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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2016)
Page 2 February 3, 2016 Established 1970 USPS 959 680 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 he Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. he Portland Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication--is a member of the National Newspaper Association--Founded in 1885, and he National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and he West Coast Black Publishers Association P ublisher : e ditor : Mark Washington, Sr. Michael Leighton e xecutive d irector : Rakeem Washington A dvertising M AnAger : Leonard Latin Ofice Manager/Classiieds: Lucinda c reAtive d irector : Baldwin Paul Neufeldt r ePorter /P hotogrAPher : Olivia Olivia CALL 503-288-0033 FAX 503-288-0015 news@portlandobserver.com • ads@portlandobserver.com subscription@portlandobserver.com Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland Observer , PO Box 3137 , Portland, OR 97208 photo by K athy s treet , Courtesy of the o regon Z oo The Oregon Zoo’s African pygmy hedgehog did not see her shadow Tuesday, indicating an early spring may be in store. Groundhog Day at the Zoo Velda the hedgehog calls for an early spring Sure, Punxsutawney Phil may be calling for an early spring, but more importantly for local resi- dents, so is Velda, the Oregon Zoo’s African pygmy hedgehog. Velda did not see her shadow on Ground- hog Day Tuesday morning, meaning an early spring could be in store here in the Northwest as well. “Hedgehogs are the real weather experts of the animal world,” said zoo curator Michael Illig. “Punxsutawney Phil and his ilk are relative new- comers to the game. When European immigrants to the United States realized their new home didn’t have hedgehogs, they turned to the groundhog out The Week in Review of necessity. But Velda is bringing the holiday back to its origins.” Considering the track record of the zoo’s hedgehog prognosticators though, tradition — and cuteness — might have to count for a lot. According to records from StormFax Weather Al- manac, Phil’s predictions have been correct about 39 percent of the time. Oregon Zoo hedgehogs have been slightly more successful with a 45 percent ac- curacy rate. Velda, one of ive hedgehogs born at the zoo in 2014, is making her forecasting debut this year. Her name was selected by a zoo fan who bid on naming rights during a comedy night fundraiser that earned $28,000 for the Portland Audubon Society and the Tanzania-based Ru- aha Carnivore Project. ing himself with methamphetamine while oficers and others attempted to de-escalate the situation. Diversity Wins at Screen Actors Killed in Oregon Standoff The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards was a big win for diversity Saturday night, with Idris Elba, Viola Da- vis, Uzo Aduba, and Queen Latifah all collecting trophies. The victories shone in sharp contrast to the Oscars, which have been under ire for weeks for not nom- inating a single person of color for the second year in a row. A group of militant ranchers who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were taken into custody last week during a trafic stop. Robert ‘LaVoy’ Finicum, 54, tried to elude police and was shot and killed when he reached for his gun, police said. Other occupation pro- testers remained at the refuge as of Tuesday night, marking the 32nd day of the standoff. Facebook Bans Gun Sales On Monday President Barack Obama proposed a new plan to push harder for a cure to cancer. He will ask Congress for $755 million in his 2017 budget, which will be released next week. Both Facebook and Instagram, both widely used social media sites, made moves last week to ban private gun sales on their platforms. Facebook said Friday it would remove posts and potentially ban accounts that violate its regulated goods policies, which now include the unlicensed sale of guns on Facebook and Instagram. Trainyard Crisis Resolved Police and mental health crisis specialists ended a four-hour standoff with a man climbing on trains Saturday in the railyard along Northwest Yeon Street. Matthew Joseph Medlin, 32, had jumped into the bed of a dumpster-style rail car and, ac- cording to police, refused to leave, instead inject- Cancer Research Funding City Hall Attack Arrest Oficers arrested a man after he was accused of throwing rocks to break nine windows at Portland City Hall Sunday morning. Kevin Scott McQueen, 45, faces two charges of criminal mischief and was booked into Multnomah County jail. Safeway Discrimination Case A black customer iled a $100,000 lawsuit this week against Safeway and one of their employees, who he says repeatedly called him the “n-word” at the gro- cer’s downtown Lake Oswego location.
