33
w
iaartlanh
Killing Found
Unnecessary
50£
of
community service
$500,000 settlement
ends police-sniper case
Roosevelt
Theatre Reborn
First shows and classes in a decade
See story, Metro section
See story, page A2
‘City of Roses’
•i.
www.portlandobserver.com
Fstnh
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVII. Number 44
Wednesday • November 14. 2007
Movement
for U S Peace
Department
As alternative to war
C harity P raier
F or the P ortland O bserver
by
Portland activists have joined a nationwide move­
ment to foster non-violent solutions to wars and other
violence by creating a U.S. Department of Peace.
continued
photo by M ark
on page A6
W asihngton /T he P ortland O bserver
photo by
Harvest at the Rose Garden
K0IN Channel 6 Anchor Kelley Day volunteers with players, coaches and staff o f the Portland Trail Blazers, along with other media and
community partners on Monday for the annual Harvest Dinner at the Rose Garden. Free meals were served to about 5,000 homeless or
critically low-income residents. See related photo, page A3.
M ark W ashington / T hf . P ortland O bserver
Community activists Clare Cleveland (left) and
Peggy Mala gather materials in their grassroots
effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace. The
proposed government agency would provide
practical, non-violent solutions to the problems of
domestic and international conflict.
Store Regulations Keep Spray Paint Out of Reach
attempt to make it harder to steal the
cans. Police say taggers often boast of
easily shoplifting their materials.
At Hankins Hardware on Northeast
Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, spray-
paint theft was never a problem, ac­
cording to store m anager W endy
Hankins. The owners and staff initially
expressed opposition to the ordinance
when they were faced with the pros­
pect of installing expensive lock cases
for an item already within view of
cashiers.
The store figured out a way to not
spend anything by reusing shelves and
placing them behind a restricted area
but remains skeptical about the mea­
sures.
“I'm all for things that will help,”
Hankins says, “but this just seems like
doing restrictions without a solution at
the core of the problem."
In attempt to
control graffiti
R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
by
If you want to buy spray paint within
Portland’s city limits, you now have to
ask a store employee for the product
and submit inform ation from your
driver’s license for record keeping.
The restrictions went into effect this
month as part of an ordinance to fight
graffiti; they follow a 50-percent in­
crease in graffiti complaints over the
past year, according to city records.
City commissioners hope that the
new spray-paint regulations will have
the same effect on taggers that state
and federal laws to remove cold rem­
edies from store shelves had for meth
users.
The spray-paint ordinance requires
stores to keep a two-year log of who
buys spray paint, similar to how phar­
macy logs must track people who pur­
chase cold medicines that can be made
into methamphetamine.
By making stores keep the spray
cans out of reach, the regulations are an
photo by R aymond R endleman /T he
P i > r h and O bserver
To comply with a city ordinance effective this month, employees Madina
Chakisso and Aaron Dyer retrieve cans o f spray paint from behind the counter
at Hankins Hardware on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
T. Week in
Thc Review
black men have declined when
adjusted for inflation.
Veto on Health, Education
President Bush, escalating his
budget battle with Congress, on
Gusts o f more than 40 miles per
hourhit Portland Monday, splin­ Tuesday vetoed a $606-billion
tering trees and severing power spending measure for health and
education programs sponsored
to m ore than 100,000. See
by congressional D em ocrats
photo, page A2.
and 50 Republicans.
Winds Slam Power Grid
Growing Racial Disparities
The income gap between black
and white families has grown,
according to a new study re­
leased Tuesday that tracked the
incomes o f some 2,300 families
for more than 30 years. The
data shows that incomes among
Seeing that the ordinance has no
provisions for increased police enforce­
ment or penalties, Hankins suggests
that offenders should automatically
endure community service cleaning up
graffiti rather than just a few hours in
jail for booking.
Hankins wonders if the ordinance
sets a bad precedent for locking up all
types of items, and employee Aaron
Dyer sees the potential for identity theft
if someone nabbed a store's notebook
detailing spray-paint transactions.
Particularly disturbing for Hankins is
the potential for $25.000 fines against a
store that doesn't comply with the
ordinance. She points out that it would
take 15 minutes or less for most people
to go outside the city limits to purchase
spray paints without restrictions.
“Now that we’re doing this, let’s see
some action on the other side," she says.
I'm all for things that will help, hut this
just seems like doing restrictions without
a solution at the core o f the problem.
tion leader B enazir Bhutto,
placed under house arrest once
again, dem anded that embattled
P re s id e n t
G en.
P erv e z
M usharrat resign.
Standing with Pakistan
Criticizing a widely condemned Sabathia Cy Young Winner
crackdown on basic freedoms C.C. Sabathia beat Josh Beckett
but standi ng up for an ally against a, last — albeit a few weeks
terrorism, the White House of­ later than he hoped. Sabathia
fered a m easu red re sp o n se won the AL Cy Young Award
Tuesday as Pakistan's opposi­ on Tuesday, topping Boston's
- Wendy Hankins, Hankins Hardware store manager
ace and two other worthy con­ ing o f an unarmed, mentally-ill
tenders by a com fortable m ar­ teenager by 20 bullets in Brook­
gin to become the first C leve­ lyn, N.Y. Police say they mis­
land Indians pitcher in .35 years took the black hairbrush Khiel
Coppin, 18, was holding for a
gun. sparking outrage from civil-
rights leaders comparing the in­
Public Challenges FCC
D esp ite a p u b lic -c o m m e n t cident to past killings.
meeting scheduledjust five days
in advance, hundreds of people European Labor Unrest
in Seattle showed up to a hear­ French rail workers began an
ing Friday to criticize the Fed­ open-ended strike over pension
eral C o m m u n ic a tio n C o m ­ reforms on Tuesday, the first
m ission's proposal to expand step of a major challenge to
President Nicolas S ark o z y 's
media consolidation.
plans for econom ic reform .
W idespread unhappiness over
Police Shoot Teenager
A m other's frantic 9 11 -call Mon­ issues such as the cost o f living
dayevening resulted in the shoot­ may fuel broader discontent.
»