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