Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, April 28, 1999, Image 1

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    April 2S. 1999
Committed to Cultural l ) i \ v is its
Volume \ . \ l . \ , Number 17
Jennifer Straight
Specializes in Image
Consulting
The Battle
of Puebla
May 5,1862
Bulk Rate
U.S. Postage
See Popeye s
PAID
Coupon's
X
Inside! University of Oregon
Portland, OR
Permit No. 1610
See Focus Page 9
See Page B5
Knight Library
Newspaper Section
Eugene OR 97403
Ch* IJartkinb (Ohsex
500
Colorado Remembers School
Shooting Victims
High School Shooting
Two students o f Columbine High
School attacked students with guns and
explosives in a suicide mission. Twenty
five students and teachers may have
been killed. The gunm en’s intention
was to target minorities and athletes.
They were found dead o f self-inflicted
gunshot wounds, with what appeared
to be bombs around their bodies.
NATO Attacks
NATO continued to launch attacks
a c ro s s Y u g o s la v ia w ith U .S.
helicoptors and troops heading to­
ward Albania. Their m ission is to
assist in the a llia n c e ’s attack on
Yugoslav ground forces and stop their
cam paign to rid Kosovo o f its ethnic
A lbanian m ajority. Their main tar­
gets are a dozen select towns and
cities.
Church Fires
Jay Scott Ballinger, a 36-year old
Indiana satan worshipper was indicted
on charges o f setting fire to seven
churches in Indiana and three in Geor­
gia, including one in which a volunteer
firefighter died. The Justice Depart­
ment has not decided yet on whether
Ballinger should seek the death pen­
alty in the Georgia case. He recently
admitted to burning 30 to 50 churches
in 11 states between 1994 and 1998.
Vitamin C
The new recom m ended daily al­
lowance by G overnm ent researchers
is to double or triple the intake o f
V itam inC because ofitscancer-fight-
ing ability. The N ational Institute o f
H ealth stated that the RDA for vita­
min C should be increased from 60
m illigram s to betw een 100 and 200
mg.
Killer Virus
A new virus in Malaysia had al­
ready claimed more than 90 lives and
recently killed some stray dogs in M a­
laysia. This rare strain, called Nipah
virus is named after the village where
its first victim died. Similarly in Japan,
a dozen victims had died o f Japanese
encephalitis.
Rosa Parks
The Senate had voted unanimously to
award Rosa Parks with a Congressional
Medal for surrendering her bus seat to a
white man that sparked the civil rights
movement. Her arrest in 1955 lead to a
yearlong bus boycott by blacks spear­
headed by the Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr.
New Dinosaur Species
Two new heavily armored dinosaur
species were uncovered by James
Kirkland from the Ecollege o f Eastern
Utah in Price, about 100 miles south­
west o f Salt Lake City. The species
found are either an ankylosaur, club­
tailed armored dinosaur or nodosaur.
Cloning Goats
A Canadian biotechnology company
successfully cloned goat triplets to
produce spider silk in goat's milk for
medicinal use The spider silk is valu­
able in helping to repair broken limbs
and tom tissue Cloning the sheep was
done in a way similar to the cloning
Dolly the sheep in 1997. The major
concern is that the technology used
could lead to the cloning o f humans
Bv D an W hitcomb
LITTLETO N , Colo., April
27 (R euters) - W ith church
bells pealing across the state,
residents o f Colorado rem em ­
bered the victim s o f the C ol­
um bine High School massacre
w ith a m om ent o f silence on
T u esd ay, w hile three more
slain students w ere laid to rest.
The solem n tribute began at
11:21 a.m local time (1:21
p.m. EDT) (1721 GM T), ex­
actly one w eek after gunshots
first rang out in the school lo­
cated in L ittleton, a suburban
co m m unity outside D enver.
Fifteen people, including the
two student gunm en, lost their
lives in the ram page.
R adio and television sta ­
tions in Colorado also observed
the m om ent o f silence.
The tolling o f the bells was
the only sound heard in dow n­
town D enver, w here an elec­
tronic billboard near the air­
port read, “C olorado, joined
in grief.’’
A giant blue ribbon em bla­
zoned w ith the word "C olum ­
bine" fluttered from the outer
w all o f a sports stadium in
C o lo rado’s capital city, and
blue ribbons w ith the initials
“CH S” w ere seen on jacket and
coat lapels around town.
Police said Eric H arris, 18,
and D vlan K lebold. 17. used
guns and bom bs to kill 12 fel­
low students and a popular
teach er b e fo re taking their
ow n lives. M ore than 20 o th ­
ers injured by bullets and fly­
ing shrapnel from pipe bom bs
survived.
Three student victim s o f the
attack w ere buried on T ues­
day: Corey D ePooter. Matthew
K echter and K yle V elasquez,
who was laid to rest with a
m ilitary honour guard.
A t V e la s q u e z ’s fu n e ra l,
fam ily friend John N ew hauser
told m ourners, “ It is not right
for the old to bury the young."
In a d d itio n , p o lic e in
Littleton review ed hundreds of
leads in an attem pt to learn how Harris and
Klebold am assed the high-powered w eap­
onry and explosives used in the attack.
T he search for clues led Jefferson
C ounty sheriffs to K lebold’s prom date,
Robyn A nderson, 18, who was being
treated as a w itness in the case, not a
suspect, county officials said.
A nderson did not answ er telephone
calls or answ er the door on Tues-
day at the Littleton home w here
she lives with her mother.
T he J e f f e r s o n
C o u n ty
S h e riffs departm ent said the
woman, identified in local m e­
dia reports, was cooperating
w ith police and that she had been
released after being questioned
on M onday.
In W ashington. U.S. P resi­
dent Bill C linton cited the trag ­
edy in pushing his proposal to
keep certain firearms away from
young people by closing w hat
he called “ a dangerous loophole
th at was likely e x p lo ite d in
L ittleton, w hich allow s people
to buy w eapons at gun shows
w ithout any background checks
at all."
A gun shop ow ner in C olo­
rado Springs, about 60 miles (96
km) south o f Denver, said he
recognised H arris’ picture from
television as som eone who had
com e into his store with four
other teens trying to buy a m a­
chine gun and a silencer.
But o w ner M el B ernstein
said he threw the youths out o f
the store because he thought
they w ere too young. Published
reports also said a D enver gun
show organizer had turned over
to federal agents lists o f ex ­
hibitors.
U nder a C olorado state law
oassed in 1993 it is a felonv for
parents to perm it a juvenile to
possess a handgun if the parent
knows there is a substantial risk
the juvenile would use the hand­
gun to com m it a felony. But the
law allow s adults to give m inors
hunting rifles.
Harris and Klebold belonged
to a group at C olum bine High
School know n as the "Trench
C oat M afia,” whose m em bers,
students who considered them ­
selves social outcasts, wore dark
clothing and revelled in talk o f
w ar and w ar games.
To help "give students a feel­
ing o f safety ,” the Jefferson
C ounty school board voted late
on M onday to ban students from
w earing black trench coats to school or
school-sponsored events.
Oregon Takes Major Step Towards
Reconciliation in its
"Day of Acknowledgement"
Bv A malie Y in
ng
A ssociated P ress W riter
SA L E M .O re (A P )_ It w asn’tth ai
long ago.
" C o lo r e d s ” in O re g o n w e re
shunned from w hite neighborhoods
Signs above shops read "dogs or M exi­
cans not allow ed ’’ Japanese-A m en-
cans w ere shipped out o f their homes
and into internm ent camps
Now, 150 years after passing a law
to bar “negroes and m ulattoes" from
the O regon T erritory, O regonians
gathered on Thursday to recognize
the sta te 's discrim inatory past.
“No more will we tolerate injus­
tice," M yrlie E vers-W illiam s, form er
chairw om an o f the N ational A ssocia­
tion for the A dvancem ent o f Colored
People, told those at the C apitol for
the Day o f A cknow ledgm ent. “No
m ore will we tolerate hatred and in­
tolerance."
E arlier in the day, both the House
and Senate approved resolutions com ­
m em orating O regonians’ struggle for
racial justice. The m easure was ap ­
proved unanim ously in the Senate,
but it passed 50-7 in the House after
several m em bers questioned the value
o f the day.
"I d o n ’t believe we serve ourselves
well by recalling a painful past," said
Rep C arl W ilson. R -G rants Pass.
“ W hat really counts is what we do
today and in the future, not to engage
in sym bolism but in substance.
“ R ather than reliving the past and
risking division, lets pledge to walk
the path that repudiates racism and
discrim ination," he said
T here w ere no words o f anger or
blame at an afternoon cerem ony, when
O regonians _ o f all colors and reli­
gions _ packed a House cham ber.
D ressed in traditional navy-blue
uniform s, Buffalo soldiers and N a­
tive A m ericans w ith feather head­
dresses posted the flags.
The House sw elled w ith song, as
form er Rep. M argaret C arter led the
crow d in a rendition o f “G lory. G lory,
H alleluiah!”
"W e 'v e come a long w ay here in
the state o f O regon," said Ciov John
K itzhaber. “ But th e re ’s alw ays more
that can be done."
In 1844, a year after O regon lead­
ers passed an anti-slavery law, the
provisional governm ent voted to pro­
hibit blacks altogether A fter repeal­
ing it a year later, territorial leaders
approved the second exclusionary act
in 1849.
The law stayed in the O regon Con­
stitution until 1926.
At least one black. Salem busi­
nessman Jacob V anderpool, was ex­
pelled in 1851.
Although never fully enforced, some
say the law 's mere existence discour­
aged many black pioneers from settling
in Oregon and created a foundation for
discriminatory laws and attitudes that
continued well into this century.
Oregon becam e the last state on
the W est C oast to adopt, in 1953, a
law outlaw ing discrim ination in ho­
tels, m otels, restaurants and am use­
ment parks.
“ When we have injustice, we have
to change,” said S enate President
Brady Adams. “ We cannot change
until we have acknow ledged."