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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 1983)
K rs F rs n e e a S c h a e n -N e a s p s p e r R c#a U n lr a r a lty o f C ro to n L i b r a r y tu rb ile « O t r i ^ / 4 0 3 Legislature faces crucial session Can boxing be saved? Pag«6 LU LU \ Congress faces deficit PageS PORTLAND OBSERVER January 5, 1983 Volume XIII, Number 13 25C Per Copy USPS 959-6« >-855 DENNIS BUCHANAN ANNE KELLY FEENEY JEWELL LANSING Local officials take oath of office Dennis Buchanan was sworn into office as Multnomah County Execu tive in ceremonies Monday, promis ing to continue the “ trad itio n of open, honest governm ent” prac ticed by his predecessor, Don Clark. Clark. Buchanan said his highest priority would be work closely with the com missioners in the budget-cutting process. He also-pledged to retain basic County services which include road maintenance, public safety, taxation and assessment. Anne Kelly Fenney was sworn in by Supreme Court Associate Justice Betty Roberts. Ms. Feeney was elected to the position o f County Auditor. Ms. Feeney has pledged to consider the human factors when auditing County program*. Jewell Lansing took the oath of o ffice from C ircu it C ou rt Judge P hilip T. A braham . Ms. Lansing was elected to the office of Portland C ity A u d ito r; she had previously served as Multnomah County audi tor. Additional new officials to take office Monday were Nely L. John son, newly elected M ultnom ah County D istrict C ou rt Judge and Lee Johnson, appointed to the C ir cuit Court by Governor Victor Afl- yeh. Puerto Rico: U.S. colony On New Year's Eve four bombs ripped government buildings in New York C ity — a signal that the fight for Puerto Rican independence is still alive. While the former Euro pean colonies of africa, Asia and the Caribbean have achieved indepen dence during the past 35 years, Puerto Rico remains a colony of the The conquest Since the 18th Century the U.S. has recognized that possession of Cuba and Puerto Rico were essen tial to control of the Caribbean sea lanes. The U .S . government took advantage of the 1895 Cuban revolt against Spain to intervene in that war and take possession of both Cu- Spanish speaking people of Spanish and African descent. The Treaty of Paris between the U .S . and Spain was signed on December 10. 1898. The treaty, which the Puerto Rican parliam ent never ra tifie d , ceded possession of the colony to the U.S. Parliament was dissolved, new laws imposed, and military rule imposed. The Foracker Act, passed by the U .S . Congress in 1900, allowed Congress to establish a civilian gov ernment in Puerto Rico that was subject to U.S. law and whose acts could be overturned by Congress. A civilian governor was appointed. The 1917 Jones Act imposed U.S. citizenship on the Puerto Rican peo ple and established a legislature whose laws could be nullified by the U .S .-ap p o in ted governor or by Congress. Responding to a 1943 de mand for independence, Congress agreed to allow residents o f Puerto Rico to elect their governor. The role o f tha U .N . Follow ing W orld W ar II the {Please turn to page 5 column I) Bug bltea man: Curioalty got the beat of thia young man as ha explores the interior of this giant bug who waits patlsntly on the empty playground. hoping batter waathar will bring the children out to play (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Salem house burning unsolved The Salem Human Rights C om mission sees the burning of a Salem home as a racial incident; the Salem Police Department has designated the owner, Robert T. W hite, as a suspect. The home was burned early on December 23rd following a robbery. The house was spray-painted with “ K K K " and the words "M e rry X- mas Niger" were spray-painted on the fence. At a special meeting of the Com mission, called to determine what its response to the arson should be, chairman David Gomburg said that whether the " K K K " was the moti vation or whether it was used to cov er a robbery, the incident is racist. He said that although everything seems to be all right on the surface in Salem, there are "ugly overtones just below the surface." Robert White was paroled from Oregon State Penitentiary on De cember 17, 1982, after serving 2*4 years. Prior to his parole he was on term inal leave for three months. The incarceration resulted from theft in Multnomah County. White returned from Morocco to face trial, returned the rented equipment he had taken, and was sentenced to 10 years. White said he had problems with white inmates while in the peniten tia ry , had been threatened by in mates he associated with white pow er groups, had been called "nigger" by staff, and had filed discrimina tion complaints. W hile serving as Imam for the Muslim prisoners he filed a suit demanding the right to observe Muslim holy days. The sit uation for the 14 to 16 percent of the prison population thaï is black is very serious, White said, and there is no black staff in positions of au thority. Because he challenged the racism in the prison he was the tar get o f in tim id a tio n and called "fighting nigger," he said. A fter leaving prison. White was able to earn good wages— between $1500 and $2500 a month—and pur chased a new home on November 10, 1982. He was then injured in a car wreck and was unable to work {Please turn to page 4 column 3/ Democrat controlled Oregon Legislature faces crucial session With the 1982 campaigns behind them, Oregon's state legislators face the task o f translating political promises and party platforms into effective policies and programs. How successful they will be is an is sue o f critical importance for the welfare of all Oregonians. Economic development was the " h o t" issue o f the 1982 campaign. Every candidate promised they would work to create more jobs in Oregon. Each political party offered prescriptions for putting 165,000 unemployed Oregonians back to work. How will they do it? Through legislation generated out o f the House and Senate’s Joint Com mit tee on Trade and Economic Devel opment. Given this over arching commit ment to economic development, one would expect to see state legislators fighting to be appointed to the com- Analysis mittee responsible for job-creation legislation. One could also expect that the chair of this key committee would be a regular in the m ajority party, someone close to the Demo cratic leadership, someone who could guarantee passage of legisla tion the committee reported out. W ill it happen? The Senate Democrats are still battling to choose a leader, and their stalemate may not be resolved until after the legislature convenes on January 10th. Until that decision is reached, assignments to Senate committees are in limbo. This time spent in partisan bickering is only delaying the decisions that need to be made to get Oregon on the road to economic recovery. Democrats in the House of Repre sentatives, under the direction of Speaker-elect G rattan Kerans (D - Eugene). face the difficult organiza tional task of overcoming years of neglect and political compromise in regard to key committee assign ments. D uring the 1979 session, Speaker Hardy Myers (D-Portland) prevented a fragmentation between urban and rural segments o f the Dem ocratic caucus by giving the chair and several seats on the Trade and Economic Development C om mittee to rebellious— primarily con s e rv a tiv e -ru ra l legislators. Since the political structure of this com mittee was more conservative than the House as a whole, most bills passed by Trade and Economic De velopment died on the floor o f the House. Speaker-elect Kerans, however, is playing with a different hand. The 1982 elections removed several key rural conservatives from the House o f Representatives, including Rep. Mae Yih (D -A lb an y). the previous chair of Trade and Economic Devel opm ent. W ith Yih in the senate, Kerans is faced with the dnemma of I having several other conservative rural Democrats with seniority on the economic development commit tee waiting in line to fill the vacant position. And none o f the liberal Democratic insiders want to be chair of what has come to be known as a dead-end committee. Given these problems. Kerans is using the Trade and Economic De velopment Committee as a political football. By nominating Rep. Jeff Gilmore (D-Jefferson) as chair, Ker ans removes this conservative rural Democrat from the key Ways and Means C om m ittee. (The meeting schedule of Ways and Means gener ally precludes any member from serving at chair of another commit tee ) Consequently, the Democrats on Ways and Means— Reps. Vera K atz, Tom Mason and Rick Bau man, all o f Portland, and Wayne Fawbush o f Hood River— are mod erate to liberal like the speaker, while those on Trade and Economic Development are conservative. House Republicans also are using their seats on Trade and Economic Development for similar purposes. M in o rity Leader L arry Cam pbell (R Eugene) has put urban liberal Mary Burrows (R-Eugene) here to gel her o ff the crucial Revenue Committee. As such, a liberal Re publican joins conservative Demo crats on what might otherwise have been a committee that generated in novative solutions to tough prob lems. Instead, these assignments will create a Trade and Economic Drvel- (Please turn to page 4 column I) I
