Portland Or

A controversial plan for the Port of Los Angeles to pay one of its major tenants up to $6 million for coal exporting equipment--at a 10% profit for the tenant--was approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners. The board voted 3 to 2 to approve the deal between the port and Kaiser International Corp., which is buying a coal bulk loader from the Port of Portland, Ore., for the express purpose of selling it to the Los Angeles Harbor Department.

Hunched over his racing bike, David Russell flies down a paved path paralleling the majestic Columbia River, past houseboats and yachts and through a little Portland neighborhood that resembles a Cape Cod village. Russell hangs a right onto a bike path that spills him onto a steel bridge spanning the Columbia, and then he zips into Vancouver, Wash. No time today for coffee at the Vancouver cafe where local cyclists hang out. The real estate broker has a house to show and needs to get home.

Portland police are refusing to help the FBI question Middle Eastern immigrants hauled in as part of the terrorism investigation, saying the practice violates Oregon law. The Justice Department asked local law enforcement agencies around the country for help in tracking down 5,000 men for questioning about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But Acting Police Chief Andrew Kirkland refused.

When John Buchanan arrived at the Portland Art Museum in 1994 to become its new executive director, he found important, beautiful works of art everywhere--in drawers, file cabinets, closets. No new gallery space had been added to the museum since 1939, and 70% of its 32,000-piece collection was in storage. Last summer, the cramped museum opened its newly renovated third wing, and the results were dramatic.

What don't we have on Tonya Harding? How about perspective, for one thing.

Oregon is, as the local Film and Video Office likes to remind people, halfway between Hollywood and Vancouver, B.C., and halfway between the Silicon Valley and Seattle--which, unfortunately, means it tends to get passed over. But on a balmy Thursday night, a cruise boat floats languorously down the Willamette River, loaded with talent from the worlds of film, TV, multimedia, video gaming, advertising and computers.

You need rain if you're going to get rainbows! That worn-out bromide appeared recently on a chalkboard at one of Portland's neighborhood pubs. It was signed with a happy face. None of the patrons seemed much lifted. As any resident can explain, rainbows only come when you get a shot of sunlight with your rain. It has rained in Portland on 95 of the last 122 days. No need to reach for the calculator: That's approaching 80% of the time.

Fed by liberal court interpretations of the state constitution, the mild-mannered city of Portland, Ore., now has more nude dancing bars per capita than any other U.S. city, local police say. The bars, along with adult video stores and topless shoeshine emporiums, are overflowing traditional downtown locations into neighborhood commercial strips, where they can be found near libraries and homes.

Two years ago, this easygoing, proud-of-being-tolerant city suffered a blight on its reputation when a gang of white youths killed a black man with a baseball bat. Now, Portland is experimenting with ways of teaching its children not to hate. The effort--which the City Council will be asked next week to expand--involves pupils from four economically and ethnically mixed middle schools. The youngsters are given a taste of how it feels to be discriminated against.