Diversity in the Ranks
Black Studies Major Wanted
Firefighter trainee program
opCHS doors
PSU brothers are activists on a mission
See story. Page A3
] See story, Metro section inside
I IJtartlatth (©bseruer
‘City of Roses
Volume X X X III
Established In 1970
•
N um ber 5
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
T,Weekin
TheReview
Wednesday • January 29, 2003
HIGH DRUG
COSTS
BATTLED
pope« * Blanchard
Elephant dies in Portland
The Oregon Z oo’s oldest bull
Asian elephant died o f unknown
causes. Keepers and vets used a
sling to get 43-year-old Hugo on
his feet and started feeding him
fluids and antibiotics, but they
c o u ld n ’t sa v e him . H ugo
weighed about 10,000 pounds
and stood 10 feet tall.
Free and low-cost
alternatives promoted
education
Dracula theme
park hasteeth
SERVICE CEN
A Dracula theme park will be
built near the Romanian capital
ra th e r than deep in th e
Transyl vania region to draw more
visitors, a tourism official said
Sunday. A study by an interna­
tional auditing firm found a park
devoted to the legendary vam­
pire would attract more than a
million tourists a year if located
near Bucharest.
AT 550 If
Dog-beater shoots self
A man trying to beat his dog to
death with a gun was fatally
w ounded when it apparently
went off accidentally, said police
in W inchester, Va. Raymond
Poore Jr., 43, called his wife at
work Thursday and told her that
their dog had bitten him and he
intended to kill the animal. The
w ifecam ehom eaboutbp.m . and
found her husband dead, with a
n u m b e r o f dog b ite s and
scratches
-
'
Laxative ad upsets
Park Service
The National Park Service is fum­
ing over a commercial in which a
park ranger pours a glass o f |
Metamucil into Old Faithful in
Yellowstone National Park to help
the geyser stay regular. Park Ser­
vice officials scoff at the notion
the famous geyser would ever
need help, and point out the dam­
age that can be caused by dump­
ing things into the park’s thermal
features - not to mention that ven­
turing near geysers and hot
springs is often very dangerous.
Stalking by satellite
Paul A. Seidler, 42, o f Kenosha,
Wis., is accused o f using a satel­
lite tracking device to trace the |
movements o f his ex-girl friend
aftertheirbreakup.ConnieAdams |
testified that Seidler stalked her
relentlessly for months with the
aid ofa global positioning system |
device that police later found
planted under the hood o f her car.
She said the system recorded her
movements - to work, on dates,
shopping and even to buy gaso­
line - and Seidler would show up
wherever she went.
.
. .
photo by
M ark W ashincton /T he P orti
and
O bserver
Let’s Play Ball
National Geographic
on swimsuits
It's the m iddle o f winter, so it must
be time for a swimsuit issue to
liven up magazine reading. No,
notthatone. National Geographic
is doing a swimsuit issue. It’s a
special newsstand-only issue that
takes a detailed look at people
wearing swimsuits but without
quite the titillation some other j
magazines muster. Instead, Na­
tional Geographic takes the reader
on a historical tourofthe swimsuit
over the last 100 years.
. „.
Carl Flipper steps in front of the Portland School District administration building ju s t a couple o f blocks from the Rose
Quarter — one of a handful of sites being considered for a new Major League stadium. The north Portland promoter of
baseball is convinced a big league team and stadium could employ minorities in north and northeast Portland.
Major Leagues promoted
as jobs creator
by S ean P. N elson ,
T he P ortland O bserver
An African-American and north Port­
land resident has a remedy for the economic
blues besetting the city. Carl Flipper wants
to take us out to the ballgame. Not Little
League— the Majors.
Two years ago he saw a
______
newspaper article saying Ma-
jo rU a g u e B a ^ n w » ™ - A
ï
land Mayor Vera Kalz and
»
S
S
and Senate, but the bill was prevented from
coming to the floor by the leadership at that
time,” Flipper recalled.
Despite that initial defeat, he and sup­
porters o f the idea haven’t given up. Now a
co-chair o f the Portland Baseball Group
Community Development C ommittee, Flip-
sonal employees to full-time year round
em ployees,” Flipper said.
Flipper estimates the cost o f building a
Major League baseball stadium at $300 to
$350 million, a potential windfall forminority
and women owned contractors.
Currently five sites are being considered.
They include the current Port-
Major League baseball franchise employs.
as I understand it. about 200 people from the
field all the Way to the front office. This includes
everything from part-time seasonal employees
ballpark as a community de
velopment initiative. He also
proposed that the proceeds
be used to ensure affordable __________
housing for low-income Port­
land residents.
Katz liked the idea. She referred him to
Steve Kanter, the president o f the Portland
Baseball Group, a local non-profit organiza­
tion working to find ways to bring Major
League baseball to Portland.
“We had the votes in the Oregon House
to full-time year round employees.
“ j 1, P‘“ l' " ^ , “ n71l5|oN*
A iX a k T r â m s Îa ta n X m N w '
by Lincoln IIigh School on 1600
S.W. Salmon.
The school adm inistration
Community Development Committee co-chalr
building, main Post Office, and
Amtrak Train Station sites are all
per sees a potential economic windfall for located in Enterprise Zones designed to
minorities in north and northeast Portland if stimulate future economic development for
such a stadium could be built.
disadvantaged and minority businesses.
“A Major League baseball franchise em ­
The Major League team being considered
ploys, as I understand it, about 200 people for relocation here is the Montreal Expos.
from the field all the way to the front office.
continued
on page .4 7
This includes everything from part-time sea-
—Cart Hlpper, Portland Baseball Group
As state and county budget cuts
threaten to eliminate health care
services for tens o f thousands o f
Oregonians, mental health advo­
cates held a news conference otf
Thursday to draw attention to pro<
grams that provide free or low-cost
prescription drugs.
State Sen. Avel G ordly, an A f­
rican A m erican from northeast
Portland, organized the group o f
legislators, service providers and
pharm aceutical com pany repre­
sentatives to help get the m es­
sage out.
‘In times like these, it is crucial
that we m ake prescription drugs
available to mental health patients
who need help right now. It’s
equally critical that we let them
know how they can get them ,”
G ordly said. “These drug pro­
grams can be an essential piece o f
the safety net that catches p a­
tients who will fall through the
cracks. Getting the message about
these program s out to people is
the key.”
Gordly will be asking legislative
leaders and Gov. Ted Kulongoski
to accelerate the implementation of
programs to assist patients with
appl ications for programs that pro*
vide discounts on prescription
drugs, particularly formental health
patients. Pharmaceutical company
representatives will also be asked
to help ease the blow once the cuts
go into place.
“ W e’re here to show we w ant
to be part o f the solution,” said
Nate Miles, a representative o f Eli
Lilly pharm aceutical com pany.
“ W e’re doing a lot o f things to
help people, but if the m essage
d o e s n ’t g et o u t, n o b o d y can
benefit.”
Miles said in 2001 over 34,500
patients in Oregon benefited from
the pharmaceutical industry’s pa­
tient assistance programs.
Gordly also urged legislators not
to remove protections on “life-sav­
ing medications” for mental health
patients from new assistance pro­
grams run by the state.
“ I know what a difference the
right medication makes for a mental
health consumer,” she said. “The
costs to the system associated with
a mental health treatment failure -
both financial and personal - are
much too great,”
Prescription drug assistan ce
program s are avai lable by cal ling
800-762-4636 or on the w eb at
FBI Considers Hate Crime in Shooting Spree
Chad Debnam’s
family twice the
victim of a racially
itivated shooting
three white teens and one white
young man suspected o f racially
targeting a largely black northeast
Portland neighborhood with shot­
gun blasts, his heart dropped.
“This shows us that the enemy
is still out there,” Debnam said.
YNDE D y ER
“Hate and evil is still out there.”
P ortland O bserver
Although no one was injured,
hen shots rang out in the early the event opened an old wound for
ling on Sunday, Jan. 19, Chad Debnam. The shooting marks the
lam thought it was engine back- second time his family has been
victimized by racist violence. In 1971,
hen he went out side to find Debnam’s brotherClarence Jr. was
ows o f his car shattered by shot and killed in a telephone booth
ire, he thought it must have on Martin Luther King Jr. Boule­
gang kids causing trouble,
vard by white shooters randomly
it when Debnam heard that the targeting black men.
ting may have been caused by
For this to happen 32 years
I
later shows that not much has
changed.” Debnam said. “ It leaves
a lot o f people o f color wondering
when they are walking down the
street if they are going to be a victim
o f violent crime.”
Debnam said he was proud o f
the Portland Police Department for
apprehending the suspects after a
chase that led them across the 1-5
Bridge into Vancouver. The assail­
ants in his brother's murder were
also caught.
He said he doesn’t care about
the damage to his car. but the dam ­
PHOTO BY W vnde D y er /T he P orti and O bserv er
age done to the sense o f safety in
NAACP member Chad Debnam meets with reporters in front o f
his neighborhood concerns him.
continued
on page .46
his northeast Portland home two days after car windows were
shot out o f his vehicle in a Jan. 19 shooting spree police say
may have been racially motivated.
1