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Less interesting news first: New Seasons is building a store in Vancouver, USA! It'll be a 40,000-square-foot store in the Fisher's Landing neighborhood. There's absolutely no rational reason why I should be annoyed at this, but I'm feeling... I don't know, a little jealous? New Seasons was, like, a special Oregon thing and now it's also a gross Vancouver thing. Whatever. I don't like sharing.

VERY INTERESTING NEWS SECOND: According to Oregonian columnist Anna Griffin's Twitter feed, New Seasons' founder Eileen Brady may run for mayor in 2012. "A lot of people have asked me to think about it," Brady apparently told Griffin. "I'm out listening to community members right now, so I don't have much to say besides, yes, I'm looking at it."

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Sam Adams should be shitting his hemp pants about this. Brady would be a pretty competitive challenger to Sir Yoga Ball. Not only does she have serious sustainability cred, she's also a member of the Oregon Business Association's board. When we asked insiders to give advice to Sam, becoming more business-focused was one of the top suggestions.

Business connections + sustainability savvy + everyone loves New Seasons = "The Friendliest Mayor in Town!" come 2012. If business folks are asking her to run, that also could be a bad sign for Adams' future fundraising.

That is, if Brady actually runs. In 2007, she considered running against Sen. Gordon Smith (Jeff Merkley eventually won the seat) and in 2008, Griffin reports, downtown business people tried to get her to run for mayor. Who knows whether she'll actually jump in this time around.