Walnut Park Saved
Arts Center Woes
Non-profit buys apartment
complex to retain its use
fo r elderly, disabled
Interstate Firehouse
Cultural Center fights
fo r funding
See Housing, page A 7
‘City of Roses’
See story, page A2
31 a rtlattò ©bserlier
P e t a l 'l l
in 1 0 7 0
Established in
1970
Volume XXXVIV, Num ber 13
u n in n n n r t In n
m
w w w .p o rtla n d o b se rve m r.co
m
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • A p ril I. 2009
TLWeek in
The Review
Obamas’ Arrive In London
President Barack O bam a and
First Lady M ichelle O bam a ar­
rived in London Tuesday for
their first journey across the
Atlantic since taking office.
First up for the president w as a
summit of the world's economic
pow ers to address the global
financial meltdown.
Pistachios Contaminated
T h e sa lm o n e lla scare th a t
prom pted a blanket federal
w arning against eating pista­
chios may have erupted be­
cause contam inated raw nuts
got m ixed with roasted nuts
during processing, the C alifor­
nia com pany at the center o f
the nationwide recall said T ues­
day.
Tainted Pepper Spices
Public health officials in O r­
egon and three other w estern
states have tracked an outbreak
o f salm onellosis to ground
p ep p er im ported, packaged
and distributed by Union In­
ternational Food Co. and dis­
trib u te d to resta u ran ts and
spice w hole sellers.
Black ScholarRemembered
photo by M ark
Club Twelve 22 Hits Reset
Proprietor
determined to
get past troubles
John Hope Franklin, a revered
historian and scholar o f the
A fric a n -
A m ericanex-
k
perience, was
■
being remem­
b e r e d a f te r
by J ake T homas
gjL h is d e a th T , he P ortland O bserver
»
the age o f 94. F ranklin’s book
“From Slavery to Freedom ”
was a landm ark integration o f
black history into A m erican
history.
W ashington /T hf . P ortland O bserver
LaVon Van is determined to make LV's Sports Bar, Restaurant and Lounge, 35 3 0 N. Vancouver Ave., a comfortable and safe environment.
LaVon Van, w ants everyone to know
your nam e when you walk into his bar.
Van, the proprietor of LV's Sports Bar,
R estaurant, and L ounge (com m only
know as Club Twelve 22), wants his bar
to be a com m unity place where custom ­
ers can kick back and m eet up with old
friends or take in a B lazer’s gam e in a
com fortable and safe environm ent.
He also w ants you to know you h e’s
trying to get rid o f the rough crow d that
has given the entertainm ent venue a
sketchy reputation over the years.
L o cated n ear the corner o f N orth
Vancouver Avenue and Frem ont Street,
Club Twelve 22 - one of Portland’s last
"black bars” - LV 's has been plagued
fo r y ea rs w ith p ro b lem s in v o lv in g
gangs, drugs, and violence. But Van,
who has ow ned the establishm ent since
2(X)4, is determ ined to turn it around.
"M y first five years has been dealing
with a lot o f negative issues," said Van,
w ho adm its that the bar has attracted a
seedy crow d that caused trouble.
Portland Police records reveal that there
were 3 1 incidents in 2008 alone at the bar,
some involving drugs and violence.
A ccording to Oregon Liquor Control
Com mission records, LV’s has a history
o f “serious and persistent problem s,”
prom pting the com m ission to clam p
d o w n on it fo r d ru g d e a lin g an d
shootings in the parking lot.
The bar was cited last year by the
O LCC for perm itting or not controlling
unlawful activity on the prem ises and
providing private security w ithout a li­
cense. The bar was fined $2,310 and
was put on notice that it’s in jeopardy
of losing its liquor license.
But Van points to his progress. "Since
August I've really done some cleaning
up," he said.
He gave the troublem akers the boot,
and cut dow n on the in-and-out traffic
that lends itself to questionable behav­
ior. He got him self licensed to run secu­
rity and checks IDs m ore vigilantly. He
has a cam era system in place to m oni­
tor what goes on and has told the po­
lice to check in anytim e they want. He
also placed a big “no loitering” sign in
continued
y ^ on page A10
Stock Market High Note
W all Street ended a tum ultu­
ous M arch on a high note, m an­
aging its first w inning month
this year and its best m onthly
perform ance in nearly seven
years. Stocks finished off their
earlier highs on Tuesday but
resumed a three-w eek rally that
has brought the Dow Jones
industrials up 16 percent since
hitting new 12-year lows in early
M arch.
Computer Infection Noted
A nasty com puter infection will
start ram ping up its efforts
W ednesday to use those m a­
chines for cyber crim es. The
C onficker w orm spreads from
PC to PC by exploiting a secu­
rity hole in M icrosoft Corp.'s
W indow s operating system .
The hole was fixed in October,
but if your com puter doesn't
get autom atic updates from
M icrosoft, you could be vul­
nerable.
Oregon Beach Cleanup
D espite wet and storm y condi­
tions, more than 4,300 volun­
teers turned out to participate
Saturday in the 24th annual
SOLV G reat Oregon Spring
Beach Cleanup. The volunteers
rem oved an estim ated 60,000
pounds o f trash from O regon’s
coastline.
Portland Home Prices Fall
H ome prices in the Portland
m etro area continued their de­
cline in January, according to
an industry report, dropping
about 3 percent in a month, but
dow n 14 percent from a year
ago.
Instilling Sportsmanship over Conflict
Local players
earn points for
conflict resolution
by L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bseryer
A local group o f basketball players
have learned some things about play­
ing the gam e, but it has nothing to do
w ith the shot, drib b le, pass and re­
bound.
The lesson is avoiding conflict on
and off the court.
“I learned it’s good to have sports­
m an sh ip ,” seventh g rad er C ardeana
Barton says. “You need to give people
th eir personal space on and o ff the
court.” The personal space for basket­
ball would be the length o f your arm.
A n o th e r se v e n th g ra d e r, J a ’N ae
Davis, rem em bers a time when another
girl was in her “personal space" and
m ade contact; D avis responded by hit­
ting her. If that happened today, she
says, “I’d w alk away.”
Fifth grader Secret Wilson has learned
about the benefits o f teamwork.
“ Basketball is a team gam e, and you
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Cardeana Barton (left) and Ja 'Nae Davis learn the finer points to sports­
manship in a workshop called ‘Competition, Not C onflict.'
c a n 't do it without the team ." she said.
“If another girl is open, you pass to her.
A nd you d o n ’t get mad."
As members o f the Portland Parks and
R ecreation's Cisco Kids youth basket­
ball league, the girls com pleted a series
o f workshops called “Com petition, Not
Conflict,” conducted by the Northwest
Institute for C onflict Resolution.
Carried out by a team o f six coaches
with conflict resolution backgrounds,
the pilot program attem pts to instill
positive values into athletic com peti­
tion.
O ver the course o f three weeks the
basketball players were given training
in the areas o f team building, race, cul­
ture and identity; gender, pow er and
lead ersh ip ; and sp o rtsm an sh ip and
conflict.
R e so lu tio n team le ad e r M ichael
M cCorm ick said th ere's an artificial
conflict in sports that’s created by our
obsession with winning.
‘T ogether with racial prejudice and
other ingredients, it can lead to ugly
incidents,” he said.
Last year, at a high school basket­
b all to u r n a m e n t in E u g e n e , th e
Roosevelt High School team was show ­
ered with racial epithets by the home
crowd. M cCorm ick says he hopes to
correct such attitudes with this sort o f
training. However, he adds, “You don’t
have a chance unless you start when
(the athletes) are young."
continued
y ^ on page A8
Widow’s Tobacco Award Upheld in Appeal
Decision comes
10 years after
original verdict
(AP) - The Suprem e Court on T ues­
day threw out a cigarette maker's ap­
peal o f a $79.5 m illion award to a Port­
land smoker’s widow, likely signaling the
end o f a l()-year legal fight over the
large payout.
In a one-sentence order, the court left
in place a ruling by the Oregon Supreme
Court in favor of Mayola W illiams. The
state court has repeatedly upheld a ver­
dict against Altria Group Inc.'s Philip
Morris US A in a fraud trial in 1999.
T he ju d g m en t has grow n to m ore
than $145 million with interest.
The justices heard argum ents in the
case in December, but said Tuesday that
they arc not passing judgm ent on the
legal issues that were presented. In­
stead, it is as if the court had declined
to hear the case at all.
P hilip M orris had argued that the
award should be thrown out and a new
trial ordered because o f flaws in the in­
structions given jurors before their d e­
liberations.
Business interests had once hoped
the high court w ould use the case to
set firm limits on the award of punitive
dam ages, intended to punish a defen­
dant for its behavior and deter a repeat
offense.
The case has bounced around appel­
late courts since 1999, when W illiams
convinced a ju ry that P hilip M orris
should be held accountable for mislead
ing people into thinking cigarettes were
not dangerous or addictive.
W illiams' husband Jesse was a jam -
tor in Portland who started sm oking
during a 1950s Army hitch and died in
1997, six m onths after he was d iag ­
nosed with lung cancer.
His widow was aw arded $800,000 in
actual dam ages. The punitive dam ages
continued
(
y ^ on page A2