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Legislature
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Can boxing
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Congress
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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
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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
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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-
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