AUGUST 2, 2017
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX, No. 44
25
CENTS
News ...............................3,9,10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Dr. Jasmine ......................9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF
PORTLAND
WATKINS SWORN IN
Mayor Ted Wheeler is expected to announce
his selection for Portland’s new police chief
sometime this month.
Activists say they
will pursue a recall if
Marshman is hired
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
P
ortland Mayor Ted Wheeler is
expected to announce this month
who will serve as Portland’s next
police chief. He’s down to four
candidates after a nationwide search
drew 33 applications.
Mike Marshman, who was appoint-
ed as interim chief last summer, is one
of the four. The city has confirmed the
identity of one other candidate, as-
sistant Pittsburgh police chief Larry
Scirotto, but has said the other two have
requested their names remain confi-
dential.
Portland’s Resistance, an activist
AP PHOTO/WONG MAYE-E
See CHIEF on page 3
Kim Hyo Sim, 21, a student at Pyongyang City
Commercial College speaks to The Associated
Press on July 27 in Pyongyang, North Korea, ahead
of celebrations for the 64th anniversary of the
armistice that ended the Korean War.
PHOTO BY MELANIE SEVCENKO
City Down
to Final
Four Chief
Candidates
On Tuesday, Aug. 1, Judge Adrienne Nelson (left), of Multnomah County Circuit Court, swears in Ulanda Watkins (right) as judge of Clackamas County
Circuit Court. Presiding Judge Robert D. Herndon looks on (center).
Watkins is Oregon’s first Black judge to serve outside of Multnomah County
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
B
efore an intimate
crowd of friends and
colleagues on Tues-
day, Ulanda Watkins
was sworn in as judge of
Clackamas County Cir-
cuit Court, one of 36 trial
courts in the state system.
Watkins, a former de-
fense lawyer and manag-
ing attorney at insurance
firm GEICO, is among eight
judges Gov. Kate Brown re-
cently appointed to Mult-
nomah and Clackamas
County Circuit Courts, as
well as the Oregon Court of
Appeals.
The Portland native is
the only judge of color in
Clackamas and the third
Black woman judge on the
Oregon state bench. She
is also the first African
American judge to sit on
the bench outside of Mult-
nomah County.
Watkins will officially
take the reins Aug. 14. In
the days before her swear-
ing in, she spoke with The
Skanner about her prece-
dent-setting appointment
and her eagerness to re-
turn to the courtroom. This
interview has been edited
for space and clarity.
The Skanner News: Tell
me a little bit about your
background. How did you
get into law?
Ulanda Watkins: I went
to Wilson High School and
they have a street law class
that they still offer to stu-
dents at Portland Public
Schools. I was a member of
our team, and all the teams
complete at the county lev-
el, then at the state level. I
remember representing
Wilson and I had a specific
role of doing the opening
statement. I enjoyed that
so much. I thought, how
awesome to have a career
where I can argue and get
paid for it. So that sparked
my interest. Then at some
point, I think it was maybe
my freshman year at col-
lege, I (decided) I wanted to
go to law school. So I kept
that in mind throughout
my undergrad. I applied
and got into both the Wil-
lamette University College
of Law and Lewis & Clark
Law School. I decided on
Lewis & Clark because it
was in Portland and I had a
two-year old at the time. So
I needed to be somewhere
where I had family sup-
port because law school is
so intense. It’s boot camp
for lawyers. It’s grueling
(laughs).
TSN: You worked as a de-
fense lawyer before you
joined GEICO. How did that
experience compare to
your work at the insurance
firm?
UW: I worked with judge
Ken Walker and attorney
Ernie Warren (of Walker,
Warren and Watkins). At
the time they were among
the first African Amer-
ican-owned firms. I did
criminal law and worked
with those guys for 15
years before coming to GE-
ICO. We represented peo-
ple charged with crimes at
the state and federal level.
See WATKINS on page 3
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
‘Detroit’ Docudrama
Opens This Week
page 6
O
regon’s inaugural Pan African
Festival will kick-off Saturday,
Aug. 12 at Pioneer Courthouse
Square in downtown Portland.
From noon to 8:30 p.m., Portlanders
can celebrate the music, dance, food
and fashion from across the African
continent.
Initiated by Nafisa Fai, a Somalian
immigrant and rookie event orga-
nizer, the one-day festival has been
in the works for close to a year, as a
means to “really illuminate the trea-
sures that exist in our community,”
said Fai.
“I always wanted to a have a pan
African festival for foreign Afri-
cans, Afro-Caribbeans, and African
Americans, similar to Festa Italiana
at Pioneer Square,” Fai told The Skan-
See FESTIVAL on page 3
PHOTO BY KURT BAUSCHARDT
First Pan African Festival Comes to Oregon
Young North
The cultural festival aims to galvanize Portland’s
Koreans Talk of African community Aug. 12
Tensions page 10
Cameroon Dancing