WWW . THESKANNER . COM
O CTOBER 31, 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 4
25
CENTS
Candidate and
Ballot Measures
Endorsements
page 5
C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Activists
Defend
Homes
COUNT DOWN
Could Portland be a
sanctuary city where
no homes sit empty?
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
A
group of Portland housing activists
have vowed to prevent homeowners
in foreclosure from being evicted.
They intend to turn out in force whenever
sheriffs show up to evict families from their
homes.
About 50 people turned out to protest,
Tuesday, for example, when police turned
out to evict Patricia and Darren Williams
from their home at 12028 SE Pardee St. The
protesters from We Are Oregon, couldn’t
prevent the eviction, but they made their
point.
The law may not be on their side, but
morality and justice is, says Ahjamu Umi, a
member of Occupy Northeast’s Black
Working Group, one of five organizations
that have agreed to support homeowners in
foreclosure. They hope to persuade officials
to refuse to enforce evictions. That’s justi-
fied, they say because homeowners were
duped by unscrupulous lenders and have
been denied legal redress.
“We want Portland to be a sanctuary city,
where there are no empty homes,” Umi
says.
Activists from The Black Working Group
and We Are Oregon plan to gather in num-
bers and block the evictions. Activists from
Sisters of the Road, Portland Solidarity Net-
work, Right to Survive and Blazing Arrow
will join them in working for a community
agreement to keep people in their homes.
“We’ve looked at 38 different cases and in
all of those cases people have been victim-
ized by predatory lending practices,” Umi
says.
“These are folks who have qualifying
credit scores and should have been offered
traditional low-interest long-term loans.
Instead they were steered into high-risk loan
products. In our view, this was part of a
scheme to lure people into these high-risk
products so their homes would end up in
In the final week approaching the presidential election, Superstorm Sandy threw in a wild card. Will the storm
make voting more difficult for significant numbers of people? Will it affect our views of the candidates. Whatever
happens, America will elect one of these men to lead us through the next four years. FindThe Skanner News’
endorsements – for president – as well as local candidates and measures – on page 5.
Portland Multicultural Bridge Club
The Challengers Bridge Club is part of a proud historical tradition
Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
The American Bridge Associ-
ation (ABA) is launching a new
membership drive and they’re
looking for interested card play-
ers of any age.
While some people might still
think contract bridge is for old
people, these are the important
things to know: Competitive
bridge is considered by many to
be a sport; it’s played all over
the world; and some people
make a good living from it – or
See SANCTUARY on page 3
INDEX
News ..............2,3,9,10
Opinion ..................4,5
A & E .........................6
Books.........................7
Food..........................8
Bids/Classifieds ........11
even just a little cash on the
side.
In Portland, the Challengers
Bridge Club – a local chapter of
the American Bridge Associa-
tion like those in Seattle and
Tacoma – is recruiting new
members to grow their commu-
nity and raise the bar for local
card-playing talent.
Considering
how
many
regional, national and interna-
tional tournaments there are,
and the knife-edged skill of
some players – even James
Bond played bridge — the truth
is that the game is pretty excit-
ing.
“Bridge is a fun game but it’s
also very challenging,” says
club organizer Brenda Polk.
“Also it affords you the
opportunity to travel – I travel
all over the country attending
bridge tournaments and I meet
people from all over the United
States.
“I can go to almost any big
city, and go play bridge with
someone that I’ve met at a
bridge tournament,” Polk says.
The ABA is one of the oldest
bridge organizations in the
country, founded in 1932 in Vir-
ginia by a group of Black
players who were excluded
from events at the time.
Today however, ABA mem-
bers join and play with other
bridge groups nationally and
internationally.
In addition to playing bridge,
ABA members support commu-
nity events and provide funds
annually for college scholar-
ships.
Bridge is a partnership card
See BRIDGE on page 3
Acclaimed Author Returns to SEI
Mitchell S. Jackson hopes to inspire kids to write down their stories
Bruce Poinsette
Of The Skanner News
U
ntil 10 years ago, Mitchell S. Jack-
son never saw writing as a viable
career. Now an acclaimed author, he
says the idea for his book came to him in
prison.
“Everybody in prison thinks they have
this amazing life story,” he says. “If some-
one could just write it down it would be a
bestseller.”
Jackson recently released his book “Over-
soul,” to critical acclaim. And on Nov. 9, the
Portland native will be returning home to
speak to students at Self Enhancement Inc.
“For them to select me to come back to
speak for the kids is really important to me,”
he says. “One of my missions is to encour-
age kids to tell their stories.”
“Oversoul” is a collection of fiction and
nonfiction that tells the stories of the author
and his childhood friends.
Specifically, he says, 90 percent of his
writing deals with his mother’s influence
and her struggles with addiction.
The book has garnered praise from critics
for its authenticity.
See JACKSON on page 33