500
Ever Fading Memory
37
Professor honors war
dead in sidewalk chalk
years
See story, Metro section
•Tcommunity service
Legendary
Blues Trio
Holmes Brothers set
to play Portland Zoo
See A&E section, inside
‘City of Roses’
Established In 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII, Number 33
TLWeek ¡n
The Review
Activist Makes
Legislative Run
Race Factor in Youth Poll
From their relationships to their
jobs to their money, young white
Americans are happier with life
than their minority counterparts.
According to a survey by the
Associated Press and MTV. 72
percent of whites say they are
happy with life in general, com­
pared with 51 percent of Hispan­
ics and 56 percent of blacks. See
story, page A2.
C y re e n a B oston
files to ‘get
th in g s d o n e '
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
Inner-city activist Cyreena Bos­
ton wants to redirect Salem law­
makers' focus on quality-of-life is­
sues concerning the part of Port­
land best known for its proximity to
the airport.
Boston, 27, has identified as a
grassroots activist since she joined
St. Andrews' Portland Organizing
Project at the age of 10, but only
Obama: Redeploy Troops
Democrat Barack
Obama said Tues­
day the recent
in c re a se
in
American troops
in Iraq may well
have helped tamp
down violence, but he insisted
there is no military solution to the
country's problem s and U.S.
forces should be redeployed
soon. See story, page A2.
.....
1 Atlanta Falcons
q u a rte rb a c k
M ich ael V ick
said through a
lawyer Monday
that he will plead
guilty to federal
dogfighting con­
spiracy charges, an admission
that likely will mean prison time.
See story, page A2.
Knights Pledge $100 Million
Phil Knight, Nike co-founder and
alumnus of the University of Or­
egon, and his wife. Penny, have
pledged $100 million to form an
athletic endowment at the school
with the ultimate goal is to sustain
Oregon's athletic department in
perpetuity. In the short term, it will
jump-start the university’s plan to
build a $180 million basketball
arena.
north and northeast Portland.
“This neighborhood has been
identified by so many geographic
hallmarks: the airport, the Grotto,
the Sandy/82nd intersection, but
it's an interesting area to live in.
because it really, truly is to me the
heart of central northeast Portland."
she says. "This district has its con­
nection with traditional, central
northeast Portland, but it’s also the
connecting factor as you head east­
ward towards Parkrose.”
In redefining her district as a
crucial link. Boston hopes to draw
legislative attention and funds for
the ed u cation, transportation,
health and public-safety issues that
! This neighborhood has been
identified by so many geographic
hallmarks...but it's an interesting area
to live in, because it really, truly is to
me the heart o f central northeast
Portland.
-C y re e n a Boston
Vick Admits Dogfighting
..........
Wednesday • August 22. 2007
photo by R aymond R endi . eman /T he P ortland O bserver
Cyreena Boston (left) talks with Angel Williams as she goes door to door in her campaign for
State Representative in House District 45, covering parts of northeast Portland and
Parkrose.
recently has she considered a seat
in the Capitol the best means of
affecting change.
M onday she fo rm ally a n ­
nounced her run for Oregon House
District 45, a position that could
make her the youngest and only
African-American member of the
Oregon House of Representatives.
Acknowledging how easy it has
been for lawmakers to ignore her
district, squeezed between the air­
port and Interstate 84. she hopes to
highlight how this semi-urban area
is starting to experience the same
problems that had been previously
associated with the areas between
she believes are critical to such a
community in transition.
She and her neighborhood may
"have the most to benefit from good
government," but she believes in
being a Democrat not out of a need
for the system to do something for
her. Rather, she claims to have
learned how to use the system to
get things done, a sentiment that
has already attracted dozens of
high-profile supporters.
Before quitting her job this
month as a Democratic Party out­
reach director, she began the work
continued y ^ on page AT
Spanking Case Settled
Two 13-year-old McMinnville
boys accused of slapping girls'
bottoms and poking or cupping
girls' breasts at school apologized
on Monday as a judge dismissed
charges against the two, ending a
six-month case that drew national
attention.
Hurricane Hits Mexico
Hurricane Dean slammed into the
Caribbean coast o f Mexico on
Tuesday as a roaring Category 5
hurricane, the most intense At­
lantic storm to make landfall in two
decades. It lashed remote Mayan
villages as it raced across the
Yucatan Peninsula to the heart of
Mexico's oil industry.
Shuttle Lands Safely
Space shuttle Endeavour returned
to Earth safely Tuesday, ending a
nearly two-week orbital drama that
centered on a deep gouge in the
shuttle's belly and an early home­
coming prompted by a hurricane.
Marijuana Advocates Defend Law
S trict rules
p ro te c t
c o n tro v e rsia l
m ed icin e
Black coalition
takes up aid effort
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
If medical-marijuana activists
were fazed by the latest political
onslaughts, they did their best to
hide their feelings.
Business proceeded as usual at
this month’s cardholders' meeting
with no overwhcming sense of
dread in losing the right voters gave
them in 1998 to use doctor-pre­
scribed cannabis for a certain set of
medical conditions.
A conservative Oregon Repub­
lican is attacking the law with a
referendum to appeal the statute.
The Drug Enforcement Adminis­
tration has also stepped up en­
forcement of federal laws against
marijuana.
Most cardholders respond by
expressing support for a strict in­
terpretation of the state law.
O regon's top advocate for mari­
juana legalization defended her
organization's continued effort to
keep the program tightly control led
as federal agents investigate an­
other high-profile medical marijuana
promoter Don DuPay for growing
more plants than the law allows.
The DuPay case “is a fluke in the
system." says Madeline Martinez,
executive director for the state chap­
ter of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana I .aw s. “We
Katrina
Evacuees
Still Hurting
PHOTO BY R O MOND
Rl
NDI E M A N /T h E PORTLAND OBSERVER
Melodie Silverwolf categorizes a wide variety o f marijuana plants for sampling by the Oregon
members of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at a medical-marijuana
cardholders ’ meeting.
have to make sure that we are al­
ways, always covering our be-
hinds."
DuPay hasclaimed that the DEA
overstepped its authority by reel­
ing in his concerted efforts to pro­
vide for eligible patients, but
M artinez refuses to take any
chances as her group develops a
political game plan.
NORML's staff accordingly kept
close watch over the happenings at
the cardholder meeting this month.
The members were allowed tooffer
cuttings from marijuana plants, but
no exchange of money or any other
type of consideration was permit­
ted.
1
"If you are caught doing so, you
will be asked to leave with your
membership revoked, effective im­
mediately," Martinez said.
Medical-marijuana cardholders
may only reimburse licensed grow­
ers for the cost of the utilities that
continued y ^ on page AS
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
Joe Scott abandoned his
once-cozy house destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina, and he hasn't
reclaimed the quality of life that
he left behind.
Having nearly given up on
ever gathering enough money
for a down payment on a new
house. Scot, is one of the many
Katrina evacuees in Portland
who are still having trouble
paying for basic needs like
clothing.
When Katrina struck the Gulf
Coast less than two years ago,
the Portland chapter of Catholic
Charities stepped in to serve
those affected, bu, the organiza­
tion ended its relief effort last
month due to lack of funding.
“When I first go, here, we
were getting our paperwork filed
through Catholic Charities,"
says Scott, who has never been
able to hold back his emotions
when talking about the disaster.
“I'm a veteran, so I'm financially
OK, bu, basically my problem is
getting started all over again from
scratch."
Catholic C harities is now
transferring the more than 100
transplants still in need of as-
continued y ^ on page A3
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