Hope ends with knock at door

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WORDS FROM THE WILD
Magic missing for Milbrett
With her role on the national team unsure, a
frustrated Tiffeny Milbrett takes a break. Sports, E1
Author Gary Paulsen lived the bush life he gave the young hero of “Hatchet.” Living, D1
SATURDAY
SUNRISE
EDITION
February14, 2004
35¢
2001 PULITZER PRIZE WINNER FOR PUBLIC SERVICE
PORTLAND, OREGON
Hope ends with knock at door
3 on leave
in inquiry
of housing
inspectors
——————————————————
Portland authorities are looking
into allegations that city staffers
bought homes after running up
violations on vulnerable owners
By HENRY STERN and SCOTT LEARN
THE OREGONIAN
Photos by OLIVIA NISBET/THE OREGONIAN
Maria Buscho and her husband Michael found out that her son, William Ramirez, had been killed in Iraq after military representatives showed up at their door.
A Portlander and his ex-wife learn that their son
was one of two soldiers killed in an attack in Iraq
By DAVID AUSTIN
THE OREGONIAN
At home in Southeast Portland, Alex
Ramirez flipped through television
channels Wednesday, scanning for stories on the war in Iraq. A handful of U.S.
soldiers had been killed, but none from
Oregon. Lucky for one more day, he figured.
Across town, his former wife, Maria
Buscho, logged on to the Internet about
the same time, checking for any signs of
suicide bombers harming U.S. forces.
RAMIREZ
Joined service
in May 2002
Nothing. She could exhale, she
thought.
But when military officials showed
up at their homes, both parents of Army
Pfc. William C. Ramirez knew before
anything was said that the unspeakable
had happened.
Their son was dead, the victim of a
Wednesday attack in Baghdad.
“I saw that soldiers had been killed,
but they were from other cities, so I
thought everything was OK,” Alex
Please see SOLDIER, Page A10
The city of Portland is investigating
allegations that housing inspectors
bought or tried to buy houses from vulnerable owners after running up violations on the homes.
The city has placed two housing inspectors and one former housing supervisor on paid administrative leave.
Other employees are being interviewed, said Commissioner Randy
Leonard, who oversees the office.
Leonard obtained City Council approval in December to spend as much
as $200,000 on an outside investigator.
Police and the district attorney’s office
also confirmed they are investigating.
“The allegations were that the inspectors directly involved in enforcement actions on properties subsequently did purchase, or attempted to
purchase, those properties,” Leonard
said. “The issue here is you target a
house, you start having citations put on
the house, you have liens put on the
house, and you purchase it.”
The three employees placed on paid
leave are the former housing supervisor, Nora Mullane, a city employee for
nearly 14 years, and the 10-year housing inspectors: David Hallberg and
Edgar Bolden.
Reached by telephone at home Friday, Mullane, who now works for a different city office, said she could not
Please see INSPECTORS, Page A7
Alex Ramirez, William’s father, enjoyed camping and
fishing with his son. He says he’ll remember his 19-yearold son, a casualty of the war in Iraq, as a hero.
Kulongoski:
Trip for troops,
not president
——————————————————
Bush releases more records,
will meet with terror panel
The Pacific
Dolphin sits
anchored off
Terminal Six on
Friday, one day
after federal
agents
discovered five
stowaways on
board.
Please see BUSH, Page A4
Please see KULONGOSKI, Page A7
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
and PHILIP SHENON
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
——————————————————
The smugglers, members of the
crew, had threatened an officer
of the ship after being discovered
during the voyage to Oregon
By NOELLE CROMBIE
and JOSEPH ROSE
THE OREGONIAN
The secret journey began in a northern Chinese port city known for its
thriving farms, telecommunications
and human trafficking.
Gangsters known as “snakeheads”
made a deal with five desperate men:
INSIDE
Copyright © 2004
Oregonian Publishing Co.
Vol. 153, No. 51,508
94 pages
Business ..............................B1
Classified index ..............C12
Comics ................................D8
Crossword ..........................D8
Crossword NYT ..............C21
Passage to the United States on a Portland-bound cargo ship for $30,000
each. The unspoken price was spending a month on the rough seas as stowaways, confined to a closet, surviving
on a diet of raw fish, raw eggs and ramen.
But in the end, the risky passage —
which included a near-mutiny after a
high-ranking crew member discovered
them three weeks ago — ended Thursday in the hands of U.S. Department of
Homeland Security agents. The ship’s
captain alerted authorities after learning two of his crewmen had smuggled
Please see STOWAWAYS, Page A7
Drivetime ..........................DT1
Editorial ............................C10
Living ....................................D1
Metro ....................................C1
Movies................................D10
WASHINGTON — President Bush
moved Friday night to try to stem potentially damaging election year questions about his military record and
whether the White House mishandled
intelligence threats before the Sept. 11
attacks.
In dual announcements that capped
a week of intense political pressure on
the White House to fend off attacks on
Bush, the White House said it had decided to release all documents from the
president’s National Guard files and
disclosed that Bush would appear before a commission investigating the terrorist attacks.
The hundreds of pages of National
Guard files are unlikely to change the
basic standoff between Bush and the
Democrats, which is where, when and
how often the president showed up for
duty from May 1972 to May 1973.
The White House maintains that
Obituaries ..........................C8
People..................................D2
Religion ..............................D7
Sports....................................E1
Television ..........................D4
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THE OREGONIAN
Guard payroll records, Bush’s dental
exam in Alabama and the undisputed
fact that Bush was living in Alabama at
the time definitively prove that he
turned up for duty there; Bush’s critics
say that the documents only prove that
he had his teeth checked in Alabama.
The White House has been consumed for days with responding to attacks on the president’s truthfulness,
especially about his military service 30
years ago.
The only document in the 2-inch
stack that puts Bush in Alabama in that
period is a document that the White
House released Wednesday, a copy of a
dental exam performed at Dannelly Air
National Guard base in Montgomery,
INSIDE
The White House tries to quell
questions about the president’s
military career and his handling
of pre-Sept. 11 intelligence
Captain tipped authorities
to five Chinese stowaways
By JIM BARNETT and JEFF MAPES
WASHINGTON — While acknowledging he may have been used to help
promote President Bush’s re-election,
Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Friday that
his White House-organized trip to Iraq
was important to show support for Oregon troops there.
Kulongoski, a Democrat who attracted White House attention last year for
supporting the president’s decision to
invade Iraq, met with Bush on Friday
along with the five other governors who
visited Baghdad this week.
The governors’ trip — which was
kept secret in advance and conducted
under heavy security — attracted headlines across the United States as the
governors met with troops and toured
businesses and public facilities that are
being rebuilt.
Critics of the war, however, have
questioned whether the trip was aimed
primarily at shoring up public support
for administration policy in Iraq.
After his visit with Bush, Kulongoski
said it “probably was absolutely correct” that he was asked to join the governors’ delegation because it could help
the president in Oregon, which both
parties think is up for grabs in this
year’s presidential race.
But Kulongoski said he appreciated
the chance to see what conditions
troops are serving under in Iraq and to
——————————————————
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
THE OREGONIAN
The governor says state soldiers’
morale, not re-election politics,
was the focus of his visit to Iraq
BUSH
Records unlikely
to satisfy critics
◆ With President
Bush answering
questions about his
National Guard service, conservatives
are working hard to
shine an unflattering spotlight on
Sen. John Kerry’s
antiwar activities
and his record on
defense and intelligence matters/A2
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