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It|t JJortlanh © bseruer
April 28. 2004
Bloodiest Month for Americans in Iraq
U.S. warplanes,
artillery attack
Sunni insurgents
(A P) — U.S. w arplanes and artillery
attacked Sunni insurgents holed up in a
slum in a thunderous show o f force that
rocked Fallujah Tuesday, sending huge
plum es o f black sm oke into the night sky.
The assault cam e after A m erican troops
killed 64 gunm en near the southern city o f
Najaf.
An A m erican soldier was killed T ues
day in Baghdad, raising the U.S. death toll
for April to 115 - the same num ber lost
during the invasion o f Iraq that toppled
Saddam Hussein last year. Up to 1,200
Iraqis also have been killed this month.
T he second straight night o f battles in
Fallujah cam e as the extension o f a fragile
cease-fire ended in the turbulent city west
o f Baghdad. M arines have been preparing
to begin patrols in the city later this week.
T uesday’s battle appeared far heavier
than the previous night’s clashes, in which
a M arine and eight insurgents were killed
- suggesting U.S. forces w ere trying to
Fires were visible in the Jolan neighbor
w ear dow n gunm en in the Jolan neighbor hood, and m osque loudspeakers else
hood, a district o f narrow alleyw ays and
where in the city called for firefighters.
ram shackle houses.
U.S. aircraft dropped w hite leaflets over
Lcpl. Jonathan,
Quintero o f Tulari,
Calif., from the 1st
Battalion 5th
Marines, mans his
machine gun at a
frontline position
near a mosque in
Fallujah, Iraq.
(AP photo)
Fallujah before nightfall, calling on insur
gents to give up.
“Surrender, you are surrounded," the
leaflets said. “If you are a terrorist, beware.
Schools Struggle with
Diversity Programs
(A P) — Nearly a decade ago, the Kent
School District near Seattle was praised
by parents, students and civil rights groups
for its bold plan to stem racial discrim ina
tion and train staff in handling cultural
differences.
Today, the very same district faces pos
sible lawsuits over claims by 12 black stu
dents who say they were manhandled and
handcuffed by school security officers.
The stark contrast is em blem atic o f how
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Established 1970
schools nationw ide have struggled to
implement di versity programs, experts say.
Kent School D istrict Superintendent
Barbara G rohe has nam ed a retired Army
general to head a com m ittee to investigate
its security practices and a form er Grant
County sheriff will probe the incidents.
The choice o f disciplinarians as inves
tigators has angered the N AACP, w hich is
behind the threat to file nearly $40 million
in lawsuits on b eh alf o f the 12 students.
Carl Mack, president o f the Seattle chap
ter o f the N ational A ssociation for the
A dvancem ent o f C olored People, said the
district’s handling o f the issue has been
an “insult to the field o f education.”
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Security Officer Elmer Burst stands outside as a student returns to class after lunch
break at Cedar Heights Junior High School in Covington, Wash.
(AP photo)
The district, like others across the na
tion, has experienced a grow ing m inority
population, but critics contend Kent is not
adapting.
“If they had follow ed through with the
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Benjam in Baez, associate professor o f
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discipline procedures," G rohe said.
In claim s filed last m onth by the
N ame :.
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from 11 to 17, say they were the victim s o f
excessive force by school security o ffic
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Suspect Arrested in Las Vegas
Victim shot to death
P O R 1 1 . A N D — A suspect is under arrest for
the shooting death o f a Portland man. Police
found the body o f Lavelle A nthony M athew s
(pictured) M arch 23 in the road at North A lbina
and W ebster streets.
The medical exam iner confirm ed that the 35-
year-old died from a gunshot wound.
Robert W agner was arrested in Las V egas on
an outstanding warrant. The 25-year-old was
being held in N evada until he could be returned
to Oregon.
A possible m otive w as not released.
Lavelle Matthews
Billion Dollar Reparations Suit
DNA linked plaintiffs
to African slaves who
suffered atrocities
(AP) — D escendants o f slaves filed a
$ 1 bi 11 ion la wsuit i n Ne w York Ci ty against
U.S. and British corporations, accusing
them o f profiting by com m itting genocide
against their ancestors.
L aw yers for the eight plaintiffs said the
M arch 26 com plaint was the first slave
reparations law suit to use DNA to link the
plaintiffs to A fricans w ho suffered atroci
ties during the slave trade.
The suit filed in federal court in M an
h a tta n a c c u s e s L lo y d ’s o f L o n d o n ,
FleetBoston and R.J. Reynolds o f “aiding
and abetting the com m ission o f geno
cide" by allegedly financing and insuring
Charles H. Washington
C reative D irector :
Body Found In Street:
D ouglass-Sw anson, says she was grabbed
by the hair and throw n to the ground, a
security o fficer’s knees pressing into her
back as her arm s w ere w renched behind
her and handcuffs closed around her
wrists.
D o u g la s s-S w a n so n a c k n o w le d g e s
flailing her arm s and kicking her legs in an
attem pt to get free from the guard. She was
charged with assault, placed in juvenile
detention overnight and expelled.
At the d istrict’s C edar H eights Junior
High School in Covington, 38-year-old
security officer Elm er Burst said h e’s used
his handcuffs once since com ing to work
for the district in A ugust 2003.
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd
because your last day w as yesterday. In
order to spare your life end your actions
and surrender to coalition forces now. We
are com ing to arrest you.’
Burst, who is black, said h e’ll do what
he can to prevent any student from being
harmed.
“If that m eans using restraints, I’ll do
it," he said.
The threat o f a lawsuit by tw o black
parents w ho claim ed their children were
harassed by w hite students triggered the
creation o f the Kent d istric t’s original
di versity council in 1995, form er co-chair
B arbara Phillips said.
That com m ittee made dozens o f recom
m endations, including nonviolent crisis
intervention training for staff and im prov
ing discipline records to m onitor for racial
discrim ination.
Phillips said sh e’s disappointed in the
resp o n se.
A curriculum audit released in 1999, the
year G rohe took over as superintendent,
found the district was slow to follow cer
tain directives.
Today, all em ployees m ust undergo
diversity and cultural sensitivity training,
district spokesw om an Becky H anks said.
D uringthe 1989-90 school year.m inori-
ties in the school district m ade up nearly
15 percent o f the student population.
Today they are about 35 percent.
And while blacks account for more than
10 percent o f the district’s 26,400 students,
they represent about 59 percent o f students
disciplined since September 2003, accord
ing to district security reports.
Fighting also broke out in Baghdad and
in the south, where U.S. forces are in a
standoff w ith m ilitiam en loyal to radical
Shiite cleric M uqtada al-Sadr, w ho is
w anted on m urder charges for allegedly
killing a fellow cleric.
U.S. forces killed 64 Iraqis on M onday
and Tuesday in battles with m ilitiam en
outside the Shiite holy city o f Najaf, Brig.
Gen. M ark K im m itt said.
The United States is trying to avoid a’
resurgence o f the intense fighting ahead
o f June 30 - the date for installation o f q
new Iraqi governm ent.
the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco
plantations in the United States.
The defendants “have destroyed our
national and ethnic identity,” one o f the
plaintiffs, D eadria Farmer-Paellm ann, said
at a new s conference announcing the suit.
DNA testing has made a “direct co n
nection" betw een Farm er-Paellm ann and
the M ende tribe in Sierra Leone, w hose
people “w ere kidnapped, tortured and
shipped in chains to the United States!”
the suit said.
Scientific evidence also has linked the
other plaintiffs to tribes in N iger and
G am bia, the suit said.
Ellen M atthew s, a spokesw om an for
R.J. Reynolds, said the com pany had not
received a copy o f the suit.
In January, a federal ju d g e in C hicago
threw out a sim ilar lawsuit brought by
descendants o f slaves.
‘American Idol’ Voting
Strikes Sour Note
Diva voted out amid
accusations of racism
( A P) — T heories flew fast and furious
Thursday after the “American Idol" viewer
vote w ent against favor
ite J e n n ife r H u d so n ,
ranging from racism to
fateful w eather to teen
age puppy love.
O r m aybe A m erica
ju st has a tin ear.
W hile H udson and
tw o others singers lav
ish ly p ra ise d by th e
sh o w ’s judges ended up
at the bottom o f the heap
W ednesday night, co n
testants w ho gave marginal perform ances
w ere top vote-getters.
H udson, Fantasia Barrino and La Toya
London - “The Three D ivas,” as th ey ’ve
becom e known - seem ed to have the best
shot at taking the Fox TV contest.
W ith the lowest vote tally, H udson was
bum ped from the show. Even series host
Ryan Seacrest chastised viewers.
A storm that caused a pow er outage in
the M idw est m ay have been a factor in
H u d s o n ’s o u ste r, TV e n te rta in m e n t
new sm agazine “E xtra” said Thursday.
M ore than 15,000 people in H udson’s
hometown o f Chicago were unable to watch
the show or dial in Tuesday night, when
the vote turned out to be the closest in the
show ’s three-year history, “E xtra" said.
Judge Randy Jackson, w ho said losing
H udson w as “n u ts,” told “ E x tra" he
thought the outage could have been a
, problem but it w asn’t
en o u g h to a lte r the
outcom e. Fox d id n ’t
release the view er vote
count this w eek, but
about 24 m illion votes
w ere re c o rd e d la st
week.
The New York Post
reported it was deluged
with calls com plaining
that the voting w as ra
c ia lly
m o tiv a te d :
Hudson, B arrino and London are black.
(The Post is ow ned by News Corp., which
also ow ns Fox TV .)
G eorge Huff, still in the com petition, is
black, as was last y ea r's w inner, Ruben
Studdard. “A m erican Idol." unlike other
reality show s featuring com petition, is
m ore popular in black hom es than white
hom es.
For the current season, the show was
watched in 19 percent of all black households,
compared to 15 percent of white households,
according to Nielsen Media Research.
Q uestions o f racism also cam e up in the
first season, after talented T am yra Gray
was voted off.