Mayor Charlie Hales and his staffers took over all of Portland's nearly 30 bureaus and offices on Monday, February 4—formally opening budget season in Portland City Hall. Hales is calling for deep cuts to solve a $25 million deficit that may yet grow (or shrink) depending on how tax revenues flow over the next few months. By taking over the bureaus, Hales hopes to foreclose on any turf wars between commissioners. But he's also taking on an intense amount of bureaucratic work for his lean team. Will his office raid the bureaus for staffers to handle the challenge? Probably not. Although, says spokesman Dana Haynes, "We have some desks and spaces available from Mayor Sam Adams' old crew. If we need them, we have cubicles." DENIS C. THERIAULT

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Blackfaced drag queen/comedian Shirley Q. Liquor isn't coming to Portland after all, at least not to North Portland gay bar the Eagle. Portlanders protested the show so much the bar was forced on Friday, February 1, to cancel the show and even took down its social media sites. But not before more than 200 people left comments on the Eagle's Facebook page questioning the ethics and common sense of a bar that would book an act so clearly racist. CARA MICO

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Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the young Somali American accused of trying to blow up Portland's Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square in November 2010, was found guilty in federal court of attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Mohamud's attorneys say they will appeal the jury's verdict, handed down on Thursday, January 31, after brief deliberations. His lawyers tried and failed to mount an entrapment defense—arguing Mohamud would never have been close to a car bomb plot without coddling from the FBI. DCT