Laboratory nears
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the results are efficient,
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Sunday, Nov. 10. 1996.
See Housing, page A 7.
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New Line Cinema kisses
traditional action films
goodbye in The Long Kiss
Goodnight.
See Metro, page BI.
See Arts & Entertainment, page B3. |
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Republicans violating campaign laws?
in S ean C hi /
REVIEW
Mexican and US
Electronics firms link up
Elektra, S.A.. Mexico’s largest retailer
of home electronics and appliances has
I joined forces with Circuit City, one of the
U.S.’ largest retailers of name-brand con­
sumer electronics and appliance products.
The new service, called “Bien Entregado",
or “Well Delivered", will enable U.S. cus­
tomers to purchase goods at Circuit City
stores and ship them to family and friends
in Mexico via the Elektra stores.
Thousands march in D.C.
Thousands of Hispanics marched on
the Capitol October 12 to demand justice,
an end to anti-immigrant paranoia and a
$7 hourly minimum wage. Organizers plan
to make this march an annual event to help
Hispanics coalesce and gain political
power.
n apparent violation of campaign
finance laws, the Republican
National Com m ittee is pouring
money into Oregon to influence the out­
come of the contest between Democrat
Tom Brugerre and Republican candidate
Gordon Smith.
I
I he money is being used to run television
and radio ads attacking Mr. Bruggere, some
of which contain misstatements or mislead­
ing information.
“What's especially corrupt about this co­
ordination between Gordon Smith and the
national Republicans is their willingness to
try to steal this election and then pay whatev­
er tine they receive later. They truly don’,
care about breaking the law if it w ins them die
election, said Lauren Moughan, Communi­
cations Director for the Tom Bruggere for
U.S. Senate organization.
1 he national Republican organization
spent its entire legal $289,000 budget in
support ot Mr. Smith during the primary race,
and is now tunneling additional money
through a quasi-independent group called the
There is new hope today for the estimat­
ed 40 million Americans who suffer from
arthritis Medical researchers say a drug
has been developed that tights arthritis
effectively and protects patients from the ,
potentially life-threatening side effects of
current treatments. The researchers say the
new treatment combines the most widely
used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug,
and a drug used for treating and preventing
I gastric ulcers.
A three-judge appeals court panel in St.
Louis has put on hold key provisions of a
landmark federal rule designed to break
open the nation’s local telephone monop­
olies to competition. The court today sus­
pended the vital pricing components of the
Eederal Communications Commission’s
rule aimed at opening the local phone
market to long-distance carriers, cable-
television operators and others.
No US Peacekeepers in
W est Bank
t he Clinton administration is rejecting
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s sugges­
tion that the United States prov:de peace-
1 keepers to help patrol the tense West Bank
city of Hebron. Arafat made the proposal
as he hosted Jordan’s King Hussein in the
West Bank town of Jericho. Arafat notes
that U.S. peacekeepers have been stationed
in the Egyptian Sinai and elsewhere, so
J there’s a preceden, for his suggestion.
California closer
to gas chambers
A challenge to the state of California’s
use of the gas chamber to execute death-
row inmates has suffered a setback. By a 7-
2 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court today set
aside a lower-court ruling that had deemed
the method cruel and unusual punishment.
A federal appeals court had held Califor­
nia's method of execution by lethal gas
violates the Constitution because inmates
may not become immediately unconscious
and may experience pain
Study: TV violence drops
A new study indicates violence on bro ad­
cast television is declining. The study by
the UCLA Center forCommunication Pol­
icy monitored every network prime time
and Saturday morning entertainment pro­
gram aired during the 1995-96 television
season. I he study found the total number
ofseries that posed frequent concerns about
violence dropped to five in the latest sea­
son from nine the year before.
EDITORIAL
A2
FAMILY
A3
« *
z
Tom Bruggere, Democratic candidate for U.S Senate.
Photo by Timothy Collins
Oregon food products to Russia
New hope for
arthritis sufferers
Telephone rules on hold
11
National Republican Senatorial Committei
(NRSC) to attack Mr. Bruggere.
Campaign finance rules allow such expen
ditures only if there is absolutely no contac
between the national and the local organiza­
tions.
I be Portland Observer has learned, how­
ever, that the advertising purchases which the
NRSC and the Smith campaign have been
making, appear to be coordinated. The orga­
nizations have managed to buy a great deal of
advertising time without duplicating their
efforts.
The NRSC has purchased time on stations
KBBT, KWJJ, KKCW, KUPL, KKRZ and
KGON. The Smith campaign, however, has
ignored all of these stations and bought tune
on KKJZ and KXYO.
The Oregon Senate race is seen to be
crucial to Republican strategies for several
important reasons.
Perhaps the most critical reason to readers
ofthe Observer is that a Republican winner
will most likely cancel Ron Wyden’s votes
on social, educational and environmental is­
sues.
everal impressions of the Rus­
to this process."
sian Far East were left with Phil
The facts bear Ward out. The Russian Far
Ward, assistant director of the
Fast has seven million consumers but also
Oregon Department of Agriculture, supplies
as
the Siberian regions of Russia and
he returned home from a recent trip to
its 55 million people. The Russian Far East
the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
imports $400 million worth of goods each
S
One was the friendliness and generosity of
the Russian people. The other was the gigan­
tic opportunities that U.S. agricultural ex­
ports have in that region of the world-partic-
ularly many of the things grown and pro­
cessed in Oregon.
“There is a fair amount o f trade between
the Russian Far East and our West- Coast
states right now," says Ward, who attended a
meeting ot an ad hoc working group formed
to further trade between the two regions.
“But frankly from what I saw, there are
significant opportunities for more U.S prod­
ucts to be marketed in the Russian Far East if
we can get rid ot some of the major barriers
year. About 85% of those imports are food.
Because of the region’s inability to grow or
process its own food, nearly half of the food
consumed in the Russian Far East is imported.
“Since the dissolution ofthe Soviet Union,
the subsidization that enabled the manufac­
turing sector in the Russian Far East to be
competitive is gone,” says Ward. “That sec­
tor is not providing processed foods. It’s not
providing some of the things that the Russian
people would like access to. It appears to me
there is a tremendous opportunity available
for Oregon companies to move some of these
products into the Russian Far East, particu­
larly some of our processed food products.”
Ward attended a meeting of what is known
as the Gore-Chernomyrdin working group-
named after the U.S Vice-President and
Russian Prime Minister respectively-which
is trying to tear down some of the trade
barriers existing between the two nations.
Ward was an official delegate from Oregon at
the high level meeting. Delegates from Wash­
ington and California were also in atten­
dance.
'The working group identified a number of
significant issues such as financing, the Rus­
sian taxing structure, high interest rates, and
various other laws in both countries that restrict
trade,' says Ward. "Another need is the devel­
opment of more infrastructure in Eastern Rus­
sia so that its people can access the kinds of
western goods they would like to have.”
" I he Russian Far East is opened for busi-
n ess--th at’s the m essage,” says John
Kratochvil, international trade specialist
Unthank Park diverters may go
bi
L ee P erlman
C
me. Do you want them taken out?’" Hopson
told the Boise Neighborhood Association at
a meeting last week “I said yeah, I do
personally, but you’d better check with the
neighborhood association first.”
Lolita Allen of the Office o f Transporta­
tion told Boise, “My understanding is that
these diverters have always been a prob­
lem.”
Charles Ford, former Boise president,
said the diverters were installed with federal
funds in conjunction with the development
ofthe park. “The park was intended for small
children, so we wanted to keep traffic away,”
ommissioner Charlie Hales and
his Office of Transportation are
thinking of removing four traffic
diverters near Unthank Park.
The diverters, installed in 1967, are locat­
ed at North Kerby Avenue and Shaver Street,
North Gantenbein Avenue and Mason Street,
North Borthwick Avenue and Beach Street,
and North Haight Avenue and Failing Street.
Hales first approached Tony Hopson of
Self-Enhancement, Inc., which is building a
new community center on a portion o fth e
park, about the proposed removal. “He asked
he said. In practice, however, they have
proven to be “nothing but a hinderance.
We’ve been trying to gel rid of them for at
least ten years.”
Current president Sonja Tucker said, “I’m
all for it. Emergency vehicles seem to get
lost going in or out of there.”
A police officer present said that the
diverters allow drug dealers to flee success­
fully on foot from patrol cars. “Ifyou want
them taken out of there, the police will help,"
he said. “ I personally hate them. A stop sign
would do just as well there. Just don’t put in
any of those stupid speed bumps."
Road improvements improve traffic safety
R
o.nri imnrnvpmontc
cnz»h as
n*. up­
oad
improvements such
i
.
to truly assess what can be done to reduce
grading two-lane roads to four
traffic fatalities, which kill more than 40,000
lanes, adding a median, widen
Americans every year
ing highways and widening and paving
“One o f the most overlooked aspects of
shoulders can play a significant role in
traffic safety is the roie that road improve­
reducing traffic accidents and fatalities,
ments can play,” Wilkins said. “Statistics
reports a nonprofit transportation research
show that the number of traffic fatalities and
group based in Washington, D.C.
accidents have been reduced when certain
"Our nation needs to increase its focus on
traffic safety issues this Car Care Month
because traffic facilities increased for the
past three years after declining from 1988-
1992. says William M Wilkins, executive
director of the Road Information Program
(I RIP). “This reversal in highway fatality
trends comes about even though we now have
safer cars and trucks that are replacing older
vehicles and states are enforcing tougher
driving laws.”
Wilkins said the nation needs to examine
all factors, including road and bridge condi­
tions, that play a role in traffic safety in order
EDUCATION
A4
road improvements are made."
TRIP’S analysis, based on data by the
National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis-
¡i.ition, the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and the U.S. Department of Trans­
portation, also found that:
♦ The fatality rate on roads with four-
lanes or more is less than h a lf than it is for
two-lane roads The fatal accident rate per
hundred million mites traveled on two-lane
roads was 2.03, while the fata! accident rate
on roads with four or more lanes averaged
0.95
♦ In 1994, 77 percent o f fa ta l accidents
HOUSING
A7
occurred on two-lane roads, which carried
5 1 percent o f total travel
♦ The Federal Highway Administration
has found that when medians were added to
roads, traffic fatalities decreased by 7 / per­
cent.
♦ Widening or modifying a bridge can
reduce fatalities by 49 percent
Wideninga lane has been found to reduce
fatalities by 21 percent," Wilkins said. He
said the nationally recommended width f o r a
lane to be considered safe is 12 feet. Exclud­
ing interstate highways (which have a, least
four lanes), TRIP estimates that about three-
quarter of the nation’s 159,00 miles of major
roads are two-lane, and 15 percent of those
have lanes less than 12 feet in width
“It simply stands to reason that if drivers
have more room to operate and additional
space to return a vehicle to the road, then
traffic accidents can be reduced,” Wilkins
said
HEALTH
ARTS & ENT.
B2
B3
Oregon
kidnapping
suspect
arrested
n a case th a t involves juris­
dictions in three states, a
woman who abducted four
children from Hillsboro, Oregon in Feb­
ruary of this year was arrested in
Ogden, Utah recently
I
The woman fled the state to avoid a
summons involving a domestic case in
Vancouver, Washington
Gina Frischknecht Nielson, a former
resident of Hillsboro, Oregon and Battle
Ground, Washington, was indicted by a
Washington County grand jury in July for
felony custodial interference after she took
the children out of school and disappeared
in February
Mrs. Neilson hid the children in a motel
on the Oregon coast and in various loca
lions in Washington and Idaho as she (led
the state to avoid having to bring them to
court. Process servers were searching for
Mrs. Nei Ison when she dropped from sight
The children have stated that they were
forced to sign false statements regarding
the abduction and about their father. These
statements, wh ich were subm itted to a Clark
County court as sworn affidavits, were
written by Kory Wright, of Eden, Utah,
and by unnamed attorneys hired by Mrs.
Neilson, according to the children.
The statements were submitted to the
court in order to undermine the children's
father’s credibility, and to attack his joint
custodial rights, as well as to hinder his
efforts to bring the children to appear
personally in the civil case
Other members of Mrs. Neilson's fam­
ily and acquaintances of hers also submit­
ted false statements
The Clark County court has been slow
to investigate allegations of perjury and
coercion
Mrs. Neilson was taken into custody on
the criminal charge and released on bail.
Trial has been set for December 12 in
Washington County Court.
Utah authorities have not been fully
cooperative with the Washington County
District Attorney’s efforts to prosecute
this case, which may have religious over­
tones. Mrs. Neilson and her accomplices
are all members of the Mormon church,
and some may have acted in official capac
ities to aid and abet in the abduction
T his case was the subject of an editorial
appearing in the Oregonian on August 25,
titled “Say yes for kids."
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIEDS
OBSERVADOR
B5
B6
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