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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2019)
February 6, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 “ tions, I’m compelled to make clear what hap- pened.” The Associated Press typically does not iden- tify those who say they were sexually assault- ed, but Tyson issued the statement in her name. Fairfax — who is in line to become governor if Northam resigns — has repeatedly denied her Mr. Fairfax has tried to brand me as a liar to a na- tional audience, in service to his political ambitions, and has threatened litigation been among those calling on Northam to resign — said that he was “deeply, deeply sorry for the pain that I cause with this rev- elation” and that the days ahead “will make it clear whether I can or should continue to serve as at- torney general.” Then, within hours, Va- nessa Tyson, the woman whose sexual assault al- legations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax surfaced earlier this week, issued a detailed statement say- ing Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex on him in a hotel room in 2004 during the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Tyson, a 42-year-old political scientist who is on a fellowship at Stan- ford University and specializes in the polit- ical discourse of sexual assault, said, “I have no political motive. I am a proud Democrat.” “Mr. Fairfax has tried to brand me as a liar to a national audience, in ser- vice to his political ambi- tions, and has threatened litigation,” she said. “Given his false asser- Measles allegations, saying that the encounter was con- sensual and that he is the victim of a strategically timed political smear. “At no time did she ex- press to me any discom- fort or concern about our interactions, neither during that encounter, nor during the months following it, when she stayed in touch with me, nor the past 15 years,” he said in a statement. Tyson said she suffered “deep humiliation and shame” and stayed qui- et about the allegations as she pursued her ca- reer, but by late 2017, as the #MeToo movement took shape and after she saw a news article about Fairfax’s campaign, she took her story to The Washington Post, which decided months later not to publish a story. Herring, 57, went pub- lic after rumors of a blackface photo of him had circulated at the Cap- itol for a day or more. But in his statement, he said nothing about the exis- tence of a photo. Read more at TheSkanner.com Mark Matthews Voted New President of PBDG Professional Business Development Group, a nonprofit community benefit organization that works to improve business conditions in the construction industry for certified minority and women owned businesses in the Portland Metro area, recently voted in a new President, Mark Matthews with Pacificmark Construction. Matthews replaces Vicqui Guevara, owner of Valley Growers Nursery and Landscape, and a founder of PBDG, who has been the organization’s president for the last several years. Her time as president was very successful and enjoyable. As a general contractor, Matthews built the PCC Cascade Campus Student Union Building and worked with Slayden-Sundt on the Sellwood Bridge. Placards PHOTO COURTESY OF PBDG cials, all of them Demo- crats. The twin blows began with Attorney General Mark Herring issuing a statement admitting he wore brown makeup and a wig in 1980 to look like a rapper during a party as a 19-year-old student at the University of Vir- ginia. Herring — who has cont’d from pg 1 fect March 1; placarding require- ments for non-profits were set to go in effect November 2020. Music venues, churches and tenants’ rights groups also crit- icized the ordinance, which af- fected about 1,500 total buildings in the city, including numerous churches and several bars and music venues. Groups protested the ordinance outside City Hall Jan. 5. The ordinance had also spurred two lawsuits, both ar- guing the ordinance violated the First Amendment. Challengers are the Masonry Building Owners of Oregon, a nonprofit coalition of brick building owners, developer John Beardsley’s company and building owner Jim Atwood. In a Jan. 31 press release Hardes- ty said she had directed Portland Fire & Rescue, which she over- sees, to pause any unreinforced masonry building enforcement until further outreach by her of- fice is completed. It also said she had asked the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, which she oversees, to lead work ses- sions on the topic and “further in- vestigate financial incentives that would make seismic upgrades feasible for many business own- ers and non-profit operators.” “No one is interested in put- ting our residents at risk, but we need to look at ways to better sup- port businesses and non-profits in seismically upgrading their buildings,” Hardesty said in the release. “A placard is a band-aid “ Black community and other com- munities of color. “The only way they can make this equitable and the only way to make this make any sense is for this entire process to be stopped is to bring everyone to the ta- No one is interested in putting our residents at risk, but we need to look at ways to better support businesses and non-profits in seismically upgrading for a much larger problem. Until we have better support in place, especially in the form of funding assistance for these projects, I want placarding enforcement on hold for businesses and non-prof- it organizations.” Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement last week that the plac- arding requirement is “still the law” and that he would continue to work with Hardesty and build- ing owners “to ensure the safety of all Portlanders.” In October The Skanner report- ed on the NAACP’s criticisms of the ordinance, which they wor- ried would exacerbate the gentri- fication that has in recent years displaced much of Portland’s ble,” said the Rev. E.D. Mondainé, president of the NAACP Portland branch and pastor of Celebration Tabernacle Church in October. Mondainé also expressed con- cern that given the likely scope of devastation of a megaquake — which, according to tribal his- tories and geological records hit the Cascadia subduction zone every few hundred years, and last struck the area in 1700 -- the city should be considering pri- oritizing safe evacuation routes and food storage rather than these buildings. But he also said the communities that opposed the measure planned to organize and talk about next steps together. cont’d from pg 1 person had received one dose of the MMR vaccine, which is administered in two doses and six had unverified vaccination statuses. One person has been hospitalized in the outbreak, but no one is currently in the hospital with measles. Previously officials had listed pos- sible exposure sites visited by people later revealed to be contagious with measles. They include the Portland In- ternational Airport, Costco, IKEA and a Portland Trail Blazers game. The measles vaccine has been part of the recommendation rotation for child- hood shots for several decades. In 2000 public health officials declared victory over the virus, which, prior to the in- troduction of the vaccine, killed 400 to 500 people each year and accounted for 50,000 hospitalizations. It can cause brain swelling that leads to deafness. The measles vaccine has been part of routine childhood shots for decades, and measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Measles has a long incubation period — seven to 21 days before an infected individual begins showing symptoms — and is highly contagious. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed, with 90 percent of unvaccinated people who are near the sick individual becoming sick some- time after. Measles causes fever, runny nose, cough and a rash all over the body. Of- ficials urge anyone who has been ex- posed at an identified location and be- lieves they have symptoms of measles to call their health care provider prior to visiting the medical office to make a plan that avoids exposing others in the waiting room. Those who believe they have symptoms of measles should not go directly to medical offices, urgent care centers or emergency depart- ments (unless experiencing a medical emergency) without calling in advance. According to a Wednesday press re- PHOTO: JIM GOODSON COURTESY OF THE CDC (PUBLIC DOMAIN) Virginia lease from the Oregon Health Authority, in the last week of January, the number of measles vac- cines given out in the Tri-County area (Mult- nomah, Clackamas, Wash- ington counties) tripled compared with the same time last year, from 200 per day in January 2018 to 600 per day in 2019 – suggesting the threat of measles has increased in- terest in vaccination. To learn more about Clark County’s measles outbreak, including poten- tial infection sites, visit: https://www. clark.wa.gov/public-health/measles-in- vestigation For information about additional ex- posure sites in Oregon, linked to the confirmed case in Multnomah Coun- ty, visit the Oregon Health Authority measles webpage at https://multco.us/ health-officer/measles-outbreak-win- ter-2019-oregon-exposures. For information about other measles cases in Washington, visit the Wash- ington State Department of Health measles webpage at https://www.doh. wa.gov/ YouandYourFamily/ Illnes- sandDisease/ Measles/ MeaslesOut- break. Clark County Public Health has estab- lished a call center for questions relat- ed to the investigation. Anyone with questions can call (360) 397-8021.