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Activist Remembered
Stop the Violence
Bobbie Nunn worked
tirelessly for civil rights
March is a reminder
of ongoing ills
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www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII, Number 35
Wednesday • September 12, 2007
Blazers
Hold
Breath
.Week ¡n
The Review
‘Jena 6’ Charge Reduced
Prosecutors reduced an attem pted
m urder charge to aggravated bat­
tery against another o f the "Jena
Six," a group o f black high-school
students w hose crim inal charges
after the beating a w hite classm ate
drew protests o f racism and un­
equal justice. See sto ry , page A2.
Await surgery on
franchise player
Mayfield Sues Government
B ra n d o n
• . M H r : Mas
W !
|
Portland lawyer
W*1G
w as
w ro n g ly
ar-
rested in con-
nection w ith the
2 0 0 4 M a d rid
train b o m b in g s b ec au se o f a
misidentified fingerprint was back
in court M onday, this tim e asking
a ju dge to strike dow n provisions
o f the USA Patriot Act.
Catastrophic Injury
K evin E verett
s u s ta in e d
a
"c atastro p h ic"
and life-threat­
en in g sp in a l-
c o rd
in ju ry
w hile trying to
m ake a tackle
during the Buf­
falo Bills' season opener and is
unlikely to w alk again, the sur­
geon w ho operated on him said
M onday.
Heads Bow for 9-11 Victims
Relatives o f the Sept. 11 victims
bowed their heads in silence Tues-
day to m ark the m om ents exactly
six years earlier w hen hijacked
planes crashed into the W orld
T rade C enter, the Pentagon and a
Pennsylvania field.
p ilo ro by
A ntonio H arris /F or T ilt: P ortland O bserver
Obama Visit Brings Enthusiasm
Presidential candidate Barack Obama stressed big themes with a few veiled jabs at his rivals during a campaign appearance
at the Oregon Convention Center. See story, page A2.
Wide Open Race for Mayor
Jay considers
move after
Potter declines
by R aymond R endleman
T he P ortland O bserver
It’s show dow n tim e for busi­
ness and civic leader Roy Jay, d e­
The top U.S. general in Iraq out­
veloper Bob Ball and City C om m is­
lined plans M onday for the w ith­
sioner Sam Adams follow ing Tom
draw al o f 30,000 troops by next
Potter’s announcem ent on M on­
sum m er, draw ing praise from the
day that he w ould not run for re-
W hite H ouse but a chilly recep­
election.
tion from anti-w ar Dem ocrats.
Jay, who said earlier this sum m er
that he w ould only consider a may-
Jury Ponders Spector Fate
oral run if Potter did not seek a
Ju ro rs began
second term , told the Portland Ob-
d e lib e r a tin g
serverT uesday that he will take the
on M onday in
next 30 days to open a cam paign
Phil Spector's
exploratory committee.
m u rd er trial,
A respected leader in the A fri­
going behind
can-A m erican com m unity and city
clo sed doors
as a whole. Roy said he w ants to
to c o n s id e r
hear from “prom inent folks in busi­
the fate o f the
ness, education,
pioneering rock producer
after an law enforcem ent,
rural court
com m
unities and so forth, in­
often bitter, five-m onth
fight
cluding people that may not really
over the shooting death o f an ac­
tress at his home.
Troop Drawdown Outlined
B
Portland’s hope for a franchise
turnaround with draft sensation Greg
Oden took a turn o f caution Monday
with word that the number-one pick
in the NBA draft will undergoexplor-
atory arthroscopic surgery because
of pain in his right knee.
Trail Blazers team physician Dr.
Don Roberts will perform the sur­
gery Thursday at Southwest W ash­
ington Medical Center in Vancouver.
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging
exam taken last week showed Oden,
may have some cartlilage problems
in the knee, Portland trial Blazers
General M anager Kevin Pritchard
announced Monday.
Pritchard said a tim etable for
O den’s return will be set following
the arthroscopic surgery.
An unidentified team source
quoted by the Oregonian said the
RoyJay
Mayor Tom Potter
want to see me enter the race."
Saying " it's probably a 50/50
chance” that he will run. he w anted
to em phasize that entering the race
was never his idea.
“You have to have a real thick
skin in order to be in this gam e," he
says. "There has alw ays been the
question about why hasn’t there
been anybody o f color in a political
office in thecity for a long time, and
some o f it may be just because
som e people do not want to be that
much involved in the politics or
m aybe people find other opportu­
nities.”
The opportunity to m ake a m ove
will com e soon with the election
com ing in May.
Ball, a Pearl District developing
is also testing the waters. Adams
expects to announce his plans in
the near future, while rem aining fo­
cused on his duties as a city co m ­
m issioner in charge o f transporta­
tion.
Adams already faces a challenge
to his council seat from Ethos M u­
sic Center founder Charles Lewis,
who made a name for him self over
the summer through a series of cam ­
paign events drawing attention to
citywide inequities.
A lthough Jay claim s not to
“have any real axes to grind with
anybody," he sees potential in
bringing a m uch-needed perspec­
tive to City Hall, saying, “we have
issues in this tow n, and some
people have not bothered to really
address them ."
E d u ca tio n , se n io rs, p u b lic-
safety concerns and gentrification
leading to forced dispersal o f local
residents top Ja y ’s list of issues
for the next mayor.
“W hether it’s me or someone
else, nob o d y tak es this thing
lightly," he says. “It’s a challeng­
ing position, but it's rewarding,
because at the end o f the day you
alw ays have to ask yourself, ‘Have
I done enough for my com m unity,
my city and my peo p le?"'
Greg Oden
problem could be as minimal as a
cartilage injury or as bad as a liga­
ment tear.
The Trail Blazers open training
camp in three weeks and the regular
season starts Oct. 30.
This is Oden ’ s second heal th prob­
lem since Portland drafted him in
June. The 7-foot center had a tonsil­
lectomy in July after struggling in
tw o Las V egas sum m er league
games. Oden recovered from that
operation and was work i ng out i n the
Portland area when he felt pain in his
knee. The M RI was taken last Thurs­
day and Oden stopped working out
over the weekend.
Oden,despite being hampered by
a wrist injury, averaged 15.7 points
and 9.6 rebounds for Ohio State last
season, leading the Buckeyes to the
national championship game as a
freshman.
MHMMMMMMMNM
Men’s Academy Boosts Enrollment
Specialized program
has financial gains
•^community service
upkeep o f a large school with only
an average o f seven students per
As students sat down for a re­ classroom last year.
N ew ly elec ted sch o o l-b o ard
turn to the classroom last week,
teachers and parents grappled with m em ber Ruth Atkins has promised
a heightened sense o f cityw ide to address the problem in the c o m ­
ing year, while Jefferson responds
educational inequities.
A newly released study shows to low enrollm ent by inaugurating
that the largest How o f funds per single-sex academ ies, which are
pupil in the Portland School D is­ expected Io boost the sc h o o l's
trict com es from the cluster around num ber o f students substantially
Jefferson High School, but much of for this y ea r's count in O ctober.
Je ffe rso n 's leaders predict a
the m onies go to other schools
record-breaking enrollm ent: more
where the children are enrolled.
Jefferson has a tw o-thirds-black than 850 this year, up from 566 last
student body in a neighborhood year.
“It'sth e largest enrollment w e've
that has gentrified to be about one-
had for a long tim e, and the g irl’s
third African American.
W ith funding based on enroll­ school and young m en 's academ y
ment. the findings suggest that the have certainly helped with that,"
district is subsidizing white stu­ says M acarre Traynham , adm inis­
dents in north and northeast Port­ trator for the A cadem y o f Science
land to transfer to other schools,
continued
on page AT
leaving Jefferson to pay for the
BY R YYMONI) RENDLEMAN
T H E PORTLAND OBSERVER
photo by
R aymond R endi emyn /T he P orti . and O bseryer
John H. Johnson Academy for Young Men students eat lunch in the Jefferson High School cafeteria
at an earlier time than the rest of the students.
I