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Hoop Screams
The basketball season is over for Brandon Brooks, but the Grant High hoops star is still having a big impact--this time off the court. Last week, in response to WW's recent cover story on Brooks' checkered academic record ("The Education of Brandon Brooks," WW, March 4, 1998), members of the Portland School Board called for tougher standards for high-school athletes. Currently, state law requires only that athletes pass five classes--and they may fail two, which means players can be eligible for sports with a 0.71 GPA. Portland Public School Board Chairman Ron Saxton says he is "outraged" by the low threshold. Saxton and other board members immediately requested that acting superintendent Diana Snowden address the issue. "We've asked the superintendent and her staff to give us a recommendation of what would be an appropriate standard," Saxton says. At the statewide level, Superintendent of Education Norma Paulus said the current requirement "flies in the face of our trying to raise standards for all students." Paulus blamed the Oregon Schools Activities Association, which sets standards for extracurricular activities. The OSAA, in her opinion, "has been dominated by coaches who put athletic prowess in front of academic standards." |
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Paulus said the system can only be changed by the state school board, which oversees the OSAA. Judy Stiegler, chairman of the state board, admitted that her group has not focused on athletes' grades. "We don't look at ourselves as a regulatory agency," she said. Nonetheless, Stiegler expressed dissatisfaction with the 0.71 GPA policy. "As a parent and from a personal perspective, I think it's too low," she said. "I can't speak for the board." Meanwhile, as Benson coach Don Emry predicted in WW, Brooks was left off the All-PIL team. Despite leading the league in scoring with a 29.8 PPG average, Brooks apparently was not considered by coaches to be among the city's top 10 players. --Nigel Jaquiss Follow-up
Grave Situation Did suspected homicide victim Tim Moreau wind up with a concrete pillow in the basement of the former Starry Night building? Police aren't much closer to knowing the answer, although their recent snooping hasn't ruled out the possibility. Late last month, Portland Police Officer Herschel Lange took a trip to the bowels of the former Starry Night (now the Roseland) with Tom Robinson, who used to store sound equipment in its catacomb-like basement. According to Robinson, Lange was interested in a number of large holes in the wall that had been filled in with concrete. "He wanted to see if I recall whether they were present when I moved in and if I recall why they were filled," Robinson told WW shortly before the visit ("Concrete Evidence," WW, March 4, 1998). Although the investigation was opened when Moreau disappeared in 1990, Lange was assigned to the case recently when former club owner Larry Hurwitz, long considered a "person of interest" in the case, returned to the country from Vietnam. When asked whether detectives had snooped around the basement after Moreau vanished, Lange said, "One would think they should have, I don't know if they did--quite frankly I don't think so." Lange says all but one of the concrete pours appear to be related to construction of the bus mall. Lange left town shortly after the meeting and couldn't check with Tri-Met officials about the holes. --Maureen O'Hagan
Follow-up
Back on Border Patrol
Anti-immigration activist Sharon Shepperd has changed her tune, but the final chorus will most likely sound the same. Two weeks ago Shepperd told Willamette Week she was dropping two anti-immigration initiatives ("Losing the Initiative," News Buzz, WW, March 4, 1998). In an interview with The Oregonian last week, however, she said she was dropping only one of the initiatives--the one that would deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants--but will continue circulating a petition that echoes California's controversial Proposition 187. Regardless of whether Shepperd drops the second petition--which would deny public housing, welfare or child care to immigrants illegally living in Oregon--it's unlikely the measure will qualify for the November ballot. Shepperd refuses to say how many signatures she's gathered, but she concedes that she is having trouble getting volunteers to rally around her cause. "We all work full time," she says. --Patty Wentz |
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Unharmonic Convergence
Hundreds of New Agers will descend upon downtown Portland this weekend for the Body & Soul '98 conference. Although the annual three-day spiritual workshop is billed as a chance to "improve your relationships" and "follow your bliss," those who attend will have to battle some nasty karma. That's because one of the keynote speakers, mystic Jean Houston, is in a major snit with Common Ground magazine, one of the local co-sponsors. Houston, best known for her consultations with Hillary Clinton, is interviewed in the current issue of the New Age magazine (formerly called Reflections). Houston, author of A Mythic Life and other best sellers, is furious about a sentence in the introduction that says she was "caught lying about her academic credentials"--a reference to a 1996 interview she gave with Stone Phillips in which he challenged reports that she had a PhD from Columbia University. In the interview, Houston, who did graduate work at the university, says she's never claimed to have a doctoral degree from Columbia. In any event, Houston was clearly irked that the controversy was being dredged up just before she hit town for a big speech. As her husband, Robert Masters, told WW, "We're not interested in opening that bag of shit again." Conference organizers, upset that one of their star attractions was being tarnished, acted swiftly. Rick Ingrasci, who produces Body & Soul conferences across the country, considers Houston a friend. He says that after talking with her, he decided to ban Common Ground managing editor Alfredo Azula, who wrote the offending intro, from the conference. He also has prohibited the magazine from distributing its current issue at the event, which will be held at the Hilton Hotel. "Jean was upset and rightfully so," says Ingrasci. "This was old news that repeated some falsehoods." He dismissed Azula's writing as "pretty poor journalism" from an "advertorial rag." Common Ground publisher John Crutcher stands by the story, saying he's never been satisfied with Houston's explanation about the confusion over her bio. "We felt that if you're going to interview her, how can you not ask about that?" he says. "Clearly she's very sensitive about this. It all seems so petty."
--John Schrag
Corrections:
In a Feb. 11, 1998, article, "Night of the Non-Living Wage," we reported that a contract janitor for Multnomah County, an employee of Oregon Pacific Corporation, sometimes earned less than minimum wage, worked overtime without additional pay and received no health benefits. These statements are not factually supported. Current employment records for Oregon Pacific show the janitor works part-time, is paid $6.50 per hour, $.50 above the current minimum wage, and receives an additional $50 per month that can be used as a contribution toward medical coverage. Willamette Week regrets the publication of the original statements. In a news buzz item last week ("Scouting Out Schools," WW, March 11, 1998), we said a New Jersey court ruled that the Scouts could remove an assistant scoutmaster for being gay. The sentence should have said they couldnot. WW regrets the error. |
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Originally published: Willamette Week - March 18, 1998 |
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