For Colored Girls...The Rainbow Is Enough
Using poetry and music, women tell it like it is about being black and female.
See Focus, page A 6
"The City Of Roses"
Volume XXXII
Number 8
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
Wednesday
February 20, 2002
50<
Broadway Bridge Remains Closed for Construction
Crematory Owner Back In Jail
NOBLE, G a.— The operator o f a north
Georgia crematory where dozens of
corpses were found was arrested for a
second time and charged with 11 more
counts o f theft by deception. Officials
said the number o f bodies scattered
around the crematory grounds likely
will be “in the hundreds.”
U.S., Philippine Troops Join
Forces
UPPER MAHAY AHA Y, Philippines
— U.S. special forces ventured within
a few miles o f a jungle stronghold o f the
Muslim extremist group targeted in
counter-terrorism exercises with the
Philippine military. More than 500
American troops are in the Philippines
for six-month maneuvers.
Government Takes Over Air
Security
W ASHINGTON— Responsibility for
airport security moved from the airlines
to the Department o f Transportation, a
change officials hope will be so smooth
that passengers hardly notice. The
switch was ordered by Congress after
the 9/11 attacks.
Enron Executive Warned of
‘Outright Manipulation’
W A SH IN G TO N — Sherron W atkins,
the Enron executive who raised con
cerns about the com pany's books last
summer, warned then-Chairman Ken
neth Lay and several other executives
that the company was engaging in
“outright manipulations” o f income
statements, a lawmaker said.
Waylon Jennings Dies
W aylon Jennings’ legacy will be de
fined by his determination to march to
his own drum m er— one who played a
thumping, four-on-the-floor beat. His
career came to an end when Jennings,
64, died in his Arizona hom e after a
long, diabetes-related illness.
Undh Pleads Innocent
ALEXANDRIA. Va. — John W alker
Lindh pleaded innocent to a 10-count
federal indictment that charged him
with conspiring to kill Americans while
aTaliban soldier, and aiding Osama bin
Laden’s terrorist network.
HM0 Costs Rising
W A SH IN G TO N — O ut-of-pocket
costs for M edicare recipients enrolled
in health maintenance organizations
rose by nearly 50% over three years, a
study shows. The report also found
that the sickest beneficiaries, w ho are
also likely to have low incomes, had the
highest increase in out-of-pocket costs.
Report U.S. Women Having
Moro Kids
ATLANTA — American women, en
couraged by a decade-long economic
boom, are having more children than at
any other time in the past three decades
— 2.1 on average, the government
said. For the first time since 1971, women
are producing enough kids to offset
deaths in the USA.
Currently, the Broadway Bridge is completely closed due to repair work. It will reopen before the end o f the month. A construction crew is busily replacing the
original mechanical parts that allow the bridge to open and close for ships. The original parts were installed in 1912. Much more extensive work will be done
to the Broadway Bridge in April o f 2003, that would last twenty-one months. Total closure for the project would be for two months. The upcoming project calls
for repainting part o f the bridge, repairing the deck where cars pass through, rebuilding the sidewalks and replacing the steel grating with a solid grating in the
center o f the bridge.
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Wine Company Favored for Northeast Portland Site
PDC chooses “neighborhood friendly” business to occupy industrial area
by L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
The M cClaskey Wine and Spirits
may be moving to the long-vacant
Martinson Bakery property at 6360
N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Lois Cortell of the Portland Devel
opment Commission announced last
week at a commission meeting that
the agency has selected McClaskey,
a wine distributor currently operating
on Northwest 14th Avenue, to nego
tiate the sale of the long-vacant two-
acre industrial property.
The company currently employs
41 people, but hopes to add 15 more,
Cortell says. As part of the sales
agreement, they are committed to
“first source” hiring to give prefer
McClaskey Wine and Spirits, a wholesale distributor and supply company that
services the city, has met the enthusiastic approval o f the Woodlawn neigh
borhood to occupy the vacant property in northeast Portland where Martinson
Bakery once stood.
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Figure Skating Scandal Calls for Revamping Judging System
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — French
•'ting chief Didier Gailhaguet pressured
ges in the past and should be kicked
0
3 c
.o f the International Skating Union if
. forced a French judge to cheat at the
£
/lympics, an ISU vice president said
Í
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rfonday.
“As far I know, it is not the first time for
S o
•
Didier to make such pressure. There were
c £
other cases in the past,” Katsuichiro
Hisanaga of Japan said.
§
Le Gougne, who has been suspended
indefinitely, wanted to tell the ISU her
version of what happened. W hen the 11-
member council met in a closed session at
a downtown hotel, it did not allow her to
appear. But Gailhaguet, a council member
and France ’ s Olympic team chief, said she
4
ence to area residents, to give at least
20 percent of the renovation work to
minority contractors, and to work with
the adjacent communities on a “neigh
borhood friendly” design for the build
ing renovation.
However, the company has com
missioned SERA Architects to de
velop a design for the renovated build
ing. SERA conducted a Design Open
House for the project last month.
“People who came were very ex
cited,” Cortell said.
PDC commission member Carl
Talton expressed, “It’s very impor
tant that we get the right use for that
property.” The proposal was "well
received by the community,” he con
tinued.
Canadian pairs
David Pelletier
and Jamie Sale
stand with their
gold medals with
Russians Yelena
and Anton
Brezhneya
Sikharulidze.
would be allowed to speak at another
time.
Gailhaguet was asked to leave the
meeting midway through when other
members reviewed Le Gougne’s state
ments that he pressured her to vote for the
Russians.
Le Gougne provided the swing vote in
$
a 5-4 decision that gave the gold to a
Russian couple over Canadians Jamie
Sale and David Pelletier. After an outcry
— and accusations of vote-swapping
among ice skating judges — the ISU and
International Olympic Committee awarded
the Canadians their own gold medals.
Le Gougne told L ’Equipe she was ver
bally attacked by ISU technical commit
tee chairwoman Sally Stapleford last week
in the lobby of the same hotel where the
ISU council met Monday, and felt physi
cally threatened because of the way she
had voted.
American attorney John Jackson, an
ISU championship judge, witnessed Le
Gougne* s outburst, along with Stapleford
and two other technical committee mem
bers, W alburga Grimm of Germany and
Britta Lindgren of Sweden. He said Le
Gougne has it all wrong.
Jackson also laughed off Le G ougne’s
assertion that Stapleford came up with
the idea that the French judge may have
been pressured to vote as she did by
Gailhaguet and that Stapleford was part
of a Canadian conspiracy to reverse the
decision.
For the ISU, the thornier problem is
how to stop anything like this from hap
pening again.
Hisanaga was asked if he was disheart
ened by the judging scandal and the black
mark it has left on these games.
“It’s not a big surprise for m e," he said,
“Figure skating ... it happens.”
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