Page 2
Week
in
Review
The
St. Mary’s Reverses Ban
The St. Mary’s Academy board
of directors changed their equal
employment policy last week
to prohibit discrimination based
on sexual orientation and mar-
riage, after receiving backlash
for withdrawing a job offer to a
gay woman because of the Cath-
olic Church’s objections to same-
sex marriage. In a statement, the
board said it wanted to bring its
employment policies in line with
the high school’s mission and be-
liefs.
September 2, 2015
steps to address the concerns of
Alaska Native tribes.
Street Murals Promote Art
The Portland non-profit group
Forest for the Trees brought 29
artists together in the past few
days to create a series of 19 street
murals promoting public art. The
group has released images on
twitter through #ffttnw for those
who would like to discover the
new works scattered across Port-
land.
Man Charged with Luring Girl
A Multnomah County grand jury
indicted a man for attempted
rape and for multiple sex abuse
charges involving a 10-year-old
girl. Michael Bowen, 22, plead
not guilty to the nine-count in-
dictment that accused him of hav-
ing lured the girl into having sex
with him earlier this month.
Suspect Pleads Not Guilty
A man accused of being involved
in a May shooting in northeast
Portland and wearing a ballistic
vest while driving through the
city pled not guilty Monday. Billy
Troy Ballastressi, 56, is charged
in connection with the critical
wounding of Tyroni Deshawn
Burns, 39.
Native Name for Alaska Peak
President Obama announced
on Sunday that Alaska’s Mount
McKinley will be renamed Mt.
Denali to restore an Alaska Na-
tive name with deep cultural
significance to the tallest moun-
tain in North America. The move
came as Obama visits the state to
promote action to combat climate
change, and is part of a series of
Wildfires Respond to Rain
Firefighters took advantage of
lower temperatures, higher hu-
midity, and slack winds to make
progress on the worst fire burning
in eastern Oregon. The weather
changes allowed crews to reach
areas of the Canyon Creek Com-
plex fire that previously been too
hot or too dangerous.
Established 1970
P ublisher : Mark Washington, Sr.
E ditor : Michael Leighton
E xecutive D irector : Rakeem Washington
A dvertising M anager : Leonard Latin
Office Manager/Classifieds: Lucinda Baldwin
C reative D irector : Paul Neufeldt
R eporter /P hotographer : Olivia Olivia
photo by J ustin N orton -K ertson
Ibrahim Mubarak, co-founder of downtown homeless camp Right 2 Dream Too, protests at City
Hall Friday demanding an end to sudden street sweeps that target homeless and unsheltered
Portlanders.
Protest for Rent Control and Higher Wages
O livia O livia
T he P ortland O bserver
Activists demanding rent
control and higher living wag-
es converged on Portland City
Hall Friday, marching across the
Hawthorne Bridge and bringing
traffic to a standstill. Activists
from 15 PDX Now, an organiza-
tion pushing for a $15 minimum
wage in the city, along with rent-
ers hoping to secure city assis-
by
tance in stopping an exponential
rise in Portland rents, carried
signs showing solidarity with
Black Lives Matter and other so-
cial justice movements.
Currently, Portland is report-
ed to be the fastest gentrifying
city in America, with many of
its neighborhoods seeing people
not being able to afford higher
costs for housing. The local Af-
rican-American population has
been bearing the highest brunt of
the housing crisis.
According to a Multnomah
County survey released in June
of this year, there has been a 48
percent increase in unsheltered
African Americans from 2013 to
2015. Activists at the rally noted
that these vulnerable populations
are just the beginning of a ma-
jor crisis for working class Port-
landers.
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