Portland always has the breast news. The first human breast milk
bank in the Northwest opened up shop last week at Adventist Medical
Center in Southeast Portland, providing locally donated breast milk to
babies born prematurely. Currently, hospitals in town use breast milk
airmailed from San Jose, California, to feed babies whose mothers
cannot produce milk (about 100 a year at Emanuel Hospital) or use baby
formula. Donor milk has high organic standards—moms cannot smoke
or take any medications other than birth control.
Portland should be ripe with donors: 91 percent of Portland moms
breast feed versus a national average of 73 percent, according to
milk bank coordinator Peggy Andrews. “I’ve had a bunch of moms call in
and say, ‘I just have a freezer full of milk, my husband wants me to
empty the freezer,'” says Andrews. Breast milk, it turns out, can be
frozen and used up for a year after it’s pumped out. SARAH MIRK
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Four homeless individuals’ class-action lawsuit against Portland’s
anti-camping ordinance won a small victory last week when a
judge ruled against the city’s attempt to dismiss the case. Judge Ann
Aiken’s ruling allows attorney Monica Goracke to continue fighting
for the anti-camping law to be declared unconstitutional, as was
the case with the controversial sit-lie ordinance, which was deemed
unconstitutional in February. Though Portlanders are now allowed to sit
on the city’s sidewalks, those who build temporary structures on public
property risk police citation. For the next step in the case, Goracke
will be able to request information such as the number of anti-camping
tickets the police have written and the names of people cited. SM