Moving quickly to snuff a political fire over a long-promised community college scholarship program, Mayor Sam Adams dropped a plan to pay for it with extra sewer and water rate revenue. Already on the "creative" side when he conceived it, that idea turned positively toxic after an audit last week took aim at other dubious uses of utility cash. To pay for the program's $360,000 allocation, Adams on Tuesday, April 5, decided he would tap the city's contingency fund instead. The council is expected to vote on the plan Wednesday, April 6. DENIS C. THERIAULT

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Who would you rather see survive: a rat or a cute little girl? That's the frank argument plastered on two new billboards, on Interstate 84 and SE Powell, paid for by the Foundation for Biomedical Research. Portland is one of five US cities where the billboards popped up this week. Portland has had a spate of animal-rights protests over recent years aimed at the Oregon Health and Science University's primate research center, which was recently in the news for fattening up monkeys for obesity research. SARAH MIRK