After his stop in Portland, Barack Obama hit Oprah’s house for a party—and left with $3 million in door prizes. Guests paid $2300 each for “mini burgers, chips and guacamole, chicken tenders, corn-on-the-cob on a stick, iced tea, water, lemonade and wine.” Oh, and time with Oprah and Obama.

Meet Karl Rove’s replacements: “Barry Jackson is taking over management of the four offices Rove supervised (political affairs, intergovernmental relations, public liaison and strategic initiatives), while new White House counselor Ed Gillespie will assume Rove’s more amorphous role of providing Bush broader strategic advice.”

Britney Spears’ “comeback” performance at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards was, by all accounts, a huge flop. “Dressed in sequined black underpants and bra, an out-of-shape Spears moved tentatively around the stage, getting totally outgrooved by her backup dancers and badly lip-syncing her way through the song whose main lyric was ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.’”

Early on Sunday morning, two men were shot (one died) where N Mississippi and N Albina meet—steps away from a triangular park that city officials recently rededicated after work “to make the site safer and more attractive.”

And in Portland today, Mayor Tom Potter is expected to announce whether or not he’ll run for re-election. Stay tuned to Blogtown (at about 11:30) for the news!