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E bony R ose Skiers Lured by A dventure
African American ski club hits the slopes
___________________________________________________________________ See story, Metro BI
33urtíanfr ©lise
"The City Of Roses"
Volume XXXII
Number 7
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
Wednesday
February 13, 2002
TUT WEEK
Arrest
Paul Gets Ready For a Big Move
injulEN T Elusive in
Teen’s
Death
REW
Paul Bunyan is
fitted with a
construction v e st
and h a t in
preparation fora
big m o v e in the
Kenton
neighborhood o f
north Portland.
The 43-year-old
sta tu e will b e
m o v e d 5 0 fe e t on
M onday m orning
a t 8 :3 0 a.m . to
m a k e room for
the In terstate Max
Light rail project.
Jerrry B uxbaum o f
Studio 2 3
Productions m ade
P aul's sa fe ty
gear. The
com pany
sp ecia lizes in
visual c o n c e p ts
for print, video
a n d special
events.
Chief Suspect Detained In
Reporter's Abduction
KARACHI, Pakistan— The chief sus
pect in the abduction o f W all Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was ar
rested, and an official close to the in
vestigation said the suspect told po
lice Pearl was alive.
Bush Aligns Supports for
Showdown with Iraq
W ASHINGTON — President Bush is
preparing for military action against
Iraq and lining up support from allies in
the Middle East, U.S. officials and dip
lomats from the region say. Bush has
said Iraq belongs to an “axis of evil”
that is trying to develop nuclear, chemi
cal and biological weapons.
M elissa Bittler
U.S. Doesn’t Expect to Deploy
Troops to Yemen
SAN’A, Yemen— TheheadoftheU .S.
m ilitary’s Central Command said that
the United States doesn’t expect to
deploy combat troops in Yemen to
search for suspected al-Qaeda terror
ists. The U.S. will provide the govern
ment training and assistance in creat
ing a coast guard.
Study: Lots of Death
Penalties ■ Lots of Mistakes
W ASHINGTON — Death sentences
imposed in cases that are not among
the “worst of the worst” are more likely
to be overturned, a new study finds.
Overall, states and counties where the
death penalty is imposed most often
also tend to have the most cases over
turned because of mistakes at trial.
Irradiated Mall
Causing Health Problems
W A SH IN G TO N — At least 87 subur
ban postal workers who handled irradi
ated mail have reported health prob
lems including nausea, headaches and
breathing problems, union leaders say.
Postal officials are using irradiation to
protect against anthrax contamination.
Ecstasy Use Among Teens Grows
WASHINGTON— The number of teen
agers using the club drug Ecstasy could
double in five years and is rising at
such an alarming rate that leading anti
drug advocates will launch a campaign
against it.
Arafat Names
Possible Successors
RAMALLAH. W est Bank — Yasser
Arafat named two confidants to even
tually succeed him in the two key posts
he holds— Palestinian Authority presi
dent and head of the PLO. Arafat has
long avoided naming a successor, ap
parently for fear an heir-designate might
try to oust him.
Amtrak Going Private?
W ASHINGTON - A congressionaliy
appointed panel says financially ailing
Amtrak should be broken up in favor of
letting the free market try to improve
the nation’s passenger train system.
Meantime, Amtrak chairman Michael
Dukakis calls for the recommendation
to be “rejected out of hand."
PHOTO BY
M ark
W ashington /
T he P ortland
O bserver
Police h o p e s o m e o n e an identify
this m an, a s u s p e c t in th e
D ec e m b e r m urder o f a n o rth e a st
Portland teenager. The s k e tc h was
drawn a fte r a 1 9 9 7 a s s a u lt with
sim ilar circum stances.
Portland police are continuing to fol
low leads in the murder and sexual assault
of a northeast Portland teenager, but so
far no arrests have been made.
The family and employer o f the victim
sponsored an advertisement in the Port
land Observer last week asking the public
for information about the case with a
possible connection to a 1997 assault.
The information is repeated as a public
service inside this w eek’s issue on page
A2.
Melissa Bittler, 14, was found dead
Dec. 14 in the backyard home of a neigh
bor in the W ilshire neighborhood.
Authorities believe she was abducted
off the street on her way to school in the
same manner as a 1997 sexual assault near
Jefferson High School. In that case, the
victim was pulled between two houses
and then sexually assaulted, but survived.
A four-year-old drawing shows the
suspect in the earlier assault. Police be
lieve the man may be the same person who
murdered Bittler.
Detectives are urging anyone with in
formation in this investigation to call 503-
8234731.
Education A ctivists Fight H IV/AIDS
Portland a ctivists Richard Brown
(left) and D uane Lewis u s e African
Am erican HIV/AIDS A w a ren ess Day
to prom ote HIV prevention
program s by th e African Am erican
Health Coalition an d the
M ultnom ah County Health
D epartm ent. AIDS is th e n u m ber
o n e c a u se o f d e a th for African
A m ericans b e tw e e n th e a g e s o f 2 5
a n d 44. ‘This is a preventable
d ise a se , * sa id Corliss M cK eever
o f th e health coalition. The e v e n t
w as held Thursday at the M iracles
Club on N o rtheast M ason an d
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
photo by M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
PCC Expansion Goes to Public Hearings
Black churches in path of land grab are unhappy with process
by L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
The proposed expansion of Portland
Community C ollege’s Cascade Campus
in north Portland is moving into the public
hearing stage with some property owners
already reaching agreements to sell.
H ow ever, tw o A frican A m erican
churches, in the path o f the several-block
land grab, are unhappy about what the
college is doing and how it is doing it.
PCC spokesperson Susan Hereford
told the Portland Observer that the col
lege has acquired “about h a lf' of the
property it wants. While it has yet to
exercise the power of eminent domain
against unwilling sellers, the college may
be forced to do so in the future, she says.
The city will hold a public hearing on
the expansion plans at 9 a.m. Tuesday,
Feb. 19 at 1900 S W. Fourth Ave.
B ishop S a m u e l Irving sa ys his
church w a s n ’t tre a te d fairly.
Last week, the Portland Design Com
mission reviewed portions of the plans.
The most critical testimony came from
representatives of the Salvation and De
liverance Church of God in Christ at 5736
N. Albina Ave., and the Albina Christian
Life Center, 5522 N. Albina Ave.
Bishop Samuel Irving, pastor of the
Christian Life Center, told the design com
mission the church has sold its property
to the college and is in the process of
moving to a new location at 2149 N.
Willamette Blvd.
But Irving had harsh words for the
process.
"W e haven’t been treated fair,” he
said.
Although condemnation by eminent
dom ain was not utilized in his case, the
church was “forced to accept less than we
wanted," Irving said.
The Salvation and Deliverance Church,
represented by church deacon Herman
Greene, attorney Ty Wyman and consult
ant Peter Fry, charged that the college has
failed to talk to them, with phone calls to
college officials going unretumed.
Wyman noted that the college plans
for five blocks of surface parking lots.
“If this was a private development, it
would be laughed out of the building,” he
said.
College officials say there are no imme
diate plans to acquire the Salvation and
Deliverance property, although the parcel
is included in a 20-year expansion plan.
Right now the college is taking action
to build five new structures: an “advanced
technical" complex on Killingsworth, east
of the existing library; a new physical
education building and community cen-
continued y f on page B6