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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2013)
Page2 ________________ ^.lortlanh (Obstruer May 8, 2013 n r ^ e R t n - Saence Club ™emb<Jrs line UP witb their adult mentors outside the north Portland high school. The students, teachers and volunteers are w M n g m f " ' ™ project to improve air quality after a study found the school had the some o f the worst air pollution in the nation. Science Club Works to Clean Up the Air Roosevelt students respond to poor air quality report D onovan M. S mith T he P ortland O bserver It is safe to say Portland is becom ing known w orldwide for our progressive val ues, politically, socially, and perhaps even more so, environm entally. So the fact that nestled away on the north side of the city, Portland’s statisti cally poorest high school, Roosevelt, is home to some of the worst air quality in the nation, may come as a frightening surprise by to m any Rose City residents. In a USA Today study from 2009 m ea suring air quality in schools across the country, Roosevelt ranked at the bottom one percentile. The report also cited the neighborhood as having the worst air pol lution in the city o f Portland. W hen Portland State U niversity Urban Studies graduate Ronald Pate cam e across the study a couple m onths ago, he was shocked into action. He im m ediately linked with Roosevelt science teacher Kendall Jensen, and to gether they have developed a project for students to be proactive about im proving the air quality of their school. Pate calls the ventilation system at Refunds Offered for Arts Tax Based on a new analysis of Portland’s new arts tax, some people are eligible for a refund. The city has reevaluated the requirements for people who get most or all of their income from Social Security or the Public Employees Retirement System and determined that those types of income, often taxable at the federal level, are not taxable by the city. The $35 arts tax was approved by voters last year to support arts programs in public schools and the metro area arts commu nity. The City Council will continue to study the tax and will consider further revisions. A notice explaining a refund process, if you have already paid the tax and don’t qualify for the levy, is posted on the city’s homepage, portlandoregon.gov. Roosevelt “m arginal” at best. He said the 93-year-old building has barely functional vents in the ceiling and windows that can help keep air circulating. Jo in in g w ith o th er v o lu n te ers and Roosevelt students them selves, the school is adding indoor plants to classroom s to help absorb harm ful toxins in the air. Using what is called a called a snake plant, the vegetation is fashioned into pots with fans, which help filter healthier air back into the room. They have set up four snake plants in a room, as a dem on stration project with four state o f the art air m onitors loaned by another PSU environ m ental science g rad u ate to track the changes, if any in the air. TheWeek Review Lauren Hili Sentenced Lauryn Hill will serve three months in prison and three months of home confinement for failing to pay about $ 1 million in taxes. The 37-year-old Grammy-winning singer was sen tenced in Newark, N.J. on Monday. She is scheduled to report to jail July 8. Fiery Woodlawn Crash A Mercedes crashed into a Honda and burst into flames after a police pursuit on Northeast Ainsworth at 15th Avenue Monday evening. The driver helped a female passenger from the car, disappeared into the neighborhood but was later apprehended and taken into custody. Jensen who has taught at Roosevelt foi four years is excited about what the projeci could m ean for her students. “I really believe in this idea o f service learning and com m unity-based learning,’ Jensen says. “I feel like if our curriculum is m eaningful and the kids are working on stuff th at’s affecting the com m unity they see that connection, they see how it con nects to science, or history, or E nglish.” The project is only m ade possible by a small legion o f Science Club and other students com ing together after the final bell rings. Freshm en Nathan M cEm rys says even continued on page 18 Dealer Gets 20 Years A Portland judge sentenced a heroin dealer to 20 years in federal prison Monday. Aleskey A. Dzyuba distrib uted the drug to a 17-year-old Milwaukie High School who died of a heroin overdose. Limo Fire Turned Deadly A limousine burst into flames on a San Francisco area bridge Sat urday, taking the life of a bride-to- be and five others celebrating her bachelorette party. The source of the limousine fire was unknown; the driver and three other passengers survived. Shots Fired Near J Lo Shots rang out on a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., beach Sunday during an interview with Jennifer Lopez for “Entertain ment Tonight.” Lopez was quickly removed by security.