HAPPY
INDEPENDENCE
DAY
JUNE 29, 2016
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXVIII No. 39
25
CENTS
News ...............................3,9,10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 HRC for Gun Control ........9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classiieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
BLACK GRADUATION
Hales appointed
Marshman to position
Monday
By The Skanner News Staf
M
ayor Charlie Hales announced
Monday morning that Mike
Marshman, a 25-year Portland
Police Bureau veteran, would
step into the role of interim police chief
following the announcement that Larry
O’Dea would retire.
O’Dea had been on paid leave — and
PHOTO BY DAVID GOEHRING (CC BY 2.0)
See CHIEF on page 3
A new study says it’s more diicult than ever to
determine who funds political ads.
Who is
Paying for
Political
Ads? page 10
BET Awards Ceremony
is Emotional and
Eneregetic
page 7
Yoli Chisolm presents Seattle’s irst Youth Poet Laureate and 2016 Cleveland High School graduate Lieja Farr with a vision board at the 1st Annual Greater
Seattle Black Graduation June 24 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. High school graduates from schools all over Western Washington
including Auburn Riverside, Todd Beamer, Federal Way, Rainier Beach, Garield and Chief Sealth were honored for reaching the important milestone of
High School Graduation with a ceremony featuring elements of tradtional African culture including wisdom from their elders, music and poetry and a
graduate recognition ceremony.
Oregon Ranks Low for Child Well-being
New report says children in Oregon are more likely to live in poverty
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
More than one out of ev-
ery ive children in Oregon
live in poverty according
to the KIDS Count report
published earlier this
month by the  Annie E. Ca-
sey Foundation.
The report ranks Oregon
32nd in the nation for child
well-being, which mea-
sures factors such as the
economic security of par-
ents, access to healthcare
and quality of education.
Tonia Hunt, the execu-
tive director for Children
First for Oregon, the state
partner of the KIDS Count
project, said Oregon’s child
well-being rating has been
worsening over the years.
“We are continuing to
see Oregon’s national
rankings drop over a num-
ber of years. This is not an
aberration in the data, this
is now a trend,” Hunt said.
The most dire number
from the KIDS Count re-
port was the very low rat-
ing of economic well-being
of Oregonians, 41 out of
50 — only nine states fared
worse than Oregon.
This number was deter-
mined by the number of
children living in pover-
ty, the number of parents
without secure employ-
ment and the number of
teenagers who are neither
enrolled in school nor
working. Hunt said many
families are still living in
poverty even though the
economy has improved.
“Oregon families have
just not recovered from
the Great Recession at the
same rate that other states
are showing recovery, and
that’s concerning,” she
said.
High housing costs also
contribute to the strug-
gles of families in Oregon.
Nationwide, 35 percent of
children lived in cost-bur-
dened households. In
Oregon, that number is
38 percent, with 323,000
children living in homes
where more than 30 per-
cent of monthly household
pretax income is spent on
housing-related expenses,
including rent, mortgage
See CHILDREN on page 3
Portland to Host Delta Sigma Theta’s 50th Farwest
Regional Conference
Many events are free and open to the public
By Delta Sigma Theta
T
he Portland Alumnae Chapter
of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,
Inc., invites the public to partic-
ipate in the public events sched-
uled during its 50th Farwest Region-
al Conference.
The theme, “Power of the Past-
Force of the Future: Celebrating
HERstory,” reiterates the organiza-
tion’s historical values and contin-
ued commitment to public service.
Organizers will welcome more than
850 members of the sorority from
Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii,
Idaho, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ne-
vada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
Closed conference events and ses-
sions will take place at the Oregon
Convention Center. The following
conference events are free and open
to the public, and all members of the
See CONFERENCE on page 3
PHOTO COURTESY JUNE KEY DELTA CENTER
O'Dea Steps
Down as
Chief
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
In this Oct. 7, 2014 ile photo, Assistant Police
Chief Larry O’Dea appears at a press conference
at the Portland Police Bureau in the Justice
Center, in Portland, Ore. Portland Mayor Charlie
Hales announced Monday that current Portland
Police Chief O’Dea plans to retire as authorities
investigate whether he may have lied about
accidentally shooting a friend in the back during an
April hunting trip. 
The Portland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority, Inc., invites the public to
participate in the public events scheduled
during its 50th Farwest Regional Conference.