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Happy New Year!
Drive Safely!
Enjoy the holiday, hut
please don’t drink
and drive.
O bserver
‘City of Roses’
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXIV. Number 51
Week in
The Review
Iraq Insurgents Kill 25
W ith c a r bom bs, a ssassin a­
tions and raids on Iraqi police
stations, insurgents killed at
least 25 people across the vola­
tile Sunni T riangle on T u es­
d a y , and a m ilita n t g ro u p
claim ed it executed eight Iraqi
em ployees o f an A m erican se­
curity com pany.
Southern Cal Gets
Soaked
Pouring rain caused highw ay­
blocking m udslides T uesday
in Southern C alifornia, and as
much as a foot o f rain w as p os­
sible in one m ountain area as a
pow erful storm m oved along
the coast.
Burgerville Founder
Dead at 90
B u rg erville fo u n d er G eorge
P ro p stra, a V ancouver man
who distinguished the chain
by using only N orthw est in­
gredients to support local sup­
pliers, died early Sunday. He
was 90.
GOP Considers Challenge
R epublicans are dem anding a
list o f voters in W ashington
sta te ’s m ost populous county
as the G O P considers a court
challenge o f D em ocrat C h ris­
tine G re g o ire’s razor-thin vic­
tory in the g o v ern o r’s race,
officials said M onday.
Closer Vote In
Ohio Recount
E lection officials finished the
presidential recount in O hio
on T uesday, with the final tally
shaving about 300 votes off
P re sid en t B u sh ’s six -fig u re
m argin o f victory in the state
that gave him a second term.
The recount show s Bush w in­
ning O hio by 118,457 votes
over John Kerry.
Investigation Ordered
The n atio n ’s top tran sp o rta­
tion official ordered an investi­
gation o f tw o airlines that can­
celed hundreds o f flights over
the holiday w eekend because
o f com puter and staffing p rob­
lems, stranding thousands o f
travelers.
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • December 29. 2004
Stage Set for
King Tribute
2004 in Review
Vera Katz
leaves a legacy
Inspirational celebration
keeps 'dream' alive
V era Katz m oved to Portland from New
Y ork City 40 years ago.
“N ew Y ork at that tim e was g etting a
little bit difficult to live in,” said Katz, who
retires Friday after 12 years as m ayor and
m ore than 35 years in local politics.
New Y ork’s loss becam e P o rtlan d ’s
gain. Katz is credited with making her new
hom e exceedingly easy to live in.
Born in D üsseldorf, G erm any, in 1933,
th e y e a r A d o lf H itle r ro se to p o w er,
V era P istrak fled to P aris w ith h er J e w ­
ish fam ily w hen she w as 2 m o n th s old.
A fter F ra n c e ’s d efe at by the N azis, the
7-y ea r-o ld girl, her o ld e r s iste r and th eir
p are n ts w alk ed from so u th e rn F ran ce
ac ro ss the P y re n ee s to S p ain . T h ey a r­
riv ed in N ew Y ork C ity ab o a rd a sh ip on
C o lu m b u s D ay, 1940.
W ith a graduate degree in art from
Brooklyn College, Katz m oved to Portland
in 1964 w ith her then-husband, Mel Katz.
She becam e a political activist, stuffing
envelopes for D em ocratic p resid en tial
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
hopeful Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. She Jan. 14, 2004 - Mayor Vera Katz enters her last year in office with a
picketed superm arkets over the treatm ent legacy shaped by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil
o f grape and lettuce pickers, and staged rights leaders who influenced her life. The Portland Observer looks
sit-in s at dow ntow n lunchroom s o v er back on 2004 inside.
w om en’s rights.
E lected to the O regon H ouse o f R epresentatives in
She has led the fight against gang violence in north
1972, Katz becam e the first fem ale speaker o f the H ouse and northeast Portland and has su ccessfully led ca m ­
in 1985. She was elected P ortland m ayor in 1992.
paigns to bailout cash -strap p ed inner city schools. Katz
Katz recently announced she w ould jo in the C ollege o f successfully pushed to transform the c ity ’s crum bling
U rban and Public A ffairs at P ortland S tate U niversity as northern industrial zone into the trendy Pearl D istrict,
an unpaid visiting fellow . At the school, she will be now bustling w ith upscale apartm ents, galleries and
consulting w ith students and faculty on a variety o f resta u ran ts.
projects, including program developm ent, w riting, re­
She is also a cham pion o f civil rights for w om en,
search and guest lecturing. She also plans to volunteer m inorities, and gays and lesbians.
for Start M aking A R eader T oday, a program she helped
K atz 's health has suffered recently. She w as d ia g ­
create.
nosed w ith a rare form o f can cer o f the reproductive
The m ayor has spent much o f her three term s building
system in June, and has seen endured m onthly ch e m o ­
on P ortlan d ’s reputation as one o f the m ost livable cities
therapy and w eekly kidney dialysis. T his is K atz’s sec­
in the country - adding a streetcar loop, expanding the ond brush w ith cancer. She beat breast can cer four years
light rail system and sprucing up the w aterfront o f the ago.
W illam ette River, w hich runs through Portland.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Thousands o f champions for M artin Luther King will
converge on Jefferson High School’s Robert G. Ford
Auditorium, 5210 N. Kerby, on Monday, Jan. 17 for a
“ Keep Alive- the Dream" tribute to the slain civil rights
leader.
This is the 20“’ anniversary o f the first King event by
World Arts Foundation, which works to weave artists
and perform ers into messages and a consciousness
inspired by King.
“If we keep on dreami ng, we ne ver wake up,” said Ken
Berry, secretary of World Arts Foundation. “We need to
keep alive the dream through our dem onstrated actions
so we are still modeling the beliefs and principles that Dr.
King so nobly left for us.”
This year’s event will include 20 speakers, 2,000 per­
formers, 250 volunteers and 35 venders to represent all
cultures in the largest Martin Luther King celebration in
Oregon.
This event has highly significant cultural enrichment
pow er all year long, as it becomes the subject of school-
based focus groups, community cultural exchanges and
sets the stage for cross-cultural interactions and engage­
ments o f different ethnic and racial groups in mutual
activities.
Multnomah County is bringing together a diverse
gathering o f young people for a discussion at the King
event, encouraging students to set their own goals in
cultural understanding.
Besides the expected live audience of 4,000 people,
“ Keep Living the Dream” will be simulcast live on Port­
land Com munity Media channel 11, Portland Public
Schools Television Services channel 28 and KBOO radio
90.7 FM.
All events are docum ented on broadcast-quality digi­
tal film, in hopes o f preserving the legacy for education
within the com m unity and in the classroom.
“Our goal at World Arts is to preserve as much as we
can,” Berry said.
The event also aims to provide a forum for community
members to meet and network. To accommodate all
participants, the main speaking events and performances
will take place in the auditorium but the Jefferson High
School cafeteria will provide space for building relation­
ships, enjoying various exhibits and receiving informa­
tion about voting and many other groups.
A donation o f $3 or three cans of non-perishable food
is suggested. Visit www.worldartsfoundation.org.
South Asia Catastrophe
Staggering losses from killer tsunamis
Surrogate
Mother has Triplets
A 55-year-old woman acting as
a surrogate for her daughter
gave birth to triplets T uesday
in R ichm ond, Va. She had c a r­
ried the babies for her oldest
daughter w ho suffers from en ­
dom etriosis, a condition affect­
ing the lining o f the uterus that
m akes it difficult to becom e
p reg n ant.
People displaced by the tsunami mourn their losses inside a relief camp at a
temple in Varichikudi, about 125 miles south o f Madras, India. (AP photo)
(AP) — M oum ersinSri Lanka used their
bare hands to dig graves Tuesday while
hungry islanders in Indonesia turned to
looting in the aftermath o f A sia’s devastat­
ing tsunamis. Thousands more bodies were
found in Indonesia, dramatically increasing
the death toll across 11 nations to around
52,(XX).
Sunday’s massive quake of 9.0 magni­
tude off the Indonesian island o f Sumatra
sent 500-mph waves surging across the
Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the
deadliest known tsunami since the one that
devastated the Portuguese capital o f Lisbon
in 1755 and ki I led an estimated 60,000people.
In the latest destruction, emergency work­
ers found that 10,000 people had been killed
in a single town at the northern tip of Sumatra
island, the hardest hit region in Indonesia.
Another 9,000 were confirmed dead in the
provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and sur­
rounding towns.
The World Health Organization warned
on Tuesday that disease in the aftermath of
the disaster could kill as many people as the
deadly waves and earthquake have.
In Sri Lanka, around 1,000 people were
dead or missing from a train that was Hung off
its tracks when the gigantic waves hit. Res­
cuers pulled 204 bodies from the train ' s eight
carriages - reduced to tw isted metal - and
crem ated or buried them.
More than 18,700 people died in Sri Lanka,
more than 4,400 in India and more than 1,500
in Thailand, with numbers expected to rise.
S co res w ere also k illed in M alaysia,
Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives. The
giant waves raced nearly 3,0(X) miles to east
Africa, causing deaths in Somalia, Tanzania
and Seychelles.
A police official said 8,000 people were
missing and possibly dead in India's remote
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located just
north o f Sumatra.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Effort Builds
Better Community
Marcus Branch o f Services for Humanity receives a Com­
m unity Policing Problem Solving Award from Police Chief
Derrick Foxworth. Branch was recognized for his preventive
problem solving techniques and devotion to serving youth,
helping reduce crime and the fear o f crime.