189,580. In the third quarter of 2009, deposits fell from $2,411,602,745 to $2,373,916,394 -- a 1.56% decrease -- after two straight quarters of increases. Deposits a year earlier were $2,221,206,727, however, and thus for the 12-month period ended September 30, deposits were up 6.88%.

It's time for another week of trying to figure out American pro football. Two weeks into our charity underdog pool, we have 11 players with points -- more than half the participants. And they'll be poring over this list of underdogs (in caps) to see which one can win its game outright, without the benefit of the point spread. The spread is relevant only in that it determines how many points the pool players get if they're right:

14 CAROLINA at New Orleans
10.5 MIAMI at New England
10.5 TAMPA BAY vs. Green Bay
10 DETROIT at Seattle
10 WASHINGTON at Atlanta
9 HOUSTON at Indianapolis
6.5 KANSAS CITY at Jacksonville
5.5 TENNESSEE at San Francisco
3.5 SAN DIEGO at NY Giants
3 ARIZONA at Chicago
3 CINCINNATI vs. Baltimore
3 DALLAS at Philadelphia
3 DENVER vs. Pittsburgh

On the administrative side, the charitable contribution that we'll be making when the playoffs are over now totals $420, which will be divvied up $300 for first, $75 for second, and $45 for third. And bragging rights among our players? Priceless.

Even if you're not formally playing, you may have an opinion about which of the 'dogs is this week's best bet. Don't be shy, now.

In our recent check of our property tax bill, we noticed that a Portland parks tax that was there in previous years was gone. But we should have known -- it will back again soon. Zsa Zsa says they may borrow up to another $150 million if the voters let them.

I remember the last time we voted in a bond and accompanying tax for parks. It was supposed to be for maintenance, but they used it for new capital projects.

I wish we would take the millions that the city is putting aside to run a superfluous streetcar system, dedicate it to the parks, and leave the property taxes where they are. But hey, I guess I'm just not enough "for the children."

Meanwhile, they've come up with yet another plan to turn Washington High School into a community center for the long-suffering Buckman neighborhood. You guessed it -- condos! I wish I were kidding.

Close off some of the ramps so that people can't get on or off it. Can you say "brain trust"?

Oregon Health and Sciences University may be falling apart financially -- it suddenly lost another chief financial officer on Friday, just as we were all drifting off into a weekend-long, sports- and holiday-induced coma -- but at least some of the docs are still doing great stuff. Check out this fellow. I'm not being sarcastic -- his is a cool story, indeed. There's even an internet chat room angle.

The San Francisco Bay Bridge is back open this morning after a nasty six-day closure, imposed when wind trashed a recent emergency repair job and endangered lives. And apparently another closure of that heavily traveled span will be needed soon.

We Portlanders can be grateful that we live in a place where the bridges are all relatively new and in good repair -- and that we never get strong storms.

He told me, "Jackie, it's not what you know, it's who you know."

After our second week, here are the standings in the charity pro football underdog pool. Gary, our only two-week winner, is in the lead:

There's still a whole lot of football left to play. Next weekend's lines will be posted here tomorrow evening or early Wednesday.

Go with the flow.

The new Sellwood Bridge would have only two lanes of vehicle traffic, but would be fitted with streetcar tracks so the city of Portland can extend streetcar service over the bridge.

Merritt Paulson's spouse, Heather Mahar Paulson, appears to have had her California law license suspended for failure to pay the $125 annual dues for an inactive membership. Her registration status is also listed as "delinquent" in the New York court system's attorney directory.

Is this a vote of confidence in the future of major league soccer? Apparently. A license to practice law isn't exactly like a subscription to Sunset magazine. They don't keep sending you notices begging you to renew.

Last night I was grooving along to one of the many blues CDs that I picked up in a big eBay purchase over the summer. It was Jail by Big Mama Thornton -- a splendid collection of songs recorded live at prison shows. Imagine my surprise when I glanced at the back of the CD case and caught this:

Can any long-time Oregonians out there confirm that there was a "reformatory" in Eugene? Maybe she just played the U of O and thought it was a correctional institution.

You can't make this stuff up: "We help you unravel the complexities of issues tangled in multiple layers of government." Indeed.

Here's an interesting phenomenon taking place in Los Angeles: self-appointed volunteers planting greenery by night on other people's bleak, sterile urban lots.

We need this kind of movement in Portland. Maybe they could show up here one night. [Via Tony Pierce.]

This story has got the right wing up in arms, and it ought to have the left wing pretty riled up, too. One of the reasons that the State of Oregon is broke is that its wonderful Energy Department deliberately low-balled -- and by a hilarious margin -- the cost of the state's reckless energy tax credit program when it was going through the legislature.

Everyone in Salem is denying that there was any willful fraud, except for one guy in the department who has owned up to the truth (a brave soul) and another one who quit the department a long time ago. One of those in the loudest denial is Governor Ted, who's shocked -- shocked! -- at the whole thing. This is the same guy who was stunned at the disgusting revelations about Neil Goldschmidt, to whom he owes his career and to whom he gave all sorts of official powers. There's always something terrible going on right under Ted's nose, and he never seems to notice until it's in the papers. Amazing.

The guv also vetoed a bill that would have fixed the problem. He won't be able to deny that.

A couple of decades ago, I saw a little bit of the state Energy Department from the inside. I was appointed by then-Gov. Barbara Roberts to a Hanford advisory committee. I concluded after a year or so that the whole thing was a charade. My name and time were being used to foster an image of public involvement that was far from the truth. The number 1 priority of the bureaucrats in Salem seemed to be keeping their own jobs, and number 2 was not making too many waves about Hanford, in case they might be looking for a job there themselves some day. There was a grand total of one guy in the place, a geologist, who was a straight shooter. The rest never looked you straight in the eye. I quit.

Salem's an odd burg, and Energy is one of the weirder corners. On this one, even Len Bergstein, another Goldschmidt pal, pops up -- flacking for one of the companies that's milking the taxpayers for all they're worth. This one ought to be a movie, with a scary soundtrack.

You talk about your tourism opportunity going to waste. A highly alert reader just pointed out, on our blog post about the latest wasteful Portland Airport expansion talk, that there's a Bong Street out that way:

People, this is big. We could get travelers from all over the world to come to Portland -- just to have their pictures taken in front of a street sign out there!

When they're not wasting money needlessly expanding the Portland airport, they're wasting money talking about it. Here's a boatload of dough that's been dropped to tell us that, yes, if they build more stuff at PDX, more cars will go out there.

This town is clearly going to plan its way to bankruptcy.

The players in our charity pro football underdog pool have picked these upsets; in order for them to win, the lesser-rated team (in caps) must win its game outright:

13 SAN FRANCISCO at Indianapolis - Sidney
10 CAROLINA at Arizona - Michael W.
10 ATLANTA at New Orleans - Robert, Kevin, Andy
9.5 ST. LOUIS at Detroit - Rick, genop's mom, jmh, Dan, Gordon, Doug
3.5 BUFFALO vs. Houston - George, Annie, genop, Mark
3.5 MIAMI at NY Jets - Hank, Bad Brad
3 MINNESOTA at Green Bay - Gary

Nobody wanted these 'dogs:

17 OAKLAND at San Diego
14 CLEVELAND at Chicago
10 SEATTLE at Dallas
3 DENVER at Baltimore
3 JACKSONVILLE at Tennessee
1 NY GIANTS at Philadelphia

I have no selection from Flynn, Michael K., or Mojo, and so unless they can show that I somehow overlooked a legit communication of their picks, they sit out this week. (The deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Saturday.)

The standings so far are:

7.5 - Gary, George
0 - Everyone else

Enjoy the games, everybody!