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)
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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