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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1998)
V V Page A 2 DEC. 2, 1998 ¿Flic JJortümô <Olb«rttWtr Seattle Mourns John Stanford Two Arrested For Series Of Local Area Robberies O n N o v e m b e r 2 5 , 1998, W ednesday, tw o m en w ere ar rested in separate incidents for a string o f reported arm ed robber ies w hich o ccurred in Portland and C lackam as betw een N ovem ber 8 and November 24,1998. Both w ere c h a rg e d w ith sev en (7) counts o f First D egree Robbery and lodged in the Justice Center Jail by P ortland Robbery D etec tives w ho developed suspect in form ation and a suspect vehicle description rising from the rash o f gro cery sto re ro b b eries. Both suspects w ere also w anted for outstanding arrest w arrant at the tim e o f their arrests. M ichael John O h an esian , a white male, age 32, was arrested at SW Fourth A ve and SW College St. at approxim ately 3:30 P.M. by Portland Police Robbery D etec tives who had been surveilling a vehicle they believed to be in volved in a series o f robberies. O h a n e sia n w as k n o w n to be wanted for an outstanding Proba tion V iolation arrest w arrant from Jackson County, O regon, and was transported to the nearby Justice C enter w here the investigation continued and he was charged with seven counts o f First Degree Rob bery in addition to the outstanding arrest warrant. Michael Kelly Me Cluen, a white m ale, age 26, was taken into cus tody at the V alue Inn M otel lo cated at 415 SW M ontgom ery in dow ntow n Portland at 7:30 P.M ., Portland Police Bureau Special Emergency Response Team, SERT, officers and m em ber o f the H os tage N egotiation Team , HN T, were called upon to assist detec tives in arresting Me C luen who was believed to be in one o f the rooms at the m otel. Due to the tactical disadvantage the inves tigators faced in locating a safe place to rem ove Me Cluen, SERT and HNT personnel w ere called to assist. H ostage neg o tiato rs talked Me Cluen into opening the door at 7:30 P.M. w hereupon he was arrested and lodged at the Justice C enter Jail. Safew ay and K ienow s grocery stores located in southeast P ort land were the targets for six o f the robberies under investigation. O hanesian and Me C luen w ere also charged for the recent rob bery o f the C hevy’s R estaurant located in C lackam as, O regon. Study Finds Legalized Loan Sharking On The Rise In Oregon Groups Call On State To Curb High-Cost “Payday Loans” Targeted At Cash-Strapped Consumers H ig h - c o s t p a y d a y le n d in g is s p re a d in g r a p id ly in O re g o n a n d a c r o s s th e n a tio n , a c c o r d in g to a n ew s tu d y r e le a s e d b y O S P 1 R G a n d th e C o n s u m e r F e d e r a tio n o f A m e ric a (C F A ). T h e s tu d y fo u n d th a t th e e x p lo s iv e g r o w th o f s o - c a lle d " p a y d a y lo a n s " h a s b e e n a id e d by th e a d o p tio n o f w e a k s ta te la w s th a t le g a liz e tr ip le d ig it in te r e s t r a te s fo r s h o r t te rm lo a n s , w h ic h a re b e in g t a r g e te d a t th e m o s t c a s h - s tra p p e d c o n s u m e rs . T he g ro u p s c a lle d on s ta te l e g i s la to rs to e lim in a te o r s e v e r e ly r e s t r i c t th e p r a c t i c e , a n d c a u tio n e d c o n s u m e r s a b o u t th e h i g h - r a t e l o a n s , w h ic h a re n o w b e in g a d v e r tis e d on t e l e 1 v is io n . “ P a y d a y lo a n s a re h a n d c u f f in g c a s h - s tr a p p e d c o n s u m e r s to a d e b t tr e a d m ill from w h ic h th e y m a y n e v e r e s c a p e , ” sa id E ric h L u d w ig , C a m p u s O r g a n iz e r fo r O S P IN G . “ T h e p a y d a y le n d e r s p r e te n d to b e o f fe rin g h e lp to th o s e in n e e d b u t a re a c tu a lly s u c k e r in g v ic tim s to fe e d th e ir g r e e d ." In a ty p ic a l p a y d a y lo a n , a c o n s u m e r w r ite s a p e r s o n a l c h e c k fo r $ 115 to b o rro w $ 100 fo r 14 d a y s . T h e c h e c k c a s h e r o r p a y d a y le n d e r a g r e e s to h o ld th e c h e c k u n til th e n e x t p a y d a y , at w h ic h tim e th e c o n s u m e r c a n e i t h e r a llo w th e c h e c k to b e s e n t to th e b a n k , “ r e d e e m ” it b y b r in g in g in $ 115 in c a s h , o r a llo w th e lo a n to r o ll o v e r b y p a y in g a n ew fe e to e x te n d th e lo a n fo r a n o th e r tw o w e e k s. T h e c o s t o f th e in itia l $ 1 0 0 lo a n is a $15 fin a n c e c h a rg e and a 391% A n n u a l P e rc e n ta g e I n te r e s t R a te (A P R ). I f th e c o n s u m e r ro lls th e lo a n o v e r 3 tim e s , w h ic h m a n y d o , th e fin a n c e c h a rg e w o u ld be $ 6 0 fo r a $ 1 0 0 lo a n . * T h e g r o w th o f p a y d a y lo a n s h as e x p lo d e d . N o n e x is t e n t 10 y e a rs a g o , p a y d a y lo a n s a re now b e in g p u s h e d in at le a s t 21 s ta te s . P a y d a y lo a n s a re b e in g p ro m o te d by c h e c k c a s h in g s to r e s lik e A ce C ash E x p r e s s , w h ic h d o u b le d its a n n u a l p a y d a y lo a n v o lu m e in 1997 to $ 10.1 m illio n . P a y d a y lo a n - o n ly c o m p a n ie s a re a lso q u ic k ly e x p a n d in g , w ith in d u s try le a d e r A d v a n c e A m e ric a o p e n in g its f ir s t s to re in N o v e m b e r, 1997 a n d e x p e c tin g to h a v e 50 0 o u tle ts by th e e n d o f 1998 in at le a st 16 sta te s. Som e n a tio n a l b a n k s , su c h as E a g le N a tio n a l B ank in U p p er D arby, P A , a re a ls o u s in g th e ir f e d e r a lly c h a r te d s ta tu s to s e ll p a y d a y lo a n s in m a rk e ts a ro u n d th e n a tio n , w h ile c la im in g e x e m p tio n fro m s ta te la w s th a t r e s tr ic t o r p r o h ib it th e lo a n s. “ M a k in g s m a ll lo a n s b a se d on p e r s o n a l c h e c k s is a g im m ic k th a t b e n e f its le n d e rs and h a rm s c o n s u m e r s ,” sa id Je a n A n n F o x , D ir e c to r o f C o n s u m e r P r o te c tio n f o r C F A . “ T h e p a y d a y lo a n in d u s tr y is th e m o d e rn d a y e q u iv a le n t o f lo a n - s h a r k in g .” A m o n g th e r e c o m m e n d a tio n s to c o n s u m e rs : -S h o p fo r th e lo w e s t c o s t c r e d it a v a ila b le . W hen in n e e d o f a s h o rt te rm , e m e r g e n c y s m a ll lo a n , c o n s id e r a c a s h a d v a n c e on y o u r c r e d it c a r d s , a sm a ll lo a n fro m y o u r b a n k o r c r e d it u n io n , o r an a d v a n c e on y o u r p a y c h e c k . -M a k e a c c u r a te c o m p a r i so n s. W hen c o n s id e rin g a p a y day lo a n , do n o t c o m p a re the c o st w ith th e fe e s o r in te r e s t ra te o f b o u n c e d c h e c k s o r o th e r c h e c k c h a rg e s. A p a y d a y lo an is a lo a n , an d c o st c o m p a ris o n s sh o u ld be w ith sm all lo an s ra te s o r c re d it c a rd ra te s , w h ic h are ty p ic a lly in the 2 0 -4 0 % ra n g e , w h ile p a y d a y lo a n ra te s a ré 300% -7 0 0 % o r h ig h er. - M in im iz e th e d a m a g e . I f y o u do u se a p a y d a y lo a n , b o rro w o n ly as m u c h a s y o u c a n a f f o r d to p a y w ith in 2 w e e k s, an d n e v e r c o n s id e r r o llin g th e lo a n o v e r fo r th e f u tu r e . T h e c o s t is to o h ig h . “ P a y d a y lo a n s a re b e in g so ld as sa fe fo r c o n s u m e r u se , w h e n in fa c t th e y a re to o ls fo r c o n s u m e r a b u s e ,” c o n c lu d e d O S P I N G ’s L u d w in g . “ U n til s ta te le g is la to r s e n d th is a n ti c o n s u m e r p r a c tic e , w e a d v is e c o n s u m e rs to k e e p t h e ir w a l le ts s a fe fro m th e ja w s o f th e p a y d a y lo a n s h a r k s .” m ander in V ietnam , pro p elled Stanford to the m ilitary’s highest echelons. During his 30-year career, he served as executive assistant to two defense secretaries and over saw transportation planning for Op eration Desert Storm — all while raising two sons, Steven and Scott, with his wife, Patricia. Retiring in 1991, he hired on as manager o f Georgia’s Fulton C ounty, where he was lauded as a bureau cracy buster who restored public confidence in county government. He started work as Seattle school superintendent in August 1995, re cruited by a school board anxious for change. Test scores were low. So was teacher morale. Parents feared for their children’s safety. “White flight” to private schools was drain ing the public system o f both stu dents and hope. “We needed a spark,” Schaad- Lamphere said. “We didn’t know we were getting a blow torch.” Stanford declared h im self “the children’s czar” and became one o f S eattle’s m ost visible civic lead ers. The motto at school district headquarters, “All C hildren Can L earn,” was replaced by "A ll C hil dren W ill Learn." Stanford led a citywide reading campaign, exhort ing every adult to read for 30 m in utes a day to a child. He raised perform ance standards and tight ened cam pus security. Results soon started showing: The dropout rate declined. SAT scores rose. Enrollment increased. Less quantifiable but undeniable, a sense o f hope crept back into Seattle’s schools. P arents sta rte d vo lu n teerin g more. Businesses donated more time and money. Seattle residents started describing Stanford as a visionary. “Such quasi-religious admiration gets to be a little much,” a Seattle Times editorial complained, then de livered its own tribute: “Stanford.seizes ownership ofold truths and forces people to hush up B> DAVID FOSTER John Stanford loved to shake up the status quo, and when he signed on three years ago as su perintendent o f Seattle schools, he found he could do it with just a hallway greeting. This week Seattle mourned the loss o f a civic leader who exempli fied the power o f positive thinking. Stanford died o f leukemia on Satur day. His indomitable spirit worked for him all his 60 years, helping Stanford win one improbable vic tory after another. His parents never finished grade school, but Stanford earned a m aster’s degree and be came a two-star Army general. As a retired military man with no back ground in school administration, he bro u g h t hope to S e a ttle ’s troubled school system. Last spring, when doctors told him that the odds o f surviving his cancer were slim, he knew immedi ately what to do: Fight. Ultimately, the cancer won. But in waging his final battle, Stanford achieved his m ost improbable vic tory yet. W eakened by disease, turned bald and gaunt from chemo therapy, he discovered an even wider audience for the message he’d always preached to Seattle’s children: Dream big. W ork hard. Above all, never give up. John Henry Stanford grew up in the Philadelphia suburb o f Yeadon. His father worked in a steel mill and his m other was a restaurant cook, but they nurtured loftier dreams for young John and his two sisters. Stanford quickly met their ex pectations. One o f just a few black students in a m ostly white high school, he was voted class presi dent. He earned a bachelor’s de gree in political sc ience from Penn sylvania State U niversity and then joined the Army. His “love ‘ em and lead ‘em” phi losophy, along with distinguished service as a pilot and battalion com- and remember them. That skill en ables him to stand on a balcony and say we should never, ever give up on a child, and several hundred people will hear it as Stanford’s latest brilliant idea. It is the genius o f charisma, steeled by sincerity.” By last winter, Stanford was at the top o f his game — except for that troublesome cough and fever. The diagnosis came in early April: acute myelogenous leuke mia, a form ofblood cancer in which abnormal white blood cells crowd out healthy cells. Untreated, the disease could kill him in just three months, doctors said. With che motherapy, there was a 70 percent possibility o f knocking the cancer into remission, but only a l-in-4 chance o f complete recovery. Stanford responded, as usual, with defiant optimism. “ I’m not angry, I’m not bitter, I’m not saying, ‘Why me, God?’” Stanford told the Seattle Post- Intelligencer. “I ’m saying, I have this illness and I can defeat it.” If his can-do attitude had been a public facade, he could now safely drop it. But he did no such thing, even when maintaining it grew more painful. Carolyn said she would call the hospital one day and hear her brother's strong, spir ited voice. The next day, he’d be too tired to answer. Two weeks ago, he called dis trict spokesman Trevor Neilson to his hospital room to discuss school business, including a January ev e n t for sch o o l su p p o rte rs. Stanford talked about it as if he planned to be there. In a way, he will be. “ Read On For John" declares a sign in the w indow o f a W est Seattle home. Parents, teachers and children this week em braced and w ept and shared sto rie s about Stanford. And they vow ed to rem em ber a man who died as he had lived: Perfect and im prov ing. H it an d R u n The Portland Police Bureau’s Traf fic Investigation Unit, in cooperation with Crime Stoppers, is asking for your help in solving a felony hit and run to a pedestrian. On Thursday, October 8,1998. at about 2:30 in the morning, a 26-year- old Portland man was walking in the bicycle lane on S W Multnomah Bou levard, near 45th Avenue, when he was struck and injured by a vehicle that was driving westbound in the bike lane on Multnomah. The force of the impact hurled the man into the hood and windshield area o f the car. The vehicle fled the scene with out stopping, and was last seen north bound on 45th from Multnomah at a high rate of speed. The force o f the impact may have caused damage to the hood and/or windshield area o f the car. 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