5<* M inority & Small
Business W eek 2008
special edit ien
G e n e ra l E le c tio n Nov. 4
L a s t D a y t o R e g is t e r :
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VOTE
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‘City
ity of Roses
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Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Volume XXXVIII. Number 38
www.portlandobserver.con
.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • September 24, 2008
.Week in
The Review
Dire Economic Warning
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and
other governm ent econom ic o f­
ficials had dire w arnings o f re­
cession, layoffs and lost homes
T uesday if C ongress doesn't
q u ic k ly a p p ro v e th e B ush
adm inistration'sem ergency $700
billion financial bailout plan. See
story, page A2.
Crisis Lines Busy
O f f ic ia ls
fro m
O re g o n
Partnership’s 24-hourcrisis lines
say they are getting more calls
from people stressed out from an
econom y that sees more people
out o f work, hom eow ners un­
able to pay their m ortgages and
fam ilies w orried about their sav­
ings.
Oden Ready for Season
G regO denistechnicallyarookie.
Sidelined all season after knee
surgery, the top pick in the 2007
draft never got to com pete for
the Rookie o f the Y ear award. So
he's eligible to win it this year,
and that's one o f his goals. See
story, page A2
Heating Assistance Coming
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Thefederal Department o f Health
Tracey Woods signs up to vote outside the Safeway store on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. She is joined by her daughter Lovesha and two Kappa
and H um an Services announced
Alpha Psi fraternity members volunteering to register voters, Charles Hill (center) and Antonio Jackson.
last w eek that Oregon will re­
ceive $ 1.2 m illion in em ergency I
“Oregon has the largest gap in
not be denied on the basis of
energy assistance. T he m oney'
the
country between the citizens’
color, but true progress w as not
w i 11 hel p Io w-i ncome fam i I ies heat
m ade until the V oting Rights Act average age and the average age
their hom es this winter. People
o f 1965. W omen were not eligible o f a voter, which is 69,” Ruskin
interested in applying can con­
says.
until 1920.
tact theirlocal Low Income Home j
C om m unity C o lleg e's Cascade
And w hile O regon’s minority
A fter such a long fight, one
E n ergy A ssista n c e P rogram
cam pus in north Portland.
m ight supposed we w ould be lin­ populations are expanding rap­
agency.
Despite the terror, heartbreak ing up at the polls, eager to be idly, w hite m iddle-class Baby
and
discrim ination experienced heard, and yet many people, es­ Boom ers m ake up an enorm ous
Offshore Oil Ban to Expire
by
countless
num bers o f women, pecially young people, are not percentage o f voters.
D em ocrats have decided to al­
S tudies show that the gap
young
people
and people o f color, registered to vote at all o r have
The
Urban
League
o
f
Portland,
by
L
aura
M
eehan
low a quarter-century ban on
tends
to start with voter registra­
many
o
f
us
today
take
voting
for
not
updated
their
registration
af­
N
A
A
C
P
and
the
O
regon
Bus
T
he
P
ortland
O
bserver
drilling for oil off the Atlantic
tion,
not
registered voter turnout.
granted.
W
hen
the
U.S.
C
onstitu­
Project
are
team
ing
up
to
break
ter
changes
o
f
address.
M
any
young
people
or
m
inor­
and Pacific coasts to expire next
The
Oregon
Bus Project focuses
tion
was
written,
only
white
male
that
cycle
o
f
disengagem
ent
by
ity
groups
feel
their
voices
w
o
n
’t
M
ollie
Ruskin
o
f
the
Oregon
w eek, conceding defeat in a
increasing
voter
registration
with
on
getting
people
signed up so
property
ow
ners
were
eligible
to
Bus
Project
says
the
group
has
be
heard,
so
they
d
o
n
't
vote—
m o n th s-lo n g battle w ith the
and then the governm ent is less their Pow er 2 Vote Day o f Action, vote. T he 15th A m endm ent pro­ set a goal o f signing up 20,000
W hite House and Republicans
continued
on page A3
Saturday, Sept. 27, at Portland claim ed that the right to vote could voters in Oregon.
likely to listen to them.
set off by $4 a gallon gasoline
Pow ert0 Vote
Urban League, NAACP
and Bus Project Team Up
prices this summer.
Oregon Beach Cleanup
Racial Views
Impact Election
V o lunteers rem oved an esti-j
m ated 4(X),000 pounds o f trash
from the O regon Coast Saturday
during the SOLV G reat Oregon
Fall Beach Cleanup. M ore than
3,700 people scoured the entire
O reg o n c o a st the clea n the
beaches o f debris and trash that
had accu m u lated du rin g the
sum m er months.
Obama’s path steeper than it
would be if he were white
Bike Parking Added
The Portland O ffice o f T rans­
portation m ade room for the
grow ing num ber o f bicycles by
opening four new on-street bi­
cycle parking facilities in the
dow ntow n core on Friday. The
corrals provide parking for 16 to
24 bicycles along curbs formerly
reserved for m otor vehicles.
Dairy System Led to Abuse
C hina's agriculture m inister ac­
know ledged Tuesday that the
country's m ilk-gathering system
w as "out o f control" and led to
abuses that put contam inated
dairy products in stores across
Asia, sickening som e 54,(XX) ba­
bies and killing four.
Stonehenge was
Place of Healing
T h e firs t e x c a v a tio n o f
Stonehenge in more than 40 years
has uncovered evidence that the
stone circle drew ailing pilgrim s
from around Europe for what they
believed to b e its healing proper­
ties, archaeologists said M on­
day.
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
The Asian American Plaza, a mini-mall on Northeast 82nd Avenue, is the latest
business venture by Mytien Huynh Kent and her brother Tieno Huynh
Entrepreneurs Live
American Dream
space to other retailers.
Mytien Huynh Kent and her younger
brother Tieno own the Asian-American
Plaza, a 15,200 square foot mini-mall on
Northeast 82nd Avenue at Siskiyou Street.
There they have their own Portland Beauty
School.
The Plaza also contains the
by L re P erlman
Minority
and
Small
Blue Sky Café Asian restau­
T he P ortland O bserver
rant, which recently ex­
BusinessWeek
The Huynh family, once
panded into adjacent space
refugees, is now living the
Special coverage
with the Rain bar. and a deli-
American dream. Not only
do they own their own business, they own
continued
on page A14
the ground it stands on and rent commercial
(A P) — Since the nation's birth, Am ericans have discussed race
and avoided it, organized neighborhoods and political movements
around it, and used it to divide and hurt people even as relations have
im proved dram atically since the
days o f slavery. Reconstruction
and legal segregation.
Now, in w hat could be a his­
toric year for a black presidential
ca n d id a te, a new A sso ciated
Press-Yahoo! News poll, co n ­
ducted with Stanford University,
show s ju st how w ide a gap re­
mains between whites and blacks.
It shows that a substantial por- _
, _.
, .. .
.„Î.
Barack Obama
tion o f w hite A m ericans still har­
bor negative feelings tow ard blacks. It shows that blacks and whites
disagree trem endously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose
fault it is and how much influence blacks have in politics
continued
on page A 2
Open Asian-
American Plaza
on 82nd Avenue
community service
i
Polls in the upcoming presidential election show a wide gap
remains between whites and blacks.