America’s Black Patriots
Paying tribute to the heroes who ensure freedom fo r all.
See Black History Month coverage, pages A5-A8.
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Volume XXXII
Number 8
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4
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Northeast Neighbors Plant 400 Trees
Welfare on Bush's Agenda
WASHINGTON — President Bush
says he wants to increase education
and training for welfare recipients,
boost employment for participants and
encourage marriage for single welfare
mothers. Meantime, lawmakers are pre
paring to revisit a 1996 welfare law.
W A SH IN G TO N — After a Columbia
University study released said under
age drinkers account for 25% Qf alco
hol consumed in the U.S., a spokesman
for the Distilled Spirits Council of the
United States called the report “flat-
out wrong.” The survey also concluded
nearly 1/3 of high school students binge
drink once a month.
Husband Walts to Defend Yates
Georgia Crematory
Operator May Get Ball
November 2001 through January 2002
ranked as the U SA’s warmest such
period since 1895, when national
record-keeping began. Several cities
had their hottest January days, includ
ing Richm ond, Va., and Raleigh-
Durham, N.C. Wisconsin had its warm
est January on record.
Matt Shanahan of 4514 N. E. Sixth Ave. gets a helping hand from his neighbor Robin Wisner (from left) and Jim
Gersbach of Friends of Trees, during the organization's largest tree planting ever. Volunteers planted almost 400
trees Sunday in the King, Vernon, Eliot, Boise and Sabin neighborhoods of north and northeast Portland. Friends of
Trees is dedicated to preserving urban trees in order to strengthen neighborhoods, improve the environment and
enhance the quality of urban life.
,
photo by
M ILW AUKEE— Hiring will improve
slightly nationwide this spring, but not
enough to mark a recovery from
recessionary levels, a new forecast
finds. A total o f 21 % of the firms inter
viewed said they planned to add jobs
in April through June.
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Smith Makes YO Center Return Visit
Senator stakes his reputation on winning funds for youth employment center
budget cuts at the time of his visit.
(AP) - Sen. Gordon Smith vowed Friday that a
youth training center on Martin Luther King Jr.
The senator said that after talking with White
Boulevard that President Bush visited last month
House officialsm, he was sure the funding for the
will get funding despite an administration proposal
Portland center would be included in the budget.
The center provides educational and job train
to shift the funds to other programs.
Spring Hiring Plans Rise
50*
Assault
Suspect
Killed at
Motel 6
by Jov R amos
T he P ortland O bserver
HOUSTON— The two-week-old trial
o f a mother accused of drow ning her
five children is infused with many raw
emotions already. But perhaps the most
gripping testimony is yet to come, when
Andrea Yates’ husband, who has la
mented his w ife’s deep mental illness,
takes the stand in her defense.
Winter One of Warmest Ever
February 27, 2002
Family claims
police shooting was
racially motivated,
unjustified
Drinking Among Youth
Stirs Discussion
N O BLE, Ga. — The operatoi o f a
G eorgia crem atory who accepted
paym ent for crem ations, then left
corpses to rot on the ground, may go
free on $100,000 bail, a ju d g e ruled.
O fficials have discovered 331 bod
ies, but m ust still search m ore than
h alf the crem atory’s grounds.
Wednesday
ing help for youths in designated low-income
“The money will be there,” Smith told officials
and clients at the Youth Opportunity Center. “I’m
areas of Portland. It is a part o f a larger national
staking my reputation on that.”
program.
Smith brought Bush to the center during the
president’s Jan. 5 visit to Portland that was inspired
by O regon’s highest-in-the-nation jobless rate.
U.S. Sen. Gordon
Smith, R-Ore.
Bush expressed support for the program to help inner-city
The federal grant was supposed to last five
years, until 2005. The center got $5 million in federal
funds this year and was on track to get $3.75 million
in each of the next two years.
Bush Visits China
youth. But that turned to embarrassment this month when the
Peter Angstadt, president o f W orksystems Inc., which
BEIJING— On the final leg of his Asian
trip, President Bush thanked Chinese
President Jiang Zemin for lending
“strong support” to the U.S.-led war on
terrorism. The two countries worked
toward striking a deal on controlling
the flow o f nuclear technology.
administration proposed in its new budget to shift most of the
operates the program, said he was confident of continued
funding to other job training efforts.
federal funding and that he hoped to find other sources of
Smith said Bush was “the victim of some pretty poor staff
work on this one” and said Bush had no idea of the planned
money that would allow the center to operate after the five-
year grant expires.
Portland police shot and killed a
man early Friday morning inside a room
of a Motel 6 at 3104 S.E. Powell Blvd.
Byron Clay Hammick Jr., 26, died of
head and chest injuries in the 3:14 a.m.
shooting.
Police say they were dispatched to
the motel after a 911 call from a motel
security guard stating that Hammick
was breaking out windows in room
222, had confronted the guard, and
might have a handgun.
Once they arrived at the motel, the
officers were also told that Hammick
was beating a 3-year-old boy.
Police say the assault w as in
progress when they looked into the
suspect’s motel room. They claim
H am m ick was ordered to stop, but
when he did not, they fired their
w eapons.
But so far, police have not presented
any evidence that Hammick was in
deed armed with a gun.
Some witnesses reported hearing
the pofice commands to stop the as
sault and that after repeated com
mands, they heard gunshots.
The child, a son o f a friend of
Hammick’s, suffered bruises, police
said. He was transported to Emanuel
Legacy Hospital and is currently in
protective custody. At the time of this
incident, Hammick had a felony war
rant for his arrest for distribution and
or manufacture of a controlled sub
stance near a school zone.
Hours after the shooting. Hammick’s
family angrily claimed that the shoot
ing was racially motivated, unpro
voked and unjustified. Those close to
him described Hammick as being a laid
back and calm person who has never
been known to hurt children, including
his own.
This investigation is continuing.
Anyone with information is asked to
call Detective Kris Wagner at 503-823-
0899 or Detective Steve Ober at 503-
823-4033.
Doctor Helps Area Athletes Get Back in Their Game
Corporations Challenged
for Reparations
A powerhouse team of African-Ameri
can legal and academic stars is getting
ready to sue companies it says profited
from slavery before 1865. Ultimately, it
hopes to gain momentum for a national
apology and a massive reparations pay
out by Congress to African-Americans.
I
Volunteer narrows inner-city gap where sports physicians and trainers are few
Joe Bozikovich, 16, sat hunched over in his chair
next to his mother. He looked like an athlete forced to
sit on the sidelines during a game, due to an elbow
injury.
Kimberly Chacaj, another 16-year-old, walked around
the waiting area at Rebound, an orthopedics and
snorts medicine clinic at the Rose Garden complex. She
eded a sports physical.
The two teens were waiting for appointments with '
.m Chesnutt, M . D., assistant professor of family medi-
me at Oregon Health & Science University School of
Medicine and board certified in sports medicine.
Chesnutt, a family practice physician atOHSU Family
Health Center at Gabriel Park, volunteers at the Rebound
clinic every Wednesday afternoon. School of Medicine
students also perform part of the family practice rotations
at the clinic. Chesnutt also volunteers as team physician
for the Wilson High School sports teams and attends all
of their home football games.
Chacaj, a sophomore at Benson High School said
she heard about this clinic at school.” I need a physical
because I’m getting ready for basketball tryouts. I
don’t know if I’ll make the team, but I thought I would
I
try,” she said.
Mans of the students he sees every week at the clinic
have inadequate or no health insurance. They come to be
checked for sports injuries, to get their required sports
physical so they can play on a team, or for second
opinions regarding an injury.
The Rebound clinic sponsors this sports injury clinic,
making it possible to provide the evaluation and any
needed x-rays and casting for a reduced cost to the
students.
The students Dr. Chesnutt sees are mostly from north
east Portland high schools such as Jefferson, Benson,
Madison and Roosevelt.
“I wanted to make sure that student athletes on the
northeast side of town had access to physicians for their
needs," he said. “There are few, if any. physicians or
trainers to help out in these schools.”
Chesnutt said he believes that helping these young
athletes is important. He played basketball, soccer, base
ball, and ran track and cross country in high school.
“For a lot of these kids, playing sports is the one thing
that’s keeping them in school. We need to make sure
these athletes are healthy," he said.
Dr. Jim Chesnutt
gives a sports
physical to
Benson High
School
Sophomore
Kimberly Chacaj
at the Rose
Garden's
Rebound clinic.
Chesnutt
volunteers his
time and
expertise in
sports medicine
to help young
athletes get the
health care they
need to play
sports.
I