Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, February 13, 2008, Page 2, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    PageA2
ib ‘ P o rtia n i» (O bse rtier
February 13. 2008
Black History Month
Obama Victories Begin to Mount
Barack Wins
Portland
the remaining to be determined
during Tuesday’s Nov. 19 Wash­
ington Primary Election.
In Vancouver, Clark County
Democrats reported that 8,299
people participated in theircaueuses.
a record that far exceeded the previ­
ous high of 3,200 who participated in
2(X)4. County Republicans reported
that 1,395 people showed up for their
caucuses.
In the count needed to win
the D e m o c ra tic n o m in a tio n ,
C lin to n had 1,147 d e le g a te s
versus 1,124 for O bam a before
T u e sd a y 's prim aries and c a u ­
c u se s in W a sh in g to n , D .C .,
M aryland and V irginia.
Aides to Clinton said she was is
in the midst of a difficult period in
which she could lose 10 straight
contests. She is hoping to rebound
on March 4. in primaries in the big­
ger states Ohio and Texas, where
both candidates have already be­
gun television advertising.
Erodes Clinton
delegate lead
Straw Poll
Illinois U.S. Sen Barack
Obama won a straw poll at
the Tiffany Center in down­
town Portland during a Feb.
5 election night party.
More than 400 Dem o­
crats attended the Super
Tuesday event.
“There is so much enthu­
siasm for a change in direc­
tion in the W hite House,”
said M eredith Wood Smith,
chair of the Oregon Demo­
cratic Party. “ We will capi­
talize on the record interest
in our early prim aries. We
will ride this wave all the
way to 1600 Pennsylvania
A venue.”
Sen. Barack Obama won the Vir­
ginia primary Tuesday and reached
out for victories in nearby Mary­
land and the District of Columbia.
Obama’s triumph made it six
straight over Clinton, the former
first lady, now struggling to keep
up a race she once commanded.
Last Saturday, Obama won ev­
ery county in Washington state's
Democratic presidential caucuses.
Obama got 68 percent of the total
vote, compared to 31 percent for
Clinton. On the Republican side in
Washington. Sen. John McCain got
25.6 percent, compared to 23.3 per­
cent for Gov. Mike Huckabee and
21 percent for Rep. Ron Paul.
All of the state’s national con­
vention delegates were at stake for
Dem ocrats, while Republicans
awarded half their delegates with
Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-lll., visits a Metro transit station in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday where voters were participating in a Democratic Party primary. (AP photo)
Gang Violence Confronted
After teenager
gets shot
BLACKUNITEDFUND
O F
O R E G O N
Please consider donating to the Black United Fund during your workplace or employee
giving campaign. Thanks to all of the companies that allow us to share wha, we are
doing to help improve low-income communities!
Visit our website at www.buldr.org to see if your company is listed, checkout our new
video, and view the community calendar and job source page.
The 18th Annual Cascade Festival of
1
F IL M S
by R aymond R endi . iman
T hi P ortland O bserver
Gang experts are worried about
spiraling youth violenee after a
15-year-old was shot and in jured
near N o rth e a st K illin g w o rth
Street and Cully Boulevard on
Sunday.
R u ssC o m o o f the Portland Po­
lice Bureau told KATU that he’s
seen more gang members in the
metropolitan area than at any time
in the last 10 years that he’s
worked gang enforcem ent.
A ccording to Rob Ingram ,
youth-gang-prevention co o rd i­
nator for the m ayor’s office, the
numbers of gang related incidents
have increased, but said the exact
amount may have been exagger­
ated at the encouragem ent o f the
media.
N onetheless, he argues that
gang enforcem ent has been hurt
by recent disinvestm ent in pre­
vention programs.
“Portland had made some great
strides, and then all o f a sudden
we took a huge step backw ards,”
Rob Ingram
Ingram told the Portland O b­
server. "This office w asn't es­
tablished until 2006. and in 2005
all the outreach w orkers were
taken off the street, so that put us
back a little bit into prehistoric
times.”
W hile som e m oney has re­
turned for fighting gangs, he said
the pro b lem had been c o m ­
pounded by the spread o f vio­
lence out o f its traditional north
and northeast Portland urea.
“T here’s still a lot of work to
do,” he said. "W e've got five
outreach w orkers total that are
trying to cover the entire city.”
Ingram said people need to rec­
ognize the exact scope of the prob­
lem in order for appropriate solu­
tions.
"The gang mem bers continue
to strategize, collaborate, grow
and develop, and so we have to
make sure that we do too,” he
said.
The time is
always right
to do what
At the Housing Authority of
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Portland, we are committed to
workforce and contracting
diversity. We support
participation of disadvantaged,
minority-owned, women-owned
and emerging small businesses
on HAP projects. In 2008 we will
be seeking partners for the
rehabilitation of the Grove Hotel,
the development of the
downtown Resource Access
Center, and various capital
projects in our public housing
portfolio. Visit our website at
www.hapdx.org or call Jerry
Walker, HAP’s Purchasing
A C e le b ra tio n of B la c k H is to ry M onth
a t PCC’s C a s c a d e C am pus
Manager, at 503-802-8509 to
learn about opportunities.
February 1 - March 1,2008
Thursdays through Saturdays
Free and Open to the Public
Film List and Screening Times at
www.africanfilmfestival.org
Portland
Community
College
i
♦
We’re all about
your future.
♦
I