Former SPS board member Tom Miller will be stepping down as the Chief of Staff for Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams in order to replace the retiring director of the Transportation Bureau. Oregon Live reports that the position oversee 750 employees and has a $250 million annual budget. The picture above is credited to the Wall Street Journal but I found it over at the Portland Mercury where they call him “the mayor’s controversial, skateboarding chief of staff.” I didn’t know Tom was controversial. I mean as far as I know, he doesn’t push mongo or grab stinkbug. Congratulations Tom. I predict that in the not too distant future S&A will have the pleasure of reporting the first skateboarding mayor of a major city. I should be sponsoring him. I missed a golden photo opportunity. Looks like that’s a Scarecrow deck. – Thanks to Sam for the tip.

Every day is friday over at Chicks and Skateboards. It’s great idea for a web site (depending on how you feel about the objectification of, uhm, chicks….) however even the postmodernist in me is annoyed by tumblr style web sites that just regurgitate content out of context with no link to the original source. Another amusing thing is that sometimes the boobs are pixelated, while two posts earlier they are unabashedly (no, not the unabashed dictionary) bare and large, pixel wise and otherwise. So… some of these shots are Maxxim magazine style, some of them are just random girls on or with a skateboard. Who isTom’s Skateshop? They must be a reader, because January 4th is awfully close to December 31st. – Thanks to Alex Shults for the tip.

Bob Burnquist with a sneak peak of the 2011 Toyata Prius. Honda, if you’re listening, I’ll gladly make a commercial in exchange for a Civic, Fit, motorcycle, lawn mower, boat engine or generator. I guess I’d even take a plane. [Source: Skate Curiosidade]

Skateboards on the cover of Good magazine. Conahan isn’t a fan of online magazines that use the fake page turning mechanism. I wonder how he feels about online magazines that have “issues.” This might actually be a print magazine, I’m not sure. In any case, I think this issue is about crappy jobs and the current employment environment. I don’t think the skateboards go any further than the cover. – Thanks to Hung Chang for the tip.

CNN has a follow up on the recent skateboard emissary mission to Cuba. You might recall we posted about a Christmas day session that was also a drop off for new and used equipment to be brought to Cuba. So how did it go? Check out the story and video on CNN.

Back in May of last year there was a Shot of the Week from a DIY spot in New Orleans that has since become known as Peach Orchard. I’m happy to report that the spot is still going and they’ve added some new concrete. They’re holding benefits and accepting donations via Paypal and the head bean counter Joey O’Mahoney.

These are a few stills from the the video for Rusko track Woo Boost on the Mad Decent label. At first I was prepared to turn this off, and quickly at that, but then it definitely got under my skin and now I could watch it endlessly. Low budget music vids are sometimes the best. Where else ar you going to find marionettes and magic carpet skateboarding? – Thanks to Ryan for the tip.