‘City of
Roses’
Bicycle
Safety First
Taps Open
for Zoo Brew
Busy streets get
the red flag
see A & E, page 9
see page 3
40
bserlier
of
community service
Established in 1970
Volume XXXX, Number 22
Rose Festival Fun
Committed to Cultural Diversity
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • lune 2. 2010
The Portland Rose Festival turns the downtown waterfront into a fun destination for rides, foods
and entertainment. Waterfront Village opened over the Memorial Day weekend and will stay oper
over the next two weekends. See Rose Festival events in our entertainment calendar, page 12.
Rough Patch
front during a federal investigation
that toppled a large cocaine distri­
bution network.
The prosecution came to a climax
last week when James Ray "Lonnie"
Yoakum was sentenced to 13 years
in prison for playing a central role in
a $300,000-month Crips gang-affili­
ated cocaine trafficking ring. Fed­
eral investigators claim ed that
by J ake T homas
east Martin Luther King Jr. Boule­ money for the operations was laun­
T he P ortland O bserver
vard greasy plates full o f chicken dered at Yam Y am ’s, and law en­
At Yam Yam ’s Southern Cooking bones are stacked up in bins from forcement seized $60,000 from the
and Barbecue Restaurant on North- the day’s lunch rush. The purple eatery last fall during a raid.
coat o f paint on the building’s exte­
In the aftermath, Larry Matthews,
Larry Matthews stands
rior looks brand new. Smells ofbar- the owner o f Yam Yam ’s, has been
outside his eatery Yam Yam 's
becue and fried cat fish waft out o f shy about talking to the media. But
Southern Cooking and Barbecue
the kitchen as an episode o f “Cops” in an interview with the Portland
Restaurant on Northeast Martin
quietly blares on the television set Observer, shortly after Yoakum was
Luther King Jr. Boulevard. I t ’s been
in the dining room.
sentenced, he asserted that he has
called a drug front, a characterization
From the looks o f it, you’d never
continued
on page 18
he resists.
guess that it was branded as drug
Owner denies wrongdoing;
says he’s staying open