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Little Leaguers
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Whitaker-Adams
school demolition is
expected to begin
See story, page A3
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Volume XXXVI, Number 34
.. . .1
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Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • August 30. 2006
J
TLWeek ¡n
The Review
Bells Toll 1 Year
after Katrina
Bells tolled in the shattered city
of New O rleans Tuesday m orn
ing, marking the moment one
year earlier when New Orleans'
levees buckled and unleashed a
to rren t o f w ater that ripped
homes from their foundations
and sent tens o f thousands of
residents into an uncertain ex
ile. See sto ry , page A2.
Links
to
Success
Storm Moves into Florida
Tropical Storm Ernesto's lead
ing edge drenched Miami and
the rest of southern Florida on
Tuesday as it steam ed toward
the Sunshine State with a po
tential for more than a foot of
rain. But forecasters said there
was only an outside chance it
would strengthen into a hurri
cane.
DNA Clears Confessor
B o u ld e r
Colo, pros-
e c u t o r s
d ro p p e d
th e ir case
against John
M ark K arr
M onday in
the slaying
on JonBenet
Ramsey, saying DNA evidence
failed to put him at the scene of the
crime despite his insistence that
he se x u a lly a ssa u lte d and
strangled the 6-year-old beauty
queen.
Women from the
Portland Chapter o f the
Links, Inc., team up
with the Portland
Observer to distribute
hundreds o f schools
supplies to local
children. The distribu
tion was held Saturday
in the parking lot o f the
Portland Observer
offices in northeast
Portland. See additional
photo, page A6.
COLOM HUUO
I
■
photo by I saiah
i
B ouik / T he P ortean » O bserver
Youth Gatherings
Poverty Rate Finally Slows
The n ation’s poverty rate was
essentially unchanged last year,
the first year it hasn’t increased
since before President Bush
took office. The Census Bureau
reported Tuesday that 37 m il
lion A m ericans were living un
der the poverty line last year
Turn Violent
Regena Williams, an
advocate for area
youth with her
non-profit Northwest
Country Community
Outreach program,
confers with a local
resident passing by
her offices on
Northeast Martin
Luther King Jr.
Boulevard.
Advocates try to turn tide
after a few serious incidents
Apple Laptops Recalled
Apple Com puter Inc. on T hurs
day recalled 1.8 million Sony-
built laptop batteries that could
overheat and catch fire. The
recall cam e 10 days after Dell
Inc.'s recall o f 4 . 1 million faulty
laptop batteries, also made by
Sony.
Morning-after Pill Approved
W omen may buy the morning-
after pill without a prescription
— but only with proof they’re
18 or older, federal health offi
cials decided Thursday. Girls 17
and younger still will need a
docto r’s note to buy the pills,
called Plan B.
SAT Scores Drop Big
The high school class of 2006
got stuck with a new, longer
version o f the SAT and didn’t
fare well on it. Average reading
and math scores fell a total of
seven points - the sharpest de
cline in 3 1 years.
by S arah B e o in t
T he P ortean » O bserver
About 150 kids wreaked havoc
in a north Portland neighborhood
by throwing chunks of concrete at
police officers, jumping on and cav
ing in the hoods of at least two cars
and severely beating a man who
tried to intervene.
The Aug. 19 gathering of Afri
can American teenagers was in
dicative of a new trend that has
brought authorities, parents and
youth advocates to Friday’s regu
larly scheduled Gang Violence Task
Force meeting at the Northeast Po-
lice Precinct.
The packed room agreed that the
young people involved in these
gatherings aren't entirely gang-re
lated. The groups form with the
rapid-fire technique of using cell
phones and MySpace to send out
exponential invites. What makes
the sudden events dangerous is
the mob mentality they conjure.
Some of the participants are as
young as 12, and now neighbors
are upset.
Until the midnight curlew, police
have little authority over the gath
erings at public events, private
piloro by S araii B i . o in t Z
T he P ortean » O bserver
parties, neighborhood streets and
city parks. But they are forced to
take an aggressive approach be
fore innocent bystanders become
the centerpiece of unruly behavior.
“W e’ve been herding them
around, dealing with the same prob
lems all summer long,” said police
Ft. MikeStradley.
But with just one person run
ning the city's Youth Gang Out
reach Program, it has become clear
that police officers and city agen-
continued
y^
on page A6
Clothesline Swollen with Tears from Abuse
Unspoken
truths bring
pain and hope
by C harity P rater
T he P orti . and O bserver
Lines of tattered, multi-colored
shirts hang swollen with heavy
tears from the painful memories of
violence against women.
Each brightly-colored shirt has
a story of rape, torture, kidnap
ping and domestic or sexual at
tacks. The words haunt passerbys
who gaze at the unspoken truths.
They are memories of hope, loss
and sadness for the Portland
Clothesline Project.
“I’m not going to cry," one
anonymous woman writes in red
print. Another writes, "The silence
was killing me,” and yet another,
“I wore red that day”.
Saturday's event was held in
photo by
C harity P rater /T he P ortland O bserver
Messages o f hope, sadness and pain are expressed by survivors o f domestic violence in words
painted on shirts in the Portland Clothesline Project.
conjunction with the 86th anniver lion, giving women the right to vote. land.
sary of the ratification of the 19th It also marked the 15h anniversary
Rachel Carey-Harper, now 55.
Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- of the Clothesline Project in Port created the project 16 years ago in
Cape Cod. Mass. The idea came to
her when a very distraught woman
approached her at the Vietnam
Veteran’s Memorial Wall in Wash
ington, D.C. with the statistic that
the number of women who have
been murdered by their intimate
partners is greater than the num-
berof soldiers killed in the Vietnam
War.
Although lucky enough to not
have had a personal history with
violent crime herself, as other
women have, Carey-Harper be
lieves that all women arc connected
by domestic violence.
“One person 'sex perience is my
experience,” she says.
The Clothesline Project was
brought to Portland by three
women, Fran Petschek, 76, Pat
Hollingsworth, 83, and Yvonne
Simmons. 59.
Simmons is a survivor of vio
lent crime and was empowered by
continued
y^
on page A 6