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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1997)
V V o lu m e X X V II, N um ber 15 Packy’s Birthday Party Creating a Camp Cookie at home is a great way for parents and kids to have fun together. See Family, page A4. Washington park Zoo s celebrity' elephant, Packy, turns 35 on Saturday, April 12. See Metro, page BI. ’ * A-< A p ril 9, 1997 C om m itted to cultural d ive rsity. Bake Up Sweet Treats r* •“^ers 7r ■ * v V « /» intermedin,^ Portland Centre fo r iru Performing Arts. See Arts & Entertainment, page B3. (The ;|tnriía»th (Ohsmnr Gingrich accuses Arafat House Speaker Newt Gingrich is weighing in on the latest Middle East crisis. In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Monday, the Georgia Republican accused Palestinian President Yasser Arafat of waging a ter rorist war against Israel. Gingrich also urged President Cinton to demand that Arafat end the violence immediately. Gingrich’s comments come on the same day three Palestinians were killed and 103 people injured in West Bank vio lence. The violence was sparked by the fatal shooting of an Arab shopkeeper in Hebron by a Jewish settler. The Central Library opened its doors to the Public this week after two years of renovation. Affirm ative action ban A three-judge panel of a federal ap peals court in San Francisco has upheld California’s Proposition 209. The propo sition, approved by California voters last November, bans affirmative action in pub lic employment, education and slate con tracting. California Governor Pete Wil son says justice has been served with Tuesday’s ruling. The ruling is a blow to civil rights groups and the Clinton ad ministration, which had supported legal action to overturn the law. The American Civil Liberties Union says it will ask an expanded federal appeals court panel to reconsider the constitutionality of the law. Errors made in bomb probe The Justice Department has found that FBI agents who interviewed Richard Jewell about last sum m er’s Olympic bombing made a major error in judg ment. But in a April 1 memo made avail able Monday, FBI Director Louis Freeh says an internal investigation found no evidence that agents intentionally vio lated Jewell’s civil rights or engaged in criminal misconduct. However, five FBI agents, including the head of its Atlanta office, have been told they face possible disciplinary measures. IRS data security criticized The Internal Revenue Service has weaknesses in security, inadequate moni toring for employees snooping into tax payer files and thousands of missing data tapes, a government report has found. The General Accounting Office conducted on-site reviews at five IRS facilities and found they could not account for about 6,400 missing data tapes and cartridges that could contain taxpayer data. Agreeing to Disagree on Cuba President Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien have agreed to disagree on the best way to encourage democracy in Cuba, with Clinton saying neither country’s policy has worked so far. The two leaders did not let their differences on Cuba disrupt the friendly nature of Chretien ’ s official visit to Wash ington. ------- -—----- ----------------------------------- EDITORIAL..................... A2 FAMILY............... A4 VANCOUVER..................A7 ARTS & ENT...................A8 METRO............................B I HEALTH...........................B2 SPORTS......................... B3 OBSERVADOR...............B4 CLASSIFIEDS................ B8 < Moose defends crime prevention move in L ee P erlman two bureaus propose to have 15 crime pre vention specialists working out of police number of northeast neighbor precincts and under the command of the hood leaders are concerned Police Bureau. The consolidation will save about a proposal to shift crime prevention staff from neighborhood the of city about $400,000 a year. Moose told about 30 neighborhood lead fices to the police bureau. A Sharon McCormack of the Office o f Neighborhood Associations and police chief Charles Moose, who put the proposal to gether, say they are not surprised. The city currently funds 15 crime preven tion specialists who help citizens organize block watches, foot patrols and other self- help activities. They are headquartered in the city's seven neighborhood offices (in cluding three in the Northeast Neighbor hood Office), and work for volunteer boards. The Police Bureau also has 13 crime preven tion specialists who, among other things, provide special self-defense training for women, children and the elderly. As part of the cost-cutting and reorgani zation brought on by Ballot Measure 47, the ers at the King Neighborhood Facility las, week, “This is a crisis situation. We don't have as much money as we used to have. We’re not saying this is better than what you used to have, we’re saying this is better than nothing.” McCormack said, “We’re talking about doing as much as we can with fewer re sources, reduced services, and laying people off.” In view of this, she said, the proposal represents a way to keep ONA’s other sup port services to neighborhoods intact. She added that all five City Council members seemed supportive of the proposal a, a brief ing the day before. This bothered Boise neighborhood leader Charles Ford, w ho accused McCormack and Moose of sidestepping the community in pursuing the proposal “I told you and (ONA director) Diane Linn that you owed it to the community to come out and discuss this with them,” he said. Ford said he saw the pro posal as a stage in the dismantling of the power of neighborhood associations. Others present raised similar concerns. McCormack and Moose said that the budget process forced them to move on a “faster track” than they would have liked. Pauline Bradford of Eliot feared that put ting crime prevention staff in the police precinct would make them less effective. "Many people, of all colors, won’t go to police precincts,” she said. Moose said that citizens could arrange to talk to crime prevention staff at block watch meetings or at some other location such as Steen’s Coffee House or the Northeast Neigh borhood Office. "If you just don’t like the police and don’t want to have anything to do with us, I don', know how to respond to that,” he said. Lee Day field of Grant Park said she feared that if the crime prevention staff was in the police bureau, in future budgets they would be cut to spare uniformed officers. Moose replied, “Well, ma’am, we’re going to have to cut 80 police officers, and that balance should make you happy." "No, i, doesn’t make me happy,” Dayfield said. "I though, this was an open forum, and I feel I’m being attacked." In answer to another question. Moose said the bureau’s youth gangs unit will be cut from 35 officers to 12. Some residents spoke in favor of the crime prevention merger Michael Byerly of Sabin said, “ I’m totally for this. When I call the coalition office for help, they have to call the police, and it’s a total waste o f time.” Crime prevention specialist Marsha Palmer said City Council will hold hearings on the proposal on May 12, 15 and 17 at times and locations yet to be determined. Courtroom firebomb crime of violence. urors leaped out of the box In Jurors said the bomber appeared nervous panic and people stampeded or agitated. out of a courthouse after a “ He didn't say a word,” David Chambers hooded man threw a Molotov cocktail said. “He came in, looked afbund, grabbed at a judge, slamming him in the fore the bottle out (from under his clothing), lit it head and starting a fire that gutted the and then threw it.” courtroom. J The bomb bounced off the forehead of Circuit Judge George Miller, but didn't im mediately explode. Miller, one of the four people who suffered minor injuries, had handledacivilca.se involving John E. Ewing, the man arrested later Tuesday for the bomb ing, police said. “ It was obvious that he was aiming it at the judge and trying to hurt the judge,” said Abra Bonnell, a juror in the malpractice case being heard Tuesday. “Everybody left the jury box screaming.” Champaign County SheriffDave Madigan said Ewing, 37, was arrested at a motel. He was charged with arson, carrying an explo sive device and using that device during a What happened next was “basic panic," Chambers said. Madigan said Miller had been involved in a civil case before Miller, although the de tails weren’t clear The bomb - a bottle filled with an amber liquid and a lighted rag stuffed in the neck - rolled around on the Boor in’front of Miller’s bench, spewing flames and what smelled like gasoline. The bomber escaped in the chaos. “No one saw him fleeing from the court house,” chief sheriff's deputy Gary Turner said. "He just ran down the steps and ran out.” The fire turned everything in the court room black. The Citizens Monitoring Advisory Committee express concerns about minority education in the Portland public schools. The meeting was held at the King Facilities, last Thursday. Pictured (left to right) is Ron Herndon, Halim Rahsaan, and Richard Lucetti. Photo by M. Washington Fishing Sites Turned Over to Indian the Colum bia River ju s, upstream of he first four of 26 authorized Bonneville Dam; at Underwood, Washing treaty fishing sites on the Co ton; near Cascade Locks, Oregon; and at lumbia River are completed, the Lone Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Pine near I he Dalles, Oregon) were turned over to the Department of Interior's Engineers, announced March 2 4 ,1 9 9 7 . T The fishing sites replace traditional fish ing areas flooded when Bonneville Dam was built in the 1930s. The four sites (at the Bonneville site on the Washington shore of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on January 30, 1997. The four are the firs, to be improved under a Memorandum of Understanding by the BIA and the Corps in June 1995. That Memorandum includes the transfer of all completed sites to the BIA, and their agree ment to operate and maintain the sites in the future. The BIA has assumed management responsibility for the facilities and will take over law enforcement on the Bonneville site this spring. The fishing sites have cultural, religious ureau and economic importance to Native Ameri cans. The government agreed to provide 400 acres of river access in lieu of traditional sites inundated when Bonneville was con structed Rights to the land date back to treaties signed in 1855 in which the tribes estab lished rights to access and fishing on the Columbia River and its tributaries. k
