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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2002)
u M M .po ri I mid olisci" x c r .c o ill ( oiniiiillvd Io ( iiltiii'iil U iu T s ih ... . I c lir u n n -13, 2002 . ; / T» '* ' (Ebe ^ o rtla n b (©bserüer SECTION “ffiiulpiiig, ffa itta n d ô Gamtnunitieô” / f T n in in n u i t n V J < i I e ii Lt a r Lecture by Dick Gregory For Black History Month, famous co median, actor, nutritionist and civil rights activist Dick Gregory will be speaking on several controversial top ics. The premiere event will be at Marantha Church, 4222 NE. 12th on Saturday, Feb. 16. Tickets are on a first come first serve basis and must be purchased in advance. Call 288-5331 or 288-2118 or 289-3490 or email to MiUeonium2QQQGroup@ yahoo.com- Area Skiers Lured by Adventure The Ebony Rose Ski Club recruits new members with open house History of the Columbia Slough Interested in learning about the C o lumbia Slough? An overview that cov ers the watershed history, hydrology, land use, fish and more will be given at the Pacific Power Metro Operations Center, 7544 NE. 33rd Drive on Satur day, March 2, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Call 281 -1132 to pre-register. Portland Home and Garden Show The GMC Portland Home & Garden Show is one of the largest shows in the country and the top show in the North west. Featuring the number one state flower show in the nation, 22 Show case Gardens, hundreds of home and garden booths and a new feature Deco rating with Antiques. The show will be at the Portland Expo Center, from Feb. 20 -2 4 . For more information, call 246- 8291 or go o n lin e to www.oloughlintradeshows.CQm. Noon Time Bicycle Rides The Multnomah Bar Association will be offering noon time bicycle rides that are short, fast rides over hills. Interested participants must meet at the SW. com er of Pioneer Courthouse Square, between noon and 12:10p.m., Mondays and Thursdays. Call Ray Thomas at 228-5222. Learn About Juvenile Rights A training w ill be held for parents and guardians o f school-age ch il dren by an attorney w ith the Juve nile R ights Project. This talk is to educate people about their own and their ch ild re n ’s rights in Suspen sion and Expulsion procedures and in Special Education issues on T ues day, Feb. 19, from 7 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. at the W oodstock L ibrary, 6008 SE. 49"’. C all988-5399. Members o f Portland's Ebony Rose Ski Club enjoy a day on the slopes. by M ichael L eighton T he P ortland O bserver Has the Salt Lake Winter Games put you into a thrill seeking mood? A local ski club has just the right event to put your dreams into reality. Portland’s Ebony Rose Ski Club is planning an open house for anyone who has always wanted to try skiing or snowboarding, but never knew how or where to get started. The event will be held Thursday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. at Billy Reed’s Restaurant at 2808 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Ebony Rose is a member of the Brotherhood of Skiers, a national organization whose members are predominately African-American, but membership is open to all. “If you’re a good natured, fun and adventure seeking individual, you’ll want to attend this event and see what you’ve been missing,” organizers said. Club representatives will have the latest infor mation about winter clothing fabrics that have almost eliminated being cold while skiing. The open house will also present information about tension sensing boot bindings that have lead to a dramatic reduction in ski injuries. The Ebony Rose Club also sponsors fun, non-ski activities for fam ilies as w ell as single adults. For information about the open house or other questions, call 503-335-8723. Graduates Bring Diversity To Contracting The first class to graduate from a new program aimed at bringing diversity to the awarding of contracts for goods and services In the city celebrate with Mayor Vera Katz (center). The Sheltered Market Program is for minority, women and emerging small businesses. Portland city leaders and represen tatives o f sm all and m inority-ow ned com panies are celebrating am ilesto n e in the aw arding o f goods and services c o n tracts to m in o rity , w om en and em erging sm all businesses. A Feb. 4 graduation cerem ony at City Hall honored the first class o f 27 graduates from the Sheltered M arket Program. The program was developed to ad dress the lack o f diversity in govern ment contracts. Participants are p ro vided prim e bidding opportunities u n der $200,000 and project-specific tech nical assistance. “Some o f our citizens still suffer eco I nomic exclusion based on gender race, ethnic background and sexual orienta tio n ,” said M ayor Katz. “We have im portant w ork to do and the Sheltered M arket Program is an im portant tool in addressing this issue.” Erick M cK inney, president o f P lati num C onstruction, said the technical assistance he obtained provided an “environm ent to grow as a business.” C ollectively, the 27 graduates were aw arded 254 contracts, valued at over $ 14 million dollars from the city of Port land. “ I have been able to expand my k n o w ledge o f g e n e ra l c o n tra c tin g th ro u g h the p rogram and I have been * 4 ’ afforded the opp o rtu n ity to grow and expand my b u sin e ss," said Jam es C ason, p re sid e n t and ow ner o f JEC M echanical. “We found this program to be very helpful, because it d id n 't just provide us w ith the opportunity to bid on work, but it also provided us with technical assistance. A nyone that is a sm aller contractor should consider entering this w onderful p ro g ra m ," said M anuel C astenada, ow ner o f Pro Landscape Co. For more inform ation about the pro gram and contracting opportunities with the city, call T eresa Bliven at 503-823- 5701. Bridget Brooks, Debra Carter, Ed Joseph and Barnie Mack take in the beauty and tranquility o f a snow covered terrain with the use o f snowmobiles. Racial Profiling Views Shared ( AP) - Most Oregonians believe po lice sometimes make traffic stops based on a motorist’s race, a new state study said. In the telephone poll o f 800 adults, 17 percent said they believe Oregon police often or alw ays make traffic stops on the basis o f a m otorist’s race, and another 39 percent said that police som etim es do. The survey, also suggests that some Oregonians find that racial profiling is OK, at least sometimes. Tw enty-one percent o f those asked said they felt that, follow ing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it was more ap propriate for police to use race as a reason to stop people suspected of breaking the law. The survey’s release coincided with the first meeting of a new 11 -member state panel responsible for helping law enforcement agencies evaluate racial- profiling data collected during traffic stops. The panel is led by University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, who was O regon's attorney general for 11 years. Gov. John Kitzhaber, who appointed the committee, said police agencies in Oregon have taken a national lead in adopting policies and training officers to avoid racial profiling. "Law enforcement can't protect the public if the public doesn't believe law enforcement is treating everyone fairly,” he told the committee last week in Salem. The panel was created by legislation approved last year that urges police departments to voluntarily collect ra cial-profiling data. The law, Senate Bill 415, was passed in response to a 1997 state law that expanded police officers’ authority to stop and question m otor ists. Portland and six other law enforce ment agencies across the state have begun voluntarily collecting pieces of information during traffic stops to help gauge whether officers commit racial profiling. M ost police agencies in O regon have publicly stated that they d o n 't engage in racial profiling, but the p er ception persists, as the new survey makes clear. Among Oregon agencies, Hillsboro city police have collected the most data, based on 23,532 traffic stops between May 2, 2000, and last Thursday. The data show that 26 percent o f all stops have involved H ispanics, w ho make up 19 percent o f H illsb o ro 's population. Searches were conducted in 7 percent o f stops involving H is panics, com pared to 4 percent o f stops involving whites. H ow ever, officers found contraband in only 7 percent o f searches involving H ispanics co m pared with 10 percent o f searches in volving whites.
