If you think Portland's city hall has become more interesting from a news perspective over recent months, consider Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, who is now facing accusations that...well...

No big surprise there, but it's still maddening to be reminded of it as blatantly as we were last week, when Nagin 'fessed up that, while it was kind of a "blur," he did recall jetting off to Jamaica on Nov. 18, 2005, with his wife and children — all on the dime of a guy with a fat city contract for crime cameras that seldom worked and ran millions over budget.

That's right: Jetting off to Jamaica with his family 81 days after Hurrican Katrina, all on a credit card belonging to a supposed technology contractor for the city of New Orleans.

Mayor Sam Adams is off in Belgium for the week for the 29th annual "Velo-city" conference (in French, "velo" means bike...genius!), presenting only once over the course of the entire week, as far as we're able to tell:

This plenary session will define the priority areas of Velo-city 2009. Plenary 1 will be concluded by a presentation of cycling policy in three very different cities: the “forerunner” city of Amsterdam and two promising “climber” cities: Bordeaux and Portland (USA).

Still, at least Adams is pretending to work.

Whoo! Politics.