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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2015)
WWW . THESKANNER . COM J UNE 3, 2015 P ORTLAND AND S EATTLE V OLUME XXXVII, N O . 35 25 CENTS WWI Hero Henry Johnson Receives Medal of Honor Go to TheSkanner.com for video and photos. INSIDE: CAREERS EDITION 2015 C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW Bleeding Alberta DRUMLINE Teen Shot, Activists Arrested at Last Thursday By Donovan M. Smith Of The Skanner News PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED S hots fired by a teenager at Alberta Street’s popular Last Thursday arts festival — and the arrest of two activists who tried to help one of the victims – sparked a new conversation about race and class in the Rose City. According to court documents, Turon Lamont Walker, 16, has admitted responsi- bility for the shooting, which left two 15- year-old Jefferson High School students and a 25-year-old woman injured sometime just after 7 p.m. along NE 20th Ave. and Alberta. Walker, a Vancouver, Wash. resident, faces two Measure 11 charges of attempted mur- der and will be tried as an adult. He also faces an unlawful weapon charge. All three victims survived the shooting and are in various stages of recovery. Loren Ware and Marcus Cooper – two Don’t Shoot Portland activists who were arrested after assisting one of the victims in the shooting – on Wednesday afternoon staged what they called a “community hear- ing” in the spot where the shots rang out. The activists, who were charged with on charges of interfering with a peace officer, disorderly conduct in the first degree, harassment, and resisting arrest talked about race, gentrification and police brutality in Portland. Ware is a popular Portland rapper who performs as “Glenn Waco.” “This is our community,” says Cooper. “It’s not just Black, it’s not just brown, it’s humans in general.” Ware referred to Alberta as a crime scene, but not for the events at Last Thursday. “We walk in our neighborhoods and get looked at like we don’t belong,” he says. “Everybody wants to point the finger to gang members — or children — as the issue. But what about the socioeconomic conditions that breed gang violence and other crimes?” he said. Ware called on the community to reach out to the parents of the children involved, and children in the community in general, rather than “demonize” them. “This is a key moment to reach out to the parents of these kids and help them get their Lincoln High School Junior Varsity Drumline competed May 30 in the Bulldog Drumline Expo 2015 at Garfield High School in Seattle. A dozen high schools from across Washington state — including Cleveland (Seattle), Franklin (Seattle), Jefferson (Seattle), Chimicum High School and Moses Lake High Schools competed for best drumline. Roosevelt High School won first place, followed by Bellevue in second and Glacier Peak High taking third. Aki Kurose took best middle school drumline. Head Start: Celebrating Its 50th Director says political changes are threatening the program By Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News A s the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of Head Start this summer, Albina Head Start Director Ronnie Herndon says politics are threatening the effectiveness of the venerated group. Long considered one of the most effective early childhood development programs in the country, today Head Start faces mandated changes from the fed- eral government and a surpris- See ALBERTA on page 2 INDEX News .........................3 Calendars ..............5,6 Opinion .....................2 A & E ......................4,7 Bids/Classifieds ..........7 ing lack of support from Ore- gon’s fractured education bureaucracy. Operated by the U.S. Depart- ment of Health and Human Services, Head Start is consid- ered to be one of the oldest and most successful anti-poverty programs nationally. Yet in recent years, it has been attacked for being ineffective – in the wake of studies that showed the gains made by Head Start children “fade” after a few years in the public school sys- tem. In Oregon, the new Early Learning Council established by now-disgraced former Gov. John Kitzhaber opted last year not to award Albina Head Start any expansion grant money – the first time that had happened in the history of the organiza- tion. The Skanner News sat down with Herndon to talk about the program’s status and why it is crucial for kids. The Skanner News: Last time we spoke, we were exam- ining how the state decided not to give any expansion grant money to Albina Head Start. Your organization appealed that decision but the former director said there was no appeals process. What is the status of that situation? Herndon: Nothing has occurred since this past summer. We did not get any expansion funding, even people who work at the state and most people involved in social services involved in the county think that See HERNDON on page 2 Oregon’s Most Distinctive Form of Death CDC report: Oregonians uniquely likely to die in police encounters By Arashi Young Of The Skanner News O regon’s most distinctive cause of death is not from disease or bicycle accidents – it is through interactions with the police. That is according to a new state-by-state report tracking mortality data. Legal inter- vention – deaths resulting from an encounter with a law enforcement official – was the most distinctive death for Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico. Legal intervention deaths include deaths of suspects, bystanders and law enforce- ment officers. The study was conducted by Francis Boscoe, PhD of the New York State Cancer Registry. After ruling out the top ten most common deaths, such as heart disease and cancer, Boscoe looked for high frequencies of rare deaths. Taking inspiration from light-hearted dis- tinctive maps such as “the most distinctive Google search per state,” Boscoe wanted to make a serious map that questioned how geography and local policies affect death rates. See DEATH on page 2
