lanuary 9, 2008
PageA2
New Land Means Learning New Laws
Immigrant group helps new arrivals adjust
Approximately 60 refugees from
countries including Nepal, Ethio­
pia, Myanmar (formerly called
Burma (.Burundi and Cuba recently
attended a workshop at the Immi­
grant and Refugee Community Or­
ganization on public safety, basic-
laws, aiid emergency services.
In the countries in which many
of the attendees formerly lived,
people in uniform were not seen as
friends or advocates. In fact, many
knew of police officers as figures of
fear, if not terror.
The workshop was designed to
begin changing those perceptions,
as well as informing the new Ameri­
cans about how to avoid trouble
with the law, how to respond if
stopped by police and when to call
police for protection.
The NE C oalition of N eighborhoods
WELCOMES
Mayor Tom Potter to Jefferson High School
January 14-18,2008
Thank you for your support in building livable
communities for a better quality of life.
voLuNteeRs NeeDeD!
Be part of this great event at Jefferson High!
Help spread the word and sign up today!
January 11,2008 - 9 am to 11 am
Outreach to Businesses
January 12,2008 - 10 am to 2 pm
Door to Door Outreach
Contact: Sylvia Evans, Cross-Cultural Neighborhood Organizer, 503-823-4113 or sylvia@necoalition.org
Shannon Olive, Office Manager, 503-823-4575 or shannon@necoalition.org
Want to be involved in your neighborhood? Since 1974,
the NE Coalition of Neighborhoods has organized and advocated for
community involvement.
WHat A
G fte â t
Fill out the form below and mail or fax to: NE Coalition of Neighborhood Office
4815 NE 7th Ave, Portland, OR 97211 / fax: 503-823-3150
Contact: Robin Denburg 503-823-4135 or robin@necoalition.org.
For more information about the NE Coalition, go to www.necoalition.org
OPPORtuNitY
BUÎLOÎNG LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
t o WORK
NE COALITION OF NEIGHBORHOODS
tO G e tH e R
tO SHOW
YOUR
suPPoRt
FOR
OuR YOutH
auD
OuR C itY !
Your Name:________________________________________________________________
Check next to the way you'd prefer to be contacted about activities in your neighborhood.
□ phone: (circle one) home/cell/'work (______ ) _______- ________________
□ e - m a i l : ___________________________________ ____________________
□ Please do not send monthly e-newsletter
Neighborhood/or address if unknown:___________________________________________
i Want to Get ¡NvOLveO!
□
□
□
□
□
What are your interests?
Land Use/Transportation Issues (Planning, Zoning of Property in Neighborhood)
Public Safety in Neighborhood (Community Policing, Grafitti, Violence Prevention)
Volunteer (Door to Door Outreach, Graphic Design, Phone Bank)
Restorative Listening Circle on Gentrification
THSNlf
Neighborhood Events (Block Party, Clean-Up. Concert in the Park, etc.)
You!
□
Yes! I’m interested in getting involved in my Neighborhood Association.
During an Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization event to learn about public safety,
basic laws and emergency services, retired Oregon State Police supervisor Aaron Olson gives a
bicycle helmet to Akalu Mamo from Ethiopia while IRCO's Brett Bolstad signs up others to receive
the helmets.
Specific workshop topics include Police. Most participants heard his
traffic and criminal laws, domestic words through an interpreter, as
violence laws, identity theft, using most had been in the United States
9-1-1 foremergencies, making non­ for just one to three months.
emergency calls to police and what
Following the completion of the
to do if stopped by a police officer. workshop, 11 bicycle helmets were
It also includes a section on bicycle given to participants. The helmet
program was organized by Olson
safety.
The facilitator of the workshop when he recognized the participants
was Aaron T. Olson, a retired su­ could not afford to buy helmets but
pervisor with the Oregon State they and their children were using
bicycles on the streets.
He purchases the helmets from
manufacturers at a special non­
profit price of just $2.50 each and he
solicits donations for the purchases
from various groups.
The Immigrant and Refugee
C om m unity O rganization and
Olson have partnered to present
this workshop once a quarter to
newly arrived refugees since 2002.
Political Leaders to Step Aside
Eric Sten and Maria Rojo de
Steffey, two progressive political
leaders in Portland, announced last
week that they would be leaving
their elected offices.
Rojo de Steffey will not seek re-
election to the Multnomah County
Board of Commissioners after her
term ends in December. Sten said
he will resign from the Portland City
Council in April, opening up the
post almost two years before his
term expires.
Rojo de Steffey said she made
the decision some time ago, but
temporarily lost sight of the rea­
sons during the controversy over
naming North Interstate Avenue
[ new SEA SO N S
M A R K E T
N O W D E L IV E R IN G
Y o u r f a v o r it e n e i g h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s t o r e n o w d e l iv e r s
g r o c e r i e s r i g h t t o y o u r h o m e o r o f f ic e .
à
Eric Sten
Maria Rojo de Steffey
after Hispanic labor leader Cesar
Chavez.
Declaring she will not run again
for any public office, she has been
in public service 20 years, seven of
them in elected office.
First elected in 1996, Sten con­
ceived the 10-year plan to end
homelessness and pushed the Port­
land Development Commission to
include affordable housing in the
Pearl District and South Waterfront.
Arrest Made in Shooting Spree
Janell Andrews, 48,
Police have arrested
w ho w as shot and
a man in the deaths of
killed on North Will­
two people killed dur­
ing a weekend last No­
iams Street later the
same weekend. Police
vem ber th at saw a
said physical and fo­
brother and sister kil led
rensic evidence con­
and a man killed when
n e c ts
G ates
to
he interrupted a bur­
Callaway and Patricia
glary at his home.
Andrews’ murder.
L ovene S te rlin g
A key break in the
Gates, 24, is charged in
the deaths of Charles Lovene Gates
case came when detec­
tives learned that a ja r
Callaway, 32, who was
shot in his North Montana Avenue of coins had been stolen from
home, and Patricia Andrews, 47, Callaway's house and that the In­
who was found dead within a few terstate Fred Meyer had surveil­
hours of the killing and just a couple lance images of a person cashing in
of blocks away along Minnesota loose change from that jar the night
Avenue next to the 1-5 freeway wall of Callaw ay's death.
Gates has a lengthy criminal
at Killingsworth Street.
Gates was not charged in the record of property, drug and weap­
death of Andrews' brother, Rickey ons offenses.
Gay Rights Law on Hold
w w w .n e w s e a s o n s m a r k e t .c o m
you click, we deliver, (or pull up for pick up)
Candlelig’ht vigils were held last joint state tax filings, joint health,
week by supporters of gay rights auto and homeowners insurance
after a state domestic partnership policies, visitation rights at hospi­
law was put on hold just before it tals and others. It does not affect
was to go into effect on Jan. I, federal benefits for married couples,
pending a February hearing.
including Social Security and joint
Opponents asked U.S. District filing of federal tax returns.
Judge Michael W. Mosman, a Bush
Opponents of the measure said
appointee, to intercede after the the state's review process was
Oregon Secretary of State's office Hawed, disenfranchising citizens
ruled that they had failed to collect who had signed petitions.
The state's largest gay rights
enough valid signatures on a refer­
group, Basic Rights Oregon, said
endum to block the law.
The Oregon measure covers the judge's decision was unfair to
benefits related to inheritance for committed, caring couples and
rights, child-rearing and custody. families.
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