Portland is set to approve payment of $300,000 to 12 people who claimed police used excessive force during two anti-war marches in March 2003 and during President Bush's visit to Portland in August 2002. A federal judge spent at least five months mediating the claims, and the City Council is set to approve the settlement Wednesday. Plaintiffs argued in two lawsuits that the city, Mayor Vera Katz, then-police Chief Mark Kroeker and several officers violated their rights to free speech and free assembly. They said they were doused by pepper spray at close range and that police fired rubber stingballs...