50£
¿Lite
‘Citv J of Roses'
50 Years of Glamour
May 20 Primary
Classic Ebony Fashion
Fair coming to Portland
Last Day to Register:
April 29
See page A6, inside
www.oregonvotes.org
1 -8 66 -O R E -V O T E S
VOTE
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Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIII, N um ber 15
Wednesday • April 9, 2008
‘I’m a Fighter’
Oregon in
spotlight as
vote nears
photo by R aymond R endi . eman /T he P ortland O bserv er
Multnomah County Elections receptionist Sharon Johnson (left) helps keep
up with demand, distributing a packet of 100 voter-registration cards to
Marissa Johnson, a student-body officer at Portland Community College's
Cascade Campus in north Portland.
Clinton-Obama Vote
for Democrats Only
Registrations surge as deadline looms
by R aymond R endleman
T he P ortland O bserver
A ra re o p p o rtu n ity to sw ay the
pick fo r p re sid e n t m ay v an ish so o n e r
than you th in k .
W ith the co n v e n ie n ce o f O re g o n ’s
v o te -b y -m a il sy ste m , you m ay be
tem pted to ju s t to w ait for the u p co m
ing M ay 20 Prim ary ballot. But unless
y o u 're reg istered as a D em ocrat by
A pril 29, you w o n ’t have the ch an ce to
vote in the h isto rically co m p etitiv e
prim ary race b etw een Sen. H illary
C linton and Sen. B arack O bam a.
con tin u ed
on p age A J
(A P ) — In h er first visit to
O regon as a presid en tial c a n d i
d ate, N ew Y ork S en. H illary
C lin to n prom ised that the sta te ’s
voters w ould get th eir ch an ce to
w eigh in on the hotly co n tested
D em ocratic race in M ay.
“ I am a fighter,” Clinton told a
crowd o f about 2,600 at Liberty
High School in Hillsboro, as thou
sands more w atched her speech in
an overflow room. “ I happened to
believe this country is worth fight
ing for. And I also believe that you
d o n 't make difficult, consequential
change in Am erica merely by w ish
ing for it and hoping for it.”
Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack
O bam a are both vying for their
party's nom ination, in a contest
that's lasted far longer than pre
dicted. O regon's May 20 prim ary is
one o f the last in the nation.
B o th c a m p a ig n s h a v e d e
scended on the state.
Clinton stayed overnight in Port
land Friday and spoke in Hillsboro
Saturday morning before an after
noon town hall o f about 2,500
peo p le at South E ugene H igh
School. She promised she’d be re
turning to Oregon and opened a
campaign office in downtown Port
land on M onday.
O bam a has opened five cam
paign offices so far and headlined
Sen. Hillary Clinton signs autographs in Hillsboro on Saturday during
her first visit to Oregon as a candidate for president.
a series o f rallies in the W illam ette Valley
last month, following by a cam paign swing
last fall.
On Saturday, Clinton m ade a point of
nodding to O regon-centric issues, dedicat
ing a portion o f her speech to her opposition
to citing floating term inals for storage and
... You don't make
difficult, consequent
ial change in America
merely by wishing for
it and hoping for it.
delivery of natural gas on or near the Oregon
Coast.
She drew on O regon’s reputation as an
environm entally aware state, saying it was
a role model for several o f her priorities, via
its growing wind-power industry and its
reputation forenergy-efficient building. She
promised investments in "green m anufac
turing," and said such new programs would
be partially paid for by rem oving tax subsi
dies for big oil companies.
But som e o f the au d ien c e's biggest
cheers were reserved for national issues,
like her prom ise to crack down on loan
com panies that charge sky-high interest
rates to students, and her statement that if
elected, she’d hope to begin withdrawing
-H illary Clinton
continued
on page A J
Changes May Shake Up Rose Festival Court
Jefferson High School would be
chosen to represent the Rose Fes
tival Court in any capacity. C lass
m ates ended up not only voting her
princess, she went on to be named
Queen o f Rosaria and graduate from
G eorge W ashington U niversity's
by R aymond R endleman
School o f M edicine.
T he P ortland O bserver
Now the program director o f an
A decade ago A lisha M oreland- a d d ic tio n - r e c o v e r y c e n te r in
Capuia becam e the pride o f the city. G resham . M oreland-Capuia can be
N oone thought that the unpopu counted am ong those who worry
lar kid from north P o rtla n d ’s about changes afoot. She sees a
magical capacity in the Rose Festi
val program to give inspiration and
scholarship funds to underserved
young women, but hopes that in
clusion o f suburban schools will
not hinder the city 's passion for
Rosaria rituals.
“ It (the Court program) has a
self-esteem and com m unity build
ing focus, and I think you take away
from that when you expand it," she
says.
A nother possible concern in
volves the em erging set o f partici
pation requirem ents that threatened
Alisha Moreland-Capuia
to strip high schools like Benson
and Roosevelt o f their spots in the
program if they continued not to
produce five princess candidates
yearly. M oreland-Capuia perceives
a top-down message to com m uni
ties in struggling parts of the city.
"It suggests that the students
from north and northeast Portland
a re n 't good enough," she says.
“ It's unfair lor students because so
much is dependent on the high
school adm inistrations' level o f
m otivation and resources."
Program designers assert that
the recent rulem aking sessio n 's
goal was to encourage involvement.
“ It w asn 't about a m essage; it
was ju st about dw indling participa
tion," says M arilyn Clint, associate
executive director o f the Rose Fes
tival. who herself aspired to be
R oosevelt's princess in 1974.
Clint also points to how the non
profit has increased its assistance
to the schools in boosting interest.
Among the sets o f recom m enda
tions for the largest event in the
Schools must
boost princess
participation
T, Week in
Thc Review
Fantastic Finish!
Kansas wins the NCAA tourney at
the buzzer and in overtim e giving
the Jayhaw ks their first national
cham pionship in 20 years. See
story, page A2.
King Anniversary
Forty years after the assassination
PHOTO BA R AYMONI) REND I.EM A N /TH E PORTLAND OBSERVER
Decades o f Rose Festival changes are overseen by Marilyn Clint, a director of the nonprofit program.
of Mart i n I .uther K i ng J r. on Apri 14. TV Legend Dies
1968, vigils involved thousands of Jim Bosley,nick
mourners across the nation, includ named “The Boz
ing a group in Portland who gath a longtime icon at
ered Friday in front o f thc King Portland's KATU
statue in front of the Oregon C on Channel 2. where
vention C en ter and carried his he anchored the
memory across the river to Tom w eather d ep a rt
McCall W aterfront Park.
ment for over 30
years, died Sun
NewEraatOSU day at the age o f 73.
Craig Robinson,
who coached the Protesters Scale Bridge
past two seasons People protesting C h in a's hum an-
at Brown and has rig h ts record and the im pending
gained added at a rriv a l o f the O ly m p ic to rch
tention as Barack clim bed up the G olden Gate Bridge
O b am a's brother-in-law , was se M onday and tied pro test b an
lected M onday as the m en's coach ners to its cables. C hina insisted
at O re g o n S ta te . See story, that the international relay w ould
proceed unchanged d esp ite w iki
page A2
I
)
continued
on p age A3
street p ro tests in E urope on
S unday and M onday.
14 and 15 w ere being forced into
m arriages w ith m uch o ld er men.
$4 a Gallon Expected
Sneaker Assembly Resumes
Retail gas prices co u ld clim b as
high as $4 a gallon this sum m er,
the E nergy D ep artm en t said
T uesday, p red ictin g that prices
at such lofty levels will m ake
m any A m ericans think tw ice
about hitting the road this su m
m er a n d .
Most of the 2 1 .(MX) workers returned
to a V ietnam ese factory on M on
day Io make Nike sneakers, one
week alte ra strike closed the plant.
Polygamist Bust
O fficials in E ldorado, T exas re
m oved 534 w om en and children
from a p o ly g a m ist co m p o u n d
M onday. T he raid w as sparked
by a 16-year-old g irl's call to au
th o r itie s thitl she w as b ein g
ab u sed and that girls as young as
No Troop Withdrawals
G en eral D avid P etraeus told law
m akers T uesday that p ro g ress in
Iraq is too “ frag ile and re v e rs
ible"' to allow LI.S. troop levels to
full below about 14 0 ,(MM) ea rlier
than Septem ber.