• This time, at least, the good guys won
W hen Merton Gerald Bean dropped in on his Multnomah County parole officer Jan. 24, 2008, the man had already had an eventful day.

• Into the future with a blast from the past
W hen I bumped into Bob Tiernan late Friday night, he was eating alone in the bar at Manzana, a grilled-artichoke's throw from his Lake Oswego condo, and feeling decidedly upbeat. "I have the votes," he said on the eve of being elected chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, and he promised to call me over the weekend to talk about political revivals.

• In the Army, a soldier's work is never done
S he still remembers those days. She'd be walking home from work in late afternoon and, two blocks from the house, approaching the ridge, she'd suddenly realize she was holding her breath. It was all she could do to keep her legs moving until she saw the empty driveway . . . and not a nondescript green Dodge, with "U.S. Army" stenciled on the door.

• Who won if Oppenheimer paid to play?
A crucial element in the state's costly decision to hand Oregon's 529 plan to Oppenheimer in 2004 was that fund's willingness to pay $350,000 annually to help market the program, a marketing budget -- two of his opponents contend -- that was beneficial to the 2004 re-election campaign of then-state Treasurer Randall Edwards.

• Facilitating our splendid isolation
I don't know that "Wall-E" was the best movie of 2008, but the Pixar film had the year's most arresting image: the beached whales, wallowing on their hover-chairs, that pass for 28th century man.

• Pinning the blame on the proper donkey
W hen John Kroger and Ben Westlund, the state's incoming attorney general and treasurer, complete their investigations of OppenheimerFunds, they might turn their attention to outgoing treasurer Randall Edwards and the Oregon College Savings Plan board.

• Working, waiting for a harvest
O n another rainy morning in Vernonia, Dean and Sylas and Mike & Ike are jammed into the sprawling burgundy La-Z-Boy in the corner of the living room. There seems to be plenty of room, but Kendra Schaumburg assures me the truce won't last. About the time the Mike & Ikes disappear, her husband and their son will go to war again.

• A fool and his trust are soon parted
T rust. That's what it comes down to. After the week's bombshells from Bernard Madoff and the Oregon College Savings Plan, who in the world can you still trust with your money?

• A candid chat with Jason on the 54
B ecause I bused to work on Wednesday, relieving me of the ice-storm angst, I was reminded of how essential TriMet is in the worst of times. So I kept riding, looking for a guy who was willing to talk about the drivers who never get a snow day.