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December 17, 2008
Chicago Students Quiz President-Elect
During naming
of education
secretary
(A P ) — A d o z e n g ra d e
schoolers got their own chance
to quiz President-elect Barack
O bam a on Tuesday, getting an
earful on such issues as longer
school days, how it feels to be on
television, and even the first
puppy's "business."
"H ow will you feel when you
m ove to the W hite House?" one
child asked.
"I'm going to be excited,"
O bam a said, explaining that he
would have a "pretty nice office"
in the shape o f an oval when he
got to W ashington.
Obama was joined by V ice Presi
dent-elect Joe Biden and Arne
Duncan, the head o f the Chicago
school system and Obama's pick
for education secretary. The three
g ree ted the y o u n g ste rs, w ho
P resid en t-e lec t B arack O bam a a n d Vice P resid en t-e lec t J o e B iden visit s tu d e n ts T u esd a y a t
th e D odge R e n a is s a n c e A c a d e m y in Chicago. (AP p h o to )
ranged from first-graders to fourth-
graders, after a news conference at
the Dodge Renaissance Academy
inChicago.
O bam a met with them in a li-
brary at the academy. They sat on
the carpet in front of him, each
eagerly raising their hands to ask
questions and discuss what they
were learning in school.
"Decim als," O bam a replied to
one student. "W ow, Joe doesn't
even know hisdecim als,"he joked
about Biden.
T h e p re sid e n t-e le c t talk ed
about how his daughters, 10-year-
old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha,
will get a dog when they make the
move to the W hite House next
month.
"They've been asking fo rad o g
for years now," he said.
O bam a said the girls would
need to take care o f their pet. And
that didn't just mean feeding and
walking the dog.
"You know , if they do their
business, if they've got som e
p o o p — you got to make sure that
you're not ju st leaving it there,"
O bam a said.
T he presid en t-elect fielded
more questions from the children
than he did from the m em bers o f
the press, who cam e to the school
for a m orning news conference
where O bam a announced Duncan
Deadly
Gunfire
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Church
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con tin u ed
as his education secretary.
Not all the children's questions
were lighthearted. One child, who
said a cousin was serving in Iraq,
asked O bam a about the troops
o verseas.
"One o f the things that I prom
ised I would do is to try to bring
this war in Iraq to an en d ,” O bam a
said, adding that he hoped to
have them hom e in about a year
and a half.
A nother asked O bam a what
he would do to represent the ef
forts o f civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr.
Obama said not just presidents,
but everyone could do their part to
honor King's work by treating
people with respect and listening.
"Dr. King used to talk about
the fact that, you know, no m atter
w hat your jo b is, you w ant to do
your best," O bam a said. "And
right now you're jo b is to learn, so
w hen you guys are in class you
got to make sure you're w orking
as hard as you can."
fro m Front
ets, like C hicago or Seattle, but have found
the system too costly. TriM et isn't sure
how it will change its system, but isconsid-
ering a partnership with credit card com pa
nies.
The agency is still on track to unveil its
new Max Green Line in September, running
from Clackam as County to the Gateway
Transit C enter and then dow ntow n to Port
land State U niversity via the new Portland
Mall tracks. The Interstate Yellow Line will
also begin service to PSU via the revamped
Mall in September.
Despite all the difficulties facing Tri Met,
Young is optim istic. She hopes that the
economic stimulus package that is expected
to em erge shortly after President-elect
O bam a takes office will include measures
aimed at giving mass transit a boost.
She explained how autom otive interests
are also clam oring to get the bulk o f the
stim ulus geared toward aging bridges and
roads. However, in the past Oregon has
gotten a cut for mass transit. Additionally,
she pointed out that the bill is purportedly
geared tow ard jobs and energy.
"W e think w e’re in a pretty good posi
tion for both o f those," Young said.
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland
O bserver
Police re s p o n d to a 9-1-1 e m e rg e n c y call a fte r a m a n is critically s h o t during a funeral Friday a t N ew H ope
M issio n a ry B a p tist Church, 3 7 2 5 N. G a n ten b ein . The victim la ter d ie d o f h is injuries.
“We are about n eig h b o rs
help in g neig h b o rs im prove
th e ir com m unity.”
Mary Harrell
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F r ie n d s o f T r e e s
A Portland man died M onday after
being shot Friday during a funeral at
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church,
3725 N. Gantenbein.
Police said the victim, Darshawn
Lavone Cross, 31, was a known gang
m em ber. The man who shot him ran
from the church after the shooting. He
has not been arrested. O fficers are
looking for a white C hevy Im pala car
that may have been used in the get
away.
W itnesses said there was a distur
bance between the two men during
funeral services. The men apparently
w ere separated tem porarily before
m ultiple shots rang out.
M ourners fled out o f the church in
panic.
Iraqi Shows Contempt for Bush
President Bush made his final
swing as president through two
war zones M onday, visiting with
troops that he sent to Iraq and
Afghanistan and will soon turn
over to a new com m ander in chief.
Surely the most unexpected
point in the carefully scripted,
two-day presidential trip cam e
when a reporter threw his shoes
at the president during a press
conference in Baghdad, both of
which Bush artfully dodged from
behind the podium.
"This is your farewell kiss, you
dog!" the reporter shouted in
Arabic w hile hurling one shoe,
and then the other. The reporter
was later identified as M untadar
al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-
Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-
ow ned station based in Cairo,
A m a n th ro w s a s h o e a t P re s id e n t G eorge W. B u sh during a
n e w s c o n fe r e n c e with Iraq P rim e M in ister Nouri al-Maliki on
S u n d a y in B aghdad. The m a n th rew tw o s h o e s a t B u sh , o n e
a fte r a n o th er. B u sh d u c k e d b o th throw s.
Egypt.
Saddam Hussein with their shoes
In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes after U.S. M arines toppled it to
at som eone is a sign o f contem pt, the ground follow ing the 2003
Ira q is w h a c k e d a s ta tu e o f
invasion.
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Ralph Rene W illiams, 58, o f
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year prison term for robbing the
U.S. Bank, L om bard-E m erald
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W illiam s wore a full disguise
and used a firearm when he threat-
ened tellers at the bank to steal
$27,000 in cash.
Prosecutors argued for more
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eral of W illiams’ prior convictions
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