As we predicted, the outgoing interim U.S. attorney, Dwight Holton, has positioned himself to run for Oregon attorney general by leaving the U.S. attorney's office and signing up for a cup of coffee with a private law firm. They'll probably get at least a year's work out of him, because the incumbent, John Kroger, is likely to serve out his term unless his mysterious illness forces him out sooner. Kroger and Holton are close personal friends, and there's no way Kroger is going to step down and let the governor appoint somebody else, who could then run under a "retain" banner.

But the real news this morning is that Holton is going to have an opponent -- Ellen Rosenblum, a recently retired judge from the Oregon Court of Appeals. Rosenblum, like Holton, is a former assistant U.S. attorney, and she served on both the Multnomah County district and circuit courts before she was elevated to the Court of Appeals in 2005. Her first appointment to the bench was in 1989, by then-Governor Neil Goldschmidt. She stepped down from judging last April. Oh, and she is also the spouse of Willamette Week publisher Richard Meeker, and so it ought to be one darned interesting race.

Holton's tough stance on medical marijuana made headlines in his U.S. attorney gig. It will be interesting to hear him deal with that on the campaign trail now that he's out of federal office. And since her husband's publication is obsessed with pot stories, it will also be interesting to hear how the judge spins that issue.

And of course, there will be many more topics of interest in the contest. In any event, that vacancy has gone from sleepy to exciting in a hurry.

There are only four games to choose from in our charity pro football underdog game this weekend. The first of these kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time Saturday. All picks are due by then!

Here are the lines. Despite the paucity of games, there are still a couple of fairly hefty pooches available, including one home 'dog:

11 DETROIT at New Orleans
8.5 DENVER vs. Pittsburgh
3 ATLANTA at New York Giants
3 CINCINNATI at Houston

Good luck with the prognostication, players.

Repeat: All picks are due by 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time Saturday!

Portland's police bureau, notorious for its mean streak, has started the new year with an unprecedented announcement: It's changing the way it responds to the use of force by its officers in the field. What's changing seems like window dressing -- now supervisors will be sent out to the scene, for whatever good that's supposed to do -- but it's obvious that the bureau is on the defensive in the midst of a federal investigation into police brutality in Portland. For the cops to admit that they're anything but choir boys, the feds must be getting ready to come down hard. Let's hope so.

In the meantime, if a Portland cop roughs you up, you may be able to meet his or her supervisor before they haul you off for your mugshot. That will be a special moment for you, we're sure.

The decision by the Multnomah County commissioners not to submit a new library taxing district to the county's voters in May got quite a negative reaction from library supporters. And so now the new plan is to ask voters in May to pass a new three-year levy, with an election on the new taxing district promised in November if the levy passes:

If Multnomah County voters approve the three-year local option levy, which will provide the Library with temporary financial stability, the Board will refer a district measure to the ballot in November 2012.

Cogue and the New Sisters of Hawthorne will be voting on the new package on Thursday. They'll have an audience no doubt. Why they put themselves in an adversarial position with the library -- the most popular institution in the county -- remains a mystery. It's got a strong smell of condo developer around it, though.

In keeping with their obsession with Portland, the writers in New York are currently piling up the Carrie Brownstein interviews. Both the New Yorker and the Times currently have pieces posted.

Here's an interesting upcoming event being publicized on the City of Portland website: a meeting of local residents to discuss, supposedly in the abstract, the personal qualities that are needed of the next mayor and City Council members. It's being put on by a number of sponsoring groups, including a couple of leagues of neighborhood associations, and some organizations affiliated with racial and ethnic minority groups.

Their opening gambit:

Examples of the types of skills and abilities that might come up at the forum, include:
- Strong value for and skill at working in partnership with the community.
- Ability to grasp and understand important policy issues.
- Cultural competency and the ability to work with diverse communities.
- Ability to hire strong staff members with good policy development and community involvement skills.
- Willingness and ability to ask tough policy questions.
- Etc.

It sounds as though by the end of the night they'll be singing "Kumbaya" together, but it's not a bad topic for discussion in this election year: "the skills, abilities, and temperament needed to effectively serve the community as a mayor or city council member." Our list would include fiscal responsibility, personal integrity, ability to communicate clearly without an army of p.r. flacks, and respect for the rule of law.

Out in the Lents neighborhood of Southeast Portland, there always seems to be trouble between the locals and the city government. A few years back, there was the nasty flap over whether the city was going to hand over Lents Park to Merritt Paulson for a new baseball stadium. Now there's a battle going on about the placement of one of the "sustainable" people's stinky food compost facilities way too close to where people live. The city literally just won't stop dumping on the residents in that part of town.

They're also going at it about what to build on some neighborhood ball fields. The neighbors -- at least the ones who show up for all the meetings -- say they want apartments and shops. But now the city's talking about placing social services on the site, which isn't to the neighbors' liking.

The whole condo controversy seems a little hinky to us. Speaking for the neighborhood is Nick Christensen, the guy who works as a "reporter" at Metro government, the pushers of all the things the developers want. And the story line of "The neighbors want condos!" is perfect for the O, which loves to repeat the bureaucrats' party line.

Maybe they ought to just fix the place up as nicer ball fields. That's what we would have done back when Portland was great.

Here's another one of those dirty cop stories whose release seems deliberately timed so that you wouldn't see it.

There was an electrical fire overnight in the little old complex of stores on the southeast corner of Fremont and 41st, kitty-corner from Beaumont Middle School. It appears that several businesses took hits, some of them major. That stretch of Fremont is a sweet place, and we hope that corner can bounce back quickly.

Thank goodness it's our last year of this:

An alert reader points out that the folks in Detroit, Michigan have come to their senses and scrapped a budget-busting light rail project in favor of high-speed buses:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Detroit Mayor Dave Bing that doubts that Detroit could pay operating costs over the long term for the light-rail line because of its and the state's financial problems swayed him against the plan. The decision came despite earlier public support that included LaHood's 2010 visit to Detroit to award a $25-million grant to get the project moving.

LaHood, President Barack Obama's top transportation official, met last week with Bing and Snyder, and the sides agreed that the better option is a system of rapid-transit buses operating in dedicated lanes on routes from downtown to and through the suburbs along Gratiot, Woodward and Michigan avenues and along M-59, the officials said.

The death of the light-rail plan, first reported on freep.com Tuesday evening, brings an end to about four years of intensive effort by the city, private developers and nonprofit groups to create what was widely viewed as the most promising attempt in decades for a light-rail system to Detroit.

The feds will help you build it, but you get to pay to run it. For the taxpayers, it never, as the real estate sharpies say, "pencils out."

Oh, we can hear the nattering Blumenites now -- "Thank God we're not like Detroit, Michigan." Uh huh, until you look at the government balance sheets, on which our ink is as red as theirs.

One morning last month our friend and champion waxer Michele was riding westbound in a car over the Burnside Bridge, when the morning mists and the rising sun combined to create some pretty wild visual effects coming off the U.S. Bank Tower. Here, straight from her cell phone, are some photos taken through the windshield:

Beautiful... and also spooky.

We had a fantastic New Year's celebration last night, and it went on well past the witching hour. But we wanted to get up this morning in time to set up our football pool for the day, with the plan to go right back to sleep. And so we set our iPhone alarm for a little after 10.

The darned thing never went off.

Now, whenever this has happened in the past, it was the result of human error. Setting the alarm for p.m. when we meant a.m. (or vice versa) has been our typical downfall. But we had been sure to get that part right this time. So what gives?

After several tests in the early afternoon, we determined that the alarm on the phone simply is not working. And Googling around, we learned that it isn't going to work for at least another day. Apparently there's some sort of glitch in the software on the phone that disables the alarm on January 1 and 2.

There are updates out there that get rid of the problem, but they don't work on the old 3G iPhones, which is what we cheapskates still have at our house. And so the only way for us to correct this particular defect is to buy new phones.

We were planning to do this anyway -- running Google has become an excruciating ordeal on the 3G's for a while now -- but this seals it: 2012 will have to be a year of new phones. We've gotten two and a half years out of the ones we have, and they were the old model when we bought them for a big $100 apiece. But it's still a little disconcerting that the Apple people would allow such a basic flaw to persist. Alarms that don't work are a major liability.

There are many wonderful bright lights in the gray winter mists of Portland, and one of them shines at LeLo's house. But it's a little dimmer than usual over there right now, and all a friend can say is that it's a shame. Condolences to the people who have lost a great friend.

San Diego picked up 3 points for jmh this afternoon, but other than that and a 3.5-point yip from Green Bay earlier in the day, the Big Daddies of pro football did nothing for the players in our charity underdog prediction game. With the league's regular season now over (no one in our group has tonight's game), and the last playoff rounds under the Mayan calendar about to begin, we find our standings to be quite tight. The top five finishers get to designate their favorite charities for pieces of our $910 donation pool. Only 4.5 points separate no. 1 from no. 7, with nos. 8 through 10 just 8 points off the leader's pace:

It's the start of a fresh new calendar year, but on the gridiron, they're playing the last American pro games of the regular season today. Our charity underdog prognostication contest goes on through the playoffs, but the pickin's get slimmer from here on out. Here is whom our players have selected in this Week 17:

12 BUFFALO at New England - Rudie, NoPoGuy, Bayou Baby, mna, genop's gal
12 TAMPA BAY at Atlanta - Gary, genop
10.5 ST. LOUIS vs. San Francisco - Biggest Cubs Loser
9 WASHINGTON at Philadelphia - Bob, AKevin, Annie, Grizfan, Weavmo
9 CAROLINA at New Orleans - Gordon, john dull, Broadway Joe, Drewbob, Bad Brad, Paul, Michael K., Eric W.
4 INDIANAPOLIS at Jacksonville - Tommy W., Usual Kevin
3.5 GREEN BAY vs. Detroit - Pete Rozelle, PDXileinOmaha, Ricardo, John Ch., John Cr.
3 HOUSTON vs. Tennessee - Carol
3 SAN DIEGO at Oakland - jmh
3 SEATTLE at Arizona - Larry Legend

Have a wonderful Sunday, and enjoy the games, everybody!

UPDATE, 1:13 p.m.: Morning entries just posted; list is now complete. What a night it was!

UPDATE, 1:47 p.m.: The Pack proves that it should never be an underdog, picking up 3.5 points for five of our players. The top of our standings is really getting crowded!