M ARCH 25, I99X
Committed to cultural diversity
Volume X X V II, Number 64
BULK RATE
See
M t. Hood Jazz
Festival Coming
Soon!
H.S. POSTAGE
J J o r tla n h © h s e r u e r ’e
High School
All Star Players
in The PIL
S ports , P age B2
Come Join The Mt. Hood
Festival O f Jazz Celebrate
with some o f the Top
Names In Jazz. See Entertainment, page B3.
See Popeye s
Coupon's
Inside!
PAID
PORTLAND, OR
PERMIT NO. 1610
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Tri-Met’s General Manager announces departure
om W alsh, T ri-M et’s G eneral M anager for the
past seven years, announced today his departure
from the agency follow ing com pletion o f the
W estside MAX project in Septem ber, he has inform ed the
Board o f D irectors o f his intention to leave.
During his tenure, W alsh led the final design and con
struction o f W estside MAX, em phasized a com m itm ent to
custom er service, expanded transit service throughout the
region resulting in record ridership, advanced the South/
North light rail project and worked w ith regional partners
to bring the opportunity o f an A irport MAX extension.
“ For seven years, I’ve had the privilege o f w orking with
im m ensely talented O regonians to com plete an o th er seg
ment o f this re g io n ’s light rail system , and to advance an
ethic o f outstanding custom er service in all that we do
daily. This opportunity has left me truly grateful-and
filled w ith pride at the cap abilities o f our public and
private citizen s.”
W alsh will continue doing what he has had fun doing for
nearly 35 years— help shape this com m unity as private
citizen. He will also chair the planning com m ittee for the
Lewis & C lark B i-C entennial in 2005.
Board President Phil Bogue will chair the B o ard ’s
search com m ittee. They will begin their search im m edi
ately. The new General M anager is expected to be on
board S eptem ber I .
The follow ing is C ongressm an Earl B lum enauer’s state
ment regarding the announced departure o f Tom W alsh,
T ri-M et’s G eneral Manager:
T
Clinton Asks Senate To
OK NATO Plan
President Clinton made a renewed pitch
for the Senate to approve NATO’s expan
sion next year into Central Europe. “The
admission o f Poland, Hungary and the
Czech Republic will be a very important
milestone in building the kind of world we
want for the 2 1 st century,” Clinton said.The
vote would be a historic affirmation of the
United States’ commitment to Europe. The
Senate is expected to approve the NATO
expansion in a vote.
King Family: Let Ray Die
at Home
A son of Martin Luther King Jr. says
the state would be cruel to deny a medical
furlough to James Earl Ray for his final
days on earth. “Here’s a man who’s close
to death,” Dexter King said of his father’s
convicted assassin. “The humanitarian as
pect is not being considered.” Ray, who
suffers from a serious liver disease and was
briefly in a coma, was in fair condition
today at a hospital. His lawyer has been
talking to prosecutors about a possible
furlough after 30 years in prison.
"Tom W alsh ’s tenure at the helm o f Tri-M et is perhaps
the m ost im portant chapter in his illustrious career. W hile
d elivering the W estside light rail project on time and on
budget, he set standards for land use and transportation
planning that have shaped the future o f Portland, the
region, and the state.
No one has done more for O regon in the last 30 years,
and I look forw ard to w orking with him as he begins the
next c h a p te r in his c a re e r,” said C on g ressm an Earl
Blum enauer.
Boeing To Cut 20,000
Jobs by 2000
Boeing, the w o rld ’s biggest com
m ercial aircraft m aker, is cutting more
jo b s. Boeing w ill cut 8,200 jo b s in the
next two years because it will stop
building two M cDonnell Douglas je t
liner m odels. The jo b cuts are in addi
tion to a 12,000-person reduction in
com m ercial airplane em ploym ent an
nounced in m id-D ecem ber. Boeing
also said it w ould close several plants
and laboratories by 2000 as it cuts
costs and stream lines production fol
lo w in g its re c e n t m e rg e r w ith
M cD onnell D ouglas.
Study: Surgery Costly for
Smokers
R esea rch e rs h ave found hidden
costs o f sm oking in a place patients
m ight not norm ally expect: jo in t re
placem ent surgery. In a new study,
surgery cost m ore, took longer and
was m ore com plicated for sm okers
g ettin g new hips and knees even
though the group was younger and
outw ardly h ealthier than nonsm okers,
concluded Dr. C arlos Lavernia, an or
thopedic surgeon. The sm okers also
took longer to recover from anesthe
sia and healed slow er, Lavernia said.
Yeltsin Fires Entire
Government
R ussian President Boris Yeltsin
said that he needs a new team to
focus on econom ic reform s and lead
the country to a pow erful b re ak
through in the econom y. Yeltsin fired
his entire governm ent because he
believes m em bers have lacked initia
tive and fresh ideas. Many Russians
blam e reform s for the n atio n ’s eco
nomic woes and believe their lives
w ere better in the C om m unist era.
2 Rafters Killed in
Ore. High W ater
A surge o f w ater turned the al
read y tre a c h e ro u s Illin o is R iver
deadly, killing at least two rafters,
stranding four and leaving as many
as 25 unaccounted for. A helicopter
search for the rafters was delayed by
fog and rain but got underw ay. The
rising w aters prevented a boat search.
The severe w eather and snow melt
caused the w ater volum e to more than
double in a day and a h a lf and depu
ties say it could be 10 tim es higher
before the w ater crests.
Tom Walsh, Tri-Met’s General Manager
"Workers’ Center" For
Migrant Laborers
Bv L ee P eri . man
The Central East Side Industrial Council
says that putting up a “workers’ center” and
hiring hall for migrant laborers in the inner
southeast would encourage illegal hiring of
illegal aliens.
The Workers Organizing Committee, and
city commissioner Erik Sten’s office, dispute
this, and further say that CEIC is missing the
point.
WOC, a non-profit corporation, proposed
setting up such a facility, and Sten’s aide
Serena Cruz suggested allocating city funds
for it. Currently such workers hang out at the
intersection of Northeast Martin Luther King
Jr. Boulevard and East Burnside Street, wait
ing to be hired. They are sometimes cheated
out of their money and sometimes recruited
to deal drugs. WOC says a workers center
could screen out both problems.
Such plans fell through when CEIC an
nounced that they would oppose any such
proposal. CEIC says that according to the
federal Immigration and Naturalization Ser
vice, 75 to 80 percent of those on the comer
are in this country illegally.
John Kuechler, a district police officer
who works with CEIC, asks, “Do we get to
ignore the federal laws we disagree with?
Does the city get to support a place where
illegal activity takes place?”
Cruz doesn’t see it that way. “If that were
so, the INS could handle it,” she says. “The
reason they can’t is either that most of these
people are documented, or that the problem
is much biggerthan that littlecorner. IfCEIC
has a solution to the flow of immigrants to
this country, legal and illegal, they should put
it on the table. To focus on the INS is to see
that the problem isn’t addressed.”
Teresa Enrico of WOC adds, “CEIC can
ignore the fact that those people are doing
work that is in demand, that other people are
unwilling to do, and they’re doing it to feed
their families.”
Both know from first-hand experience.
Cruz’s mother was an undocumented alien
before becoming acitizen. Enrico, the daugh
ter of a Phillipino father and Native Ameri
can mother, saw her parents work multiple
low-wage jobs to make ends meet. She her
self encountered bad working conditions in
the food services trade. “I determined early
on that something was wrong," she said.
Im m igrants, who make up a substan
tial part o f the work force, often wind up
in low -paying jobs with poor working
conditions and few benefits, she says.
(W OC helped bring a lawsuit against a
hotel that hired w orkers to do asbestos
rem oval w ithout proper p ro tectio n .)
They often move from job to job fre
quently, not staying at one place long
enough to acquire seniority or move up
the ladder.
A workers center, if funded, eould be used
to educate workers about their rights and how
to defend them, Enrico says.
“This is about people’s fundamental right
to eat,” she says.
Oregon Number two In Nation
Safety Belt Use
O regon now ranks second in the nation for safety belt use with 85% o f vehicle
occupants buckled up, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety A dm in
istration.
Dr. R icardo M artinez, NHTSA adm inistrator, made the announcem ent at a
recent Portland event. C alifornia ranks first with a reported use rate o f 88%,
w hile the nationw ide rate is 69%.
Urban League's “Career
Connections ’98’’
Urban League o f Portland President Lawrence J. Dark with Career
Connections volunteers, Helloise Hill (Left) and Myrtle Carr. Career
Connections '98 is April 2.
Thousands of job seekers and employ
ment recruiters will go prospecting at the
fifth annual “Career Connections” job fair
sponsored by the Urban League of Port
land and its Employer partners. The event
takes place Thursday, April 2, 1998 at the
Memorial Coliseum Exhibit Hall. Exhibit
hours are 9 a m. to 8 p.m.
Career Connections attracts job seekers
and employers from throughout the Pacific
Northwest. The event showcases employ
ment opportunities in Oregon and South
west Washington, with a special emphasis
on recruiting a diverse work force. Anyone
looking for a new job or employee is in
vited.
“We want to give employers a chance to
recruit the best job candidates from Port
land beyond,” said Urban League President
Lawrence J. Dark. “And we expect employ
ers to come with more than 2,500job open
ings to fill." A full house of 90 employers,
including many of the region’s largest com
panies and those with a strong commitment
to diversity, are reserving booths a, the job
fair.
Employers represented include Bank of
C ontinue T o P ace A 7