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December 10, 2 0 0 8
Panthers
Open
Season
For the second straight year,
the Portland Community College
Panthers, whose home is the Cas
cade C am p u s gym on N orth
Killingsworth Street, played their
season opening game in the Rose
Garden.
On Nov. 26, the Panthers fell to
Tacoma Community College 70-54
after fighting to a 25-25 tie at half
time.
PCC will start a home series in
January to be played at Cascade’s
gym. The Panthers will battle
Chemeketa CC at 7:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, Jan. 14; Southwest
ern C C at6p.m ., Saturday, Jan. 17;
and Clackamas CC at 7:30 p.m.,
Wednesday, Jan. 21. Tickets are $3 Portland Community College guard and former Jefferson High School star Mike Richmond (center) battles for the ball while teammates Jordan Inge (left)
and Anthony Steward look on in the season opener against Tacoma Community College.
for general admission.
Weary O.J. Sent to Prison
(AP) - A weary and beaten-
looking O.J. Simpson was put
away Friday for at least nine years
— and perhaps the rest of his life
— for an armed robbery in a Las
Vegas hotel room, bringing a
measure of satisfaction to those
who believed the football star got
away with murder more than a
decade ago.
The 61 -year-old Hal 1 of Famer
listened stone-faced, his wrists in
shackles, as Nevada Judge Jackie
Glass pronounced the sentence
— 33 years behind bars with eli
gibility for parole after less than a
third of that.
M om ents before, Sim pson
made a rambling, five-minute plea
for leniency, sim ultaneously
apologizing for the holdup as a
foolish mistake and trying to ju s
tify his actions.
He choked back tears as he
told her: "I didn't mean to steal
anything from anybody ... I'm
sorry. I'm sorry for all of it."
The judge said several times
that her sentence in the Las Ve
gas case had nothing to do with
Simpson's 1995 acquittal in the
slaying of his ex-wife Nicole
Brown Simpson and her friend
Ronald Goldman.
“I’m not here to try and cause
any retribution or any payback
for anything else,” Glass said.
But Goldman's father, Fred
Goldman, and sister, Kim, said
they were delighted with the sen
tence.
"We are thrilled, and it's a bit
tersweet moment," Fred Goldman
said. "It was satisfying seeing
him in shackles like he belongs."
Sim pson said he and five
other men were simply trying to
retrieve sports mem orabilia and
o th e r m e m e n to s w hen he
stormed a Las Vegas hotel room
occupied by tw o dealers on
Sept. 13, 2007. He insisted the
Chokes back tears with apology
O.J. Simpons pleas for leniency at his sentencing Friday for
an armed robbery.
uni
->m
item s, which included his first
w ife’s wedding ring, had been
stolen from him.
But the judge emphasized that
it was a violent confrontation in
which at least one gun was drawn,
and she said someone could have
been shot. She said the evidence
was overwhelming, with the plan
ning, the confrontation itâelf and
the aftermath all recorded on au
dio or videotape.
Glass, a no-nonsense judge
known for tough sentences, im
posed such a complex series of
consecutive and concurrent sen
tences that even many lawyers
watching the case were confused
as to how much time Simpson got.
Simpson could serve up to 33
y e a rs, a c c o rd in g to E lana
Roberto, the judge's clerk.
In state prison, he will remain
in his own cell protected from the
general prison population be
cause of his celebrity.
Simpson’s lawyer suggested
again that his client was a victim
of payback forhisacquittal in Los
Angeles.
"It really made us all aware that
despite our best efforts, it's very
difficult to separate the California
case from the Nevada case," at
torney Yale Galanter said.
Some people who followed the
case said justice had finally
caught up with Simpson.
"You do things and you've got
to expect karma to come around,"
said Greg Wheatley, 32, of Los
Angeles.
Simpson was, led away to
prison immediately after thejudge
refused to permit him to go free on
bail while he appeals.
Simpson's co-defendant and
former golfing buddy, Clarence
"C.J. Stewart, was sentenced to
up to 27 years in prison but would
be eligible for parole after 7 1/2
years, court officials said.
--------------------------------------
Diversity Grows on Obama Cabinet with Veterans Affairs Secretary
( AP) - President-elect Barack
Obama has chosen retired Gen.
Eric K. Shinseki to be the next
Veterans Affairs secretary, turn
ing to a former Army chief of staff
once vilified by the Bush admin
istration for questioning its Iraq
war strategy.
Obama announced the selec
tion of Shinseki, the first Army
four-star general of Japanese-
American ancestry, at a news
conference Sunday in Chicago.
He will be the first Asian-Ameri
can to hold the post of Veterans
Affairs secretary, adding to the
growing diversity of Obama's
Cabinet.
Shinseki's tenure as Army chief
of staff from 1999 to 2003 was
marked by constant tensions with
D efen se S e c re ta ry D onald
Rumsfeld, which boiled over in
2(X)3 when Shinseki testified to
Congress that it might take sev
eral hundred thousand U.S. troops
to control Iraq after the invasion.
Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul
Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate
as "wildly off the mark" and the
general was marginalized and later
retired from the Army. But
Shinseki's words proved pro
phetic after President George W.
Bush in early 2007 announced a
"surge" of additional troops to
how so many veterans around
the country are struggling even
more than those who have not
served — higher unemployment
rates, higher hom eless rates,
higher substance abuse rates,
medical care that is inadequate
— it breaks my heart," Obama
said.
Iraq after miscalculating the num
bers needed to stem sectarian
violence.
O b a m a sa id he c h o s e
Shinseki for the VA post be
cause he "was right" in predict
ing that the U.S. will need more
troops in Iraq than Rumsfeld
believed at the time.
"W hen I reflect on the sacri
fices that have been made by
our veterans and I think about
Gen. Erick K.
Shinseki
Obama Plans
Hawaii Christmas
N O W D E L IV E R IN G
Y o u r fa v o rite n e ig h b o r h o o d g r o c e r y s to re n o w d e liv e rs
g r o c e r ie s rig h t to y o u r h o m e o r o ffic e .
à
(AP) - President-elect Barack Obama, returning to his home state
of Hawaii for the holidays, plans a beachside vacation at one of
Oahu's most exclusive properties, according to an islander involved
in the planning.
Arrangements are being finalized for the Obamas and the families
of two or three friends to stay at a Kailua beachfront location with
three modem, multi-million-dollar homes. Obama and his friends plan
to rent the privately owned homes for several days including Christ
mas, said the islander, a Democratic activist who spoke on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal the details.
Obama was most recently in Hawaii in October to visit his ailing
grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who raised him for much of his
youth. Dunham died Nov. 2 at the age of 86, two days before Obama
won the presidency.
While in Hawaii Obama also is expected to pay tribute to his
grandmother, who was cremated, with a private family ceremony.
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