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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2003)
50¿ Gooding Jr. Stars in ‘Radio’ Dramatic film touches on football coach's mentoring relationship See Focus, Page B3 Community Involvement Day A. , Kids are the beneficiaries as volunteers help out See story, Metro section, inside ‘Citv of Roses' Established In 1970 w w w .portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXIII • Number 44 Wednesday • October 29. 2003 Meek Finds New Purpose Vocational Village high school plans move to Alberta Court by J aymee R. C uti T he P ortland O bserver Money from the sale will be used to upgrade Meek with new auto and metal The short drinking fountains and small sh o p s. desks at Meek Elementary will soon give By next fall, M eek's halls will be abuzz way to new, larger w ith an e s t i designs after the mated 250 high Portland School s c h o o le r s e n Board approved a rolled in one of $1.7 million plan eight jo b train Monday to reno ing programs. vate the school at S u p e r in te n N o rth e a st 4O'h dent Jim and AI berta Court Scherzinger has to serve V oca d irected V oca tional Village, an tio n a l V illa g e alternative school staff to boost its fo r stru g g lin g enrollm ent from New shops and other upgrades will make students. 159 to 250, to Meek Elementary on Northeast Alberta Meek has sat drive down the Court a high school for Vocational Village. empty since bud per-student cost get cuts forced its doors closed last June. o f the program. The d istrict’s space allocation com In the past. Vocational Village has at m ittee deemed V ocational Village, the tracted many of its students struggling or form er G len Haven School at 82"d and dropping out of Marshall High School. Northeast Tillam ook Street, as surplus The move to Meek could draw dropouts property because o f the high cost of from Jefferson and Roosevelt high schools, retrofitting the building for earthquakes. school officials speculate. P hoto by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Umatilla Tribe Member Vincent Wannassay and PSU President Daniel Bernstine attend the grand opening ceremony for the Native American Students and Community Center. NATIVE AMERICAN CENTER WELCOME Community jams PSU campus for grand opening A crowd of 1,500 came out for Port land State University’s grand opening of the Native American Student and Community Center on Friday. Tribal leaders, students, elected of ficials and community members moved through the artistically constructed complex worth $4.5 million. Native American art is infused in both the architecture and landscape to provide the center with a unique look and feel. Several projects by Native American artists include a smoke hole prism, glass story wall, vertical totem marker and cast bronze figures. ‘‘The center is such a beautiful ex pression ofourculture.” said Rose Hill, coordinator of Native American Stu dent Services. “It is a wonderful testa ment to the urban Indian community, tribes, students and the PSU commu nity working together to create the vision and make it a reality.” The center, located on PSU ’s cam pus in downtown Portland, will serve as a cultural hom e for N ative stu dents, supporting their enrollm ent at PSU and enhancing their academ ic studies. It will provide a resource room equipped with com puters for students, classroom s, meeting and conference spaces and an opportu nity for all who visit the center to learn about N ative traditions and contem porary issues o f im portance to indigenous people. Sources: W al-Mart Knew of Illegal Workers Violations involved hundreds of immigrants (A P )— Evidence including recordings indicates that Wal-Mart had direct knowl edge of immigration violations involving its cleaning contractors at stores across the country, federal law enforcement sources said. Federal agents raided Wal-Mart's head quarters and 60 of its stores across the nation Thursday, arresting more than 300 illegal workers in an immigration crack- photo by A shopper goes into a Wal-Mart in Old Bridge. N.J. after federal agents raided Wal-Mart's headquarters and 60 o f its stores across the country, arresting more than 300 illegal workers. (AP Photo) ? O O 01) <u o 2 ci T rC O 5 a¡ > O ’g "" -c J % .£ = H 01) 3 p "§) 5 < r i - w M ark W ashington /T he P ori land O bserver Resolutions Northwest mediation specialist Christopher Woo and intake specialist Tamara Moland use a prop to give publicity to their work resolving conflict in city neighborhoods. down at the world’s biggest retailer. The workers were members of cleaning crews hired by outside contractors, but federal law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condi tion of anonymity said Wal-Mart knew of the violations. They cited recordings of meetings and conversations among Wal- Mart executives, managers and contrac tors. "We have seen noevidence of this from the INS. and, if that turns out to be true, we will cooperate fully with law enforcement officials,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said. The workers were arrested as they fin ished their night shifts at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Agents also hauled away several boxes of docum ents from an executive s office at Wal-Mart headquar ters in Bentonville. An employer can face civil and criminal penalties forknowingly hiring illegal immi grants or failing to comply with certain employee recordkeeping regulations. Wal-Mart Stores had sales last year of $244.5 billion. The company has about I . I million employees in the United States, and it uses more than I (X) third-party con tractors to clean more than 7(X) stores nationwide, Williams said. All the arrested workers were in the country illegally, said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman with Immigration and C us toms Enforcement. They were detained at local immigration offices. Those who had continued on page A2 Peaceful solutions keep disputes out of the courtroom J aymee R .C uti T he P orti . and O bserver Mediation, a conflict-resolution ap proach used by feuding neighbors, part ners or anyone wishing to avoid the courtroom, is receiving high marks in Portland, and saving the city time and money. Resolutions Northwest is a mediation organization contracted by the city to help resolve common neighborly dis putes over property lines, pesty pels, harassment and noise problems. The agency recently published a quarterly report that documents who is using the service and evaluates the success of its resolution attempts. Right now, 40 percent of itsclients are from north or northeast Portland, and 4 1 percent are from southeast Portland. The remaining 19 percent is balanced through out the westside. O f those participating in joint media tion. 97 percent were satisfied with the outcome and 97 percent said they would recommend the service to others. O f those who used the program’s other services, including mediation by phone or instruc tion on conflict resolution, 93 percent were satisfied and 97 percent said they would recommend the program toothers. The mediators beat their own goal for speedy attention. The agency's goal is to make first contact for new cases between three and five days, but the actual re sponse time is 2.8 day. "And steadily declining,” said Claire Bell, program director for Mediations Northwest. The fast response rate can be largely accredited to the agency's 59 active vol unteers, many of them recruited and trained last May. The volunteers are composed of a continued on page A2
