500
Rider Advocates Lose Mission
TriMet plans to eliminate safety
team because o f budget cuts
Concordia Library Opens
Northeast educational center
will serve campus neighbors
See story, page A3
See story, page A2
of Roses
17A
Established ¡n
in IC
1970
Volume XXXVIV. N um ber 34
.Week in State
The Review
prepares
fo rH IN I
.......
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • August 26, 2009
Pandemic!
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
Draw In Mayoral Vote
A near dead heat in last week’s
Washington Primary sets up a
November battle between the
current mayor of Vancouver,
who supports tolls to pay for a
new 1-5 bridge and his oppo­
nent who doesn’t. See story,
page A3.
Teacher Talks Stalled
Portland Public Schools asked
the state for mediation services
Tuesday to help the district
reach a contract with more than
3,000 teachers, counselors, li­
brarians and school psycholo­
gists. The current agreement
expired last year.
Rock Hall of Famer Dies
KSfiHKI
John E. Carter, a
member of the
Flamingos and
the Dells and a
ductee into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is
being remembered after his
death at the age of 75. See story,
page A 10.
Jackson Death
Ruled Homicide
The Los Angeles
County coroner's
office determined
Monday that the
death of Michael Jackson was
a homicide. The decision could
mean crim inal charges for
Jackson’s doctor, who told in­
vestigators he administered a
mix of powerful drugs to treat
the pop star's insomnia hours
before his death.
Gresham Suspect Shot
A man wanted for robbing a
Gresham bar was shot by Port­
land police Monday night. It
happened a fte r the SERT
team was activated to find the
suspect. See story, page A2.
Gang Suspect in Shooting
Police believe a shooting
around the K&C Market on
North K illingsw orth Street
Thursday was gang related.
Witnesses reported seeing four
young men walk toward and
another man about 11 a.m. and
then gunfire erupted. The vic­
tim survived.
Promoting Healthy Foods
Food activist and
cookbook author
Bryant Terry vis­
its Portland this
weekend to build
a more just and
sustainable food system and
illuminate the ties between pov­
erty, racism and food insecu­
rity. See story, page A2.
Earthquake Strikes Coast
A moderate earthquake has
struck deep in the Pacific
Ocean o ff the coast o f O r­
egon. The U.S. Geological
Survey says a 4 . 1 magnitude
te m b lo r hit late M onday
about 133 miles w est-north­
west of Bandon.
State and local government
officials are expecting the H 1N 1
virus to re-emerge with a ven­
geance this fall. The potentially
deadly flu also could cause se­
rio u s d isru p tio n s in the
econom y and peoples' daily
lives.
Better known as "swine flu,"
H1N1 gave the country jitters
last spring when it crept into
the U.S. The virus hospitalized
o v er 6 ,0 0 0 A m erican s and
c a u se d 477 d e a th s before
steadily tapering off as the sum­
mer approached.
In O regon and across the
country, officials are now plan­
ning for a resurgence of the vi­
rus during the upcoming flu
season. About 800 healthcare
and government workers gath­
ered in a convention room in
Salem on Friday to hear from
experts about how to respond
to the potential health crisis.
H1N1 could infect up to 40
percent of Oregon’s population
and stunt the state's fragile
economic rebound, the authori­
ties warned.
"As you can imagine, this is
a monumental task and govern­
ment cannot do it alone," said
Gov. Ted K ulongoski at the
summit.
Unlike past flu virus scares,
like the avian flu or SARS, rela­
tively little is know n about
H1N1 virus and peoples’ im­
mune systems are largely un­
prepared for it, explained State
photo by J ake T homas /T he P ortland O bserver
Brigadier General Mike Caldwell (from left), Superintendent o f Public Instruction Susan Castillo and Gov. Ted Kulongoski
lead a sum m it on the H1N1 virus, also called the swine flu. Oregon joins governments around the globe working to
contain the pandemic before its expectant resurgence this fall and winter.
Public H ealth D irector Mel
Kohn.
At worst, H 1N 1 could be as
deadly as a virulent strand of
flu that killed over 500,000
Americans in 1918, he said, be­
fore adding, "is it going to
fizzle? It could."
Katrina Hedberg, state epide­
miologist, said seniors are typi­
cally the most vulnerable dur­
ing a pandemic, but this virus
is proving to be particularly
deadly for younger people. She
cited numbers showing that of
the Americans who have died
from H 1N 1 this year, 124 were
between the ages of 25 and 49.
Hedberg doesn't expect the
virus, which so far has killed 11
and hospitalized over 90 Orego­
nians, to be as bad as the 1918
flu pandemic which was com­
monly referred to as the “Span­
ish flu’’ and was subtype H 1N 1
strain.
The rest of the summit out­
lined the government's plan for
dealing with the pandemic, and
how the public can prepare.
continued
on page A 7
F ightfor
Equity
Fairness
drives high
schools
do over
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
P o r tla n d ’s p u b lic high
schools seem to groan with
problems.
The dropout rate is a stag­
gering 8.4 percent. Black and
H isp an ic stu d e n ts are less
lik ely to g rad u ate as th e ir
white counterparts. The same
courses aren’t available to all
s tu d e n ts , and e m b a ttle d
n eighborhood schools c o n ­
tinue to hem orrhage students
at a staggering pace.
However, Portland Public
Schools has a plan to rad i­
cally revamp the high school
sy stem , w hich w ill have a
weighty impact on the neigh­
borhoods they serves
In o rd e r to get a b e tte r
handle on what this will mean
for the city, the Portland O b­
server sat down with Sarah
Singer, the project m anager
for the high school redesign,
and PPS spokesperson, Sarah
Carlin Ames.
After mulling over three dif­
ferent high school design op­
tions, Superintendent Carole
Smith settled on a model that
offers students three school
o p tio n s : a n e ig h b o rh o o d
school, a m agnet program ,
and altern ativ e and charter
schools.
Instead o f reform ing each
individual school, the sw eep­
ing redesign effort will alter
all o f the c ity ’s public high
schools.
One o f the primary reasons
behind for the do over is the
inequity among the city's high
sc h o o ls. F or in sta n c e , a d ­
vanced p la c e m e n t c la sse s,
which are essential to landing
a spot at a good college, have
b e e n a b se n t fo r y e a rs at
Jefferson High School, the
north Portland school serving
the m ost A frican-A m erican
stu d en ts.
T h e se in e q u itie s have
caused stu dents to transfer
fro m th e ir n e ig h b o rh o o d
schools, resulting in lopsided
enrollm ent numbers.
A data analysis conducted
by PPS shows that between
1996 and 2008, enrollment at
Wilson, Cleveland, Grant, and
Lincoln increased by 665 stu­
dents between 1996 and 2008,
w h ile M a rsh a ll, M ad iso n ,
R o o s e v e lt,
F ra n k lin ,
I
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserv i r
Technical and other career-driven education programs make Benson High School a popular
magnet program. But the mission at Benson and every other Portland high could change with
proposals that try to achieve equity betw een each high school in the city.
"You d o n 't underm ine one
Singer explained how racial
Je ffe rso n , and B enson d e ­
creased their enrollm ent by and econom ic stratification community by building up an­
has been accentuated in the other community," said Carlin
2,724.
"We don't have equity in re c e n t p a st, and d iv e rs ity Ames.
The plan envisions six or
opportunity right now," said would be greatly enhanced at
S in g e r. " L e t’s g e t th a t in every neighborhood school if
continued
on page A7
students didn't transfer out.
place."