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Last week, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Coalition of Black Men opened a monthly clinic to help reduce a health threat of particular concern in low-income communities. Nearly 10 percent of Oregon's Latino, Native-American and African-American children have lead concentrations in their blood greater than the federal acceptable level, according to a report issued by the Urban League last year. Doctors say exposure to lead, which can cause learning disabilities, is one of the most severe problems facing low-income kids. Federal officials cut off funds for the state and county lead-screening program in Northeast Portland more than a year ago, saying the state's application was faulty ("Get the Lead Out," WW, Jan. 14, 1998). Local activists hope that federal funds will be restored, but in the meantime they have started their own lead-screening program at Common Bond, a nonprofit parent-education agency behind St. Andrew Church on Northeast 9th Avenue and Alberta Street. Josiah Hill, president of PSR, says the clinic, staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses, will be open the second Saturday of each month. That isn't enough to meet the need, but until public funding is restored, Hill says, "We're the biggest thing on the block right now." --Patty Wentz Quote of the
Week Will Work for
Bus Fare When Tom Walsh announced he was leaving his Tri-Met post in September, Roberts thought about applying. Then she learned that Fred Hansen, who headed DEQ when Roberts was governor, had thrown his hat in the ring. "Once I heard his name was on the list, there was no reason to apply," Roberts told WW. "Fred is a perfect match for the job." Roberts, who moved back to Portland five weeks ago from Cambridge, Mass., remains under contract to Harvard University, working as a senior fellow for the Kennedy School's Women and Public Policy Program. The arrangement allows her to live in Portland and gives her plenty of free time. "Ideally, I'd love to find something half-time where I could really deal with policy issues like light rail, land-use planning, social issues," says Roberts. Roberts says her three years in Cambridge made her appreciate what she had left. "I find the openness of Oregonians so much more fun and exciting," she says. "The Harvard campus was exciting, but I never did adjust to the social climate in Boston. I found it very isolating." --Bob Young Jumping ShipThe Wall Street Journal is coming to town, and it's raiding the local daily paper. WW hears that Rob Eure, of The Oregonian, has signed on with the business paper, which is opening a new two-person bureau in Portland to help produce a weekly Northwest edition. The Journal will also have reporters in Seattle and Olympia. Word is that two of Eure's colleagues--Nena Baker and Steve Jones--are vying for the second slot. Meanwhile, just when salmon are the hottest news topic since the spotted owl, two of Portland's widely respected environmental reporters are hanging up their notebooks. OPB radio lost its main enviro reporter two weeks ago when Ley Garnett headed to Cleveland, Ohio, to work at that city's National Public Radio affiliate as a producer during the "Morning Edition" time slot. On Monday Joan Laatz Jewett, a 16-year veteran with The Oregonian, crossed over to the other side of the media river as the head PR flack for Region One of the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. Although Jewett's environmental background is an asset, she won't be working for the salmon she's been writing about for the past five years: The USDFW is in charge of all wildlife except seagoing fish and marine animals. Jewett says she did some soul-searching after the job offer came. "It's
an agency I can feel good about working for," she says. "Otherwise I
wouldn't have done it." This Wednesday Tri-Met officials are taking a group of artists and art critics to look at the granite wall etching in the new westside light-rail station below the zoo. Good thing they're not taking mathematicians. One of the pieces of public art is a series of cultural icons cut into a polished-granite wall that separates the eastbound and westbound tracks. One image is a block of numbers representing pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi, which has been carried out to millions of decimal places, has fascinated professional and amateur mathematicians for decades. Artist Bill Will is one of those smitten with the pi bug, and he included it on the wall. Unfortunately, Will's math skills don't match his artistic talent. WW reader Charles Osborne, an engineer who toured the tunnel as part of a disaster-training program, alerted us to the fact that Will's depiction of pi is accurate only until the 11th decimal place. When contacted by WW, Will said someone else had told him the same thing, but he checked his reference--The Book of Pi--and found his digits in place. Seeking a definitive answer, WW called math professor Marjorie Enneking at Portland State University. She grabbed her own copy of The Book of Pi and confirmed that Will was in error. She noted that in the book, pi is published in groups of 10 digits, spread across 10 columns. It appears that Will read the chart from top to bottom, rather than across, skipping from the 10th decimal place to the 101st. So, what's a man to do when his error is, quite literally, etched in
stone? Following the cue of President Clinton, Will vows to come clean.
Although the job will be expensive (and heavy), he says he'll carve
the correct digits into a new granite slab before the station opens
next month.
originally published August 19, 1998 |
