Writing from the Heart
50^
Use of Force Audit
A writing workshop helps adults
and others break out o f isolation
and other barriers
A report on the use o f force by
Portland police draws both
praise and alarm
See story, page A3
See Arts & Entertainment, page A7
R l'S l'i
C r i n U l i r k o r l ir, I O 7 H
A lls ,
^ h /i
Established in 1970
Volume XXXVIV, Number 30
.Week ¡n
The Review
Bom In the USA
State officials in
Hawaii on M on
d ay s a id th e y
have once again
checked
and
co n firm e d th at
President Barack O bam a was
bom in Hawaii and is a natural-
bom American citizen, and there
fore meets a key constitutional
requirement for being president.
Pundits like Rush Limbaugh
keep claim ing that O bam a was
bom outside the U. S.
PDX records
fall as temps
hover past 100
B
photo bv
Hall of Famers Inducted
Vick Reinstated to NFL
A t P eninsula Park in north
Portland, children and adults
found relief by walking through
fountains.
For Lisa Grisby, com ing to
years
the park is a familiar way to beat
the heat. She used to take her
own daughter to the park w hen
ever the tem peratures shot up,
and on M onday was doing the
same for her grandchildren.
“Just find a tree,” she said,
lo u n g in g in the shade w hile
w atching her three grandchil
dren. “W hen it gets too hot ju st
Seven m onths after the in
auguration o f the first black
president, a statew ide report
on the condition o f African
A m ericans in O regon reveals
that black O regonians remain
at or near the bottom o f every
m eaningful social and ec o
nomic measure.
African A m ericans in O r
e g o n h a v e s ig n if ic a n tly
higher infant m ortality rates,
are more likely to live in pov
erty, have h ig h er lev els o f
unem ploym ent, are h alf as
likely to own their own homes
and are far m ore likely to die
Marcus C. Mundy
o f d iseases such as d iab etes
than their w hite counterparts.
The State o f Black Oregon
was published M onday by the
Urban League o f Portland for
the first tim e in 17 years.
The report contains a stark
in v e n to ry o f s ta tis tic s th a t
show a persistent gap in living
standards betw een black and
white O regonians - a gap that
is growing w ider as a result of
the cu rren t eco n o m ic d o w n
turn.
"During the last eight years,
the poverty gap in Am erica and
in this state has continued to
grow," says M arcus C. Mundy,
president and ch ief executive
officer o f the Urban League of
Portland.
"If there's a poverty gap for
Am ericans generally, the A fri
can-American poverty gap w id
ens to chasm proportions. This
flies in the face o f the ideals our
country stands for, and simply
should not be acceptable here
in Oregon or anyw here else."
Am ong th e reports findings:
• M edian incom e o f h o u se
continued
yf
on p a g e A 3
ing 7 percent for black stu
holds headed by blacks in O r
dents, vs. three percent fo
egon is less than two thirds that
white students. A dditionally
o f white households - showing
only 68 percent o f black stu
virtually no im provem ent since
dent graduate on time fron
this study was last com piled in
O regon high schools, com
1990.
pared to 85 percent o f whitt
• 38 percent o f O regon's A fri
students. A nother alarm inj
can-A m erican children live in
statistic: during the 2007-0!
households with incom es be
school year, black high schoo
low the poverty level; and 60
students were nearly twice a:
percent live in households with
likely as white students to b<
income below 2(X) percent o f the
expelled or suspended fron
federal poverty level.
Oregon schools.
• Black children bom in Oregon
• Although African Ameri
are 50 percent more likely to
cans represent ju st seven per
suffer from low birth weigh,;
cent o f Portland's population
and infant mortality in the state
a disproportionate percentagi
is 50 percent higher for children
o f the city's hom icide victim:
o f black mothers.
are black (45 percent com
• Drop out rate in Oregon high
pared to 35 percent o f homi
schools is about twice as high
for African-A m erican students,
continued y ^ on p a g e A 2
with drop-out rates approach
Justice Anchored in Culture
of
move to another tree.”
Her 6-year-old granddaugh
ter. Jaliyah Elliott, swatted flies
Urban League Reports Disparities
Former NFL Quar
terb ack M ichael
V ick, free afte r
serving 18 m onths
in prison for run
ning a dogfighting
ring, was reinstated with con
ditions by N FL com m issioner
RogerG oodell on M onday. He bv J ake T homas
could participate in regular-sea-
T he P ortland O bserver
son gam es as early as October.
W hile serving a 6 0 m onth
See sp o rts, p age A9.
sentence for assault, Elisha Big
B ack u se d to w atch N ativ e
Former Prosecutor
A m erican w om en cycle in and
Sentenced for Theft
out o f the Coffee Creek Correc
A form er M ultnom ah County
tional Facility in W ilsonville.
prosecutor has been sentenced
Often unable to meet their ba
to tw o years in prison for steal
sic needs on the outside, the
ing a dying w om an's house.
inm ates fell into the same bad
R andy Richardson was con
h a b its th a t la n d e d th e m in
victed o f aggravated theft by
prison in the firs, place.
deception and one count of
Incarcerated N ative A m eri
obtaining the execution o f a
can w om en only account for
docum ent by deception.
sm all am o u n t o f th e s ta te 's
Jackson Doctor Investigated p riso n p o p u la tio n , o n ly 41
w om en in total, but the chal
A u th o r itie s s e a r c h e d th e
spraw ling Las Vegas hom e and
lenges they face on the road to
m ed ical o ffic e o f M ichael
recovery are hefty. Luckily for
J a c k s o n 's p e rs o n a l d o c to r
them, there’s help.
Tuesday, seeking docum ents
For nine years, Red Lodge
as part o f a m anslaughter in T ransition S ervices has been
vestigation into the singer's
there to help native w om en re
death.
establish their cultural founda
tions and set them on the right
path.
R ed L odge w as started by
volunteers administering Native
A m erican religious services at
Coffee Creek who realized that
it was crucial tha, these women
have a support network when
they got out prison, least they
B
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Sara Ryan stays cool with her son, Lochlan, at the fountain in Peninsula Park in north Portland as temperatures hover
near 1 00 degrees.
Inequities
grow worse,
study finds
Former left fielders Jim Rice and
R ickey H enderson w ere in
ducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fam e in Cooperstow n, N. Y . on
Sunday along with the late Joe
G ordon w ho grew up in Port
land graduating from Jefferson
High School. See sp o rts, page
A9.
Z " ¿ tty
www.portlandobserver.com
‘Wednesday * Iuly 29, 2009
Hot! Hot! Hot!
bv J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
The Portland m etro area has
been hit with one o f the worst
periods o f high sum m er heat in
decades.
M o n d ay ’s high o f 103 d e
grees beat the old record o f 102
Court Nominee Advances set in 1958 and an expected 104
T he Senate Judiciary C om m it
degrees was forecast for T ues
tee on Tuesday voted to ap
day with 105 degrees or even
prove Sonia Sotom ayor as the
107 d e g re e s p o s s ib le fo r
first H ispanic Su
Wednesday. T he all-tim e Port
prem e Court ju s
land high is 107.
tice over nearly
People were scram bling for
solid Republican
shady spots, air co n d itio n ed
opposition, pav
buildings, and tall glasses of flu
ing the way for a historic con
ids.
firm ation vote next week. See
T he N ational W eather Ser
sto ry , p ag e A2.
vice issued an excessive heat
advisory. It urged p eo p le to
Bank Branches to Close
Bank o f A m erica will soon cut drink fluids, stay out o f the sun,
about 10 percent o f its 6,100 and look out m ore vulnerable
people who could be adversely
branches across the country.
The Wall Street Journal re a ffe c te d by h ea t stro k e and
other health related problem s.
ported Tuesday. Bank officials
said that as more people bank
online and through their cell
p h o n e s , fe w e r p h y s ic a l
branches are needed.
bzy^
Committed to Cultural Diversity
urwiui n n r t I c in r ln h c p r v p r m m
Native women
get life back
Drew Lowley and Jessica Rojas help out with an art show as volunteers with Red Lodge
Transition Services, a non-pro fit group that helps incarcerated native women reestablish
their cultural foundations.
fall again, according to Carm a
Cocoran, a board member for
the organization.
"I think the biggest message
about Red Lodge is that we're
a b o u t re s to ra tiv e ju s tic e in
everyway," said Corcoran. “We
wan, to bring them back to com
munity, back to tradition, back
to culture, back to spirituality.”
Any inmate who does a long
stretch in prison can have a hard
tim e adjusting to the outside
world.
C o c o ra n re m e m b e rs o n e
w om an she picked up who had
just finished a lengthy sentence
w ho n erv o u sly clu tc h e d the
door handle as a world tha, had
changed d ram atically zipped
pas, her in the car ride from
prison.
R ed
Lodge
p r o v id e s
w om en w ith a p o sitiv e social
com muni tv service
I
n etw o rk they can rely on as
th ey n a v ig a te a w o rld v ery
d ifferen t from prison. It helps
th e m s e c u re h o u s in g , fin d
clo th in g , get food boxes and
o th er tem porary services, and
b eg in the p ro c e ss to reg ain
cu sto d y o f th eir children.
"The overall goal is to one
no, to return to prison, but also
to gain self sufficiency," said
Cocoran.
Big Back points out tha, hav
ing a transition service for N a
tive A merican w omen is vital
because of their unique circum
stances.
O th e r tra n sitio n s se rv ic e s
have a relig io u s co m p o n en t,
w hich is a non-starter for n a
tives raised traditionally, she
said. A lso, N ative A m erican
w omen typically d o n ’, have a
steady family or social network
to fallback on that isn't rife with
domestic abuse and alcoholism,
she added.
“They come out with all these
ideas o f how they are going to
do better," she said o f released
w om en. But w ithout support
they founder, she added. “ It’s
con tin u ed
y^
on p a g e A 3