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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 2006)
50£ 37 ■ y ears 1 I Happy New Year! of ■HLrf (©bserver ‘City of Roses’ Established in 1970 Committed to Culturjl Diversity Volume XXXVI, Number 52 .W eek in The Review 2,978 U.S. Soldiers Dead The U.S. m ilitary on Tuesday announced the d ea th so f six more Am erican soldiers, pushing the U.S. m ilitary death toll since the beginning o f the Iraq w ar in March 2003 toat least 2,978 - five more than the num ber killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, W ashington and P ennsybania. Arrest Made for Shooting Portland police charged Lai Ngoc Thach, 21, with m urder in con nection with T uesday’s shoot ing at W etlands Public House. East Precinct officers discovered the body o f 28-year-old Robert Carl Pfeifer early T uesday when they arrived to deal with a bar fight. D etectives say that Thach pulled out a gun and shot Pfeifer at least once. Hundreds Dead in Nigeria A ruptured gasol i ne pi pe I ine burst into flam es in Lagos, Nigeria on T uesday, k illing at least 260 people and injuring dozens o f others, the Red Cross said. No Apology fromAnti-Muslim R ep . V irg il G oode (R-V A ) has reportedly r e fu s e d to a p o lo g iz e fo r the a n ti-M u s lim rem arks he made in a letter to c o n s titu ents. Labeled "Islam ophobic" by the Council on A m erican-Islam ic Relations, the letter was in re sponse to use o f the Q uran for the sw earing-in cerem ony o f Keith Ellison, a M innesota Dem ocrat and the first M uslim elected to C ongress. www.portlandobserver.coni Wednesday • December 27. 2006 ‘Godfather of Soul’ Dies at 73 James Brown succumbs to fatal case of pneumonia on Christmas day A P — Jam es Brown, the undeni able “G odfath er o f S o u l,” told friends from his hospital bed that he was looking forw ard to perform ing on New Y ear’s Eve,even though he was ill with pneum onia. His heart gave out a few hours later, on Christ mas morning. T h e p o m p a d o u re d d y n a m o w h o se c la ssic sin g le s in c lu d e “ P apa's G ot A Brand New Bag" and "I G ot You (I Feel G ood)" died M onday o f heart failure, said his agent, Frank C opsidas o f Intrigue M usic. He was 73. “People already know his his tory, but I would like for them to know he was a man w ho preached love from the stage,” said friend C harles Bobbit, w ho w as w ith Brown at the hospital. “ His thing w as ‘1 never saw a person that I d idn’t love.' He w as a true hum ani tarian w ho loved his country." T he entertainer with the rough- edged voice and flashy footwork also had diabetes and prostate can cer that was in rem ission. Bobbit said. Brown initially seem ed fine at the hospital, C opsidas said. Three days before his death, he had par ticipated in his annual toy give aw ay in A ugusta, and he was look ing forward to his New Y ear’s Eve show . “Last night, he said T m g o in g to be there. I’m the hardest w orking s I ’m going to be there. Cm the hardest working man in show business. -Jam es Brown man in show business,’ ” Copsidas sa id M o n d ay . H e said B row n planned to perform during a two- week tour in C anada after hitting Tim es Square. B rown w as hi m self to the end, at one point saying, " I ’m going aw ay tonight," Bobbit said at a new s co n fe re n c e later M onday. “ I d id n ’t w ant to be lieve him ," he said. A sh o rt tim e la te r, B ro w n sig h e d q u ie tly three tim es, clo sed his eyes and died, Bobbit said. O ne o f the m ajor m u sical influences o f the past 50 years, Brown was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics. From M ick Jagger to M ichael Jack- son, D avid B ow ie to Public Enemy, his rapid James Brown, 1933 - 2006. footed d ancing, hard- charging beats and heartfelt yet em ancipator, he w as an originator. o f te n u n in te llig ib le v o c a ls Rap m usic, all that stu ffcam e from changed the musical landscape. Jam es B row n," entertainer Little He was one o f the First artists R ich ard , a lo n g tim e frien d o f inducted into the Rock and Roll B row n's, told M SNBC. Hall o f Fame, along with Elvis “Jam es Brown changed m usic,” Presley, C huck Berry and other said Rev. Al Sharpton, who toured founding fathers. with Brown in the 1970s and im i “He was an i nnovator, he w as an tates his hairstyle to this day. continued yf on page B4 Kwanzaa at IFCC Sekai Edwards, 8, lights a candle at a setting represent ing Imani (Faith), at a Kwanzaa Celebration hosted by the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. IFCC will feature other table settings through Jan. 1, representing the seven days and seven principles of Kwanzaa, with hosts Joyce Harris and artist Adrienne Cruz, plus traditional tales from storyteller Habiba. Wikipedia Challenges Google Search engine giants Y ahoo and G oogle are about to face a little more competition, said W ikipedia founder Jim m y W ales. W ales plans to launch his ow n search engine “W ikisari” in early 2007, basing findings on human ju d g ment rather than com puter results. Obama and Clinton Tied i "H e made soul music a world mu sic,” Sharpton said. "What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop. rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a ah ° ut lev* Celebrating Kwanzaa « Barack O bam a cal tie in a hypo thetical contest with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton o f N ew York among likely Democratic primary voters in New H am pshire, tradi tional site o f the first presidential prim ary elections. M ark W ashington f T hf . P ortland O bserver T he c e 'e ^rat'on ° f K w anzaa is the focus o f Jan. I, to em brace these values. photos by I | I j g l LX A IVI I I I ■ ■ BF ■ ■ I ■ ■ FF I 11. J1 11 1 m F ■ I ■ m F m F m B seven traditional A frican values - unity, self- In Portland, m any A frican A m ericans celebrate determ ination, collective w ork and responsibility, this cultural holiday, w hile others are sim ply curi- cooperative econom ics, purpose, creativity and ous or have a relative w ho celebrates. faith. Millions of observers throughout the world The Observer asked, what divs kw an/aa mean com e together for seven days. Dec. 26 through to you? __A Yvonne O ’Gara - 1 celebrate the season because we are celebrating the return o f the lights, t love the values o f Kwanzaa. We get to renew who we are and who we stand for. From what I understand anyone can participate in the jo y we share. u u S' -• Q. n CU vj > O J j Penny Jack - / don't know anything about Kwanzaa e xcept that it’s a traditional African holiday. My ex-hus band celebrates. c CS Ô ~ Zj O s (0 V Z g = ï -O - , a - 1 J A U ■b O Qi O <D C Os Û0 r- l 3 _ u4 i I c J Joe Hoover - Z don t know how I really feel about it. / am a little curious and I have a relative who celebrates. Vitalis Ogbeama -I've been celebrating 10 or 15 years. I used to work at the Urban League as a volunteer, and / learned about it there. Mildred Carr We missed it fo r the past two years because o f our health, but we generally celebrate at the senior citizens center.