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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2017)
OCTOBER 25, 2017 25 CENTS Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 4 News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7 Opinion ...................................2 Fats Domino ....................9 Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW SIT UNTIL IT STOPS Hundreds Expected for Black Women’s Gathering M PHOTO PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY a n y years back, during what was known as the annual Black Women’s Gath- ering in Port- land, a woman stepped up to Joyce Harris the open mic, as was tradition for the event. As both a symbol and a powerful component of the gathering, the mi- crophone was for any woman to speak what was on her mind. This particular woman, however, just screamed until she was embraced by her fellow attend- PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARMORY See GATHERING on page 3 Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of “Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles.” Interview with ‘Mojada’ Lead Actress page 9 Update on Puerto Rico page 8 A small group of people meditated in the rain in front of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct Oct. 21 to draw attention to the killings of Charleena Lyles, Tommy Le, Giovonn Joseph-McDade and others by the police. The organizers plan on continuing the silent protest every Saturday “until the city and county implement policies for non-lethal engagement in our communities.” Safety and Justice Challenge Moves Forward Grant includes $750,000 for culturally specific programming By Kate Nacy For The Skanner News M ultnomah Coun- ty plans to create a treatment shel- ter for women involved in the criminal justice system, and will create culturally specific programming for African American women with a new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacAr- thur Foundation. Early this month Mult- nomah County received $2 million from the John D. And Catherine T. MacAr- thur Foundation to reduce reliance on jails. The grant is part of the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), which offers financial and technical support to ju- risdictions implementing data-driven strategies to eliminate ineffective, inef- ficient and unfair practices in local justice systems. That funding includes $750,000 allocated for pro- gramming that caters spe- cifically to African Amer- ican women who are on probation, have charges pending in mental health court or are awaiting a competency hearing in criminal court. Abbey Stamp, executive director of Local Public Safety Coordinating Coun- cil (LPSCC), said the new round of funding from the MacArthur Foundation will support the develop- ment of a new treatment shelter for women in- volved in the criminal jus- tice system. According to Stamp, the shelter will be loosely modeled after a transition- al housing facility for men on Northwest 5th Avenue and Glisan Street. The Sta- bilization for Treatment Preparation Housing Pro- gram (STP) offers psychi- atric care, legal assistance and a number of other re- sources to men with men- tal health issues. “STP has been widely successful and a wonder- ful resource for people in need of stabilization,” Stamp said. Careful to note the wom- en’s shelter is “still a con- cept, for now,” Stamp says programming will be de- signed to focus on cultur- ally-specific, trauma-in- formed services. “Trauma characterizes a lot of women in the crimi- nal justice system,” said Er- ika Preuitt, adult services director for the Depart- ment of Community Jus- tice. “It’s a huge pathway See GRANT on page 3 Forest Service Employee Fights a Different Kind of Fire Joey Jones helps keep remote communication networks secure By Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News J oey Jones loves nature and the Northwest, so when he left the military, working for the U.S. For- est Service seemed like a natural fit. But Jones’ job isn’t what one might picture when one imagines working for the Forest Service. He’s a network operations super- visor who works in Portland but su- pervises a team of about 20 people, who work remotely from all over the country, to monitor and repair the Forest Service’s information net- works. “What makes the Forest Service unique is usually, where our busi- ness takes place is where no one else is at,” Jones told The Skanner. Supporting communication net- works in places where firefighters or other workers have poor cell phone signal, or low-bandwidth Internet connections — but still need to com- municate with colleagues quickly and frequently — is key, he said. “So for example, where these fires are taking place across the nation, there’s no infrastructure there. PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY By Melanie Sevcenko Of The Skanner News PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Oct. 28 marks the official revival of the largest congregation of Black women in more than two decades Joey Johnson manages network operations for the U.S. Forest Service. There’s no Verizon, there’s no AT&T out in these locations. So that’s a See FOREST on page 3