C Demand Falls
50¡¿
Gasoline prices in Portland
inched down to an average o f
$3.93 a gallon Tuesday as
worldwide oil prices fell because
o f less consumer demand
^com m unity service
Local Help for Jefferson
Portland leaders enter into a
partnership to provide mentoring.
career and educational
opportunities to students at
Jefferson High School
See story, page A3
‘City of Roses’
Volume XXXVIII. N um ber 31
.Week ¡n
The Review
Jobless at 4 Year High
The n atio n ’s unem ploym ent
rate clim bed to a 4-year high of
5.7 percent last month as em ­
ployers cut 51,000 jobs, dash­
ing the hopes of an influx of
young people looking for sum ­
mer work. See story, page A 10.
Morgan Freeman Recovers
Morgan Freeman was recover­
ing from surgery Tuesday to
repair inju­
rie s s u s ­
tained in a
serious car
crash
and
j ¥ I j ’ ’
lo o k in g
forward to leaving hospital, a
spokesw om an for the actor
said. Freeman, 72, was driving
a car in M ississippi S u n d ay ;
when it left the road and rolled i
over.
Bush Denies Fake Letter
The W hite House and the CIA
on Tuesday adam antly denied
a report that the Bush adm inis­
tration concocted a fake letter
purporting to show a link be­
tween Saddam H ussein's re­
gime and al-Q aida as a ju stifi­
cation for the Iraq war.
Portland Crime Rate Dips
Portland’s crime rate has sunk
to the lowest level since the
city started keeping records in
the 1970s. Police said the over­
all crime rate was 63 victims of
crim e for every 1.000 people.
That com pares to a high of 161
victims for every 1.000 people
in 1988. See sto ry , page A2.
Paramedic Sentenced
A Multnomah
C ounty judge
sen ten ced a
fo rm er p a ra ­
medic to five
years in prison
Monday for in-j
appropriately touching female
p atien ts d u rin g am b u lan ce
trips. Lannie Lee Haszard, 62,
pleaded guilty to attem pted
first-degree sexual abuse. See
sto ry , page A2.
1-5 Expansion Protested
Activists unfurled a banner on
the M orrison Bridge Monday
protesting the 1-5 Interstate
B ridge expansion proposal.
M embers of Convergence for
Clim ate Action are concerned
about the plans to add six more
lanes to Qie crossing, citing
the impact on the environm ent
and continued reliance on oil-
based transportation.
Max Checkpoints Coming
TriM et is making renovations
to the Northeast 82nd Avenue
and Gresham Center Max sta­
tions to make sure that light-
rail passengers are paying their
fares. The transit agency plans
to funnel passengers toward
specific entrances where ticket
inspectors can check who has
valid tickets.
Olympics Open Friday
Friday's opening ceremony for
the 2008 Olympics in Beijing
willuse around 10,000 perform­
ers and is expected to be seen
by a global television audience
o f about four billion people.
NBC will broadcast the cer­
emony to American audiences
starting at 7:30 p.m.
Oregon Schools Fail Short
New data suggests that just 61
percent o f Oregon schools arc
m e e tin g fe d e ra l aca d e m ic
goals, down nearly 14 percent­
age points in a single year.
As in years past, the picture
looks bleaker for high schools
than it does for elem entary
schools.
Established in 1970
w w w .p o rtla n d o b s e rv e r.c o m
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • August 6. 2008
Company
Retaliated
Against
'Workers
Video Only
liable for
harassment
the telling of racially offensive
“jo k e s ” ; use o f the e p ith et
“beaner”; and a doll with its hair
and face painted black that was
hog-tied and hung by a nail in the
break room.
The EEOC also alleged that the
com
pany re ta lia te d a g a in st
Home electronics retailer
Gonzales
and Lewis after they
Video Only will pay $630,000
reported
the harassm ent by,
and implem ent preventative
among
other
things, hiring a pri­
measures to settle two dis­
vate
investigator
to gather infor­
crimination lawsuits, the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportu­ mation in an effort to discredit
nity Com m ission announced their harassment claims.
Company officials also con­
M onday.
According to the EEOC’s fronted co-workers who sup­
suit, two employees of Video ported the complainants by tell­
Only’s Jantzen Beach store — ing them they were hurting the
Michael Gonzales, a Hispanic, company and trying to get them
and Jayson Lewis, an African to quit, the EEOC charged.
In finding forthe EEOC and the
American whose fiancée and
discrimination
victims. Judge G an
two young children are Jewish
M.
King
of
the
U.S.
District Court
— faced repeated slurs and
in
Portland
said
the
company had
jokes about their race, national
called
for
a
private
investigation
origin, and religion.
The abuse included use of
continued
on page A 10
the “N-word" by management;
photo bv
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
The Video Only sto re at Jantzen Beach w as fined and ordered to m a k e corrections to its
workplace after sto re e m p lo yees and their supervisors u s e d so m e o f the worst ste re o ty p e s
and slurs about African Am ericans, Latinos and Jew s and retaliated against em p lo yees who
com plained.
Job Network Helps the Disabled
DePaul
Industries
serves the
community
For 37 years, DePaul Indus­
tries has been helping people
with disabilities have the op­
portunity to work.
Located at 4950 N.E. Martin
Luther King Jr. Blvd., DePaul
Industries typically helps over
2,000 people with disabilities
every year by em ploying them
in one of its core businesses -
tem porary staffing services,
security services, food and con­
sum er goods packaging - or by
placing them in jobs through­
out the com m unity.
Company officials say the in­
dividuals that go to work for them
are usually people who hope to
begin or re-start a career. They are
people who want to work, despite
their disabilities.
D e P a u l’s su ccess can be
gauged by the fact that it is the
largest employer of people with
disabilities in Oregon and among
the most successful organiza­
tions of its kind in the country.
In support o f its m ission,
DePaul values respect for the
dignity of people, com passion,
integrity, custom er focus, en ­
trepreneurial spirit, responsive­
ness to change, econom ic inde­
pendence. teamwork and hav­
ing fun.
The organization, in recog­
nition of its core values, was a
finalist in 2005 and 2007 forthe
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Donnie Crawford Sr. (right) m e e ts with DePaul Industries General M anager Travis P earson (far left) and DePaul executive
Dave Shaffer, after m aking a jo b connection at the organization which em ploys peo p le with disabilities, located at 4 9 5 0 N.E.
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
prestigious Oregon Ethics in
Business Award.
Statistics show some major
obstacles for facing people with
disabilities.
The unem ploym ent rate in
the United States and Portland
for people with disabilities ex ­
ceeds 65 percent. Nearly 200,000
O regonians have disabilities
that present barriers to com ­
petitive em ploym ent. A m eri­
cans with disabilities are nearly uting to the economic life o f our
three times more likely to live in community.
Recently, DePaul Industries
poverty than people without
has
become the lead organiza­
disabilities.
tion
spearheading the efforts of
DePaul Industries is very
Project
SEARCH, a nationally
proud o f the major role it plays
recognized
program dedicated
in positively impacting the lives
to
workforce
developm ent fo­
of people who are capable of
cused
on
individuals
with sig­
making a substantial contribu­
nificant
barriers
toemploymcnt.
tion to the community.
Project SEARCH generates
A, DePaul, these O regonians
partnerships
w ith businesses that
arc doing real work and contrib­
work to benefit the individual, the
community and the workplace.
Its goal is to match qualified em ­
ployees with open positions in a
variety of settings.
There is also on-site jo b -re­
tention staff at DePaul, charged
with creating a unique support
system where people with dis-
abilitiescan successfully m ain­
tain em ploym ent and advance
in their chosen careers.