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