Physicians Tackle Inner-City Lead Poisoning
Iverson Voted N B A ’s M VP
See Health/Education, Page A5
See Sports, Page B3
PRSDRT STD
USPOSTAGE
PAID
PORTLAND OR
PERMIT NO. 1610
COI
________ JRT________
Volume XXXI
Num ber 20
"The City Of Roses"
Wednesday
C om m itted to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
(SX*
50*
May 1 6 ,20ÖT
T H E ® ‘Moshi-Moshi’, ‘Hola-Hola’
REVIEW
Palestinians Rally on
Anniversary of Displacement
Saying ‘hello’ in a foreign language brings
higher standards to Portland schools
S tory C ontinues on P age B4
Beijing, Paris and Toronto
Rated ‘Excellent’ for ’08
Most Kids
Now Learn
Spanish
LAUSANNE, Switzerland— Beijing,
Toronto and Paris won ringing endorse­
ments for their bids to stage the 2008
Sum m er Olympics. Osaka, Japan, and
Istanbul, Turkey, were virtually elimi­
nated as potential hosts. Still, Beij ing has
long been considered the front-runner.
The 2008 host city will be chosen by the
IOC in M oscow on July 13.
EU Opens Ties with North
Korea
Closing Arguments Begin
for Teacher Killer
W EST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Clos­
ing arguments began in the murder trial
o f Nathan Brazill, the 14-year-old boy
accused o f killing his English teacher.
Brazill, who is being tried as an adult,
faces life in prison without parole if
convicted.
McVeigh Might Ask for
Delay in Execution
W ASHINGTON — Oklahoma City
bom ber Tim othy M cVeigh is consider­
ing whether to ask a judge to halt his
execution, while his attorneys review
more than 200 pages o f potential evi­
dence that the U.S. government failed to
disclose during his trial.
(P hoto by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver .)
Hurvs Herrera (from left) Cecilia Larson and Marisol Rodrigues teach Spanish to elementary students in Portland Public Schools via
the television studios at Jefferson High School.
"Hola Hola" is a Spanish language pro­
gram broadcast in 60 percent o f Portland's
public elementary classrooms. N extyear, the
school district will try to raise that to 80
percent. The instruction is part o f an effort to
have foreign language as a regular part o f the
curriculum. The idea is to introduce kids to
world languages at a very young age, so that
they can pass graduation requirem ent stan­
dards in high school. “ Y ou’ve got to build it
from the elementary level and build it in as the
core curriculum like math and science and
everything else,” said M ary Bastiani, the
project director and executive producer.
PUC Rejects PacifiCorp Rate Hike
The Oregon Public U tility Com m ission has
denied P acifiC orp’s request fo ra 12-percent
rate increase, w hich the com pany said was
needed to offset rising w holesale pow er costs.
PacifiCorp had asked for a 24.5-percent
increase, or $42.7 m illion, over three m onths
beginning M ay 2. W hen the PUC denied that
request, PacifiCorp proposed a $ 17.5 m illion
increase over three m onths, beginning T ues­
day. “ I am not com fortable that I have enough
inform ation to m ake a decision at this tim e on
an increase ofthis size,” C om m issioner Roger
H am ilton said M onday in a w ritten state­
ment. “ W e will continue to consider reason­
able requests and price plans that rew ard
consum ers w ho reduce consum ption and
dependence on w holesale m arkets.”
PacifiCorp said the P U C ’s usual 10-m onth
approval process for rate increases w ould
take too long in the current w holesale pow er
market. “This was a short-term request and we
w ere asking for it fairly quickly. To do that we
have to m eet a very high burden o f proof,”
said Jan M itchell, a PacifiCorp spokeswoman.
She said the com pany has several other fil­
ings pending.
D isruptions in the m arket for pow er, high
natural gas and oil prices, unusually dry
w eather in the N orthw est and generating
capacity that has failed to keep up w ith de­
m and have com bined to push prices up
throughout the West.
Unanimous
Court Strikes
Down Medical
Use for
Marijuana
Florida Voter Errors Cost
Gore the Election
George W. Bush would have won a hand
recount ofall disputed ballots in Florida’s presi­
dential election if the most widely accepted
standard forjudging votes had been applied.
However, the review o f 171,908 ballots also
reveals that voting mistakes by thousands o f
Democratic voters probably costGore 15,000to
25,000 votes. That’s enough to have decisively
won Florida and the White House.
By L arky M argasak
Europeans Mark
Anniversary of WWII Victory
M O SC O W — Veterans throughout Eu­
rope m arked the 56th anniversary o f the end
o f W orld W ar II in Europe. Russia’s presi­
dent laid a wreath to honor the dead and
w arned Russians that fascism and ambitions
for world domination are still a threat to world
stability. InFrance,amilitaryparadem arched
up Paris' fam ed Champs-Elysees.
Bush Wants FEMA to Deal
with Terrorism
W A SH IN G TO N — President Bush has
directed the agency that normally deals with
floods and tornadoes to tackle terrorism as
well. In a statement. Bush ordered the Federal
Em ergency M anagem ent Agency to estab­
lish an O ffice o f National Preparedness to
coordinate a ‘ ’seamlessly integrated, harmo­
nious and com prehensive’ ’ response to bio­
logical, chem ical o r nuclear weapons.
T he ± obtla . nd _Q bsebveb
W earing a spiky blue w ig and strum m ing
on an inflated rubber guitar, the teachers sing
about the different parts o f the body in a
foreign language.
E lem entary students in P o rtlan d ’s public
schools are learning the basics o f Japanese
and S panish by w atching teachers on telev i­
sion perform songs and skits on the program s
“M oshi M oshi” and “ H ola H ola” .
T he language instruction is broadcast live
on public access channel 28 from Jefferson
H igh School to over 600 kindergarten to fifth
grade classroom s throughout the school dis­
trict.
M ary Bastiani, the p ro ject’s director and
RAM ALLAH, West Bank — On the
anniversary o f their uprooting in 1948,
tensofthousandsofPalestiniansjam m ed
town squares throughout the West Bank
and Gaza Strip rallying on the anniver­
sary o f what they call “A1 Naqba,” or
their displacement during Israel’s cre­
ation in 1948. Four Palestinians were
killed and at least 129 injured in clashes
with Israeli troops.
BRUSSELSj Belgium — The E
pean Commission announced it will es­
tablish diplomatic relations with North
Korea, saying it hopes the move will help
bring about reconciliation on the divided
Korean peninsula and ease hunger in the
impoverished communist North. The
South Korean Foreign Ministry wel­
com ed the EU announcement.
B y L orraine - M ichelle F aust
Reading Milestone at Humboldt
Humboldt Elementary students in north Portland were in the final dash last week to set a goal o f reading 2 million minutes The record,
expected any day. doubles the school's achievement o f last year The students set the mark by reading at least 20 minutes each night,
each morning and during breaks.
(P hoto by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver )
V
T he Suprem e Court handed m edical m ari­
ju a n a users a m ajor defeat M onday, ruling
that a federal law classifying the drug as
illegal has no exception for ill patients
T he 8-0 decision w as a m ajor disappoint­
m ent to m any sufferers o f AIDS, cancer,
m ultiple sclerosis and other illnesses. T hey
have said the drug helped enorm ously in
com batting the devastating effects o f their
d iseases.
Justice Stephen B reyer did not p articipate
because his brother, a federal ju d g e, initially
presided over the case.
“ In the case o f the C ontrolled S ubstances
A ct, the statute reflects a d eterm ination that
m arijuana has no m edical benefits w orthy o f
an exception (outside the confines o f a g o v ­
ernm ent-approved research p ro ject),” Jus­
tice C larence T hom as w rote for the u n an i­
m ous court.
Thom as noted the act states m arijuana has
“no currently accepted m edical u se.”
S tory C ontinue s on P age B2