years
Delegates chosen for this
year’s Miss Black Oregon
See M etro section
°f
®1,e Hnrtlanb
‘City of Roses'
Established In 1970
bserver
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIII, Number 3
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • lanuary 16. 2008
tReview ‘What’s Going to Happen when the Mayor Leaves?’
Oprah Network Deal
Discovery Communications an­
nounced a cash-free transaction
T uesday
w here the I
D is c o v e ry i
Health net­
work will be
turned over
nextyear.be-
c o m in g
OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Net­
work in exchange for her website.
Another Troop Surge
The U.S. m ilitary announced
Tuesday it was sending 3,200
additional Marines to A fghani­
stan in an effort to counter an
e x p e c te d o f fe n s iv e by the
Taliban militia and help train
A fghan national soldiers.
Jefferson visit has
mixed response
by R aymond R endleman
T he P ortland O bserver
Students and officials so far have mixed re­
sponse to Mayor Tom Potter's weeklong visit at
Jefferson High School. The ongoing event that is
bringing more than 100 city employees and the
annual State of the City address to the north
Portland school also brought a sense of uncer­
tainty.
Roundtable discussions with city leaders dur­
ing the first half of the week gave optimism to
some students for school-improvement resources.
“What I’m hoping to happen is that the city will adm inistrator
stay more involved." Jefferson senior Tyrone
White told the Portland Observer on Monday
afternoon, sitting down for lunch in the school's
small gymnasium. “I’m thinking that there’s a 75
percent chance that this will happen with someol
the government people here."
Keen to get a summer job, Jefferson sopho­
more Anthony Blackmon took advantage of the
officials’ presence by walking the hallways ask­
ing for business cards. Blackmon pointed out
that the rarity of a mayor temporarily relocating
offices "could really help the school realize its full
potential" by drawing interest to Jefferson's
unique needs and talents.
Speaking to the entire makeshift lunchroom,
Tyrisha Blake, Jefferson junior
continued
y^
on page 4 5
Jefferson High stu­
dents and community
leaders sit down for
roundtable discussions
Monday in the school's
small gymnasium.
Pictured (from left) are
senior Tiana Rasin,
sophomore Robert Gill,
Portland Community
College Cascade
Campus President
Algie Gatewood,
ReBuilding Center
founder Shane Endicott
and Mayor Tom Potter.
Clinton, Obama Truce
Democratic presidential rivals
Hillary Rixlham Clinton and Barack
Obama stepped back from a con­
troversy over race Monday, agree­
ing that a prolonged clash over
civil rights could harm theirparty's
overall drive to win the White
House. See story, page A2.
School Tax Endorsed
Portland School Board members
on Monday approved charging
developers a construction fee with
the expectation of bringing in $2 to |
4 million a year for education by
covering a portion of maintenance
costs.
History Making Governor
LouisianaGov.
Bobby Jindal,
the n a tio n ’s
first Indian-
A m erican to
lead a state,
moved into of­
fice Monday with a slate of hefty
promises to clean up the state's
corrupt image, rebuild after hurri­
canes Katrina and Rita, and re­
verse what he called “decades of
failure in government.”
Lebanese Attacks Reemerge
PHOTOS BY
M ark W ashington /
and O bsera er
T hi P orti
Emanuel to Build Patient Tower
As President Bush toured the ■
Middle East, the first attack on
U.S. diplomatic interests in Leba- i
non since the ‘80s struck with an
explosion targeting the embassy’s
Legacy Health system announced plans
armored SUV Tuesday in Beirut,
Tuesday
to build a seven-story tower,
killing at least three locals and in­
adding
230,000
square feet for patient ser­
juring an American.
vices and constructing a new parking ga­
MySpace Restrictions
rage on the north side of its Emanuel Hos­
MySpace agreed Monday to take
pital campus at 2801 N. Gantenbein.
steps to protect youngsters from
Approval of the project by the Legacy
online predators, including search­
Board of Directors is welcome news for a
ing for ways to better verify users’ hospital community that has operated near
ages. Skeptics say age-verifica­
functional capacity for several years, offi­
tion technology isdifficult to imple­ cials with the not-for-profit healthcare sys­
ment and predators are good at
tem said.
circumventing restrictions.
The b oard’s decision comes after
months
of research on inpatient demand
Economic Worries Escalate
projections
through 2025 for Legacy
Stocks skidded Tuesday after tum­
Emanuel
Hospital
and Legacy Emanuel
bling consumer spending and dis­
Children's
Hospital.
Emanuel is home to
appointing quarterly reports sig­
six
intensive-care
units:
neonatal, pediat­
naled no end in sight for Wail
rics. trauma, bum and medical-cardiac. It
S tr e e t’s c o n cern s ab o u t the
also provides such services as those for
economy. The Dow Jones indus­
complete surgical and acute care; and spe­
trials fell almost 200 points.
cialty care for children.
“Emanuel offers services that are vital
to the community's health, and this expan­
sion will allow us to continue to meet the
growing need for highly specialized medi­
cal care," said Pam Vukovich. interim presi­
dent and chief executive officer of Legacy
Health System.
When completed on the north side of
the existing hospital, the new patient tower
will house inpatient care for children as
well as the children's emergency depart­
ment. The tower will offer single room
occupancy with a variety of benefits for
young patients and their families.
The existing west wing and current pa­
tient tower will be remodeled and offcraddi-
tional adult ICU and acute care beds at
Emanuel Hospital.
Legacy hopes to begin construction on
Addition planned on hospital’s north side
continued
»
y^
on page 4 5
History
Comes
Alive
ba R aymond R endleman
photo by M ark W asiiington /T he P ortland O rsi raer
Legacy Emanuel Hospital's north Portland campus will soon expand with the
addition o f a seven story tower for patient services and a new parking garage.
T he P ortland O bseraer
In honor of this year's Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, professor, producer and actor
Julianne Johnson w ill present her46-minute
documentary Grandma Zula's Legacy for
the first time to the general public in a tree
screening.
G ra n d m a
Z u la 's L egacy
tells the story of
an
A frican -
A m c r i c a n
f a m i l y 's
struggles and tri­
umphs through­
out their journey
from S outhern
slavery to their Julianne Johnson
effort to find a
place in Oregon society. Along the way,
they attempt to farm in the South, commit
themselves to cross-country migration anil
lose their home in the 1948 Vanport f lood.
Inspired by family matriarch Grandma Zula
Mae Kiser, Johnson wants to display her
fam ily's long tradition of building commu­
nity and transcending racial barriers to meet
needs. She channels the spirit ol her great
grandmother by interviewing relatives, his­
torians that knew the family and friends that
shared their experiences.
Johnson argues that the traditional story
continued
y^
on page A.1
»