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TheWeek Review
egon Zoo. The 30-year-old el
Ivanice Harris' Funeral
Ivanice Harris, a Portland woman ephant is being treated, and cur
rently is showing no signs
who was mur-
of her illness. She poses no
d e re d w hile
significant risk to the pub
celebrating her
lic, officials said.
29th birthday
in Hawaii, was
Oklahoma Tornados
laid to rest on
T he d eath toll from
Monday after
Oklahoma’s Friday tornado
a memorial ser
has risen to 14. The dead
vice at L ife
include five children and
Change Christian Center. A sus
nine adults. According to authori
pect has not been named in her case,
ties, this number is expected to
as police continue to investigate.
rise with half a dozen people,
mostly children still missing.
Police Fired for Beating
Jasper, Texas, a town with a history
All in the Family Death
of racial unrest, fired two white po
Jean Stapleton, m ost notably
lice officers Monday after a
known for her
video captured by security
role as E dith
cameras caught them slam
Bunker in the
ming a black woman’s head
70’s sitcom “All
into a countertop and wres
in the Family”
tling her to the ground. “The
has died at the
amount of force used was
age of 90. The
a b o m in a b le ,” said the
actress passed
w om an's a tto rn e y C ade
away at her New
Bemsen.
York City home
on F rid ay o f
Death at the Gorge
A 25-year-old Ohio man died after natural causes.
jumping into Punchbowl Falls in
Open-Air Reservoirs
Columbia Gorge east of Portland.
After a tense nine-year-battle with
Three others were injured. The man
the E nvironm ental Protection
has been id e n tifie d as Jaso n
Agency, Portland City Council
Endicott; recovery efforts for his
has decided to cover the city’s
body began on Monday.
open-air reservoirs. The reservoir
on Mt. Tabor will be shut down,
Ills at the Zoo
Asian elephant Rama has tested while a reservoir in Washington
positive for tuberculosis at the Or- Park will be capped.
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June 5, 2013
Retiring Pulliams to Address Grads
Inspirational speakers
lined up for PCC
commencement
measure in 2008, the largest educational bond measure
in Oregon at the time.
Another accomplishment by Pulliams included help
ing to boost annual contributions to the PCC Founda
tion, which has tripled scholarship awards
to students. Pulliams also was instrumental
in developing a partnership between PCC
A total o f4,900 degrees, certificates
and the City of Portland to create the Future
and awards will be handed out and
Connect Scholarship Program, and he cham
more than 700 students are planning
pioned
efforts with Portland Public Schools
to walk in front of thousands of friends,
to redesign Jefferson High School to be
family and community members at the
come the Jefferson Middle College. Both
51st Portland Community College
initiatives took a critical step toward helping
Commencement Ceremony.
the region's most needy students.
Graduation proceedings are set for
Reers, the graduation cerem ony’s stu
7 p.m., Friday, June 14, in the Memorial
Michelle
Reers
dent speaker, is earning her transfer degree
Coliseum, 1401N. Wheeler.
this year after getting her associate's degree
Cascade Campus President Algie
in general studies and an accounting certificate
Gatewood will serve as master of cer
last year.
emonies and be joined by Board Chair
At age 42, Reers' story consists o f getting a
Denise Frisbee, and national anthem
second chance at redemption through college.
singer M. Nichoel Patterson. Keynote
She had tried attending a university back in
speaker is retiring PCC President
1986, but lasted j ust one term and soon became
Preston Pulliam s and the student
pregnant with her first child. After ending a 10-
speaker is Tigard's Michelle Reers.
year marriage to the father of her three children,
Pulliams is retiring in July after nine
a meth addiction, bad friendships and poor
years guiding Oregon's largest college.
workplace conditions were ruling her life.
As a young man, he was expected to
When her sister earned an associate's de
join his father as a foundry worker, but
Preston Pulliams
gree a few years ago at PCC, it gave her a great
became the first in his family to attend
reason, and inspiration, to get back to school.
college thanks to a $600 scholarship award from his
Thanks to the support she received from staff and
local Rotary Club to fund two years of school.
That first gift of opportunity inspired him to create faculty, she began to succeed and earned two Miller
access for students who would not otherwise have Foundation scholarships through the PCC Foundation
had the chance to earn a college degree. Specifically, along the way that kept her going.
She will graduate with a 3.84 grade-point average and
first-generation college students who need financial
assistance and student support to attend PCC and is now headed to Oregon State University's Honors
College to study botany. Now meth free for close to a
complete their degrees.
One o f the most significant achievements during decade, Reers has big plans to be a field researcher once
Pulliams' tenure was the passage of a $374million bond she gets her bachelor's degree.
"
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TriM et Financial Problems: S e lf-In flicte d ?
TriMet has cut our passengers' service and raised fares. Each day, we hear from our passengers how these changes have
made their lives more difficult. At the same time, TriMet intends to cut our family income in at least 80 different ways.
Whenever the question, "Why are TriMet's workers and passengers being asked to make such deep sacrifices?" is raised, the
response is always the same: "TriMet has terrible financial problems." We started investigating, looking for the cause of those
"financial problems." This investigation raised a number of questions. Below are just two of them.
$18.9 MILLION DISABILITY CONTRACT
$10.3 MILLION IN POLICE CONTRACTS
W ere seeing more and more disabled passengers
being forced oft the LIFT service and onto fixed
route buses. Yet, TriMet pays over $18.9 million
We love our transit police officers. They are
com petent and caring. But we seldom see them.
This is because they must respond to non-transit
calls. W hen we ask what these 56 officers do for
$10 million per year, TriMet’s response is that it
doesn’t audit perform ance under the contracts. If
there is such a financial crisis, does it make sense
that taxpayers are paying so m uch extra for police
service we rarely see?
a year to a Scottish multinational corporation to
provide the LIFT service using TriMet-owned
vehicles and buildings. That cost has grown by $6
million in the last ten years.
TriMet hired two different financial experts to
examine whether TriMet itself could provide the
same service at a lower cost. Each time, the experts answered with a resounding
“Yes!” The last expert, in 2004, stated TriMet could save nearly $3.7 million. TriMet
rejected these experts opinions. If there is such a financial crisis, why are these
opinions being ignored? Why is it a good idea to have a foreign corporation take
millions in profits out of our local community?
Nationally, subcontracting is proving to be the more expensive approach.
It is being used to reduce the workload of well-paid transit managers and
limit their responsibility when things go wrong. We believe the above
expenditures deserve more public scrutiny, as do other financial decisions
we will talk about in the months to come. An independent inquiry of TriMet's
financial decisions is long overdue.
Sincerely, Your Transit Workers
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