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?