Now that Ellen Rosenblum is about to be sworn in as Oregon attorney general, weekly newspaper Willamette Week has come to a decision about how it's going to cover her tenure in office, given that her husband is the publisher and co-owner of that paper. In a sidebar to its first article on her since she announced that she was running for the office, WW has announced that all decisions about coverage of Rosenblum's department will be made not by editor-in-chief and co-owner Mark Zusman, but instead by news editor Brent Walth.

Walth answers to Zusman, of course, and he's only worked at Willy Week since April of last year (other than a prior stint from 1986 to 1989). Giving him free rein on covering Rosenblum is better than ignoring the obvious conflicts of interest, but it's certainly no guarantee of impartiality. We suspect that this situation may evolve into something else over the next few years.

Meanwhile, on the substance, the article is all about pot, with which everyone at WW is curiously obsessed. But it casually points out that Rosenblum considers Dave Frohnmayer a mentor. Ding dong, Kroger's bought off, and the Old Boys' money is safe again.