50£
Opera is
Her Dream
Memorial Day Ouch!
years of
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■■Ml
Oregon gas prices heading into
the Memorial Day w eekend soar
past the record high national
average o f $3.20 a gallon.
See Career Education
special section, inside
Marttani* (©tigfrner
^^4
itv n f R n c p c '
‘City
of Roses
r_ i„ l_ l!_ l
Blazers Win Draft Lottery
The Portland Trail Blazers beat the
odds and will pick first in next
month’s NBA draft. W ithjusta5.3
percent chance of winning the No.
1 pick, the Blazers won the top
position Tuesday night, earning
the right to draft a potential fran
chise player from what’s consid
ered to be a deep class. They will
almost certainly choose between
Greg Oden, the Ohio State center
or Kevin Durant, Texas’ high-scor
ing forward.
Bush Criticized by ex-Prez
The gloves came
off when former
presidentJimmy
Carter look a ver
bal sw ip e at
President Bush
in the Arkansas
D e m o c ra t-G a
zette on Saturday, calling the cur
rent administration the worst in
the country’s history. Carter, 82,
has since retracted his statement,
calling it “maybe careless or mis
interpreted,” but not before a
White House spokesman labeled
it “irrelevant.”
Baghdad Violence
Increases
A parked car bomb at an outdoor
market in southwestern Baghdad
exploded Tuesday, killing 25
people and injuring 60 others, de
spite a 3-month-old security crack
down to reduce violence in the
capital. The blast left the Shiite-
dominated neighborhood o f Amil
in devastation, police said.
Richardson
Enters Race
N ew M exico
G ov.
Bill
Richardson be
came the latest
Democrat to officially enter the
crowded 2008 presidential race
Monday. Richardson has been
running for months but officially
announced his candidacy in Los
Angeles where he said he hoped
to repair what he called the rav
ages of the Bush administration.
Teams Change Owner
Merritt Paulson, the son of U.S.
treasury secretary Henry Paulson,
will be the new owner of the Port
land Beavers baseball team and
Portland Timbers soccer team.
Paulson, manager of Shortstop,
LLC, and his wife, Heather, are in
the process of moving from New
York to Portland, to be full-time
president of both teams.
‘Dying Boy’ Exposed
Joshua Kistler of Beaverton was
sentenced to more than 24 years
Monday in federal prison after
posing online as a teenage boy
dying of leukemia to coerce 12 to
14-year-old girls into sending him
sexually explicit images. The 31-
year-old chatted with them to gain
sympathy and nude photos.
im n
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1 1
wwvv.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII, Number 20
.Week in
The Review
I !_
Established in 1970
Wednesday • May 23, 2007
H ig h -S ch o o l A ll S tar C lassic
One-of-a-kind
event to
highlight
community
by R aymond R endleman
T he P ortland O bserver
T he Jo yce W ashington C las
sic is the only basketball to u rn a
m en t w here the rosters o f P ort
land Interscholastic L eague all
stars actually play against one
another. It’s also the only h ig h
school to u rn am ent coached by
tw o fo rm er T rail B lazers nam ed
M ichael w ho both happen to
w ork for State F arm Insurance.
M ichael H arper and M ichael
H olton play ed fo r the B lazers in
the ‘80s, gaining m uch p o p u lar
ity d uring th eir professional c a
reers by a co m m itm en t to serv
ing the P ortland com m unity.
F o r H olton, w ho w as also
head basketball coach fo r five
y ears at the U niversity o f P o rt
land, the urge to give back runs
d eep .
“ I c e rta in ly le a rn e d a s a
B lazer the value o f com m unity
in v o lv em en t,” he says, “but I
photo by M ark
W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Former Trail Blazers Michael Harper (left) and Michael Holton get ready to coach the top basketball players from Portland area high
schools this Saturday at the Portland Observer Joyce Washington All -Star Classic.
think it goes back further to
w hen I w as a youth and people
reached out to help me in my
stru g g les.”
H arper, w h o a lso c o a c h e s
basketball at R iverdale H igh
School in southw est Portland,
sees S a tu rd a y ’s all-star classic
as an entertaining, cityw ide o c
casion to benefit kids and build
com m unity ties.
“ It not only celebrates the life
o f Joy ce W ashington (the late
publisher o f the Portland O b
server),” he says, " I t’s also that
the atm osphere is electric w ith
this opportunity for unity in a
city w ith so m any star players.”
In keeping w ith this c o m m u
nity spirit, the e v e n t’s proceeds
go to a scholarship fund for local
high-school grads.
continued y ^ on page A8
Sanctuary City for Soldiers
ply refusing to fight for one reason
or another.
The anti-war movement is also
growing in such strength that many
students at colleges and universi
ties around the country have joined
by C harity P rater
together to drive army and military
recruiters from their buildings and
T he P ortland O bserver
Imagine Portland acting as a lawns.
Sanctuary City where soldiers and
According to Shea, a Vietnam
war veterans opposed to returning Veteran who lost a child to war in
to active duty could live peacefully 1981, last year alone there were
while transitioning back to civilian more than 3,000 active-duty sol
life.
diers who deserted the army.
Brian Barnett and Dan Shea are
“Some soldiers refuse to deploy
working together to open the door on the basis that they are being
for conversations about jus, an idea
this Memorial Day weekend, Satur
day, May 26 at 7 p.m. at north
Portland’s Bread and Roses Cen
ter.
Around the country, there is a
growing movement of soldiers who
are reaching a consensus that the
war in Iraq is a fallacy. Soldiers like
Kevin Benderman, Sarah Olson,
Carl Webb, and others are refusing
deployment, going AW OL.orsim-
Group promotes
refuge for war
objectors
asked to commit an international
crime because the war is illegal,”
says Shea, “Others, like Suzanne
Swift, refuse to return for more per
sonal reasons like sexual crimes or
mental health concerns."
While the paperwork is process
ing, where do these soldiers live,
work and receive healthcare? Many
of them do not have any safe refuge
because they have warrants out for
their arrest for refusing to deploy.
They are persecuted by their col
leagues and officers, or they are
continued y ^ on page AS
Some soldiers refuse to
deploy on the basis that they
are being asked to commit an
international crime because
the war is illegal.
photo by R aymond R endleman /T he P ortland O bserver
Augustana Lutheran Church preschool teacher Sam Earle
surveys the grounds o f the northeast Portland church a few
days after the property got tangled up in a police standoff
with a motorist.
Church Questions
Police Action
Northeast Knott Street last Thurs
day, and the police used the
sanctuary's entranccway as a
staging area for the ensuing SERT
standoff.
The action needlessly violated
by R aymond R endleman
the peacefulness of holy ground
T he P ortland O bserver
for Rev. Mark Knutson, who
A pastor who marched against wants police to address commu
the 2003 police killing of Kendra nity concerns.
Jam es, the unarm ed African
“What we’re looking for first is
American woman who tried to a conversation from our mutually
drive away from a north Portland shared religious traditions about
traffic stop, is trying to open up a ancient faith-based practices of
dialogue with the mayor and po sanctuary coming in conflict with
lice leaders about the issue of a modem public-safety concerns,"
safe haven brought up by an he says.
other suspect pulled over in acar.
In the coming week, he hopes
This time an armed, suicidal to announce an assembly in the
man parked directly across from
continued y ^ on page A3
Augustana Lutheran Church on
Standoff on
sacred property
upsets pastor
photo by C harity
zb — O' 2
o
c- zb
A y
I
ri
=
P ra i er /T he P or i land O bserver
A passer-by walks past a political statement chalked onto the sidewalk in front o f the U.S. Army
Recruiting Center on Northeast Broadway.
I
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