H IN I Vaccine Arrives
50¿
Oregon officials
prepare for long,
deadly flu season
Rebels & Rabble-Rousers
Award-winning musical that
follows fight fo r justice on
Portland stage
See Arts & Entertainment, page A 10
See Health Matters, page A7
It® nr tíanh (Observer
WHFof Roses’
Al
Established .o-rn
In 1970
Volume XXXVIV, N um ber 41
.Week ¡n
The Review
Health Bill Clears Hurdle
W ith support from a lone Re
publican, a key Senate com m it
te e T u e s d a y a p p ro v e d a
m iddle-of-the-road healthcare
plan th at m oves P re sid en t
Barack O bam a's goal o f wider
and affordable coverage a gi
ant step closer to becoming
law. See sto ry , p age A2
Beaverton wants Beavers
B eav erto n city leaders a n
nounced an agreem ent T ues
day w ith P ortlan d B eavers
ow ner M errit Paulson to bring
the m inor league baseball team
to their suburban com m unity.
The price tag is $59 million with
60 percent funded by taxpay
e rs an d 4 0 p e r c e n t fro m
Paulson.
King Children Settle
The heirs and children of the
Rev. M artin L uther King Jr.
reached a settlem ent M onday
that will keep the family from a
public jury trial. M artin Luther
King III and Bernice King sued
D exter King in July 2008, ac
cusing him o f acting im prop
erly as head o f their father's
estate. See story, page A2
Baby Theft Plot Foiled
An A lbany w om an was ar
rested Tuesday for plotting to
steal a baby from a hospital
maternity ward. Police arrested
Trinity Vidal-Hernandez, 25, for
trying to kidnap an infant from
Samaritan Albany General Hos
pital on Sept. 19.
Limbaugh Bid Opposed
Rush Lim baugh's bid to buy
th e S t. L o u is
Rams ran into op
p o sitio n w ith in
the N FL on T ues
day, w hen Colts
ow ner Jim Irsay vow ed to vote
against him and com m issioner
Roger Goodell said the conser
vative com m entator's "divi
sive" com m ents would not be
tolerated from any NFL insider.
Jeep Plows Into Housing
The driver o f a Jeep was taken
into custody T uesday m orn
ing after it crashed into an O r
egon City apartm ent com plex,
displacing four families. No in
juries were reported in the alco
hol-suspected accident.
Baggage Thief Sentenced
A form er N orthw est Airlines
baggage supervisorat Portland
International A irport pleaded
g u ilty M onday to ste alin g
checked luggage. U nder a plea
d e a l, B rid g e tt B u n n e ll o f
M olalla is expected to serve 18
m onths in prison for stealing
more than $ 10,000 o f luggage
and selling the stolen goods on
the Internet.
Cat Burglar in N. Portland
Portland police say a cat bur
glar has struck 19 hom es in
North Portland in the last five
weeks, stealing laptopcom put-
ers, cam eras and cell phones at
night. Police believe all the
burglaries are related. They
have been in the Kenton, St.
Jo hns and U niv ersity Park
neighborhoods.
years*
•Scommunity service
t
Committed to Cultural Diversity
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www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 14, 2009
Political Nastiness
tional chairman Michael Steele set
the tone, declaring that giving the
prize to the U.S.commanderin chief
showed "how meaningless a once
honorable and respected award
has become."
Obama's predecessor, George
W. Bush, was not im m une, nor
w as fo rm e r P re s id e n t B ill
Clinton. But today the volume
(AP) — Vitriol and invective
o f screech in g p artisan sh ip is
stain Am erican political history,
cleaving the A merican elector
but falsehoods, half-truths and
ate, perhaps as deeply as at any
innuendo now spread with the
tim e since the Civil War a cen
speed o f light across partisan
tury and a half ago.
airwaves and the Internet — the
"The environm ent is much
din drow ning out the country's
more extrem e today because of
moderate political center.
the level o f public involvement,
C o u n tle s s In te r n e t b lo g s
the level o f incivility am ong
have taken on the adm inistra
both the political elite and the
tion o f the first A frican-A m eri
public," said Chris Dolan, a po
c a n p r e s id e n t, c la im in g —
litical scientist at Lebanon Val
falsely — that Barack O bam a
ley C ollege in A nnville, Pa.
isn't an A m erican citizen, is a
At M eredith College in Ra
secret M uslim , is a socialist,
leigh, N.C., Clyde F razier said,
w ants to establish death pan
"It is nasty and getting nastier."
e ls to d e c id e w h en e ld e rly
While he believes American his
A m ericans w ould no longer re
tory is littered with dirtier po
ceive m edical care and be al
litical periods and nastier claims
lowed to die. The list is long.
among politicians, Frazier, also
Most recently, a partisan furor
a political scientist, sees today's
blew up when Obama won the
clim ate partly the result o f the
Nobel Peace Prize. Republican na
"media culture. Vitriol seems to
Attacks on
Obama
drown out
moderates
President Obama responds Friday to his selection as the winner o f the Nobel Peace Prize.
Even with such prestigious accomplishments, Obama finds himself the target o f caustic
and abusive insults.
sell. If you are telling people the
end of the world is at hand, they
watch."
From the lectern at the W hite
House briefing room, press sec
retary Robert G ibbs routinely
bem oans w hat he sees as the
negative slant on coverage of
O bam a by the conservative Fox
News cable television outlet.
W h ile A m e ric a n s o n ce
sought news from m edia o u t
lets that aimed for objectivity,
m a n y are n o w tu rn in g to
sources that reinforce their po
litical viewpoints, including the
conservative Fox News and the
liberal M SNBC on cable televi
sio n an d th e e x p lo d in g
blogosphere that ranges across
the political spectrum.
T he h eated partisan atm o-
continued
on page A2
Campus Security Front Lines
Alarm system
warns students,
community
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
Remember the fire drills back
in school?
Incom ing students at P o rt
land C om m unity C ollege are
doing another sort o f drill: one
that prepares them for a school
shooting or other emergency.
A cross the country, school
c a m p u se s are b ec o m in g in
creasingly dang ero u s places,
annd PCC has been stepping
up its security efforts to deal
with a new set o f safety threats
that are hard to predict and hard
to prepare for. But safety offi
cials at the college are hoping
that im proved com m unication
and procedures will keep stu
d e n ts an d the e n tire sch o o l
com m unity safe.
In A ugust, a man was badly
w ounded in a suspected gang-
related shooting outside a co n
venience store ju st one block
from the Cascade campus.
The college has kept up com
m unications with the surround
ing n eig h b o rh o o d , Jefferso n
High School, and local b u si
nesses to address their secu
rity concerns.
PHOTO BY J a KF.T h OMA s ZT h E PORTLAND OBSERV ER
Nikki Barone (left) and Derrick Foxworth, the former Portland police chief, are on the front lines o f campus security
issues at Portland Community College.
There is also the ever-present
threat of a school shooting sim i
lar to the 2008 Northern Illinois
U n iv e rsity sh o o tin g , w h ich
claim ed six lives and wounded
18 students. Just a year before,
a student at Virginia Tech with
a history o f m ental health is
sues k illed 32 people before
turning the gun on himself.
PCC D epartm ent o f Public
S a fe ty L ie u te n a n t D e rric k
F oxw orth said that the gang
shooting last A ugust revealed
some com m unication gaps be
tw een the Portland Police Bu
reau. He declined to get into
sp ecifics, but said that they
have been improved.
Det. Mary W heat, Portland
Police Bureau spokesperson,
said that it’s key that PCC un
derstand how the bureau oper
ates so they can better prepare
for a shooting.
“H e’s very fam iliar with our
p ro c e d u re s," said W h eat o f
Foxw orth, a retired Portland
police chief and precinct com
mander.
continued
on page A9
Oregon Doctors in Healthcare Debate
Use influence
to shape reforms
by J akf . T homas
T he P ortland O bserv er
The ambitious efforts o f C on
gress to overhaul the nation's
serpentine healthcare system
can be difficult to com prehend.
But the changes lawm akers
are proposing are so fundam en
tal that virtually every A m eri
can could be affected.
Oregon will be no exception.
A nd th a t’s w hy tw o d o cto rs
from the state have been in
volved in grassroots efforts in
re c e n t m o n th s to in flu e n ce
w hatever shape reform efforts
might take.
Paul Hochfeld, an emergency
room physician from Corvallis,
said that m ost o th er doctors
would think he's a little delu
sio n al. He adds that they're
probably right.
Hochfeld just returned from
Dr. Anita Henderson
o f Bend with Dr. Zahid
Imran o f Louisiana, join
other doctors at the White
House to advocate for
healthcare reform.
a cross-country trip with other
physicians calling them selves
"Mad as Hell Doctors." They've
stopped at 26 cities nation-wide
in 22 days with one simple m es
sage: incremental change isn't
enough.
In the last two months, three
D em ocrat-controlled com m it
tees in the House and tw o in
the Senate passed sim ilar bills
with no support from the R e
publicans.
The bills would expand eligi
bility for M edicaid, prohibit in
surers from denying coverage
continued
on page A 9