Page 8A NATION East Oregonian Saturday, November 14, 2015 Mizzou demands similar to ’69, but this time action is taken By JIM SALTER and JIM SUHR Associated Press COLUMBIA, Mo. — The criticism was blunt: Blacks at the University of Missouri are harassed and threatened, the university has too few Afri- can-American faculty members, the administration doesn’t seem to care, and all of that needs to change. A list of grievances issued this month by a student group is strikingly similar to those from 1969. This time, though, it appears the university is listening. Recent racist incidents, and the perceived lack of response by adminis- trators, led to protests, a student hunger strike and a threatened boycott by the football team. It culminated Monday in the resignations of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe and Columbia campus Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. The interim president appointed Thursday, Michael Middleton, made it clear that he hears the concerns. Unsurprising, since Middleton, 68, was a founder of Missouri’s Legion of Black Collegians who issued that set of demands 46 years ago. ³,WLVFOHDUWRPHWKH¿UVWVWHSLVWR devote attention to addressing those demands,” Middleton said at his introductory news conference. “It is imperative to hear from all students and do everything we can to make them comfortable and safe in our community.” In fact, the university has already addressed several of the eight points on the list. Chief among them was the removal of Wolfe, but other moves have followed. One day after the resignations, a veteran associate law school dean, AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File A member of the black student protest group Concerned Student 1950 addresses a crowd following the announcement that University of Mis- souri President Tim Wolfe would resign, at the university in Columbia, Mo. Chuck Henson, who is black, was named to the new position of interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity. The university’s governing board also pledged more support for those who experience discrimination and said diversity and inclusion training will become mandatory for faculty, staff and students. On Friday, Gov. Jay Nixon named Yvonne Sparks to the Board of Curators, the second black member of the nine-person panel. The university also hired the OREE\LQJ ¿UP RI$QG\ %OXQW ZKR LV Sen. Roy Blunt’s son and campaign manager, to represent it in Jefferson City, agreeing to pay $10,000 per month in a contract signed Monday. Many students are hopeful, but want to see more action. “Really it just comes down to holding these people accountable,” said Shelbey Parnell, an organizer of Concerned Student 1950, the group that issued the demands. “They’re saying a lot of these things in the moment.” Many of the issues cited nearly ¿YH GHFDGHV DJR SHUVLVW 7KH document cited physical threats by whites against blacks, with frequent threats made to what was then known as the Black Culture House. This week, the university’s black culture center reported a threat, and its sign was spray-painted by vandals. The 1969 list expressed concern about the “nonchalant attitude on the part of the university,” saying it made it “a haven for comprehensive institution- alized racist and political repression.” Tour bus crashes, injuring 20 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A double-decker tourist bus careened wildly out of control Friday in San Francisco’s crowded Union Square, running down a bicyclist, at least two pedes- trians and striking several cars before it plowed into scaffolding lining a construc- tion site. Twenty people were hurt, including six critically. Twelve people suffered minor injuries in the crash that happened just before 3 p.m., San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said. The others suffered moderate injuries. Union Square was crowded with shoppers and tourists when, according to eyewitnesses, the bus came roaring across two city blocks at a high rate of speed. It struck several moving vehicles in its path as well as the bicyclist and the two pedestrians, the latter ending up trapped underneath the vehicle after it plowed into the scaffolding. It also knocked down several power lines used WR SURSHO WKH FLW\¶V ÀHHW RI electrical buses. )LUH¿JKWHUVKDGWRH[WULFDWH the two people under the bus as well as one trapped on the top deck, Hayes-White said. As many as 30 people were believed to have been on board when the vehicle went Foundation 1300 NW Academy Lane ~ PO Box 403 Hermiston, OR 97838 AP Photo/Josh Edelson MUNI workers assess the scene of a crash near Union Square in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday. According to The San Francisco Fire Department, a double-decker tour bus crashed into multiple vehicles and pedestrians. RXWRIFRQWURORI¿FLDOVVDLG The driver was conscious and able to speak when ¿UH¿JKWHUV SXOOHG KLP IURP the wreckage, Hayes-White said. But she added it was too early to speculate about what caused him to lose control. “The police department will investigate what those circumstances involved, whether it was mechanical failure, whether it was driver error. It’s way too early to tell right now,” she said. San Francisco police 2I¿FHU $OELH (VSDU]D couldn’t immediately say which bus company owned the vehicle. Union Square is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations with several high-end stores, including Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as its Union Square Park and its skating rink. In the crash’s aftermath, the area was a chaotic scene, with crashed vehicles scat- tered here and there and live electrical lines on the ground. Hoda Emam said she rounded a corner at Union Square and saw the chaotic scene from half a block away. She heard sirens and emergency workers running toward the accident. “Everybody was asking what’s going on,” said Emam, a Bay Area resident in San Francisco on personal business. “There were still ambulances DQG¿UHWUXFNVDQGSDUDPHGLFV with stretchers coming up.” We wish to express our thanks to the many Donors who contributed to the 2015 Hermiston Junior Academy Foundation Auction. Because of their generosity the Auction was a great success. Alive & Well Duane & Tamie Johnson Aunty Ida’s Quilt Shop Kopacz Nursery Banner Bank Dena Larson Bud Rich Potatoes Les Schwab Tire Centers Buttercreek Equipment Carolyn Mildenberger C&R Mercantile Co. Nellie’s Super Tacos Camp MiVoden Northwest Farm Supply Patti Carroll Northwest Metal Fabricators Chuckwagon Café Guy & Paula Oltman Cottage Flowers O’ So Kleen Community Service Center Allen Payne Country Animal Hospital Phipps Chevron Dairy Queen Randy & Rhonda Randall Desert Lanes Bowling John Rayl Toni Eddy Safeway Bakery Engelhart Photography Shari’s Restaurant Doug & Carleen Flaiz Randy & Tammy Smith Richard & Claudia Flaiz Smitty’s Ace Hardware Fiesta Foods Smitty’s Outpost Andy Engelhart Stetson’s Taste of Thai Family Health Associates Joanne Turner Farm City Pro Rodeo Umatilla County Fair Cheryl Griffiths USA Subs & Grill Larry & Darla Hanson Walker’s Farm Kitchen Pat Hart Photography Ye Olde Pizza Shoppe Heller & Sons HJA Preschool Hermiston Drug HJA Grades K-1 Hermiston Parks & Recreation HJA Grades 2-4 High Performance Signs HJA Grades 5-7 Hi Tek Nails We also want to express our thanks to all who participated in the event. -XVWLFHVZLOOKHDU¿UVW abortion case since 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking RQ LWV ¿UVW DERUWLRQ FDVH LQ eight years, a dispute over state regulation of abortion clinics. The justices said Friday they will hear arguments over a Texas law that would leave about 10 abortion clinics open across the state. A decision should come by late June, four months before the presidential election. The high court previously blocked parts of the Texas law. The court took no action on a separate appeal from Mississippi, where a state law would close the only abortion clinic, in Jackson. Arguments will take place in February or March. States have enacted a wave of measures in recent years that have placed restrictions on when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed, imposed limits on abortions using drugs instead of surgery and raised standards for clinics and the doctors who work in them. The new case concerns the last category. In Texas, the ¿JKW LV RYHU WZR SURYLVLRQV of the law that Gov. Rick Perry signed in 2013. One requires abortion facilities to be constructed like surgical centers. The other allows doctors to perform abortions at clinics only if they have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Backers of the regulations say they are common-sense measures intended to protect women. Abortion rights groups say the regulations have only one aim: to make it harder, if not impossible, for women to get abortions in Texas. “Texans should have full freedom to prioritize women’s health and safety over the bottom line of abortionists,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Steven H. Aden. But Nancy Northup, pres- ident and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, disagreed about the purpose of the law. “This law does not advance women’s health and in fact undermines it,” Northup said. Texas had 41 abortion clinics before the clinic law. More than half of those closed when the admitting privileges requirement was allowed to take effect. Nineteen clinics remain. Northup said the effect of the law has been to increase wait times for women in the Dallas area from an average of ¿YHGD\VWRGD\V The focus of the dispute at the Supreme Court is whether the law imposes what the court has called an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. If allowed to take full effect, the law would leave no abortion clinics west of San Antonio and only one operating on a limited basis in the Rio Grande Valley. The state has argued that women in west Texas already cross into New Mexico to obtain abortions at a clinic in suburban El Paso. Leaders seek answers in police custody death RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Black leaders in Virginia want the state’s attorney general to take over the investigation into the death of a man who was shocked repeatedly by police with stun guns, saying they are frustrated no decision has been made about ZKHWKHUWRFKDUJHWKHRI¿FHUV Leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from across the state will gather Saturday to call on Attorney General Mark Herring to step in for Halifax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Quackenbush Martin, who has been reviewing the death of 46-year-old Linwood R. Lambert Jr. for two years. “We want to know why it is taking so long for the commonwealth attorney to move forward on this,” said Kevin Chan- dler, president of the local NAACP branch and pastor in South Boston, a town of about 8,000 in southern Virginia. A spokesman for Herring said that crim- inal cases are the generally the exclusive responsibility of local prosecutors and the attorney general doesn’t have the authority WRWDNHRYHUDFDVH%XWKHVDLGKLVRI¿FHKDV reached out to Virginia State Conference NAACP leadership to see how they can help address their concerns. “The video of the encounter is very troubling, and the matter clearly deserves a thorough, deliberate investigation and a prompt and just resolution,” spokesman Michael Kelly said in an email. s a m t s i r h C t n e m a n r O g n i t a r o c e D C o ntes t Help us decorate the East Oregonian’s Christmas tree and win a prize! 3 Categories: Ages 2-6, 7-10 & 11-14 Deadline December 11, 2015 Winner announced December 19, 2015 Bring us an ornament decorated by your child by December 11 th , the form below with your signature and your child for a photo. The winner will be announced Dec. 19th in the East Oregonian. For more information, call Paula at 1-800-522-0255 Child’s Name Child’s Age Your Name Yes, I give permission to include photos of my child with ornament in the East Oregonian Your Signature Your Phone Number Deliver to: East Oregonian 211 SE Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR or e-mail to classifieds@eastoregonian.com