Las Vegas police alleged that Seigler had lured both women and girls to work for him as hookers. Seigler adamantly denied the accusations and threatened a lawsuit against Las Vegas police for defamation of character and slander. He said police were harassing him “for something stemming from a family member in trouble.”

Former OSU student “Worst Person in the World”:

Last night on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann anointed former Oregon State University student Nathanael Blake “Worst Person in the World.” Blake earned the dubious distinction for his comments about the Virginia Tech tragedy on the conservative Web site Human Events.

“Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture,” wrote Blake. “Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that.”

But we can also do good things:

Scappoose, OSU… Playmate of the Year:

On May 3, Playboy magazine named 23-year-old Sara Jean Underwood — Portland-born, Scappoose-bred — its 2007 Playmate of the Year.

…

She is the 48th Playmate of the Year since the first was named in 1960, and she’s the third from Oregon, following Jodi Ann Paterson of Springfield in 2000 and Lebanon-born Jo Collins in 1965.

Back in spring 2005, Underwood had no clue that Playboy reps were in Corvallis, where she has just a few classes left before getting her business degree from Oregon State University. A magazine crew was auditioning women for its “Girls of the Pac-10″ issue, and one of Underwood’s friends, who planned to try out the next day, asked if Sara would help with her hair.

OSU grads: making a difference.

My buddy Doug was there and captured the whole thing in glorious video. Watch and let it become a family classic.

Trojan Nuclear Plant tower imploded:

Trojan Nuclear Plant’s 499-foot cooling tower crumbled to a pile of rubble early today, as the explosion of 2,800 pounds of dynamite gave the landmark structure on the banks of the Columbia River no option but surrender.

The 30-year-old tower twinkled in a series of fiery charges at 7 a.m., then bowed forward slightly and collapsed. In less than 10 seconds, the tower collapsed into rubble, with only a small amount of wall remaining.

A cloud of concrete dust rose into the morning skies and moved south as the massive structure shattered, then settled, exposing a mound of debris and the jagged remains of the tower’s foundation.

Some people may claim that the protests help bring about this day, but hopefully a larger nuclear power plant will be created in its place, in the shape of a large skull with glowing green eyes. That would be pretty neat!

Read more info about Trojan at Wikipedia and shed a silent tear for a departed comrade.

Whenever there’s a hubbub in the rest of the country you can be sure there’s something going on in Corvallis, or maybe even long after most everyone else has lost interest (see: Iraq War). Dan Crall has a post about a rally against HR 4437 with information on the proceedings and lots of photos. Certainly a beautiful day for a display of free speech.

My favorite image would have to be one from the Barometer’s article concerning the protest that included a sign reading “Are tacos illegal?” Really makes you think… about tacos.

The whole politics thing is finally paying off for the first group of senators to receive Apple’s wondrous portable music player as part of IPac’s “Your Senator needs an iPod” program. Oregon’s own Senator Gordon Smith was among them and will soon be legislating to the beats of Chuck D and the Beastie Boys, among others. From the press release:

“I am thrilled at the support we have received from regular Americans who are concerned with the innovation tax that Hollywood cartels have imposed on American companies and creators. We hope to open the eyes of America’s leaders to the importance of having sensible information policy. When recorded music conglomerates are installing malicious spyware on our computers, Senators should understand that it’s time to balance the public’s rights against copyright holders,” said Jake Fisher, IPac’s Executive Director.

Expect Congress to become a sea of white earbuds soon. Maybe in the future the Senate won’t ever have to convene, just subscribe to the podcasts of the other senators and vote for bills on EZCoolPollz.com.

Senator Smith is a standout for this program because he introduced the Digital Content Protection Act which would place any new features added to consumer electronic devices under government scrutiny to decide if it’s okay or not. I don’t know if iPods will mean the difference in the fight but at least Smith may be grooving to some Thievery Corporation as he slaps the manacles on our media-lovin’ mitts.

A Costco Home, apparently a version of Costco that sells furniture and home stuff (as you may have deduced from the name), will be arriving at Cascade Station near the Portland Airport, along with IKEA. The development is supposed to be open in summer 2007. I went to the IKEA up in Washington and it was slightly surreal: The biggest store I’ve ever been in, packed with people, with all manner of furniture and kitchen stuff and who knows what else. From the press release:

Besides nearly 10,000 exclusively designed items, IKEA Portland will feature four model homes, 50 room settings, a supervised children’s play area, as well as a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes too. Other family-friendly features will include a ‘Children’s IKEA’ area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store.

I bought a bookcase there and managed to put it together myself with only a few screw-ups, and that’s saying something. I’m sure people with taste turn their noses up at the mention of IKEA but for people like me, destined to have a living space devoid of furniture in the near future, they will be a godsend.

On that note I’m going to try to read OregonLive more often. It’s usually not a pleasant experience with the ads smeared all over the page and getting asked my zipcode and year of birth every time. One thing that I did find that’s pretty cool is an article titled MetroFi edges EarthLink:

Portland is taking a gamble by choosing Silicon Valley startup MetroFi to build the city’s wireless Internet cloud. Portland’s second choice, EarthLink, is an established Internet service provider that generates $1.3 billion in annual sales, and it’s already won Wi-Fi contracts in Philadelphia and San Francisco.

I’ve been aware of Google giving away wi-fi in various cities but I didn’t know that Portland had plans. Being able to crack open your laptop anywhere and have access sounds damn cool to me, as long as it’s not plagued by downtime and security issues. I imagine Comcast is going into convulsions right about now, although I expect they’ll still be able to offer higher quality service, though they may be forced to lower their prices when the people that just check their e-mail and do a little surfing no longer require a fat pipe.