50/ ‘City of Roses’ Merry Christmas Happy Kwanzaa 3fartlanh (©Hseruer Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXIII • Number 52 T,Weekin TheReview ....... ----------------- www.portlandobserver.com Established in 1970 Wednesday • December 24, 2003 Clinic’s Life Support on Ropes Terror Alert Hiked Goodwill health center faces financial crisis The head of the Department of Homeland Security on Monday urged people to "just go about your business" despite the deci sion to raise the national terror- attack warning to its second-high est level. Tom Ridge said the Bush administration wants people to “be vigilant and have a good commu nications plan under way.” by J aymee R. Cun T he P ortland O bserver The much beloved "clinic o f last resort” for disadvantaged families in north and northeast Portland is facing its worst financial crisis yet. Mariah Taylor has entertained the possibility o f cutting staff to keep open her North Portland Nurse Practitioner Comm unity Health Center at 5 3 11 N. Vancouver. "This is the most dire w e’ve been in 24 years," said Taylor, a nurse practitioner who runs the health center serving Portland's neediest uninsured families and refusing to turn away anyone based on inability to pay. The message is clear; the clinic will remain open, but it’s in great need and services will be reduced. Malvo Sentenced to Life T he ju ry in the W ashington sniper case Tuesday spared Lee Boyd M alvo from the fate aw ait ing h is m e n to r Jo h n A llen M uham mad - the death penalty - after his lawyers portrayed him as an im pressionable boy who had fallen under M uham m ad's m urderous spell. Malvo, 18, will be instead be locked away for the rest o f his life. Taylor frets that reduced services put patients at risk o f misdiagnosis, and accepts the possibility that if financial support for the center doesn’t improve, the clinic may be forced to turn away patients. Third ‘Rings’ Film Beats Out Predecessors For this com m unity health resource, with its own food bank, toy chest, clothes closet, vitam ins and diapers, the w ish list is long. Movie audiences shelled out a king's ransom for one last trip to M iddle-earth. “The Lord o f the Rings: The Return of the King” raked in $73.6 million in its first weekend and put up a five-day haul o f $ 125.1 million since de buting last W ednesday. Death Penalty for Saddam? P resident Bush said Saddam Hussein deserves the “ultimate penalty” for his crimes, but he faced objections from European countries, the United Nations and the Vatican, which are adamantly opposed to capital punishment. Green River Killer gets Life Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer who terrorized Seattle in the early 1980s, tearfully apolo gized for “killing all those young ladies” as a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the chance o f release. Quakes Rock California More aftershocks rattled the area Tuesday following a magnitude- 6.5 earthquake that jolted the central C alifornia coast, killing two people, injuring dozens and wrecking a landmark clock tower. Jackson Charged With Child Molestation Michael Jackson was formally charged with repeatedly m olest ing a cancer-stricken boy invited to his Neverland Ranch, setting the stage for what could become one o f the most sensational ce lebrity cases this Internet-wired, 24-hour-cable world has ever seen S e e sto ry on p a g e A7. "The clinic will look different in 2004,” said Taylor. The changes include implementing a sliding fee scale based on income, instead of a fiat fee of $20 for an exam, medication and referrals to a specialist. Many expensive specialist ser vices will becut as well, including magnetic resonance imaging (MR1). photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver c o n tin u e d on page A 3 Nurse practitioner Mariah Taylor points to cost-cutting ways to keep her north Portland clinic open. Interstate Tests Bring Safety Alert The inaugural test run of the Inter state Max train though north Portland has coincided with a TriMet safety campaign urging pedestrians and driv ers to look both ways before crossing the tracks. Deadly collisions with the commuter trains have occurred on the rail sys tem in Gresham, Hillsboro and down town Portland. Max trains are quiet and often are hard to hear over regular traffic noise, making a visual lookout paramount. TriMet also warns pedestrians not to stop on the tracks in the middle of the crossing and never to walk on the tracks or enter restricted trackways. Officials said transit police will be patrolling the line and will ticket tres passers. The test trains are scheduled to run on the new alignm ent with more frequency in the next few weeks with many trains running on the line for testing purposes ahead of the May I opening for passenger ser vice. A Max train pulls up to the North Lombard station on Interstate Avenue during Friday's first test of the new 5.8-mile track between the Rose Quarter and Expo Center. M ark W ashington / T he P orti . and O bserver photo by New Police Policies Pledge to Curb Profanity Review board encourages use of respectful words Area residents will begin the New Year under a new pledge on the use of profanity by Portland Police. According to the Independent Police Review Division of the O f fice o f the C ity A uditor G ary Blackmer, many o f the com plaints citizens lodge against police is b e cause of the officers’ use of pro fanity. The review board investigated the com plaints by interviewing po lice departm ent staff, reviewing the policy and training manual, survey ing other police agencies, co llect ing citizen s' input at public forums and analyzing the circum stances when foul language was used. The board questioned whether officers are follow ing procedure and if not, what consequences they face. As a result, the Police Bureau adopted three policies recommended by the review board, including clari fying what constitutes profanity, re quiring officers to self-report their use o f profanity, and incorporating a segm ent on avoiding the use of pro fanity into police training.