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Multi-ethnic portraits mix
more than color at Interstate
Firehouse Cultural Center
See story, page A5
City of Roses’
bserlier
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIII, Number 35
Wednesday • September 3, 2008
TlW eek in
The Review
Verdict
Finds
McCain Defends VP Pick
Republican John
M c C a in
sa id
Tuesday he's sat­
isfied that Sarah
P a lin 's
back­
ground was prop­
erly checked out
b efo re the A lask a g o v ern o r
jo in ed the R epublican ticket.
Workplace
Racism
Jury awards
$19 million to
auto salesmen
See story, page A2.
Obama Leads in New Polls
A new USA T oday/G allop poll
in the race for president shows
Barack O bam a with a 50 percent
to 43 percent lead over John
M cCain am ong registered vot­
ers. A new CBS poll show s him
up by 8 points, 48 percent to 40
percent. See sto ry , page A2.
Evacuees Wait to
Come Home
G u lf Coast residents w hoevacu- i
ated ahead o f Hurricane G ustav
grew increasingly anxious to re­
turn home, but authorities said
T uesday they w ould have to
wait. Checkpoints popped up
around New O rleans to keep the
city em pty o f residents so work
could get under way to restore
pow er and other critical services.
Fire Closes Oregon Capitol
Tile Oregon State Capitol was
closed Tuesday after a weekend
fire dam aged the governor's C er­
em onial O ffice and other areas.
The fire started early Saturday
on th e te rra c e o u ts id e the
governor's second-floor office
suite, where construction sup­
plies and m aterials were stored
for a renovation project.
Mexican Police
Held in Death
Six M exican officers have been
placed under house arrest on
suspicion o f hom icide after an
Oregon man died w hile in police
custody in the resort city o f San
Jose del Cabo. A state deputy
prosecutor said authorities will
investigate w hether the police
officers played a role in the death.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ori land O bserver
Jazz °"the Mississippi
H arold W illiam s Two o f th e D iversity In stitu te (from left) jo in s c o m m u n ity le a d e rs R a n c e Spruill o f th e Albina Youth
O pportunity S ch o o l, DJ OGOne o f Ja m m in 1 0 7 .5 a n d Jo h n Ja c kley o f th e P ortland D e v e lo p m e n t C o m m issio n to p ro m o te
th e first e v e r “J a zz o n th e M is sis sip p i" e n te r ta in m e n t e v e n t co m in g Thursday, S e p t. 1 1 to M issis sip p i A ve n u e b e tw e e n
B e e c h a n d S h a v e r S tr e e ts . For m o re in form ation, s e e d isp la y a d v e r tis e m e n t o n p a g e A3.
Parents Warned on Kids Drinking
Warning
labels added
to liquor
store shelves
The Oregon D epartm ent o f
H uman Services with the sup­
port o f Oregon Partnership and
the O regon L iquor C ontrol
Com m ission have kicked o ff a
cam paign to educate adults
about the dangers o f furnish­
ing alcohol to minors.
New stickers, bottle hang­
ers and posters are being dis­
tributed at Oregon liquor stores
to let parents know that allow ­
ing teens to drink at hom e is not
okay.
The cam paign describes how
kids frequently take alcohol from
hom e supplies and reinforces the
m essag e that parental d isa p ­
proval is the most Important rea­
son kids d o n ’t drink.
It also drives hom e the fact
that it's illegal for adults to host
underage drinking parties - even
in your home.
A re c e n t O reg o n H ealth y
Teens Survey shows that about a
third o f 8th graders in the state
have consum ed alcohol in the
past 30 days as have about half o f
I Ith graders.
The Survey also shows that 3 1
percent o f 8th grade drinkers and
People who buy or provide
alcohol for a minor could go
to jail and pay a fine o f $1,000
or more.
- Steve Sander, OLCC training analyst and program coordinator
37 percent of 11 th grade drink­
ers prefer hard liquor.
“ People who buy or provide
alcohol for a m inor could go to
jail and pay a fine o f $ I .(XX) or
more,” said Steve Sander, OLCC
training analyst and program
coordinator. “ Kids are 'shoul­
der tapping’ - asking adults to
buy alcohol for them. One way
to reduce underage drinking is
to educate the grownups who
are buying it.”
The “Face it. Parents" cam ­
paign is managed by Oregon
Partnership and designed to re­
duce underage drinking by tar­
geting parents.
For more about “ Face It. Par­
ents," visit faceitparents.com .
Tiger’s Wife
Expecting Again
T iger W oods said his wife Elin is
expecting in late w inter without
being m ore specific on a due
date. W oolfs’ first child, daugh­
ter Sam, was born last year.
Weapon Fired at Bus
Som eone fired a w eapon at a
TriM e, busjust after I a.m. as the
bus drove near the intersection
of
N o rth
A lb in a
an d
Killingsworth Street. N oone was
seriously injured. A window on
the bus was cracked and inves­
tigators think the dam age may
have been caused by a paintball
gun or slingshot.
Missing Hikers Found Safe
A party o f missing hikers made it
back safely Tuesday after some
o f its m em bers spent a night in
the wiwxls near Horsetail Falls in
the C olum bia Gorge. Rescuers
said that the party o f acquain­
tances from a M ormon church in
Beaverton set out M onday on a
I O-mile day hike but split up be­
cause they were traveling at d if­
ferent speeds.
1
VOTE
photo nv M \ rk W \ shington /T hi P ortland O bserver
N e w s tic k e r s a n d b o ttle h a n g e rs e d u c a te p a r e n ts a b o u t th e pitfalls to allow ing te e n s to drink a t h o m e . P rom oting th e
e d u c a tio n a l ca m p a ig n are R u d y W illiam s (left) o f th e Oregon Liquor C ontrol C o m m issio n a n d P a m ela S . E rickson o f
P ublic A ction M a n a g em en t.
«
A federal jury in Portland has
awarded $ 19 mi 11 ion to four former
auto salesm en after ruling they
were victim s o f racism at work.
C a rlo s B a rfie ld , M a rc u s
Arnold, Jahaeel Hardy and Kent
Paul sued in 2006 after they said
m anagers and other w orkers at
the Thom ason T oyota dealership
in suburban G ladstone encour­
aged racist remarks that m anage­
ment failed to stop.
T h e A ug. 27 v erd ic t w as
against the dealership's form er
o w n er, the New' Y o rk -b ased
Asbury Automotive Group, which
b o u g h t a m a jo rity sta k e in
Thom ason and Its nine new-car
dealerships in 1998.
The dealership Is under new
ow nership and called T oyota of
Gladstone.
A sbury sold the dealership
before the lawsuit was filed in 2(X)6.
Keith Dozier, co-counsel for
the four men, said the verdict was
a trium ph o f the jury system.
"You can't com e into the state
o f Oregon and treat people badly
and make money o ff them and
expect that you're not going to
get caught," Dozier said.
S ev era l
w itn e s s e s
claimed that a
s u p e rv is o r
r e p e a te d ly
d e s c rib e d
him self as a
"re d n e c k "
an d th r e a t­
ened to put a
bullet in the R o yJa y
head o f anyone who com plained.
"Am I the only redneck here?"
one Thom ason em ployee report­
edly said. "All I do is lake Viagra
and redneck pillsevery morning."
A n o th er em p lo y ee "talked
a b o u t how h is p a re n ts are
rednecks and they don't like
blacks and they used to burn
crosses," according to w itness
statem ents.
A nother dealership em ployee
used racist epithets, according to
witness statements.
A dealership em ployee inten­
tionally steered a white custom er
away from one of the plaintiffs
because the custom er "w as a
redneck and didn't want to deal
with him because he is black."
according to w itness statements.
The four plaintiffs, who are
black, claim ed they lost car deals
because o f their race.
The African A merican ( ham-
berofC om m erce hail been part of
the com m unity horsepow er sup­
porting the lawsuit, according to
Roy Jay, cham ber president and
chiefexecutive officer.
The cham ber gathered infor­
mation from various sources that
substantiated the claim s m the
lawsuit.
"It is unfortunate in this day
and age that African Americans
andotherm inoritiesare faced w ith
agrow ing level o f discriminatory
and racial injustices in the w ork­
place,” Jay said.
He added that the m istreat­
ment of the black em ployees is
offensive to a local African Amen
can population that spends mil
lions o f dollars purchasing new
A I
continued
on pane .13
t