Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, October 26, 1994, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Happy Halloween
Attorneys Cited
For Public Service
Children enjoy hunting fo r perfect
pumpkins at the pumpkin patch off
Marine Drive.
Multnomah County District
Judge Roosevelt Robinson has
been named as one of four
Portland area lawyers receiving
honors fo r public service work.
See Metro, Page BI
See Page A5
ìjjoxtlanò (1
tx^
School Drug Free Zones Sought
Residents, Students Parade North/Northeast In Call For Action
Chavis, NAACP
Settles
After protracted legal skirmishes,
both Rev. Ben Chavis and his former
employer the NAACP seem to have settled
their legal battle over his termination as
director of the civil rights organization.
Chavis has agreed to withdraw his suit
against the civil right organization with­
out receiving the millions of dollars he
had sought in his lawsuit.
Clinton blasts
Republicans
President Bill Clinton pounded his
chest repeatedly and pointed to his strings
of foreign policy victories and a shrink­
ing budget d e fic it as part o f his
administration's accomplishments on his
campaign tour of the Northwest. He gave
I the Republican Party hard knocks for
their “contract with America” which he
said was a cruel reversal to the Reagan
era.
Believing that “the best way to stop
something is to start something,” the
Inner City Coalition for a Drug-Free
Community sponsored a parade Tues­
day from Humboldt School down Al­
berta Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr.
Blvd. targeting the importance of drug-
free school zones.
Students, parents and teachers from
30 schools joined coalition members
and neighbors -- even the Jefferson High
marching band — in the parade.
The-marchers traveled to a ceremony
at the Northeast Community Policing
Center, then students returned to their
schools for further events celebrating
drug-free school zones and Red Ribbon
Week.
On Monday, members of the coali­
tion were joined by officer Kim Ell,
drug-free school zone coordinator with
the Gresham Police Department, Mardell
Taylor, urban strategist for the Western
Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools
and Communities, J. W. Friday, Portland
Police Bureau. Michelle Vince. Red Rib­
bon Program Coordinator for the Or­
egon Partnership and Edna Pittman,
counselor, Whitaker Middle School for
an Inner-City Community Forum.
The session addressed the practical
implementation of Drug-Free School
Avel Gordly, State Representative from
district 19, will be the keynote speaker at a
reception for African American high school
students in Portland next week.
The reception, sponsored by the Linfield
College Reach Back Mentorship program,
will be held Thursday, Oct. 27, at 6 pm in
Peterson Hall at Linfield’s Portland Campus,
2255 NW Northrup.
Gordly will discuss the value of higher
education and how students can benefit form
A new book by Beverly Hills, Calif,
socialite Faye Resnick, who is suppos­
edly the friend of Nicole Brown Simpson,
the slain ex-wife of O.J. Simpson, details
horrors and marital abuse. It includes
iurid anecdotes of Simpson’s alleged
abusive history. But many people are
dismissing Resnick's credibility who has
a history of drug abuse.
A prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson
murder trial Monday tried unsuccess­
fully to remove about 80 jury panelists,
the entire first wave of potential jurors
being considered during a selection pro­
cess marked by controversy and delays.
Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, at the
same time, turned down a new effort to
have Simpson released on bail and the
trial in the case postponed for a year.
Mayor Supports
Cuomo
New York City Republican Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani rejected hisownparty's
candidate for governor Monday and threw
his support behind embattled Democrat
Mario Cuomo’s bid for a fourth term.
Pacific Standard
Time
R , ,11, I I , h , I l o
onc
lio n ,
on
xcl
l'.K k
\O N I
S iim i.i \ . < k lo is i
EDITORIAL
A2
, C , ks
,n
Zones as outlined in state law throughout
the inner-North and Northeast commu­
nity.
The forum at Whitaker Middle School
featured the inspirational and informational
video, Drug-Free Zones: Taking Action!
Mayor Vera Katz and Northeast Precinct
Commander Bruce Prunk were invited to
join the participants in the march.
Gordly Is Keynote Mentor
New Book On O.J
Simpson
Dismissal Of Jury
Panel Fails
Terry Haynes o f Stay Clean ties a red ribbon to a tree along the medium of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to
lobby for enforcement of an Oregon Law regarding Drug-Free School Zones.
John Dirksen, First Interstate
Bank and Sam Brooks, Oregon
Assoc, of Minority
Entrepreneurs at a grand
opening of the updated Cascade
Plaza on North Vancouver.
attending college. Addie Jean Hayes, presi­
dent of The Links-Portland Chapter, will
make brief comments.
The Linfield Mentorship program was
organized by a group of Linfield alumni to
provide role models and support to African
American Students attending Linfield. The
program matches each African American
student with Linfield alumni from similar
backgrounds and was launched in 1990 as an
effort to provide support for African Ameri­
can students at the college. Members of the
Mentorship group include Baruti Artharee,
Director of the Oregon Department of Hous­
ing and Community Services: Stan Peterson,
Adult Program Manager for the Private In­
dustry Council; Byron Brown, an Investiga­
tor with the OLCC; Shirlee Peterson of Port­
land; Joe Simpson, Vice Principal at Grant
High School; James Taylor, Senior Loan
Officer in Economic Development at the
Portland Development Commission.
African American Publisher dies
Robert W. Bogle, president of the
National Newspaper Publishers Associa­
tion on the passing of Dr. Calvin Rolark,
Publisher of the Washington Informer
Newspaper and a director of the NNPA.
We are profoundly saddened by the pass-,
ing of our board member as well as our
colleague. Dr. Calvin Rolark. Dr. Rolark was
an inspiration to all of us. His commitment
and perseverance, as well as his determina­
tion never to give up will always be remem­
bered by us. He is remembered for often
saying, “No one can do for us. but us. ’ and our
membership joins me in knowing that if his
wishes are to be done, they must be done by
us.
We know that this is a difficult time for
this family, as well as friends, and we share
this moment of grief and ask that they take
comfort in God s warm embrace of love and
understanding.
Tri-Met Releases Figures On Minority Hiring
In the last year, 20 percent of the new
employees Tri-Met hired were minorities
and 40 percent were women, both higher than
those groups’ representation in the workforce.
The recent hiring and internal promotions
show real effort and progress toward meeting
Tri-M et's affirmative action goals.
“Tri-Met strives not only to provide
excellent transit service to the entire Portland
region-but also to provide equal employment
opportunities to all,” said Penny Roberts-
AlSudairy, Tri-Met's employment manager.
“Our aggressive affirmative action goals make
sure our staff reflects the diversities and
strengths of the communities we serve."
Tri-Met completed its 1993-94 Affir­
mative Action Report this month. Last year
was the second year the agency has used new,
more aggressive targeted recruiting methods
based on the O regon E m ploym ent
Department's 1993 workforce information
for the Portland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In 1993-94,20.1 percent of Tri-Met new
hires were minorities, and minorities earned
29 percent of internal promotions. Tri-Met
employs 366 minorities, or 17.4 percent of its
entire staff. That’s a higher level of employ­
ment at Tri-Met than the 16.5 percent minor­
ity representation in the Portland area
workforce.
The numbers bread down as follows:
247 African-Americans or 11.7 percent of
the agency workforce; 64 Asian-Americans,
3.1 percent; 40 Hispanics, 1.9 percent; and
15 American Indians. 0.7 percent.
However, the report also shows that
while overall minority staffing is good, mi­
norities are still under represented in several
areas: top earning administrators, operations
professionals and skilled crafts employees -
the mechanics who maintain buses and the
light rail trains and system. The mechanics
NATIONAL
POLITICS
METRO
A4
A6
BI
usually are promoted from service work in
the agency. A strong effort over the last two
years resulted in Tri-M et’s hiring many more
minority service workers, so the skilled crafts
representation should improve.
Tri-Met also has made slow but steady
progress in hiring and promoting women.
Forty percent of newly hired employees were
women and nearly 30 percent of promotions
went to women employees in 1993-94. Tri-
Met now employs 610 women or 29 percent
of its staff There has been steady progress
since 1991, when Tri-Met had 457 women
employees, or 26.2 percent of its workforce.
But there's room for more progress: The
Portland area workforce is 37 percent women
These job categories are particularly
weak in jobs for women: officials and admin­
istrators, operations professionals, techni­
cians, skilled crafts employees, buz and light
rail operators and service workers.
SPORTS
B2
“The transit business traditionally was
overwhelmingly white and male, said Rob­
erts-AlSudairy. “Tri-Met is working hard to
make sure our promotions and new hires will
help us reach our affirmative action goals,
particularly in the more highly-paid and
highly-skilled positions. W e’ve made real
progress and intend to keep up the good
work.”
Tri-Met works with 125 different com­
munity organizations to publicize job open­
ings and recruit applicants. Among its major
recruiting partners are the Portland Urban
League. Oregon Council for Hispanic Ad­
vancement. Chinese Consolidated Associa­
tion. the American Indian Association of
Portland, the Society of Women Engineers,
the Women inTrades network. Portland Cable
Access, the City-County Affirmative Action
Talent Bank and the LeadLink Proprietary
National Job Bank
ENTERTAINMENT
B3
CLASSIFIEDS
B7