She Shares H er Crown
Peninsula Little Leaguers meet Miss America
See story, page A 5
ISnrtlanh ©bse
"The City Of Roses"
Volume XXXII
Number 17
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in 1970
Wednesday
\
May 01,2002
J
Palestinians Leave Church
JERU SA LEM — Israel decided to
block a U.N. inquiry into the fighting
at the Jenin refugee cam p, w hile 27
P a le s tin ia n s e m e rg e d fro m th e
C hurch o f the N ativity in Bethlehem .
It w as the largest num ber to exit the
ch u rch since th e sta n d o ff began
nearly a m onth ago.
4 Sue Los Angeles Archbishop
Four men who say they were abused by
a California priest decades ago filed
suit Monday against Cardinal Roger
Mahony, archbishop o f Los Angeles,
the nation’s largest archdiocese, under
a federal law originally aimed at busting
organized crime.
Leonard “Grandfather" Smith (above right) outside his
recently reopened North Mississippi Avenue deli with Antonio
Jackson, a business and marketing outreach student from
Portland State University.
Jerry Van Horton (left) sits In the
ballroom of Mississippi Rising. A once
neglected space he has renovated with
help from his daughter.
New Jersey Couple Hits
Big Game Jackpot
TREN TO N , N.J. — A husband and
w ife claim ed a $58.9 m illion share o f
the Big G am e lottery jackpot. Jorge
M . a n d J o a n n e S. L o p e s , o f
Englishtow n, held one o f the three
w ining tickets from the $331 m illion
prize draw n on A pril 16, the second-
biggest lottery prize in U.S. history.
Tornadoes, High Wind Kill Six
T ornado-ravaged cities from M is
souri to M aryland picked up the
pieces after an unusually w ide swath
o f thunderstorm s w eaved their way
through the eastern h a lf o f the na
tion, killing at least six people. A
tornado in M aryland caused at least
three deaths and 93 injuries.
P hotos bv D avid P lechl /
T he P ortland O bserver
Mississippi Rising
The color, face and energy of Mississippi Avenue is changing
bv D avid P lechl
T he P ortland O bserver
Mississippi Avenue in north Portland
stretches only a few blocks from Skidmore
to Fremont. It has always been a business
district in one way or another, but its
colorful past is full o f dramatic change.
Seventeen years ago, Leonard “Grand
father” Smith, an African American busi
nessman, opened his first fish house and
lounge at the com er o f Mississippi and
Shaver.
“The streets were infested with drug
dealers,” he said. “It was overrun with
prostitution.”
At that time, only one other business,
a small convenience store, existed on the
avenue. The other buildings were prima
rily vacant and crumbling.
Smith calls him self a community acti v-
ist who single-handedly ran most o f the
drug dealers away. Though he admits, he
couldn’t have done it without the help o f
a pair o f Portland cops who he befriended
about a decade ago.
“The officers used to just drive by and
wave at the drug dealers,” he said. “I
invited these two cops to get out o f their
cars and just sit with me. In five minutes,
all the drug dealers were gone.”
Leonard looks sidelong and pauses.
As an afterthought, he adds, "I was deter
mined.”
So were others who have followed in
his footsteps, like Jerry Van Horton who
has completely remodeled and restored
the ballroom on the same comer.
In the 30s, the airy space, now called
continued
on page.4 6
ADA Restricted
W ASHINGTON — In a setback for
disabled workers, the Supreme Cotirt
ruled those employees are not always
entitled to premium assignments in
tended for more senior workers. Jus
tices said the Americans with Disabili
ties Act does not pre-empt company
seniority systems.
Blazers Forced Into
Summer Retirement
Lakers sink Blazers again in NBA playoffs
Cardinals Agree on Abuse Policy
VATICAN C IT Y — American Cardi
nals meeting with Pope John Paul II
agreed to adopt a “one-strike-you’re-
out” policy for any priest involved in a
fu tu re sex ab u se case, C a rd in a l
Theodore McCarrick said. It was un
certain whether a similar policy would
be applied to current cases.
Shaquille
O'Neal
shoots over
the Blazers'
Rasheed
Wallace (left)
and Ruben
Patterson in
the second
half. (AP
photo)
Growth Overwhelms
State Schools
Fast-growing Sun Belt and Western
states are running out o f room at flag
ship campuses. Money discourages
building new ones. So states are tough
ening. Admission standards, building
satellite campuses and beefing up aca
demic reputations at their other schools.
Parents Warned About
24-Proaf Gelatin
A national anti-drug coalition is alert
ing parents about the rising popular
ity o f Zippers, w hich are packaged
cups o f fruity-flavored gelatin and
alcohol. Zippers are being m arketed
as the first com m ercially produced
vernion o f “J e ll-0 shots.”
Lisa “Left Eye" Lopes
TLC’s Lopes Remembered
Rapper-singer killed in Honduras car crash
(A P) - Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, one
o f the m em bers o f the R&B chart
topping group TLC, was tragically
killed in a car crash in H onduras on
Thursday. She was 30.
Laura Sw anson, a spokesw om an
fo r L o p e s ’ re c o rd la b e l A rista
Records, explained that Lopes was in
H onduras on a vacation. She was one
o f seven people involved in the acci
dent and suffered the only fatality.
“No w ords can possibly express
the sorrow and sadness I feel for this
m ost devastating loss,” A rista presi
dent L.A. Reid said.
Reid was instrum ental in bringing
the A tlanta-based R&B group to the
forefront and helping it becom e one
o f the best-selling fem ale groups in
history.
TLC, w hich includes other m em
bers Tionne “T -B oz” W atkins and
Rozonda “C hilli” Thom as, broke out
on the scene in 1992 with their album
Ooooooh...On the TLC Tip!
à
i
P h ila d e lp h ia -b o rn Lopes was the
ra p p e r o f the g ro u p and was n ic k
nam ed “ L eft E y e” because she w ore
a trad em ark condom as one o f the
lenses o f her g la sse s during p e rfo r
m ances.
In 1994, the group scored big with
its album CrazySexyCool, which won
the w om en tw o o f their four Grammy
A wards.
“ Lisa had one o f the biggest hearts
o f anybody we know ,” Thomas said
in a tearful phone call to M TV’s Total
Request Live Friday. “She did charity
work for kids all the time for Lupus
d is e a s e th a t p e o p le d o n ’t know
ab o u t.”
L opes’ life w as not without per
sonal controversy, either. In 1994, she
pleaded guilty to arson after she set
fire to the m ansion o f her boyfriend,
former Atlanta Falcons receiver Andre
Rison. Lopes w as sentenced to a half
way house and five years' probation
as well as a $ 10,000 fine.
I
(A P)— The Los Angeles Lakers used
to have a bitter rivalry with Portland. Now
the only intrigue is watching how many
points the Lakers can spot the Trail Blaz
ers before coming back to torment them.
Robert Horry took a pass from Kobe
Bryant and made a 3-pointer with 2.1
seconds left to cap a furious last-minute
comeback, and the Lakers completed their
second straight three-game sweep o f the
Blazers with a 92-91 victory Sunday.
“Did I want the ball? No, I was kind o f
scared,” said Horry, a veteran o f four
NBA championship teams with Los An
geles and Houston. “I just threw it up
there, and I didn’t know if it was going in
or out.”
Bryant knew.
“It’s cash,” Bryant said when asked
what he thought when the ball left Horry’s
hand. “H e’s done it so many times, it’s
cash.”
The finish was reminiscent o f Game 7
o f the 2000 Western Conference finals,
when Portland blew a 15-point fourth-
quarter lead and lost 89-84. Including that
surreal game, the Lakers have won seven
straight postseason meetings with the
Blazers.
Portland had a much smaller lead Sun
day, but there was less time to watch it slip
away.
Rasheed W allace’s follow-up slam on
a miss by Scottie Pippen put the Blazers
up 89-84 w ith 39 seconds left, and
W allace’s free throw made it 90-86 with
17.1 seconds left.
Bryant immediately made a 3-pointer
with 12.7 seconds to go, and Pippen missed
one o f his free throws after being fouled.
With the Lakers trailing by two, Rick Fox
inbounded the ball to Bryant, who was
guarded by the self-proclaimed “Kobe
Stopper,” Ruben Patterson. Bryant went
right and flung the ball to Horry, who was
waiting in the com er o ff to Bryant’s right.
Pippen, trying to help out with Bryant,
was late in running at Horry, and Homy
swished the jumper.
“Kobe made a big shot - that 3-pointer
to give us hope - and Scottie missed a free
throw, and the door was open,” Horry
said. “I was surprised that Pippen bit that
continued
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on page B6
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