years
Housing Program
Expands Vision
of
PCRl Grand Opening
rn
m m u n itv service
w rvir*
community
‘City of Roses’
See Metro inside
IJÎnrtlanh
Established in 1970
Volume XXXV. Number 43
Week ¡n
e Review
Bush Nominee Backed
Anti-Abortion Movement
Supreme Court nominee Harriet
Miers pledged support in 1989 for
a constitutional am endm ent ban­
ning abortions except when neces­
sary to save the life o f the mother,
according to material given to the
Senate on T uesday. As a candidate
for the Dallas City Council, she also
supported legislation restricting
abortions if the Supreme Court ruled
that states could ban abortions
Committed to Cultural Diversity
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 19, 2005
TV Networks Take Asia Bell Case
T he young couple had ju st started
I to becom e com fortable with life, tak-
I ing care o f five beautiful children.
Heartbroken
family asks
witnesses to
speak up
“ It affected m y w hole fam ily. I
d o n ’t have a w ife, my kids d o n ’t have
a m o th e r... it affected us all,” Jam es
said. “T he kids get em otional so m e­
tim es. T h ey ’ve been doing w ell in
school, but they m iss their m other a
lot."
T h e fam ily has no id e a w ho
co u ld ’ve carried out such a sen se­
less act o f violence or w hat m otives
they m ay have had.
T h ey ’re hoping that with m ore
television exposure, som eone in the
com m unity will step forw ard with
information.
T yrone also seeks to get the m es­
sage across “to sit and think before
you do som ething. It’s not ju st tear­
ing up one person, it’s tearing up a
fam ily. Ilo v e (A sia )a lo t. Ifanybody
know s anything, say som ething.”
D eronia Jam es, T y ro n e’s aunt, is
the behind-the-scenes catalyst w ho
helped place the fam ily 's case on the
aforem entioned T V shows.
D eronia’s m otivation began when
T yrone asked her to do anything she
could to help him regain his vision.
So she w rote letter after letter, em ail
after em ail, to as many television
show s and organizations she could
think of. At one point, 5(X)envelopes
w ere sent to various facilities, asking
for medical assistance to fix T y ro n e’ s
eyesight.
“ It ’ s an issue o f m aking an effort,"
D eronia said. "People need to get on
board. Hard work pays o ff ev en tu ­
ally - it ju st took a lot o f letters and
writing.”
Sim ultaneously, A sia’s m other,
Perlia Bell, was (and still is) leading a
com m unity anti-violence cam paign.
by K atherine B lackmore
T he P ortland O bserver
Saddam Lawyer Seeks Delay
A fter nearly three years, the m ystery
The lawyer for |
|
o f who killed 23-year-old Asia Bell-James
Saddam Hus
is finally attracting som e national atten­
sein s.ud l ues
tion, both on A m erica’s M ost W anted
day he will ask BTi
* W| and the M aury Povich Show.
a tribunal tor a Bt
W
T h ro u g h th ese ap p e a ra n c e s, the
three in.mill | | |
s
victim ’s fam ily hopes to find ju stice to
adjournm ent I
Je® the w ell-know n but unsolved m urder
* -JB
o f the form er
J that continues to shake the north and
Iraqi dictator’ s trial for a 1982 m as­
northeast Portland com m unity.
sacre. Saddam and seven senior
On Nov. 20,2002 in the early evening,
m em bers o f his 23-year regim e go
Asia w as standing on the porch o f her
on tr ia l W e d n e s d a y to fa c e
hom e on N orth M ississippi A venue
charges they ordered the killings
and Jessup Street, when an unknow n
o f nearly 150 people from the
suspect fired num erous shots in her
m ainly Shiite tow n o f D ujail fol­
direction.
lo w in g a f a ile d a tte m p t on
A sia was killed, her husband Tyrone
S addam ’s life.
James was blinded and Robert Mi Ihouse,
Hurricane Threatens Florida a friend, w as w ounded. Police still
haven’t found any suspects.
T ropical Storm W ilm a strength­
T hree years later, Tyrone says he
ened into a hurricane T uesday on
do esn ’t feel fully alive.
a path that could threaten storm -
“ I d o n ’t understand why they did it,”
battered Florida, tying the record
he said. “W e’ve never been in any
for the m ost hurricanes to form in
gangs, we never did drugs.”
an A tlantic season. L ong-range
On the day his w ife was shot and his
forecasts show W ilm a could hit
vision w as taken from him, T yrone was
western Cuba or M exico’s Yucatan
celebrating his 26lh birthday with som e
Peninsula before heading into the
tim e o ff o f work. He was em ployed by
G u lf o f M exico by Friday.
O regon H ealth and Sciences U niversity
Frontier Opens for Quake Aid as a building m aintenance engineer, and
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
A sia w as w orking in business accounts Members of the Bell and James family, including the four children (far right) of murder victim
Pakistan on T uesday proposed
with Legacy H ealth System s at G ood Asia Bell-James, rally support for the investigation into the unsolved killing that continues to
allow ing K ashm iris to cross the
continued
on page A
Samaritan.
frontier dividing the territory with
shake the north and northeast Portland community.
India to help earthquake victim s -
the latest sign o f cooperation be­
tw een the nuclear rivals since this
m onth’s disaster. But the U.N.
W orld Food Program w arned that
500,000earthquake survivors have
services to a private contractor. It may ask
devastated by the potential cost o f the court
executive director o f SEIU Local 503.
yet to receive supplies.
the court to reconsider T hursday’s deci­ decision. T he local school system , already
M any o f the custodians w ere long­
sion, but it cannot be appealed.
racked by budget cuts, a lack o f support from
tim e em ployees w ho w ere also resp o n ­
Lottery Up to $340 Million
T he high court found that the firings were
the State L egislature, and school closings,
sible for a b u ilding’s physical plant in­
The lottery Powerball hasclim bed
illegal because o f a state law requiring the
says it has saved $ 10 m illion in the past tw o
cluding its furnace and air conditioning.
to a $340 mi 11 ion jackpot, making it
by M ichael L eighton
custodians to be school district em ployees.
years due to the contracted services.
M any w ere A frican A m ericans su p p o rt­
the second-biggest jack p o t in U.S.
T
he P ortland O bserver
A 4-3 m ajority on the court cited a 1937
The ruling was praised by the Service
ing fam ilies and local households.
history. W ednesday’s Pow erball
Portland school custodians w ho lost O regon law that defined custodians and
E m ployees International Union, w hich rep ­
School district officials said they m ade
clim bed into the stratosphere af­
their
jo b s in an illegal firing three years
assistant custodians in large school dis­
resented the custodians and contested the
the decision to replace the w orkers in 2002
ter 20 straight draw ings in w hich
ago m ay win back w ages and their jo b s
tricts as essential services.
school d istrict’s move.
because they w ere faced w ith a severe
no one won the grand prize. The
back.
Justice Paul De M uniz said the law was
“W e look forw ard to seeing our m em bers
financial shortfall.
odds o f hitting all six num bers are
T he Portland School District is still
intended to m ake sure people hired in the
get their jo b s back. And we hope that this
“ It is disturbing to co n sid er spending
1 in I46m illion.
evaluating the im pact from an Oregon
schools presented no danger to school chil­ decision will m ake other em ployers think
m ore o f our scarce dollars on custodial
Obesity Surgery Very Risky
S uprem e C ourt ruling that invalidated the
dren and were approved by a Civil Service
tw ice before they try to save a quick buck by
services, rather than on educating our
The chances o f dying w ithin a
replacem ent o f3 0 0 cu sto d ian s with low er
Board.
outsourcing crucial services that O rego­
kids,” said C athy M incberg, the school
yearafterobesity surgery are much
cost w orkers by subcontracting janitorial
Portland School District officials were
nians need and deserve,” said Leslie Frane,
district’s ch ief operating officer.
higher than previously thought,
even am ong people in their 30s
and 40s, a study o f m ore than
16,000 M edicare patients found.
A m ong 35- to 44-year-olds in the
M edicare study, m ore than 5 per­
cent o f men and nearly 3 percent of
w om en were dead w ithin a year,
and slightly higher rates w ere seen
in patients 45 to 54.
wB. - I 1
Economic Justice for School Custodians
Wholesale firings
ruled illegal
Historic Cemetery
Victim to Vandals
Headstones knocked over,
paint poured on grass
photo by
K atherine B lackmorf / T
he P ortland O bserver
A headstone dating back to the late 1800s was knocked over by vandals last weekend at the Lonb Fir
Cemetery in southeast Portland. Many other surrounding monuments were also affected.
by K atherine B i ackmore
T he P ortland O bserver
It’s painful for Susie Bousha,
m a n ag e r o f the L one F ir C e m ­
etery in so u th e ast P o rtlan d , to
find v an d alism as she w alks
t h r o u g h th e m o n u m e n ta l
p a rk 's b eau tifu l g ro u n d s filled
w ith g rass, flo w ers, trees and
th e ir resp e ctiv e sq u irrels.
“ I'm very territorial. T o have
p eo p le b la tan tly d isreg a rd the
h isto ric al sig n ific an c e o f this
p la ce is ju s t h ea rtw re n ch in g ,"
B o u sh a said.
M u ltip le h ea d sto n es, som e
d atin g back to the late 1800s,
w e re d a m a g e d re c e n tly by
See related
story on page A6
so m eo n e w ith n o th in g b etter
to do. It ap p eared that the su s­
p ect started from on e d ire c ­
tion and tried to sec how m any
tall, c o lu m n -sh ap e d m ark ers
th ey co u ld k n o ck over.
O n O ct. 8, b etw e en 10 a.m .
and 1 p .m ., o th e r p eo p le had
p o u red p ain t on the g rass, a p ­
p are n tly to m ark o f f an area in
w hich they w ere film ing o r ta k ­
ing p h o to s. T h is re su lte d in
d a m a g e d tu r f s u r r o u n d in g
continued
on page A6