Race for the Cure
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Thousands to join fight
against breast cancer
Perceptions change with
housing investment
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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 *
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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