Via Oregon Media Insiders, comes bad news at the Portland Tribune: Columnist Phil Stanford's been laid off. (So has "Denise Szott, the paper’s top designer and copy editor," the Business Journal reports.)

Stanford—previously a columnist at the Oregonian—was known for his curmudgeonly columns and his "Portland Confidential" pieces that dug into old-school "Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Rose City," according to his book of the same title.

I've never met Stanford myself, but his Tribune colleagues spoke highly of him, as a man dedicated to his craft. Best of luck, Phil!