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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2007)
Dream Comes True Alternative therapies clinic opens on Vancouver Avenue See story, Metro section On Top of His Game P ortland Little L eague umpire officiates at Youth Baseball Hall o f Fame See story in Sports, page B5 & îSar nf R ncpc’ ‘City of Roses Volume XXXVII, N um ber 31 .Week in The Review Grateful after Surgery ABC “G ood M o rn in g A m erica” an chor R o b in R o b e rts say s m essag es of su p p o rt fro m her fans helped her get through breast ca n ce r surgery last Friday. "T h a n k s for all the p ray e rs — I ow e you big tim e!” R oberts said. S ee s to r y , p ag e A3. 4 U.S. Soldiers Killed F our m ore U .S. so ld iers w ere k illed in ro ad sid e bo m b in g s in the B a g h d ad are a, in c lu d in g three in a single strike, the m ili tary said T u esd ay , raisin g to at least 19 the n um ber o f A m erican troop deaths in the first w eek o f A u g u st. Civil Rights Lawyer Dies O liverW . H ill,a civil rights law yer w ho was at the front o f the legal effort that d e s e g r e g a te d public schools, has died at age 100. In 1954. Hill was part o f a series o f lawsuits against racially segregated public schools. See sto ry , page A2. Established in 1970 w w w .p o rtla n d o b s e rv e r.c o m Committed to Cultural Diversity Wednesday • August 8, 2007 Health Coalition in Critical Need Hundreds sign up for benefit walk by R aymond R endleman T he P ortland O bserver A strong show o f support for an annual walk to benefit the health o f local African Am ericans represents the best hope for m aking sure local residents continue to have access to health and fitness program s in the area. T he A frican A m erican Health C o a litio n ’s “ W e lln e s s W ith in R E A C H ” walk on Saturday, Aug. 18 at 8 a.m. in north P ortland's Dawson Park, com esjust six weeks before the organization possibly loses support for its popular exer cise program . A grant that gives A A H C free access to Portland Parks and R ec reation exercise equipm ent expires on Sept. 30. T he benefits o f the program were recently profiled in the Portland O bserver in a M etro-cover story about G arland Brow n, a fitness trainer at the M att D ishm an C om m unity C enter and a M ultnom ah County "Public H ealth H ero.” W ith the help o f dedicated indi viduals like Brow n, the A A H C ’s fitness efforts have started to show m easurable benefits. M any P o rtlan d -area A frican Am ericans bore witness to using fitness in a successful battle against diabetes and cardiovascular dis eases that plague the com m unity. M uch o f the support for the AAHC com es from o f the federal Racial and Ethnic A pproaches to C om m unity Health (R E A C H ) pro gram which aims toelim inate health disparities by 2 0 10. The program is injeopardy o f facing the budget axe from the C enters for D isease C on trol and Prevention. “That program is at risk, and people need to support it,” says Corliss M cKeever, A A HC presi dent. “T h at’s why the w alk is cru cial, because w e’re trying to d e velop the w alk to the level that can sustain the physical-activity pro gram, so w hether we have a federal, local grant or anything else, we can at least offer the free exercise.” A lr e a d y , h u n d red s of Portlanders, including Roy Jay, president o f the African Cham ber ofC om m erce, areexpected to walk PHOTO BY continued y ^ on page A5 R aymond R endi eman /T ih P ortland O bserver Allyson Knapper signs up for the African-American Health Coalition s “ Wellness Within REACH walk with the help o f John Barnett, operations manager for the coalition. Coal Miners Trapped Rescuers brought in heavy drill ing equipm ent Tuesday to try to reach six coal miners trapped more than 1,5(X) feet below the surface in Utah, an effort that one o f the m ine's ow ners said would take at least three days. 0 J Forfeits Game Money R e la tiv e s o f m urder victim Ron G oldm an won a court o r der on T uesday s e iz in g an y m oney O .J. Sim pson earns for lending his nam e and likeness to a football video gam e with a fictional team called the A ssassins and a knife- w ielding m ascot. S ee r e la te d sto ry , page B3. Amtrak Running Again A m trak train s resu m ed running its C a scad es ro u te M onday b e tw een E ugene and V ancouver, B.C. T he service w as interrupted F riday after an insp ectio n o f the ra ilc a rs fo u n d c ra c k s in the su spension system o f a p a s se n g er car. Ford Expands Recall F ord M otor C o. said F riday it is recallin g 3.6 m illion p assen g er cars, trucks, sport u tility v e hicles and vans, built from 1992- 2007, to ad dress co n cern s about a cru ise con tro l sw itch that has led to prev io u s recalls based on rep orts o f fires. PHOTO BY R AYMONI) R e NDI I A IA N /T h I P o R 11 AND O ltS I KA I K John Archer checks his fishing line on the Eastbank Esplanade. The longtime Portland resident remembers when the riverbank where Interstate 5 now abuts once had a thriving community o f houseboats and shanties. Esplanade Opens Fishing Spots Catch slow, but river cleanups give hope by R aymond R endleman T he P ortland O bserver With the redevelopment o f the W illamette R iver's eastside, anglers are slow ly return ing to the coveted spots w here h alf a century ago they caught piles o f salm on and stur geon. T hese choice fish, how ever, have been even slow er to return than the people who are trying to reel them in. By July o f last year, O reg o n 's D epart ment o f Fish and W ildlife counted some I 36,000 salmon traveling up the W illamette, but about 14,(XX) few er have m ade the pas sage during this y ear’s first seven months. A nglers on the W illam ette mostly catch bass and catfish these days, and O DFW recom m ends that healthy adults eat no more than eight ounces o f these species due to the chem icals that they retain from bottom- feeding. M any o f them blam e poor w ater quality for the small hauls. This summ er, the city began tunneling a 22-foot-w ide sewer, to be com pleted in 2011, in an effort to prevent w astew ater overflow during heavy rains. "O nce they get the sewer rebuilt, it'll be five years before the fish com e back," says John Archer, who fishes the Wi I lamette when he has a day o ff from his job with Downtown Clean and Safe. Seeing others who are willing to eat bass and catfish. A rcher is content to fish these chem ical-laden species just for the sport of it until he encounters the m ore-prized variet ies. High num bers o f quality fish will return with any luck, but river-w aterquality is only “Once they get the sewer rebuilt, it'll be five years before the fish come back. ” -JohnArcher, one o f many factors affecting the run. ac cording to Kevleen Melcher, an O DFW bi ologist who specializes in W illamette fish habitats. Melcher cites strenuous oceanic condi tions as another possible cause of this low point in the typically cyclical populations, ruling out the possibility that hatchery fish haven't been able to adjust to higher tem peratures in the wild. “G en erally , if the run is affected by the tem p eratu re, there are m ortalities before the falls. W e 're out there looking for them and we h a v e n 't found hard ly any, so fish are con v ertin g to h atch eries fairly w ell, but there a re n 't quite as m any this y ear," she says. "I d o n 't know q u ite w h a t's been the cau se o f th at." Downtown Clean and Safe w continued y ^ on page AS