California Executes Crips Gang Co-Founder
Case stirs capital
punishment debate
Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger
(A P )— Stanley T ookie W illiam s m aintained his
innocence right up until his death, even when an
adm ission o f guilt may have spared him execution.
E v e n a f te r th e c o u r ts a n d G o v . A rn o ld
Schw arzenegger rejected a flurry o f W illiam s' last-
‘City of Roses’
Volume XXXV, Number 50
500
ditch appeals before his execution early T uesday,
his supporters vow ed to prove his innocence.
W illiam s, the C rips gang co-founder w hose case
stirred a national debate about capital punishm ent
versus the possibility o f redem ption, was executed
T uesday m orning for killing four people in 1979.
W illiam s, 5 1, died at 12:35 a. nt. O fficials at San
Q uentin State Prison seem ed to have trouble inject­
ing the lethal m ixture into his m uscular arm. As they
struggled to find a vein, W illiam s looked up repeat­
edly and appeared frustrated, shaking his head at
supporters and oth er w itnesses. “ You doing that
right?” it sounded as if he asked one o f the m en with
a needle.
A fter he w as declared dead, his supporters
shouted in unison: "T he state o f C alifornia just
killed an innocent m an.” as they w alked out o f the
chamber.
continued
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Stanley Tookie Williams
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Wednesday • December 14, 2005
H M M M M M M
Clinic Director Rejects Ouster
E. coii Sickens Children
Six children have been hospitalized
with E. coli after drinking unpas-
teurized milk. Clark County Health
officials said the source o f infec­
tions was raw m ilk from the Dee
C reek Dairy in W oodland, Wash.
Red Cross President Resigns
A m erican R ed C ross P resident
M arsha J. Evans, w ho oversaw the
ch arity’s vast and som etim es criti­
cized response to Hurricane Katrina,
is resigning effective at the end o f
this m onth because o f friction with
her board o f governors.
Shaq Joins
Police Force
Shaquille O 'N eal
was sw orn in as a
reserve police of­
ficer in M iam i
T h u rsd a y . T he
NBA star skippei a public event in
favor o f aquiet, n< i-frillscerem ony.
Judge Nomination Opposed
M em bers o f the C on g ressio n al
Black C aucus appeared at a news
conference on Capitol Hill T hurs­
day to oppose Judge Sam uel A lito’s
nom ination to the Suprem e Court,
citing his record against m inorities
in court cases.
President Ford Hospitalized
92-year-old form er President Ford
suffering from “a horrible cold,”
was in the hospital Tuesday for
what h isc h ie f o f staff called routine
m edical tests.
Computer Attack Warning
S e c u rity e x p e rts say the n ex t
Internet attack will most likely hap­
pen Jan. 5. T hat’s w hen a variant o f
the “sober” w orm is expected to
unleash a w ave o f e-m ails suppos­
edly sent by the FBI or CIA and
asking you to fill out questions on
the attachm ent.
Black Areas Polluted
An A ssociated Press analysis o f a
little-know n governm ent research
project show s that black A m eri­
cans are 79 percent more I ikely than
w hites to live in neighborhoods
w here industrial pollution is sus­
p e c te d o f p o sin g th e g re a te st
health danger.
Pregnant Skydiver Survives
Shayna Richardson was making her
first solo skydiving ju m p when she
had trouble with her parachutes
and, w hile falling at about 50 mph,
hit face first in a parking lot. A l­
though badly hurt, she survived -
and doctors treating her injuries
discovered she w as pregnant.
Mariah Taylor
battles to save
nursing mission
by M ichael L eighton
T he P or i land O bserver
M ariah Taylor, P ortland’s M otherT eresa o f healthcare,
is rejecting her forced ouster as executive director o f the
N orth Portland N urse P ractitioner Clinic.
T he African A m erican nurse practitioner, revered for
her 25 years o f serving underinsured and poor children,
said she will not accept a forced leave o f absence by her
non-profit, 10-m em ber board o f directors.
T aylor was notified Dec. 6 that her services as executi ve
director were being term inated and that she w ould be
required to take three m onths o ff work.
The directive in ab o ard letterto T ay lo r, less than a w eek
before she w as scheduled for a right hip replacem ent
surgery, was shocking to a com m unity that has an o ut­
pouring o f affection for this highly skilled nurse who
provides healthcare to children regardless o f their ability
to pay.
T aylor w ins praise for her w ork by both colleagues in the
m edical profession, including O regon H ealth Sciences
U niversity President Peter K ohler, and social service pro­
viders. A few years ago, she was a recipient o f O prah
W infrey’s “ Use Y our Life A w ard.”
T uesday, T aylor was recovering from the surgery that
w as perform ed M onday at M eridian Park Hospital. It was
her second hip replacem ent. F our years ago, her left hip
w as repaired.
Now it seem s that her professional future and the future
o f the clinic at 5311 N. V ancouver Ave. is in jeopardy,
although the board denies it.
For T ay lo r's part, she said she w as w illing to relinquish
som e o f her responsibilities as executive director but
refused to follow m andates that negatively impact patient
care.
She said the board is trying to place lim its on what
patients she helps and what m edicines the clinic can offer
at little or no cost.
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Nurse Practitioner Mariah Taylor comforts Charlecia, 2, held by her mother Carolyn Young, during an exam
last Thursday at her north Portland clinic.
“I love my babies, th e y 're my children,” she said.
“W hen the board com es betw een me and my children,
th a t's when we disagree. A nything that challenges the
highest level o f service, 1 will challenge that.”
T aylor said she was born a fighter at “four pounds, two
ounces" and w on’t retreat from h erc lin ic 's historic mission
o f serving the poor by loving and honoring children for
their ethic and cultural differences.
The clinic also serves as a food bank with w eekly
Pryor Brought
Audiences
Together
Courageous
performer
remembered
(A P) — It is one o f those indelible
im ages from the late 1960s that rem ains
locked in the m inds o f those w ho were
there.
It's a com edy album photograph o f a
nearly naked Richard Pryor, dressed in
a loincloth, with bones through his nose
and beads around his neck like a stereo­
typical African bushm an from an old
“T arzan m ovie.”
But there is a glare on the co m ed ian 's
face on 1968's “ Richard Pryor" album
that seem s to say, “I’m here and I’m
going to change your thinking about
race relations in every w ay possible.”
T h a t's w hat Pryor, w ho died S atur­
day o f a heart attack at age 65, did for
people all across A m erica in the 1970s.
his breakthrough decade and a tim e
w hen the country w as hotly divided not
only by the V ietnam W ar but by the civil
rights battles o f the 1950s and '6 0 s that
preceded it.
H e did it by b rin g in g b lack and
w h ite a u d ien c es to g e th er to lau g h as
one, at least fo r the length o f a co n cert
o r a co m ed y alb u m , at
the m adness all aro u n d
them.
“He was a brilliant and
in cred ib ly co u ra g eo u s
perform er," recalled hu­
m orist Paul K rassn er,
w hose m agazine “The
Realist" once published
an essay by the com e­
dian com m enting on the
d isp ro p o rtio n a te n u m ­
ber o f black soldiers that
seem ed to be fighting the
Vietnam War. Pryor head­
lin ed it, “ U n cle Sam
W ants You, N igger."
Richard Pryor
It was a word he would
use frequently in the 1970s, even using perhaps best sum m ed up by Keenen
it in the nam e o f his second album as he Ivory W ayans, w ho once said Pryor
tried to take the sting out o f the epithet dem onstrated “you can be black and
have a black voice and be successful.”
by repeating it o ver and over.
P ryor's com edy also drew equally
A fter a visit to A frica in 1980. how ­
ever, he w ould renounce it anti say he warm reactions from w hite com edians,
no longer w anted to hear the word, including Bob N ew hart, w ho on Satur­
either from his “hip w hite friends" or his day called Pryor “the single m ost sem i­
fellow blacks. A subsequent recording nal com edic influence in the last 50
was titled “T hat A frican-A m erican is years."
Although he was not the first co m e­
Still C razy," with the offending word
crossed out.
dian to liberally use the N -w ord or the F-
Such upfront, no-holds-barred. so­ word or any num ber o f other once-
cially conscious com m entary won Pryor u n s p o k e n -in -p u b lic w o rd s . P ry o r
the adm iration o f seem ingly every black
continued
on page AS
com ic w ho follow ed him, an adm iration
deliveries of bread, a free clothes closet and wall o f children' s’
books. She also blam es the board for interfering with those
activities.
T aylor said she has had tw o other recent conflicts with
the board.
O ne was when she refused to hire a C ertified N ursing
A ssistant last O ctober because the m oney w as not raised
continued
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Prospects for
Jobs Finally
Improve
Even with influx
of new residents
by S arah B l o w
T he P ortland O bserver
A nyone w ho has w eathered P ortland’s econom y for
the past few years know s that no am ount o f statistics,
em ploym ent rates or econom ical forecasts change what
has been a grim reality: jo b s h av en 't been reasonably
easy to find and keep.
Job seekers have grow n discouraged and have quit
looking. O thers find only low -paying jo b s that do not
offer benefits.
But lately, the prom ises o f an im proving econom y
are being borne out in new em ploym ent figures. The
governor w as eager to deliver the good new s in a press
conference last m onth and again M onday. T he latest
figures show N ovem ber's unem ploym ent rate fell by a
tenth o f a percent to 5.8 percent, m arking an unprec­
edented fall tw o m onths in a row.
N um bers and press releases, how ever, do no, d e ­
li ver a paycheck, and many local residents require more
proof that our econom y is ou, o f the gutter So have we
really arrived?
The O regon D epartm ent o f E m ploym ent says yes.
and career resource centers agree. W ith an estim ated
12,700 more people in the Portland m etro-area holding
jobs com pared to one year ago, w e 're nearly at the p re­
recession level o f the late 1990s.
continued
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