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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2007)
Race for the Cure 50£ Lents Turnaround Thousands to join fight against breast cancer Perceptions change with housing investment S ' W rflanh (©bsvnier P i t v of n f Roses’ ‘City D acac o7n Established In i 1970 ’ tvww.portlandobserver.com Committed to Cultural Diversity Volume XXXVII, Number 36 Wednesday • September 19, 2007 .W eek ¡n Thc Review Holy H ip H op Mayor Race Roadblocks Leading potential candidates for Portland mayor have hit road blocks in quick succession. Com missioner Sam Adams Tuesday said he is fighting “a nasty smear by a would-be political opponent,” and businessman and community advocate Roy Jay called off his campaign just days after beginning to assemble an exploratory commit tee because he lives outside the city limits. See story, page A3 Rap voices build ministry Blazer Injury Dejavu T he se a so n ending injury to Greg Oden dredged up a bad memory for Portland Trail Blazers fans — that fateful draft day in 1984 when the team used the second overall pick to choose Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan. Bowie proved injury-prone and Jordan proved to be, well, Jordan. See story, page B6 photo by J ason F loyd AT he P ortland O bserver by J ason F loyd T he P ortland O bserver All of the props, the sea of fans, lights, head-snapping bass lines and drum beats give it the look and sound of another hip-hop concert, but there’s a distinct difference. The venue is Maranatha Church in northeast Portland and the crowd is spattered with different age groups, most of them adults and teenagers, but some so young that they are still in kindergarten. Yes, this is most definitely a hip- hop show, but this ain’t your uncle and aunties’ hip hop. The performers are on the label of Cross Movement Records fame Hip-hop performer ‘Iz’Real’ (left) o f the Philadelphia-based group Everyday Process performs rap with religious undertones at Maranatha Church in northeast Portland. continued y^ on page A6 1.8 Million Evacuated A typhoon expected to be among the most powerful storms to hit China in years churned toward the densely populated coast on Tues day with 165 mph wind gusts, and the government evacuated 1.8 million people. Beach Clean Up Success Mother Nature smiled down at nearly 4,000 volunteers doing their part to improve Oregon as part of the 24th annual SOLV Great O r egon Fall Beach Cleanup Satur day. Volunteers cleaned up more than 30 tons of trash and debris from along the entire coastline. Neighborhood C ompiled by R aymond R endleman and J ason F loyd T he P ortland O bserver Greg Oden ’v year-long injury and the impact on the Trail Blazers have people talking It’s kind of sad, because everyone was counting on him. It’s kind of a bummer, because he was supposed to be the next big thing. Alexandria Brown, Student Cody Taylor, Housecleaner He’s very young, so I think he’ll get over it, and the Blazers can concentrate on the long term. Kandy Edwards, Barber Stocks Soar after Rate Cut Jubilant Wall Street barreled higher Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a larger-than-expected half per centage point. Oldest Man Turns 112 The world's oldest man celebrated his 112th birthday Tuesday with a healthy Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup and seaweed, saying he wanted to live forever. Japan's Tomoji Tanabe lives with his son and family, keeps adiary and reads the newspaper every day. Hopefully it’s not the Michael Jordan thing again. We passed Jordan up for Sam Bowie in ’84. and all we got from Bowie was knee problems. Now the Blazers are going to lose, because Greg Oden was their best player and only chance. We can’t judge him. Things happen. Pedro Eerrusea, Day laborer Chandely Bonami, Student Michael Powell, Cook No celebrity breaks this time for Simpson years * com m unity service 9 § O ih C » !Z! o £ h U sii exj <U • - .2 Jr A c O □ I <U e V» til 3 W Some see payback for murder acquittal (AP) -- News conferences, a slew of felony charges, a perp walk in handcuffs and detention in a hold ingcell without bail— it's clear Las Vegas authorities aren’t giving O.J. Simpson any celebrity breaks. Police insist such treatment is prudent for a man whose name is synonm ous with a slow -speed chase from officers in a white Ford Bronco. But legal experts are ques tioning whether Simpson is being singled out for extra-tough pros ecution in his casino-hotel robbery case as payback for his murder ac quittal more than a decade ago. “It is regrettable that America has not gotten over the O .J. Simpson criminal case,” said Carl Douglas, who was co-counsel with Johnnie L. Cochran in Simpson's 1995 criminal trial. "The fact that he is being held without bail seems unfair and over the top," Douglas said. "O.J. has always been able to satisfy his obligations to the court. He cooperated with the authorities in th iscase. He is not a flight risk. And he certainly c a n 't hide any where.” At least six plainclothes police men, accompanied by a handful of hotel security guards, arrested Simpson on Sunday at The Palms hotel. He was accused of leading an armed heist of sports memorabilia. Simpson said he was only reclaim ing possessions that had been sto len. “By our standard, there was no major show of force," Sgt. John Loretto said. Simpson was handcuffed and taken in a police vehicle to the Clark County Detention Center to be » population for his own protection. In June 1994, Los Angeles police gave Simpson a day and a time to turn himself in to face allegations he had killedex-wife Nicole Brown Sim pson and her friend Ron Goldman. It was a courtesy, said then-prosecutor Marcia Clark, of ten extended to celebrities or those with nocriminal record. Instead, Simpson jumped in an SUV, apparently with a loaded gun and ready to commit suicide, and led police and media helicopters on a dramatic, televised chase before surrendering. O.J. Simpson is escorted Sunday to a Las Vegas jail. In aclear misstatement, Lt. James booked on six felonies, including “concerned about the flight fac Dillon said Friday at a news confer two counts of robbery with use of tor," because Simpson had no ties ence that, because Simpson was a deadly weapon. If convicted of to the Las Vegas area, said Judge involved, police were being extra the charges, he could get up to 30 Nancy Oesterle, who addressed careful to conduct “a thorough, biased and competent investiga years in state prison on each rob reporters on Monday. A rraig n m en t w as set for tion." bery count alone. But some think it might have Simpson becameNevada inmate W ednesday. Police said they were giving been more than a slip of the tongue number 2648927. Jerry Reisman, a New York law- Justice of the Peace Douglas Simpson no special treatment — Smith, who made the decision to other than keeping him separated continued y ^ on page A6 hold Simpson without bail, was from the rest of thc general prison