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T h a n k s g iv in g
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‘CitV of Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
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F«»ahlichi»d
in 1970
Established
in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume X X X II • Number 47
Remodel Boosts Neighborhood
TlWeekin
TheReview
American Chamber and community partners welcome additions
Warning on laptop bums
D octors are w arning that laptop
Com puters m ay inflict b u m s
ev en th ro u g h clo th in g . T he
Bitish m edical m agazine The
Lancet has reported a bizarre
case o f a Sw edish scientist w ho
scorched his penis and testicles
w hile w riting a report in his arm
chair. The unnam ed 50-year-old
had balanced the com puter on
his lap w hile he w rote the report
at hom e, taking about an hour to
do so. T he follow ing day he d e
veloped painful blisters.
Where’s Iraq?
A survey by National Geographic
has found only one-in-seven
A m ericans between the ages o f
! 8 and 24 can find Iraq on a map.
It also revealed only a little over 50
•■per cent knew the Taliban and Al
Q aeda w ere based in A fghani
stan. The world-wide study asked
3 6 questions relating to geogra
p h y and current affairs. A m eri
ca n s scored an average o f 23 right
Answers. Thirty-four per cent o f
th o se surveyed knew the island
setting o f the last series o f TV
show “ Survivor.”
V
Wednesday • November 27, 2002
Safeway Store at 5920 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
S afew ay o ffic ia ls h av e a n
nounced the com pletion o f a m ulti
m illion d o llar expansion and re
modeling ofthe Martin Luther King
Jr. B o u le v a rd an d A in sw o rth
Safew ay Food and D rug Store.
Friends and neighbors in the
north and northeast com m unity
are invited to attend a special rib
bon cutting cerem ony in partner
ship w ith the A frican A m erican
C ham ber ofC o m m erce ofO reg o n
and the O regon B usiness N etw ork
on W ednesday, Dec. 4, at the store
at5920N .E . M artin Luther King Jr.
Blvd.
Store M anager T roy Steele is
eagerly aw aiting the final details as
the m assive rem odeling and ex
pansion project com es to a close.
“Safew ay is thrilled to offer our
custom ers w hat a brand new store.
W e hope our friends and neigh
bors w ill agree, it w as w orth the
wait. W e’d like to thank everyone
for their support and patience dur
ing the rem odel.”
M any people are unaw are that
S afew ay first began doing busi
ness in the Pacific N orthw est. The
very first store to open its doors
under the Safew ay banner w as in
1926 in dow ntow n Portland.
Safew ay began operating in the
King N eighborhood in 1936.
T oday, S afew ay operates 118
stores in O regon and S outhw est
W ashington, em p lo y so v er 12,000
em ployees and is O reg o n ’s 4 11’ larg
est em ployer.
The new M artin L uther K ing Jr.
and A insw orth S afew ay Food and
Drug will create30new jobs. Its 115
em ployees will stock o ver 4 0,000
items.
W ith the addition o f6,300 square
feet, the rem odel that b egan 8
m onths ago increased the sto re’s
size to 39,000 square feet. T hrough
continued
on page AS
■ That girl had no reason to die. The only thing she ever worried about was getting K
> to her job on time or getting home to her kids. - A neighbor of murder victim Asia Bell
Violence Claims Mother
Car buyer scores big bonus
; A man try ing to fix a car he bought
at a police auction discovered
m ore than he paid for: bundles
co ntaining about 9.7 pounds o f
cocaine. T he m an, w hose nam e
w as not released, bought the
1992 car in Las C ruces, N .M ., a
vehicle he knew had been for
feited in June 2001. He notified
the P ecos V alley D rug T ask
Force on N ov. 12 that he found
packages o f drugs u nder the
v e h ic le ’s c o n s o le w h e n he
started to repair the em ergency
brake.
Elderly robber strikes
again in Viagra crime wave
An elderly man in southern France
h as robbed a pharm acy in the city
* f M arseille for the fourth tim e in
less than a year, each time making
o ff with its full stock o f the anti
im potence drug, V iagra.
Messing with the mystical
D ozens o f m ystical creatures
that disappeared in the subur
ban C hicago village o f Bartlett,
III., have been found, but several
have yet to find their w ay hom e.
An assortm ent o f alm ost 60 lawn
g n o m e s , le p r e c h a u n s a n d
dw arfs are at the Bartlett Police
D epartm ent. T hey w ere confis
cated over the w eekend from the
garage o f one o f three teenage
boys charged with stealing them.
Business Slide Show
Includes Nude
A businessm an and form er p as
tor in Fort W orth, T x ., w as
charged w ith possessing child
pornography after a photo o f a
nude boy appeared during a com
puter slide presentation he gave
at w ork, officials said. E m ploy
ees at Exel Inc. told p olice that
Jam es A ndrew Sm ith had fin
ished a P ow erPoint slide show
Sept. 4 w hen he tried to open
another docum ent on his laptop
co m puter. T he im age o f the
young, nude boy appeared on
screen, according to the co-w ork
ers. Sm ith blam ed the i r
com puter virus.
& s
Periia Bell holds a portrait of her daughter Asia, with husband Tyrone Lee James
and their four children.
Friends say Asia Bell was not a gang member
by W ynde D yer
T he P ortland O bserver
O f three fatal shootings that took place
w ithin three m iles o f each other in north
and northeast Portland o ver a span o f six
days, the death o f A sia Bell, a m other o f
four children w ith no crim inal record, ap
pears the hardest for fam ily, neighbors and
police to com prehend.
Bell, 24, w as shot to death last W ednes
day evening on the front porch o fh er hom e
on the intersection o f N orth M ississippi
and Jessup. Her husband, T yrone Lee
Jam es, 26, w as seriously injured with gun
T Stoudamire
Rasheed Wallace
PHOTOS BY
W ynot D y er /
T he P orti . and
O bserver
on page AS
imon Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace cited for marijuana
c
A
continued
lazers Bounce into Judicial Court
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Family and friends
investigate the
North Mississippi
Avenue crime
scene Thursday
morning.
shots to his head and hip. and a third victim,
Robert M illhouse, 28, was treated for graze
w ounds to his arm.
Bell w as celebrating Jam es' birthday
w hen the gunfire erupted.
“ People say she w as in the w rong place
at the wrong tim e,” Bell’s m other Periia Bell
said. “ But 1 say it w as the w rong tim e for her
to be in the right place - she w as in her
house, w ith her husband and her kids."
Periia said she usually talked to her
daughter three or four tim es a day and had
Damon Stoudamire and Rasheed Wallace
o f the Portland Trail B lazers apologized to
their fam ilies and fans F riday after being
cited for m arijuana possession after a traffic
stop for speeding.
T he players and the driv er o fth e car were
ticketed ju st after m idnight Friday near
C entralia, W ash., about m idw ay betw een
Seattle and Portland. A police report said
Stoudam ire and W allace adm itted to sm ok-
ing m arijuana and both failed to pass field
sobriety tests.
“T he trooper got th cstro n g sm ell o f m ari
juana com ing from the vehicle so he initiated
an investigation," W ashington State Patrol
spokesm an G arvin M arch said.
T he trooper requested assistance from
local police, w ho sent a drug-sniffing dog to
help search the vehicle. M arch said. A sm all
am ount o f m arijuana w as found, m aking it a
Ruben Patterson charged
with domestic assault
See story, page A 2
m isdem eanor instead o f a felony.
A fter the tickets w ere issued, the three
men continued on their w ay, police said.
T he players w ere returning to Portland
after the T rail B lazers beat the S eattle
SuperSonics 89-85 T hursday night in S e
attle.
Friday evening, both Stoudam ire and
continued
on page A2