The site plant ing for the new Veterans'
Administration to be located in Portland
has reached the stage of political rather
than factual considerations. Although the
first recommendation was that the new
hospital be built adjacent to Emanuel
Hospital, the Veterans’ Administration is
recommending that it be built on Mar
quam Hill.
The facts point to lower coats and bet­
ter service at the Emanuel site. Emanuel
is ideally located at the junction of free­
ways from the north, south, east and
west. It has adequate space (or parking.
Veterans avoid
Emanuel site
PORTLAND
i 6 No. 47 Thursday, October 7th, 197«
$151,100,000 on Marquam Hill; and
$148,000,000 at the Emanuel site.
Contracting companies contacted by
the Observer questioned the cost esti­
mates, stating building costs should be
much lower at the Emanuel site.
ing are adequate. It will require little or
no expenditure by the city.
The Marquam Hill sight is on the side
of a hill, in a ravine. It would require
additional sewers, and storm drains to be
built by the city. It is located on a narrow,
winding “scenic” drive which is impossi
ble in icy weather.
Congressman Dunean, who favors the
Emanuel site, also questions the esti­
mates. He believes other factors to be as
important as cost, including acces ibility
•nd convenience to the patients and their
families.
“I am opposed to placing more medical
facilities at Marquam Hill. They could not
have selected a more inaccessible site; it
is too bad that the medical school as built
there. I think the Emanuel site is much
more reasonable.”
The Emanuel site is within walking
distance of motels and other facilities, the
Marquam Hill site is isolated.
In a recent letter to Congressman Bob
Duncan, llichard L. Roudebush, Admini
strator of Veterans' Affairs in Washing­
ton D.C.. reported that building on the
Emanuel site, on level ground, would cost
more than building on Marquam Hill. He
estimated the cost of a single facility
hospital on the site of the existing veter­
ans' Hospital to be $154,600,000; the cost
adjacent to the University of Oregon
Health Sciences Center at $147,300,000.
and the cost' at Emanuel $148,200,000.
One reason the Veterans' Administra­
tion is giving for their preference tor
Marquam Hill is that the hospital would
be near the medical school. “If doctors
could walk from one hospital to the other
and if patients could be wheeled bark and
forth, I could see it. But if they have to
drive anyway. I can't see any difference
in being five minutes away from the
school or seven minutes away.”
He estimated the cost of building, plus
smaller non-acute care facility in Vancou­
ver at $151,100,000 at the present site;
10c per
Although Duncan supports the Eman­
uel site, he said hi« prime concern is
patient care. “Only if they could prove
veterans would receive better care at
Marquam Hill, would I see it as proper
choice.”
Jordan believes location of the hospital
in the area would provide an impetus to
economic development. “If the govern­
ment builds a $160 million facility, then
this will tel! other developers and busi­
ness men that this area is o.k. Those who
have a negative impression of the area
will know it is a good place to do business.
“The hospital will bring other business
- pharmacies, stores and the services
that the patients, their families and the
employees will need.” *
Because of the powerful influence of
the State of Washington’s congressional
delegation, it is assured that a portion of
the hospital will be built in Vancouver,
although that was not the preference of
the Veterans' Administration.
The eventual decision of where the
hospital will be placed will be made by
President Ford and his staff.
(Editors note: This is part II in a series on
the VA hospital site question.)
Toran heads Welfare Office
Mrs. Kay Toran has been named Man
ager of the Albina Branch Public Welfare
Office located in the Albina Human Re­
source Center.
Mrs. Toran, who is currently assistant
professor of Social Work at Portland
State University School of Social Work,
said she is “very excited about what I
perceive is a challenging position.”
“This will allow me to influence the
delivery of services to low-income people,
which is one of my major concerns; I will
be glad to be working in that area.”
“It will be an interesting transition
from teaching to management.”
Ms. Toran, a former caseworker with
Welfare, first was employed by that
agency in June of 1967. She then was
employed t v a year as Director of Special
Services with the Girl Scouts.
After receiving her Master of Social
Work degree from Portland State Uni­
versity, she served as an assistant pro
feasor of counselling, assisting diaadvan
taged college students make use ol the
Universities supportive services and
counselling students with emotional or
educational problems.
In 1971, she assumed her current posi­
tion, directing the Learning Center, a
training unit for social work students at
the Albina Human Resource Center. She
prepared budgets and controls, designed
program, supervised students, and
taught courses.
Ms. Toran graduated from Washington
High School and earned a B.A. in Sociol
ogy from the University of Portland. She
received her MSW from Portland State
University in 1970. She is married to
attorney John Toran.
\
Mrs. Hazel G. Hays, director of the
Albina Human Resource Center, said of
Ms. Toran's appointment, “I am thrilled
to see her in the position. She is very
capable and qualified. I expect the same
level of services to be delivered under
ther leadership as under the previous
director, Gary Gomez, who has accepted
a position in Salem.”
Bates found dead
Billy Rae Bates, 42, a long time resi­
dent of Albina, was found dead in his S.E.
Bidwell home. His wife, Betty. 36, also
found in the house was admitted to East-
moreland General Hospital and is report­
ed in fair condition.
An autopsy revealed a lethal level of
carbon monoxide. Six small logs and ash­
es were found in the fireplace, with the
damper closed, leading to the assumption
that death was caused through accident.
The police are investigating the death.
far the new Veterans Administration Hospital.
The Emanuel atte is
(Photo: Da» 1
Workshop aids parent problems
‘i
-v
“Pregnarcy is not the Problem" will be
the focus of a special workshop this week­
MOR Mil
Mt’
I
end, October Sib aud 9th. The workshop
is sponsored by the Oregon Alliance Con­
cerned with School Age Parents, and W.
Stanley Kruger, Special Programs Direc­
tor for the Department of Health, Educa­
tion and Welfare. Topics to be discussel
include “Prevention of Sexual Ruin” and
“An Ounce of Prevention.”
The Oregon group is an affiliate of the
National Alliance. Each fall the groups
sponsor a workshop dealing with the
special problems of school age parents.
There is a local program which deals
with this group of young people. The
program is located in the Albina office of
the Children's Services Division (CSD).
To get more information about this local
program, we spoke with Roy Odren,
Manager of the local CSD office.
“The main thing we are trying to do is
to teach responsibility,” noted Odren.
“We are trying to make these young
parents think they are important people.
When they realize they are important,
they become more responsible "
The program is designed to provide a
wide variety of services to young par­
ents. Some of those services include con­
tinuing their education, arranging tor
medical care and general counselling. The
project's staff work closely with other
programs in the community. These in­
uNiBornl
(Moi
JAM » i4 *
M M K A ll f t
..
*
1
Urn
EUot
i to the <
(Photo: Dan I
along Unien and
An irritation far
clude the Continuing Education for Girls,
Planned Parenthood, and Maternal and
Infant Care of Oregon.
Each young parent has different needs
and different problems. The project staff
work to give whatever services the indi­
vidual needs. These may include preg­
nancy counselling, adoption services,
abortion counselling or family planning.
Emplasis is placed on learning what re­
sources there are in the community and
how to use them. This enables the young
parents to work towards emancipation.
Odren noted that the program is cur­
rently working with about forty young
people. He emphasized that these are
both young men and young women. The
staff for the project are Helen Smith,
Carroll Melson and Verlena Richardson.
Supervisor for the project is Irma Jones.
The project serves young parents both
before and after the birth of the child. As
Odren says, "There are usually more dif­
ficult problems to work out after the child
is born than before." The project helps
arrange various kinds of services so that
the young parent is able to continue edu­
cation or training.
This program, which is only one of
many throughout the state, has been
operating since 1971. Should anybody
wish further information, they can call
280-6003.
Congress investigates King assassination
by Wayne
I. Jr.
Memphis (PNS) - Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. may have been the victim of
"security stripping" - a technique used
by intelligence agencies to expose a vic­
tim to assassination by removing his pro­
tection - involving the Memphis police
and possibly a federal intelligence
agency.
This is the theory that convinced the
House of Representatives to create a
special 12-member committee to probe
both the 1968 King murder and the 1963
assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
The Bieck* Caucus in the House, acting
on new information in the King case, w«s
resonsible for breaking a stalemate and
pushing the investigation through, ac­
cording to several appointees to the
committee.
The new information was given the
Black Caucus by two investigators: Mark
Lane, author of the beat-selling book on
the JFK assassination, "Rush to Judg
ment," and Abby Mann, an Academy
Award-winning screenwriter and author
of “Judgment in Nuremburg."
They and Nowaday reporter les Payne
found in scores of interviews with those
involved in the King investigation that:
•Ed Redditt, the Black Memphis pt-lice
detective in charge of protecting Kii.g,
was removed from his post across the
street from the mote! where King was
shot just two hours before the slaying.
Redditt told PNS he had set up a contin­
gency plan to seal off the area in the
event of violence, but it “was never im­
plemented.”
Director of the Police Department
Frank Holloman - a former FBI agent of
25 years who had worked with Director
J. Edgar Hoover - told him he was being
removed because a murder plot against
him had been discovered. After being
taken home and watched by Memphis
police for two days, he was put back on
duty - and never heard another word
about the murder plot.
Because Holloman told him of the plot
in the company of a man he identified as a
Secret Service agent, Redditt assumed
"that Holloman had gotten this informa­
tion from the Secret Service." But that
agency denies having any record of send
ing an agent to the meeting.
Representatives from the FBI, military
intelligence. National Guard and other
agencies were there, however.
•Redditt's assistant told investigator
Mark Lane that he too had left the com­
mand post opposite King's hotel before
the slaying, but refused to discuss the
circumstances surrounding his removal.
•An informal security force of four
members of a local Black militant group,
including one undercover Memphis police
agent, was also relieved from duty just
before the murder - by someone in the
King entourage. Stationed with arms on
the same floor as King, they were already
downstairs when the shooting took place.
•The only two Black firemen assigned
to the fire station across from King's
hotel -- Redditt's command post - were
also "stripped away.”
Both were temporarily transferred to
other stations the night before the mur­
der. One, Floyd Newsum, told Lane that
the deputy chief of the Fire Department
told him the transfer order had come
from the Police Department.
•According to Redditt, “The FBI never
talked to me about this even though I told
my story to anyone willing to answer."
Newsum says he has never been ques­
tioned by a law enforcement agency
about his removal either.
•Arthur Murtagh, a former FBI agent
in Atlanta, has stated that agents in the
Atlanta office “literally jumped for joy”
when they learned King had been assas
sinated. He said the FBI intelligence
squad in Atlanta - King’s home town --
was assinged “to somehow or other get
King, to bring him down, break him or
destroy him ”
After the murder. Lane says, the same
Atlanta intelligence squad was assigned
by Hoover to head the investigation. “My
superiors, both in the Atlanta bureau and
Washington,” Murtagh told PNS, “wash
ed out leads suggesting a right-wing con
spiracy.”
“Had a more thorough investigation
been conducted by the FBI, I believe
links would have been established be­
tween the King assassination and the
(Please turn to p. 2 col. 1)
Telegram
w estern union
PRC201 ( l 4 2 0 ) ( 2 - 0 2 2 2 3 4 C 2 7 8 0 0 5 ) P D
1 0 /0 4 /7 6
»rSOCT -4 PH |: 31
TWX HATFIELD WSH
438
1517
WASH DC 10 / 4 : WE
PMS PORTLAND OBSERVER
BX 3 1 3 7
2201
N.
KILLINQSWORTH
PORTLAND,
SEN.
OR 9J2S &
Í j *0.
HATFIELD REACTION TO BUTZ F IR IN G :
i Io
”... /
"PRESIDENT FORD HAD NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO F IR E EARL BUTZ AFTER H IS
DEMEANING SLUR ON BLACK AMERICANS.
SHOULD HAVE DONE I T
NNNN
THE PRESIDENT
AS SOON AS H IS REMARKS WERE MADE P U B L IC .
I AM SHOCKED AT THE IN S E N S IT IV IT Y
COMMENTS." S A ID SEN.
IN MY O P IN IO N ,
HATFIELD
SHOWN BY BUTZ’ S DEGRADING
C»o
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