*
St.Johns
Window Project
Artists and businesses
showcase creativity
• J in north Portland
Born to Breast Feed
Campaigning to increase
nursing among minorities
See Focus section C, inside
See Metro section B, inside
tíanfr ©bseruer
‘City of Roses’
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXIV • Number 30.
.Week in
TheReview
Solider Faces Abuse Charge |
An Army in­
vestigator tes­
tified that Pfc.
Lynndie En­
gland
and
other members
of her unit told
him that pho­
tos of naked Iraqi prisoners piled I
in pyramids and other humiliat­
ing poses were taken “just for|
fun.” The statement came Tues­
day as a military hearing started I
to determine if England should
be court-martialed for her actions |
at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Boosting
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • August 4. 2004
VOte
with
Gunfire
Pregnant woman
and four others
suffer injuries
Market Fire Kills Hundreds
The death toll from a weekend
fire at a supermarket in Paraguay
shot up by more than 100 to reach
464 on Tuesday, as a security
guard told investigators he re­
ceived orders to lock the I
building’s doors just after the
blaze began to prevent theft, of­
ficials said.
Bryant Transcript Released I
Transcripts released from a
closed two-day hearing in the
Kobe Bryant sexual assault case
provide rare detail of the fierce
battles over evidence, including |
a candid assessment by the pros­
ecution about its chances should I
the judge rule on a number of |
issues.
Study Links Flu to
Schizophrenia
A new study adds more evidence I
to a body of research that sug­
gests the chi Idren of some women
who get the flu while pregnant
are at higher risk of developing
schizophrenia.
More al-Qaida Arrests
Pakistani authorities have ar-|
rested two high-ranking al-Qaida
terrorists - one with a multimil-
lion-dollar U.S. bounty on his
head - in a days-long sweep that
has netted at least six suspected
mil itants, officials said Tuesday.
Statue of Liberty Reopens
I
photo
BYDxvnrf*! h
hi / I he P ortland O bserver
Too young to vote, but old enough to make a difference, Davetta Lockett, 15, canvasses downtown, looking for unregis­
tered voters. She is part o f an Oregon Action campaign aiming to stir up 30,000 new voters.
Big turnout
begins with
registration
by J aymee
R. C ut i
T he P ortland O bserver
Some people with the best intentions for
participating in democracy have not regis­
tered to vote. If the reason is a lack of
knowledge, some information should fill in
the gaps.
Registering to vote is as easy as filling out
a form online at www.oregonvotes.org or
stopping by a designated state agency, in­
cluding the Department of Motor Vehicles,
Post Offices, libraries and other public assis­
tance agencies to pick up a form.
To qualify, voters need to be Oregon
residents of at least 18 years old on Election
Day. In the case of the Nov. 2 presidential
election, a voter registration card must be
postmarked at least 21 days before the elec­
tion, which is Oct. 12.
To check if your rregistration is curent,
drop by Multnomah County Elections at
1040S.E. Morrison orcall 503-988-3720.
You may update your
registration and receive a
ballot at any time up to
Election Day, by going to
your county elections office.
your permanent address, you can request
an absentee ballot. Be sure to include your
name, residence address and your mailing
address in a request for an absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots are available 45 days be­
fore any election.
In Oregon, even convicted felons can
vote if not currently in custody of the state
Department of Corrections. If you are situ­
ated in any other part of the criminal
justice system, such as county jail, you
have not lost your voting privileges and
may participate in all upcoming elections.
If you are a felon serving a sentence total­
ing less than 12 months, and you also are
not in the custody of the Department of
Corrections, you retain your voting privi­
leges. Only those felons currently in the
custody of the Department of Corrections
may not vote.
A hotline has been set up to answer
questions from Monday through Friday,
from 8a.m. to 5 p.m. at I -866-ORE-VOTE
(1-866-673-8683).
Chaos erupted early Monday as
gunshots were fired outside a packed
private dance hall in northeast Port­
land.
The International Club, at 322 N. E.
San Rafael and Martin Luther King
Jr. Boulevard, was hopping with mu­
sic and dancing at 12:30 a.m. when as
many as a 20 shots, possibly from an
automatic or semi-automatic weapon
were fired, forcing a stream of scream­
ing people to duck under cars for
cover.
Shortly after, five shooting victims
checked themselves into Legacy
Emanuel Hospital, a few blocks away
in north Portland.
A member of a rap group perform­
ing in the Sunday night party described
what he saw.
“I came out, my car was shot up,
my brother’s car was shot up and my
people are in the hospital," a hip-hop
artist known as Prophecy told KGW.
Witnesses said an argument erupted
between two men outside the hall just
before the exchange of gunfire. It
appears that none of the shooting vic­
tims were the intended target of shoot­
ing, police said.
Svesha Harris, a 21-year old preg­
nant woman suffered serious injuries
with a bullet wound to her back and
was listed in critical condition. Her
baby was unharmed. The other vic­
tim s were identified as A lexis
Campbell, 18, who sustained a bullet
wound to her upper-left thigh; 19-
year-old Anthony Taylor, who suf­
fered a bullet wound to his left shoul­
der; PamelI Badon. a 22-year-old with
Hailed once I
You must re-register to vote every time
again as a
your address changes, your name changes,
“beacon of
or if you wish to change your party affilia­
hope,” the
tion. You may update your registration and
Statue of
receive a ballot at any time up to Election
Liberty wel­
Day.
comed back
Oregon’s vote-by-mail system makes
h u d d le d
voting simple. If you are living away from
m asses ofl
tourists for
the
first
time since it
was shut
— 1 down nearly
three years ago in the wake of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Interior
Secretary Gale Norton was on
hand toofficially open the doors,
and a military choir sang George
M. Cohan’s “It’s a Grand Old
Flag" before the crowd rose for | by J ohanna S. K ino
the national anthem.
T he P ortland O bserver
Deep financial strains have
caused Union Gospel Mission to
put on hold its building plans to
drastically expand public services.
Committed to feeding the hun­
gry, restoring the addict and put­
ting an end to hom elessness,
Portland’s 77-year-old Christian
outreach program is fervently work­
ing to find solutions to these ongo­
ing problems.
Individuals living out on the
street
have come to know the down­
c
o
town
mission as more than just a
Zb
u
welcoming shelter or a place to fill
their empty stomachs with a hot,
Ï
U
home-made plate of food. Many
X
have identified it as their safe ha­
J '
ven from a world that has otherwise
u X '
labeled them as rejects and failures.
Zb (
‘2 '2 i
As part of the recovery center's A sign appeals for additional support to complete a new building for Union Gospel Mission at the
□
goal to help those in pressing need. comer o f Northwest Third Avenue and Burnside.
continued
on page A2
Money Strain Halts Mission Expansion
Postponement
slows help to
homeless, addicted
m
t
the mission has planned a new
28,500 square foot, five-story bui Id-
ing called the Li feChange Center at
N orthw est Third Avenue and
Burnside. The building phase of
the project was originally planned
to begin this past spring, but is now
scheduled to start next summerdue
to the lack of funds.
Although the project boldly car­
ries a costly price tag of approxi­
mately $5.7 million dollars, raising
funds to cover the remaining con­
struction costs of nearly $2 mi Ilion
dollars is now firmly underway.
“We have the vision. Now we're
just looking for the financial sup­
port that’s needed to fulfill our
dream of helping people live recov­
ered lives free from the bondage of
addiction," said Bill Russell, Union
Gospel executive director.
The new building, which will
house a recovery community of
men and women learning to over­
come addiction, is intended to ac­
commodate twice the capacity of
what the mission is currently able
continued
on page A 2