50(¿ Speda! ßl k Kennedy Sides with Obama enrage | | , s _______ _ ISSUe om, m unity service X^k L / ^ W i/ S ‘City of Roses’ Super Bowl Preview It will be a showdown between Beantown and the Big Apple when the New England Patriots and the New York Giants lock up in the Super Bowl Sunday. The biggest game in A m erica will air on KPTV Channel 12 (FOX). See preview, page B6. Bush’s Last Stand With his approval rating near its all-tim e low and less than a year rem aining in his presidency. P re sid e n t B ush fo c u se d on gnaw ing recession fears in his final State of the Union address M onday. Economy Boost The House, seizing a rare mo­ ment o f bipartisanship to re ­ spond to the econom y’s slump, overw helm ingly passed a $146 billion aid package Tuesday that would speed rebates o f $600 to $1,200 for most taxpayers. The bill now goes to the Senate. ‘Z Man’ Killed on 1-5 H H B M M Portland po- f ig \ l . i r k / \ ¡.iw \ . Bft. «811 'x__ 1VICIIILII z See story, page A2 F c Established t a h l k h p d in in 1 9 1970 70 .W eek ¡n The Review T M rtn flr B ianrtlanh ©bseruer n o r t la n /d n h c A rv A www.portlandobserver.com i a / i v ia z Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXVIII. Number 5 W ■ 1 Presidential contender is endorsed as a man f 'grit and grace.’ o f o ‘grit and grace.’ Race in the Media Vanport Square Success A grand-opening celebration last Thursday marked a successful comple­ tion of a major minority-led development of office and retail space in the heart of Portland’s African-American community. Vanport Square is a42,000-square-foot commercial project at 5225 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., across the street from the Blazer Boys and Girls Club. The development was led by Ray Leary and Jeana Woolley with the backing of the Portland Development Commission and the Portland Family of Funds, a tax credit financial group headed by Carl Talton, another longtime African-American busi­ ness leader. “It is immensely rewarding to finally see a project that you have invested so much energy into for six years became a reality. Ray and I are extremely proud of the end result," said Woolley of Vanport Partners. LLC. Fourteen of the 16 properties in Vanport Square have been purchased and are oc­ cupied by local enterprises, including nine that are owned by women and minorities. The businesses are the Hom of Africa Restaurant, Old Town Pizza, Hardshell continued on page A3 Wednesday • January 30. 2008 Forum to spotlight Foxworth case BY R O MONI) RENDI.EMAN T he P ortland O bserver Portland State University will host a forum next week to discuss what can be learned from the 2(X)6 media handling of then-Police C hief Derrick Foxworth when a former em­ ployee accused him o f sexual harass­ ment. Sensationalist re­ porting and editori­ als may have con­ trib u te d to Foxw orth's demo­ tion, according to PSU Black Studies p ro fe sso r Ethan Johnson, as the city identified one count photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver Carl Talton (left), Jeana Woolley and Ray Leary, the backers o f Vanport Square, an owner-occupied office and retail complex on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, celebrate last Thursday's grand opening. of unprofessional conduct while the seven other more se­ rious accusations were found to be un­ substantiated. Seeing an opportunity to learn from past instances involving white women and black men, Johnson hopes that a panel of editors and reporters who w rote continued on page A3 a ff e c t io n i| a id s as " / know n M an" ¡ns jS I t h r o u g h p o s i .a \ o i i h east Precinct and 17 years of service to Port­ land, was killed by a truck going south on 1-5 Sunday morning. Cascade Festival"1 African Films 18th-annual event opens Friday See story, page A2. Kenya Leader Dead M ugabe W ere, 39, a freshman opposition politician who had resisted his party ’s often bellig­ erent talk, could have been one of the keys to unlocking K enya's crisis, but he was shot and killed in his drivew ay on Tuesday. The 18th edition of Portland Community College's Cascade Festival of African Films com­ m ences in February with a Cannes Film Festival award-win­ ner and a visit by one o f Cameroon’s most influential film­ makers. Organized entirely by volun­ teers. the festival is offered free to the public at venues that in­ clude Room 104 of the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building at PCC’s Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St.: the Hollywood Theatre,4 122 N.F. Sandy Blvd.; and the McMenamins Kennedy School Theatre, 5736 N.F. 33rd Ave. This year's month-long event, starting Friday, Feb. 1, and run­ ning through to Saturday, March I, will open with a screening of Immigrant Seeks Asylum Spurning a deportation order M onday, Elor Crisostom o, 28, said she is ’’picking up the torch” from another illegal resident who became a symbol for im m igra­ tion reform when she took shel­ ter in a Chicago church for a year before being deported. Spacecraft Threatens Earth A 20,000-pound U.S. spy satel­ lite containing hazardous m ate­ rials has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March. It is unknown where on the planet it might come down, but officials assure that num er­ ous satellites o v er the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. Bamako, a film from Mali, brings to life the realities o f contemporary Africa. The Cascade Festival o f African Films selection will be screened on Thursday, Feb. 7 at noon and again Friday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb 's “Days o f Glory," the hard-hitting winner o f the 20 0 6 Cannes Film Festival, is an exceptional war film and a study in colonial exploitation. continued ' y ^ on page .15 Sweet Crude is a documentary o f Nigeria's Niger Delta - where big oil brings stories o f survival, corruption, greed and armed resistance. i