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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2000)
Elian case continues ■ Attorneys in Cuban boy’s case push a theory that father is unfit to parent WASHINGTON — With a deadline looming and legal op tions narrowing, relatives of Elian Gonzalez on Sunday pressed arguments that the boy’s father is unfit as they battled to retain custody of the 6-year-old. The White House responded that there is no evidence of the sort, and the father’s lawyer said the “outrageous” allegations were a sign the Miami relatives are getting desperate. “There is no doubt this father loves his boy very, very much,” said Gre gory Craig, who represents Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Three of the relatives’ attor neys, appearing separately on three Sunday talk shows, sug gested that the father is not fit to raise Elian. Attorney Manny Diaz said the legal team has sub mitted evidence to federal court and to the government, although he declined to detail it Sunday. “One of the lawyers on our team met with the attorney gen eral at the beginning of this process and raised those types of concern,” Diaz said on ABC’s “This Week.” But Craig said the family is just now raising the issue. “It’s outrageous that at this point in this discussion ... they’re raising these kinds of questions,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” The family’s arguments, backed up by members of Con gress who want Elian to remain in the United States, come as the Justice Department insists that the relatives agree to surrender Elian if they lose their pending court case. Justice has given the relatives until Tuesday to sign such a promise and has threatened to revoke the boy’s permission to be in this country if they do not agree. That deadline has been extended twice already. Family members want to pre serve their option to keep up the legal fight even if they lose their case in federal court, which en forces immigration law. They also want a family court to con sider the child’s best interests. The Miami relatives have said they will surrender the boy if Im migration and Naturalization Service officers show up at their door and demand him. Federal officials hope to avoid that. Diaz said turning Elian over to his father would cause “further irreversible trauma.” But John Podesta, the White House chief of staff, stressed that the Clinton administration be lieves Elian should be with his father, who wants him back in Cuba. “A child belongs with his nat ural parent unless that parent’s unfit,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We have no indica tion that Elian’s father is an unfit parent.” The Associated Press Kitzhaber rues EPA listing ■ Governor laments listing of Portland Harbor among most polluted waste sites SALEM — Gov. John Kitzhaber says the state failed to prevent a Superfund listing of a 5.5-mile stretch of the Willamette River because it couldn’t get polluters to agree on a payback plan. Better coordination among his administration, Oregon’s Depart ment of Environmental Quality and the Port of Portland may have resolved differences, Kitzhaber told The Oregonian. The U.S. Environmental Pro tection Agency is expected to list the Portland Harbor among the nation’s most hazardous waste sites this week. Decades of indus trial activity and chemical manu facturing has polluted the stretch that runs through downtown. “The single biggest failure was the fact that we didn’t have enough responsible parties at the table,” Kitzhaber said. “We just couldn’t get it done.” The EPA’s regional office in Seattle will seek Kitzhaber’s ap proval for the listing before send ing its recommendation to EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., where agency staff will re view various studies. The pro posed listing then will be posted in the Federal Register, opening it to public comment for 60 days. Kitzhaber said he doubted any last-minute maneuvering would take place to avoid the listing. He said he expected to sign an EPA letter of concurrence for the list ing sometime this week. The governor encouraged Ore gonians to view the listing as a step toward ensuring a healthier river and ecosystem — despite the potential stigma of a Super fund designation. The Willamette River posed several competing interests that proved too complex to overcome, the governor said. The main chal lenge, of course, has been the prospect of a cleanup involving 70 parties or more. Other problems included: 1999 listings of salmon and steelhead under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, a port authority des perate to preserve a multimillion dollar project to dredge and deepen the river’s navigation channel, a city government strug gling to control 3 billion gallons of raw sewage spills annually and six Northwest tribes bran dishing treaty rights to fish the river. The Associated Press We'll do it for you: textbook comparison shopping We search the web for the best deals on your books. So you dont have to. ■J RO. Box 3159. Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Mon day through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. A member of the Associated Press, the Emerald operates inde pendently of the University with offices in Suite 3C of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. 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