Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2014)
WWW . THESKANNEr . COM A PrIl 16, 2014 P OrTlANd ANd S EATTlE V OlUME XXXVI, N O . 28 For The Skanner website scan this QR code CENTS Pacific NW The Skanner News presents our new regional edition, featuring more news and local information. C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW New President at PCC 25 INNOCENT Connecticut official chosen to lead PCC Cascade campus Of The Skanner News See EDWARDS on page 3 INDEX News...............1,3,6,10 Opinion .....................2 Calendars ..............4,5 A & E ......................8,9 Bids/Classifieds ........11 AP PHOTO/BEBETO MATTHEWS T he search for a new Portland Commu- nity College cascade president has ended with selection of Karin Edwards, dean of student development and services at Three Rivers Community Col- lege, in Norwich, Conn. She takes over from beloved former President Algie Gate- wood, who last year moved to North Carolina and a job at Ala- m a n c e Community College to be closer to his Karin Edwards family. Edwards starts on July 21. In her former position, Edwards served as chief student affairs officer, overseeing mar- keting, public relations, admissions, recruitment, financial aid, veteran affairs, records and registration, counseling, advis- ing, placement testing, career services, student activities, childcare, off-campus operations, and student discipline. PCC officials say she has worked in the past on student success strategies, planning, budgeting and assessment. “I am looking forward to coming to Port- land to join the students, staff and faculty of the Cascade Campus of PCC,” Edwards said in a statement. “The level of concern, commitment and connection to the commu- nity this campus has demonstrated is so impressive. I’m absolutely honored to serve as the president.” Edwards has also worked at Orange County Community College in Middletown, N.Y., including Director of College Exten- sion Centers, Director of the Newburgh Extension Center and Student Development Counselor. Jonathan Fleming, right, reaches to hug his mother Tricia Fleming in Brooklyn’s Supreme court after a judge declared him free, Tuesday April 8, 2014 in New York. Oregon has launched its own version of the Innocence project, the last state in the US to do so; legendary attorney Steven Wax will lead the organization. Oregon Starts Historic Project Oregon Supreme Court may overturn Jerrin Hickman conviction By Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News L ast week in New York, Jonathan Fleming walked free after being exonerated for a murder he didn’t commit. Fleming spent 24 years in jail, while the phone receipt that proved he was 1,100 miles away when the crime was committed lay, decaying, inside the case file. Fleming would still be in prison without the work of the Brooklyn Conviction Integrity Unit, dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Until the launch of the Ore- gon Innocence Project, April 9, Oregon was the only state in the country without some kind of group working to overturn wrongful convictions. Steve Wax, one of the country’s top criminal defense lawyers, is stepping down from his long- time job as Oregon’s Federal Public Defender to take the helm. With Wax as legal director and a committed group behind him, the project is ready to hit the ground running, said Barry Scheck, co-founder of the National Innocence Project in New York. “Once it gets going, it’s going to move in at a very high level of sophistication and competence,” Scheck said. “I think that what is going to happen initially is that the Innocence Project here in Ore- gon is going to be working with law enforcement, prose- cutors and the judiciary to come up with best practices.” “What’s very optimistic about Oregon is that this proj- ect has got enormous support from very significant stake- holders all across the state. So we all expect that there will be great reforms coming out of this, even before the exonera- tions, which always take a number of years.” In Washington, the Inno- cence Project Northwest, based at the University of Washington Law School, has entered 12 people to the National Registry of Exonera- tions since it was founded in 1997. Last April, Jeramie Davis was exonerated of murder with the help of DNA evidence. He See INNOCENCE on page 3 Seattle’s Herman McKinney, 1939-2014 He was a lifelong Civil Rights activist and former Oregon resident H erman McKinney, civil rights activist and a community leader in Seattle died April 11, aged 75. Born in Oklahoma, McKinney arrived as a child in Portland, Ore., during WWII. His family was one of thousands of Black families who headed North to work in the Kaiser ship- yards. A home-going service is scheduled for Friday, April 25, 2014, 11a.m., at First AME Church, 1522 14th Ave, Seattle, WA, 206- 324-3664. McKinney played football at the Universi- ty of Oregon before heading to the University of Washington to pursue a mas- ters in social work. He went on to work for University of Washington as an assistant dean, where he was responsible for increasing the number of students of color at the university. McKinney was a lifelong advocate for diversity and equity in education, hiring and zipcode equity. In 1976, with Ernie Dunston, Paul Mitchell and other Black men, McKinney co-founded The Breakfast Group dedicated to “mentoring and addressing the challenges of at-risk youth of color focusing on black See MCKINNEY on page 3
