Singing the Blues
North Mississippi Allstars take
on Portland’s Crystal Ballroom
y CUTS of
•'community service
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See story inside Focus section
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'City of Roses’
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Wednesday • September 21. 2005
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Inspiredfor Positive Change
Hurricane Rita Strengthens
Trio to lead Million
More Movement trek
Rita strengthened rapidly to a
Category 2 hurricane Tuesday as
it raked the Florida Keys with flood
ing rain and sparked a flurry of
storm preparations across the Gulf
Coast. Thousands of people were
evacuated from the Keys and low-
lying areas of northern Cuba. See
story, page A2.
K atherine B lackmore
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Tired of watching their young African American
peers fall between the cracks, three Portland men realized
a community transformation was needed.
So Xavier Friday, Tim W ashington Jr. and Omari
DeGroove decided a road trip to W ashington D.C.’s
“Million More Movement” was in order.
The gathering, taking place on Oct. 15. will commemo
rate 10 years since the historic “Million Man M arch,”
held at the National Mall in 1995. The event continues
tobeacallforblack
men and the com
munity at large to
take responsibility
for themselves as
fathers, husbands
and activists in a
greater effort for
civil rights.
After last year’s
march, more than
1.7 million black
men signed up to
vote, memberships
—TimWashingtonJr.
to the NAACP sky
rocketed and adop-
tion o f b lack c h ild re n w ent up, a c c o rd in g to
www.millionsmoremovement.com.
This year’s trek will kick-off the Portland Inspiration
Project, a local program designed to help troubled youth
get back on track.
The plan is to.take 35 young men between the ages of
18 to 25 across the country in five RVs. making a tour
through several states, including Illinois, Ohio, Ne
braska, Utah, New Jersey. Pennsylvania and New York.
9 Americans Killed in Iraq
The w ar in Iraq passed a sober
ing m ilepost Tuesday when U.S.
o ffic ia ls rep o rted nine m ore
A m ericans were killed - five of
them m em bers o f the arm ed
forces, raising the num ber o f
U.S. service mem bers who have
died in the country since the
invasion to 1,904. A new poll
sh o w e d d w in d lin g s u p p o rt
am ong A m ericans for President
B ush’s handling o f Iraq.
With thlS
whole project,
we 're trying to
change our
thinking about
each other and
ourselves.
LU’ Kim Reports to Prison
S Rapper Lil’ Kim
■ began serving a
I 366-day prison
I sentence Mon-
■ day for her con-
■ v ic tio n
on
■ charg es stem -
-- mingfroma2001
shootout outside a New York City
radio station. The 30-year-old en
tertainer, whose real name is Kim
berly Jones, was convicted of ly
ing about the gun battle to a fed
eral grand jury and in the subse
quent trial. See story, page B5.
B
Senator to Oppose Roberts
Senate D em ocratic leader Harry
Reid announced his opposition
to Ghitef Justice-nom inee John
R oberts on T uesday, voicing
dcjSbts about R oberts’ com m it-
nwtlf to civil rights and accusing
tlMf B u sh a d m in is tra tio n o f
stonew alling requests for d ocu
ments that might shed light on
his view s. See sto ry , page A2.
Survivor’s Odyssey Ends
A 73-year-old
diabetic grand
m o th er and
c h u rch e ld e r
who fled Kat
rina’s floodwa
te rs fo r the
safety o f a ho
tel but ended up in prison instead
for more than two weeks - all over
a bite of food, was released Friday.
Family and eyewitnesses insist
Merlene M aten’s arrest was un
warranted. See story, page A2
Generic AIDS Drug Approved
The FDA has approved the first
generic versionsof the AIDS medi
cation AZT, a move that could
reduce the expense for people in
the United States being treated for
the disease. AZT, an anti retroviral
d rug th at is also know n as
Zidovudine, helps prevent the
AIDS virus from reproducing in
the body.
er
.......
I
w w . w .portlandobserver.com
Established In 1970
Volume XXXV. Number 39
T,Weekin
TheReview
z z t\z
The Portland Inspiration Project to help troubled youth is the brainchild o f Tim Washington Jr. (from left), Xavier
Friday and Omari De Groove.
photo by M ark W ashington ZT he P ortland O bserver
continued
on page AS
Concordia Helps Hurricane Victims
Nine college
students get
second chance
by K atherine B lackmore
T he P ortland O bserver
Northeast Portland’s Concordia Uni
versity’ has taken in nine college students
displaced by Hurricane Katrina, provid
ing them with housing, fo o d and most im
portantly, a chance to continue their edu
cation. Three o f these students, from Xavier
University in New Orleans, shared their
experiences in dealing with the c a ta
strophic with the Portland Observer:
Pre-med student Celeste Calvin had al
ready been evacuated for three hurricanes
since attending Xavier University in New
Orleans in 2002. When she got the news to
pack her bag with clothes and get out of her
apartment building for Hurricane Katrina,
she figured it would only be a couple more
days before she was able to return. She'd
heard that this storm was nothing to worry
about.
“Nobody expected it to be what it was,”
she said.
After picking up her sister and paying
way too much for gas, Calvin was able to
drive away before the levees in New Orleans
broke and flooded the city. She ended up in
photo by
Baton Rouge, being forced to go with the
guarded flow of traffic.
“Everybody went crazy on the roads,"
she said.
What would normally be a two to three
hour road trip took 10 hours. Eventually, she
made it to Houston, Texas, where she was
able to fly out to Portland to reunite with her
family and the city she grew up in.
Calvin, like many other Katrina survi
Blues Concert for Katrina Relief
Hurricane benefit
helps food banks
M usicians will be singing the blues
for G ulf Coast hurricane victims in “Blues
for K atrina,” a benefit being held by the
W aterfront Blues Festival on Sunday,
Sept. 25 from I to 7 p.m. at Tom McCall
K atherine B i . ackmore /T he P ortland O bserver
Celeste Calvin is one of nine students displaced by Hurricane Katrina that were given housing, food and an education at
Concordia University in northeast Portland.
W aterfront Park.
Featured artists will include Irma Tho
mas, “Soul Queen of New Orleans." backed
by an all-star Portland band led by saxo
phonist, Reggie Houston. Houston relo
cated to Portland from New Orleans last year
after four decades of playing with music
legend Fats Domino.
continued
on page A6
Charmaine
Neville will
perform Sunday
at the Blues for
Katrina benefit
concertât
Waterfront Park
sponsored by
the Waterfront
Blues Festival.
I
.«
vors, doesn’t know w hat’s happened to her
belongings and is scared to go back. She’s
unable to get any funds from her credit
continued
on page A6