^ '^ o r t l a n b (f)hseruer
Page A2
March 14, 2007
Women's History
Church Fire May Be Forever a Mystery
No cause determined,
but church vows to rebuild
investigators have no d efin i­
tive answ ers for parishioners of
M orning Star M issionary B ap­
tist Church, who lost their place
o f w orship in a fire that not only
destroyed the building but any
indication as to what created the
blaze. A Metro Arson Task Force
is officially listing the cause as
“undeterm ined.”
In other words, they may never
know whether it was a natural gas
explosion or if it was caused by
arson.
The three-story brick building
at 106 N.E. Ivy St had tow ered
over neighboring rooftops since
1919 until collapsing on Feb. 6.
The midnight fire began almost
in s ta n tly , g u ttin g the e n tire
church, im ploding the steeple and
d estroying nearby parked ve­
hicles.
Trees were scorched and a few
neighbors’ rooftops and window
blinds were badly dam aged.
For w eeks the investigating
team, made up o f Portland fire
investigators, Oregon State Po­
lice, Eugene and the federal Bu­
reau o f A lcohol, Tobacco, Fire­
arm s an d E x p lo siv e s, sifte d
through ashes and damage and
in te rv ie w e d n e ig h b o rs , w it­
nesses and church leaders.
Portland Fire and Rescue Lt.
Allen Osw alt said they found no
detectable evidence o f arson or
photos by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
A pile o f rubble and m any u n a nsw ered q u e stio n s are all that rem ain o f the Morning Star M ission­
ary B a ptist Church building. Investigators recently listed the fire's c a u se a s “undeterm ined.
evidence indicating an electrical
short, heating m alfunction or
other problem.
“My goal is to be a fie ld surveyor ”
Spring classes start April 2nel.
The church carried a market
value o f $399,000. The annex,
where they housed social ser­
vices programs, did not suffer as
much dam age, and was valued at
$242,390.
As the investigation began, a
com m unity gathered to ease the
pain o f R everend A. W ayne
Johnson and his congregation,
exhibiting how well loved the
iconic church was in its north­
east Portland neighborhood.
Morning Star currently meets
on Sunday m ornings at the Rose
City Cem etery & Funeral Home
chapel, 5625 NE Frem ont St., for
services at 9 : 15 and 10:45, but the
church has vowed to rebuild at
its old site.
Morning Star will receive an
insurance paym ent for the fire
and has been given thousands of
dollars from private individuals
and com panies and the City of
Portland.
Further donations are needed,
and can be made to the M orning
Star Catastrophe Relief Fund at
any W ells Fargo Bank branch.
Bush Closes Latin America Tour
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(AP) President Bush, working to
rebuild strained L'.S.-Mexico rela­
tions, promised Tuesday he would
do his best to get a deeply divided
U.S. Congress to change American
immigration policies that are hated
south of the border.
"My pledge to you and your
government, but more important to
the people of Mexico, is I'll work as
hard as I possibly can to pass com­
prehensive immigration reform,"
Bush said during a sun-splashed
arrival ceremony that opened two
days of meetings with Mexican
President Felipe Calderon in this
A w om an w alks by p o ste rs o f P resident George IV. B ush that
read "w anted for war c r im e s ” in M edellin, Colombia on March 7.
B ush w rapped up his Latin Am erica tour in M exico on March 13.
Yucatan Peninsula tourist haven.
Relations between the two bor­
der countries have only grown
worse since Bush signed a law call­
ing for construction of more than
7(X) miles of new fencing along the
long border the twocountries share.
C alderon has lam basted the
fence - a mix of physical and high-
tech barriers. He likens it to the
Berlin Wall, and argues that both
countries need to i mprove Mexico's
economy to lessen the desire to
seek work in the United States.
Before their talks, Calderon had
a tough message for Bush: The
United States must do more tosol ve
thorny issues of drug trafficking
and immigration.
He was gentler at Bush's side,
but with the same message.
“We fully respect the right that
the governm ent and the people
Tap into the money.
o f the U nited States has to decide
within its territory what will be
best for their concerns and secu­
rity,” he said as he welcomed
Bush. “ But at the same time we do
consider in a respectful way that”
migration c a n 't be stopped with a
fence.
When he First became president.
Bush promised that Latin Ameri­
can would vault to the top of his
agenda. But afterthe Sept. 11,2001,
attacks, the administration’s focus
was riveted on South Asia and the
Middle East. That left many Mexi­
cans feeling neglected by their
northern neighbor, and some view
Bush' s trip as a case of too I ittle. too
late.
Bush and Calderon's two days
o f talks are meant to better rela­
tions, not yield dramatic announce­
ments.
Obama Reaches Out
7.50
Discusses
campaign agendas
with black media
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African American support is
there for U. S. presidential hopeful
Barack Obama, but as hiscampaign
heats up, the Illinois senator took
his first step in engaging with the
black media during a press confer­
ence with black publishers from
across the country.
Obama met over the phone with
re p re se n ta tiv e s from A frican
American newspapers on March 2,
outlining campaign objectives for
the next several months:
“1 will make sure our events tar­
get issues everybody's concerned
with, including health care, educa­
tion and Iraq,” he said, “but I do
anticipate talking more about an
urban agenda and civil rights is­
sues. which have been neglected
over the past few years.”
O bam a said he plans to
aggresi vely target black voters with­
out polarizing the white vote. When
asked about voting rights he dis­
cussed a bill he introduced in Janu­
ary that would make deceptive vot­
ing practices a felony.
Obama also counted economic
justice, young black voters and
W eeks into his presidental
cam paign, Barack O bam a
a d d re sse s the African Ameri­
can m edia.
prison reform as his campaign pri­
orities.
Obama formally announced his
candidacy in Springfield, III., on
Feb. 10. Raised in Hawaii by his
mother, a white woman from Kan­
sas, and his father, a black man from
Kenya, O bam a's racial background
and relevance to other African
Americans has come intoquestion.
Recent opinion polls portray himas
the second most popular choice
among Democratic voters for their
party's nomination after Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-NY). who has
historcially found success with
black voters.