Problem with ActiveRecord save/update

controller.rb

def update
          @channel = Channel.find(params[:channel_id])
          @status = 0
          
          # check permissions
          if @channel.user_id == current_user.id
            # save data
            @channel.options1 = params[:options]
            logger.debug "Channel changes " + @channel.changes.to_s
            if @channel.save
              logger.debug "The save worked"
              @status = 1
            end
            logger.debug "Finished trying to save "
          end
          # return response: 1=success, 0=failure
          render :json => @status.to_json
	end

output.log

Started POST "/channels/1/charts/1" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-03-13 10:28:35 -0400
  Processing by ChartsController#update as JSON
  Parameters: {"options"=>"&title=Test", "channel_id"=>"1", "id"=>"1"}
  User Load (0.2ms)  SELECT `users`.* FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`id` = 1 LIMIT 1
  Channel Load (0.5ms)  SELECT `channels`.* FROM `channels` WHERE `channels`.`id` = 1 LIMIT 1
Channel changes {"options1"=>[nil, "&title=Test"]}
  SQL (0.1ms)  BEGIN
  Window Load (1.3ms)  SELECT `windows`.* FROM `windows` WHERE `windows`.`wtype` = 'status' AND (`windows`.channel_id = 1)
  SQL (0.1ms)  COMMIT
The save worked
Finished trying to save 
Completed 200 OK in 261ms (Views: 6.2ms | ActiveRecord: 2.4ms)