Kitzen and Jeni Branting

We’re eating dessert first (wedding cake and champagne) in honor of these two women. The twenty-six-year-old and twenty-eight-year-old became Oregon’s first legally married same-sex couple thanks to the Coquille Indian Tribe, which legalized same-sex marriage in May.

Tony Vecchio

The director of the Oregon Zoo bids us adieu this month after overseeing eleven stellar years of unprecedented growth and the birth of a baby elephant (and, OK, one overly aggressive peacock). Vecchio will head to Florida, where he’ll take the reins at the Jacksonville Zoo.

Ray LaHood

TriMet officials—and 250,000 out-of-work Oregonians—practically did the wave this spring when LaHood, the US Secretary of Transportation, approved $75 million to expand Portland’s streetcar system. The extension will add 3.3 miles of track east of the Willamette River.

Fred Hansen

Forget riding the streetcar: TriMet’s general manager is leaving on a jet plane—for Australia, where he’ll be a Thinker in Residence. That’s Aussie for “mass transit consultant.” Hansen’s not giving up his day job: he’ll take three trips down under over the next year and a half—just often enough to stay nice and bronze.

Sarah Jane Ward

The platinum blonde from Lake Oswego sued Rumi Simone salon for $50,000 over what she claimed were bad bleach jobs that caused all of her hair to break off. A Clackamas County jury didn’t agree, denying Ward any damages. Hey, at least the hair will grow back—unlike the money she spent on legal fees.

Scott Bricker

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s executive director slipped out of his clips and into his dancing shoes as a member of the Boris & Natasha Dancers. The troupe of untrained city-luminaries-cum-entertainers put on quite a show as part of a May program at Performance Works NorthWest. We want an encore.