A pair of important Portland City Council votes are expected Wednesday, December 1 —fully within that awkward window between our print deadline and when you might pick up the paper. First, the council is expected to approve Mayor Sam Adams' controversial package of gun control laws ["Gun Law Criticism, Reloaded," Hall Monitor, Nov 11], including a new youth curfew and "exclusion" zones for gun convicts—setting aside concerns of racial profiling raised in a meeting two weeks before. Later the council will weigh a report from a citizen/police/city task force that met several times this year, in a plan pushed by City Commissioner Randy Leonard to find ways to improve reviews of police conduct. DENIS C. THERIAULT

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Not appearing on the council agenda? A contentious proposal, part of the River Plan that was conceptually approved this spring, that would require businesses along the Willamette River's North Reach to pay for whatever environmental damage their expansion plans might wreak  ["A River of Compromises," Hall Monitor, Nov 25]. Mayor Sam Adams' office announced on Tuesday, November 30, that the fee plan—a source of great pain to riverside businesses—was being pulled back for further honing and discussion. As a sweetener, the city has offered to subsidize half of any fees for two years. DCT