Passionate and Fearless 500 A local readers theater group presents 'For Colored Girls' at Interstate Firehouse See Focus section, inside J3nx‘tlanh CO ‘City of Roses’ Volume XXXV, Number 8 Established in 1970 w w w .portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Wednesday • March 9. 2005 Gang Violence Intensifies Gas Prices Up on Crude Oil Costs G as prices increased in the past tw o w eeks as the cost o f crude oil jum ped, and a com bination o f factors could push prices at the pum p even higher, an industry analyst said Sunday. T he m ost popular grade, self-serve regu­ lar, w as priced at $ 1.97 a gallon, w hile custom ers paid $2.07 for m idgrade. P rem ium averaged $2.16 a gallon fo r the period. Italy Mourns Officer Killed in Iraq Some 20,000mourners paid their last respects M onday at a state funeral for Italian intelligence o fficerN icolaC alipari, killed by A m erican troops in Iraq w hile escorting ex-hostage G iuliana S grena to freedom . S grena said it w as possible the car she and C alipari w ere riding in was tar­ geted deliberately because the U nited States opposes Italy’s policy o f negotiating with kid­ nappers. W hite H ouse spokes­ man Scott M cC lellan rejected that suggestion. Dominican Republic Prison Fire Kills 133 Rival gangs fighting for control o f a provincial D om inican R e­ public prison set pillow s and sheets ablaze M onday, starting a fire that killed at least 133 people after rescuers w ere thw arted by ajam m ed entrance, officials said. O nly 26 inm ates w ere rescued from the public ja il in Higuey. G uards could not rescue prison­ ers from the blazing cell block b e c a u s e th e e n tr a n c e w as jam m ed. National Police spokes­ man Gen. Sim on D iaz said. Prevention key to local group K atherine K ovacich T he P ortland O bserver It’s a little alarm ing when a bullet pops through the w indow o f the store yo u ’re w alking tow ard. It’s m ore alarm ing when youth die sim ­ ply sitting on their front porches or w alking dow n the street. But w hat’s m ost alarm ing is how easy it is to fall into the violent gang life that causes these incidents. Sinee the m id- ’ 80s, Port 1 and has seen an increase in gang activity with a migration of the lifestyle from parts o f California. House o f U m oja o f Portland was developed in response to gang in 1989, based on a model from Phila­ delphia. T he program w orks to pre­ vent gang life and rehabilitate those involved in gangs. In the beginning, House o f Umoja dealt prim arily with hardcore gang m e m b e rs , “ b u t th ro u g h tim e , through the ebbs and flow s, the needs in the com m unity have som e­ w hat changed,” said Dr. V ernon Baker, a com m unity partner with the agency. T hrough residential, tutoring, em ploym ent and m entoring pro­ gram s, H ouse o f U m oja reaches youth in their hom es, in their co m ­ m unities and their schools. “W e’re looking for the kids w ho are falling through the crack s,” by Baker said. "O ur after school pro­ gram provides tutorial skills, cul­ tural aw areness and is to help youth successfully passage from adoles­ cence to a positive and productive adulthood. W e w ork with kids on se lf-e stee m , ac co u n tab ility , re ­ sponsibility, w ho they are, where they aspire to go and how they can get there.” T he organization recognizes that at risk youth com e from at risk en ­ vironments. Inordertocom bat prob­ lem s at hom e, it w orks w ith those raising kids to help them m ake bet­ ter parenting decisions. “A lot o f those kids d o n ’t ju st w ake up one m orning and say I w ant to be a gang m em ber," Baker said. “It’s a process that com es o ver tim e. Now, you have a young man associating with deviant be­ havior. W hen you tear those layers aw ay one by one, th at’s ju st an ­ other young person. T h a t’s ju st another individual hum an being th a t’s trying to go som ew here.” D espite the violent and aggres­ sive nature o f a gangster, being involved in the lifestyle is som e­ thing som e aspire to. “Each day that I live it becom es m ore and more evident, hurt people are going to lash out at som eone continued on page A6 photo by K atherine K ovacich /T he P ortland O bserver Roosevelt Vice-Principal Jennifer Fero (far right) and House o f Umoja outreach worker Pierre Enyinwa (second from right) work with Roosevelt students in a counseling and mentoring program to help keep them out o f gangs. footings Exhaust Police Resources Democracy Taking Hold in Mideast !ommunity involvement ^encouraged P re sid en t B ush h a ile d fresh signs o f dem ocracy in the Middle East on T uesday, saying au­ thoritarian rule is “the last gasp o f a discredited past" and de­ m anding that S yria w ithdraw from Lebanon. “Freedom will prevail in L ebanon,” Bush de­ clared, rejecting the m essage from a dem onstration in Beirut by nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian p ro testers w ho chan ted anti- A m erican slogans. t ^C atherine K ovacich Pafe P ortland O bserver T he G ang Enforcem ent Team o f the P ort­ land Police form ed in 1986 when gang m em ­ bers first started being identified in the area. ■«'