Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2007)
50£ Church Help One ‘Desperate Comes in All Ways years j a/ •/community service •'community JHfl| (L it ‘City of Roses’ See page A2 inside Nine Soldiers Killed An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a sui cide truck bombing that killed nine U.S. paratroopers in the worst at tack on American ground forces in Iraq in more than a year. Dems Vote Withdrawal Democratic leaders ignored a veto threat and agreed Monday on leg islation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later. Obama Ties Clinton New public opinion polls show llinois Sen. Barack Obama has gained ground for the fourth straight week and he has finally caught New Yc Clinton in the race fo r the D e m o c ra tic P r e s id e n tia l n o m in a tio n . It’snow Obama 32 percent, Clinton 32 percent and former Sen. John Edwards at 17 percent. No Excessive Force A new report says that Portland police do not use excessive force and even the use of force is rela tively rare. But the task force that has been analyzing Portland po lice reports has recommended at least 16 ways to improve the bureau's reporting along with its policies, training and supervision. Gas Soars to $3.12 Oregon’s statewide average gaso line price for regular-unleaded set a new record Monday at $3.12 per gallon. According to AAA, the previous record in Oregon was S3.11 set in May of last year. Hamburger Recalled Health officials in Oregon and four other states have announced a recall affecting KM).(XX) pounds of frozen ground beef patties. The recalled products are sold under the brands Fireriver, Chef’s Pride, RitzFood, Blackwood Farms, Cali fornia Pacific Associates, C and C D istrib u tin g , G o lb o n and Richwood. Governor on Food Stamps Gov. Ted Kulongoski couldn't af ford much of any thing during a trip to a Salem-area Fred M eyer T u esd ay . The goal was to walk in the steps of those who are allocated $21 worth of groceries each week in food stamps. See story, page A3 Toyota Overtakes GM Toyota Camry, take a bow. Prius, bask in the limelight. Strong de mand for those models has helped propel the Japanese car maker onto the throne as the world's largest auto seller, outselling GM for the first time ever. Ml u ““ O' O' rt Ç i "lj © c- y -»■ g. ? & £ £ » X* i ° % z. C J - ~ . '7 o æ ’r. - SB X -tj - y C T ’ * S 3 X Alfre speaks n 'J ' 1 Woodard sP r “ K!i out on domestic violence ^pnrilann (Dhe-mier T1 Week ¡n The Review gi [J] q Another ^ee page A 3 inside Volume XXXVII. Number 16 y •s> £ S,i^ 4 w $ g 9 Is 2 Morning Star 3 K Housewife’ to H B iil Established in 1970 www.portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Wednesday • April 25. 2007 Talkers Play to Narrow Audience Imus firing won’t change market forces by R aymond R endi . eman T he P ortland O bserver There’s been a change in the airways, but don't expect any auto matic realignment of the radio in dustry. Rose City Radio Manager Tim McNamara took the lead this month in canceling Don Imus' show on KXL for racist remarks. "NBC ended up taking him off the next day," McNamara says. "They saw the same thing I saw: there's a wave coming, and we’d better do something about it.” The firing decision drew a line in the sand for the nation's radio talk ers, the vast majority of whom are white and conservative. For Michael Cooks, an African American who works on KXL’s sis ter station with Jammin 95.5’s Play house, “racial slurs are just an ob vious line that you just can’t cross now." Both stations are owned by Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen. It seems that as long as radio commentators stay within the line of outright bigotry, nothing will continued on page A6 photo by R aymond R endleman /T he P ortland O bserver Rose City Radio Manager Tim McNamara runs KXL, a conservative talk radio station owned by Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen. PCC Locked in Budget Battle in Salem Meeting minority needs more difficult by R aymond R endi . eman T he P ortland O bserver Portland Community College continues to look more racially di verse even in the face of budget cuts and an overall decease in stu dents. But meeting the needs of PCC’s diverse population is get ting more difficult as the college district gets locked in a budget battle in Salem with lawmakers and the governor. Nowhere is the tension more apparent than at PCC's Cascade Campus in north Portland where President Algie Gatewood points to the benefits of its Skills Center, with its 66 percent African-Ameri can participation. The program aims to give high school dropouts a shot at college and skilled labor. “It has been a real challenge to keep the funding in place for the SkillsCenter,” Gatewood says. “But keeping it open is especially impor tant for African-American and low- income students." Ski I Is Center Coordinator James Brown says serving people of color with educational opportunities in their own community better posi tions these students for success, “so they don’t have to be gentrified out." PCC administrators say 80 per cent ol’Skills Center students gradu ate and continue their education through regular college or company training. "It was primarily developed for the four zi p codes around Cascade," Bowles says. The Skills Center has a strong partn ersh ip w ith its neighbor Jefferson High Schtxil, where a two- thirds-black student population remains while a greater proportion of white families go toot her schoo Is. Given these demographics, some Jefferson administrators recognize a continued need for their school to concentrate on serving black stu dents. But PCC’s leadership is much more vocal about the need forqual- ity education in the neighborhoods undergoing significant changes. forces.” has allocated for the district in the He and other PCC administra 2005-7 biennial and the $529 million tors are testifying before the Legis that administrators say they need lature forthe increased school fund to restore services to a fully opera ing, and PCC’s website prominently tional status forthe next two years. This general funding covers almost half of PCC’s operating costs. It's easy to see that the goal of serving m inority po p u latio n s comes naturally to Gatewood and his boss, PCC District President Preston Pulliams. Both are African American. "Ourenrollment is more diverse than any other college in the re gion," says Pulliams, "so I’m look ing to serve those students." While the percentage of black students has steadily increased at PCC Cascade to 11.4 percent, the actual number of black students, estimated at 675 individuals, has encourages staff, faculty and stu fallen by 76 students over the past dents togi ve testimony at the Ways five years. Those statistics also fall and Means committee in Salem. short of matching the black demo At stake is the difference be graphics of nearby neighborhoods. tween the $427 million that the state Evaluating the overall success Portland's people o f color have a lot o f challenges, so we have to he cognizant o f that by developing programs and services to counteract negative forces. Algie Gatewood “Portland’s people of color have a lot of challenges," G atew œ d says, "so we have to be cognizant of that by developing programs and ser v ices to c o u n te ra c t n eg ativ e • photo of serving African American stu dents. Gatewood asks, "Are we there yet? Probably not. But we are working very diligently to get more diversity and people of color." Black students choose PCC Cas cade for various reasons. “For me, being a single mom, it was finally a viable way to go to another school,” says Akala Rice. She led a meeting of PCC’s Black Student Union with Sasha Quintana, who says, "I could have gone to a university right out high school... but I wanted to experience a greater diversity at a lower price." For others, PCC Cascade is a safe haven. Kashea Kilson-Anderson be came one of the first students in the program that became the Skil Is Cen ter because he “saw a lot of racial tension at Wilson" High School, which he attended in the late '90s. “Although it claimed to be one of the smartest schools, they were culturally out of it," he says. R wmond R endi em an /T he P orti and O bserver Students utilize state-ofthe-art technology services at the Cascade Campus of Portland Community College in north Portland.