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‘City of Roses
Volume XXXVI, Number 12
See Metro, inside
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Established in 1970
wvvw.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • March 29, 2006
T, Week in
Thc Review
Unlocking
Bloodline
Mysteries
Top Bush Official Replaced
W hite House chief o f staff A n
drew C ard has resigned and will
be replaced by budget director
Joshua Bolten, President Bush
announced Tuesday am id grow-
i ng calls for a W hite House shake
up and Republican concent about
B ush’s tum bling poll ratings.
Reagan Era Secretary Dies
C aspar W einberger, defense sec
retary under the Reagan adm inis
tration, died T uesday at the age
o f 88. W einberger presided over
an unprecedented peacetim e mili
tary buildupcosting more than $ 1
trillion and w as pardoned by
form er President Bush on the eve
o f his trial in the Iran-Contra scan
dal in 1992.
DNA mail order
approach opens widows
Remains Found Near WTC
C onstruction w orkers cleaning
toxic w aste from a vacant sky
scraper near the W orld T rade
C enter site have found more bone
fragm ents and hum an rem ains,
officials said Tuesday. O fficials
plan to extract DNA from the re
m ains and try to m atch it against
a database o f the 2,749 people
killed at the trade center on Sept.
11,2001.
No Election Delay
A federal judge M onday refused
to delay New O rleans’ April 22
m ayoral election, but told law
yers on both sides o f the case to
identify any problem s that might
hinder displaced residents’ abil
ity to vote and then solve them.
Afghan Convert Vanishes
An Afghan man who had faced
the death penalty for converting
from Islam to Christianity quickly
vanished Tuesday after he was
released from prison, apparently
out o f fear for his life with Muslim
clerics still dem anding his death.
Bonds ‘Life in Shambles’
Seven hom e runs shy o f passing
Bahe Ruth, this should be a tim e
o f unbridled joy and excitem ent
fo r
B a rry
B onds. N ot
so, he says.
“M y life is in
s h a m b le s ,”
B onds said
M onday,
fo llo w in g
the recent re
lease o f “G am e o f S h ad o w s,”
th e book d etailin g his alleged
regim en for taking perform ance
en h an cin g drugs. See story,
page H6.
photo by
S arah B lount /T he P ortland O bserver
Multnomah County librarian Wanda Snyder pulls a book on black genealogy at the North Portland Library.
The branch at 512 N. Killingsworth St. houses the Black Resource Center, the library system's major
collection of black history information.
A young African A m erican man was one o f the heroes as
bystanders thw arted a
child kidnapping from a
T riM etM ax train.
Max passenger Lam a
Curry helped w restle the
alleged kidnapper to the
ground during the S un
day incident.
Randy William Koon,
41, was held for police
and charged with kid
napping.
W itnesses said Koon
was moving from seat to
seat in the train as they
ap p ro ach ed a sto p at
S o u th w e st F ifth A v
e n u e an d M o rriso n
Lamar Curry helped rescue baby. Street. He then grabbed
the 2-year-old girl out of
(KATU photo)
WILSHIRE TAVERN
photo by
M ark W ashinoton /T he P ortland O bserver
The Wilshire Tavern on Northeast 42nd Avenue is one o f four Portland bars to be robbed at gunpoint in
the last two weeks.
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MAX Riders Stop
Baby Snatcher
Beach Clean Up
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continued
MMftMN
Saturday, 5,245 volunteers turned
out to participate in the G reat
O re g o n
S p rin g
B e ac h
C le a n u p . T h e e n tire O re g o n
coastline, 362 m iles, was cleaned
o f debris that had accum ulated
d u r in g th e s to rm y w in te r
months. V olunteers rem oved an
estim ated 46.5 tons o f trash.
o o o g
o
by S arah B lount
T he P ortland O bserver
W hen author Alex Haley set out to trace his roots, it took him
lOyears. a half a million miles and three continents. 40 years later,
it takes around a hundred bucks and a quick Internet search to
reveal the m ysteries o f your bloodline.
Thousands o f people are taking advantage o f mail order
genetic testing, a service th at’s gained popularity and notoriety
over the past few years. Scientists can read your DNA to
uncover a wealth o f inform ation on gender, predisposition to
any one o f the 3,(XX) diseases, and our guilt or innocence.
For thousands o f African A m ericans, DNA answ ers ques
tions not about them selves,
hut a family legacy that was
significantly blotted out cen
turies ago. Private com panies
w ho charge a fee to study
DNA are banking o ff indi
viduals w ho want to trace their
A frican A m erican history.
T his “sw ab and ship" ap
proach opens an incredible
new window - w ithout DNA
a genealogy search can hit a
brick wall, with absent birth
records and skewed written
and oral histories.
The recent Public Broadcasting System series “African-
A merican L ives” touched on the popularity o f DNA science.
The series featured prominent African Americans, Oprah Winfrey
am ong them, tracing their black history through DNA and
genealogy, with surprising results. Oprah was convinced she
had Native American blood. Her DNA told her she’s right out
o f Africa.
Q u estio n in g T echnology
Portland State University professor Greg Fow ler has closely
follow ed the recent attention and controversy o f DNA science.
Fow ler is executive director and founder o f G eneforum , a non-
String of Robberies Hit Local Bars
Cash registers and
customers cleaned out
Several custom ers at a Northeast Portland tavern
were robbed at gunpoint Saturday, the fourth armed
attack at a Portland tavern in the past tw o w eeks, police
said.
Tw o men carrying handguns cam e into the Blue
D iam ondT avem at 2016 N.E. Sandy BIvd. around 12:24
a m., held the guns to the custom ers' heads and forced
them to give them cash, said Portland Police Bureau
spokesw om an Kathy Kent.
The pair took the custom ers' w allets and cleaned out
the tav ern 's cash registers before leaving the building,
said D ebbie Relling, the m anager o f Blue Diamond.
There w ere no injuries, she said.
The men, who were not w earing m asks, w ere de-
continued
on page A3
her stroller and ran off the train.
He d id n 't get far before C urry, the
toddler's parents and other q uick
thinking passengers tackled him.
“W e saw a dude ju m p on the girl
and her mom ju m p on the dude, so we
ju st pushed the dude dow n to the
ground." Curry told KATU Channel
1
The fam ily was a bit shaken, but
the to d d ler is d oing fine, p olice
spokesm an Kathy Kent said.
Police said Kixtn w as a stranger to Randy Koon charged
the family w ho w as visiting Portland with kidnapping.
for spring break and using the Max
Red Line. The family from I uiGrande also had their 5-year-old son
with them at the time.
4
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