500
Family Wins Settlement
Mississippi Street Fair
Multnomah County to pay $925,000
to the family o f a mentally ill man
who died in a violent arrest
See story, page A3
Annual event to draw celebrants
to historic north Portland
neighborhood
See Arts & Entertainment, page A7
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C f í o k l i c k a z t ir. IO 7 H
Volume XXXVIV. Number 27
TLWeek in
The Review
Serena’s 11th Grand Slam
Serena W illiam s captured her
11 th Grand Slam title and a third
W im b le d o n
crown, but in­
s is te d th a t
sh e c a n n o t
y et be c o n ­
sidered as one
o f the great­
est players o f all time. H er win
over sister V enus, w hich gave
the W illiam s fam ily an eighth
Wimbledon triumph in lOyears
put her ju st one behind A m eri­
can com patriot Billie Jean King
in the all-tim e list o f majors.
Adams Recall Papers Filed
The group w orking to recall
Portland M ayor Sam A dam s
officially filed paperw ork with
the city on T uesday. The C om ­
munity to Recall Sam A dam s
alleges A dam s w illfully lied to
get elected and abused his
poweronce he was mayor. More
than 30,000 valid signatures in
the next 90 days to bring the
recall to a vote in Novem ber.
McNair’s Shocking Death
A uthorities are hesitant to con­
clude that Steve M cN air's girl­
friend killed the NFL star and
h e r s e lf b e-
1
s h e
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i
didn't appear
to have a mo-
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m u r d e r - s u i-
I__ __________S c id e is the
most likely scenario, investiga­
tors said Tuesday. M cN air had
been shot tw ice in the head and
tw ice in the chest, while 20-
year-old Sahel Kazemi died from
a single gunshot to the head.
Vietnam War Architect Dies
R o b e rt
S.
M cNamara, the
b rain y P e n ta ­
gon chief who
directed the e s­
calation o f the
V ietn am W ar
despite private doubts the war
was w innable or worth fight­
ing, died M onday at 93.
Free Agent Rejects Blazers
■ ■ ■ ■
Ffee agent Hedo
B
Turkoglu will |oin
2
B
ing 'he Portland
Trail Blazers. The
6-foot-IO forw ard helped O r­
lando to the NBA finals last
season. On Friday, the Blazers
confirm ed that Turkoglu ended
contract talks with them.
L- j OBP
Safeway Pharmacy Robbed
An arm ed robber held up a
V ancouver Safew ay pharmacy
M onday evening, dem anding
large quantities o f Oxycontin.
He threatened to kill three em ­
ployees if they did not hand
over the drugs, according to
investigators.
Consumers Falling Behind
Soaring unem ploym ent and a
shrinking econom y drove de­
linquencies on credit card debt
and hom e equity loans to all-
tim e highs in the first quarter as
a rec o rd n u m b e r o f ca sh -
strapped consum ers fell behind
on their bills.
I
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • July 8. 2009
Jackson
Farewell
Memorial strikes
a spiritual tone
(AP) — M ichael Jackson was eulogized in words
and song Tuesday by an all-star list o f musicians,
athletes and other celebrities during a mournful
cerem ony in downtown Los Angeles, with the most
poignant m om ent delivered by his sobbing 11-
year-old daughter.
“I ju st w ant to say ever since 1 was bom , Daddy
has been the best father you can ever imagine.
Usher sings Michael Jackson's "Gone Too Soon" at the late star's public memorial service
Tuesday. The song is off the "Dangerous" album and was originally dedicated to Ryan White,
who died o f AIDS in 1990 at age 18. (AP photo)
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Fair Inspector Attacked
Beaverton police are investi­
gating a Sunday assault on a
T ri-M et fare inspector who
stopped a man w ithout a fare.
The inspector suffered a bro­
ken collar bone from the fall to
the ground. The suspect, who
also had an open container of
alcohol, presented identifica­
tion representing him self as a
35-year-old Bragonia A nder­
son o f Portland.
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Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Michael
Katherine is comforted by her aunts Janet
Jackson (right) and LaToya Jackson at a
memorial service Tuesday for music legend
Michael Jackson. (AP photo)
/
'
And I ju st w anted to say 1 love him so m uch,”
Paris-M ichael Jackson said before alm ost collaps­
ing in the arm s o f her aunt Janet Jackson.
Watched by m illions around the world, the m e­
m orial struck a tone m ore spiritual than spectacu­
lar Tuesday, opening with a church choir serenad­
ing his golden casket and continuing with som ­
ber speeches and gospel-infused musical perfor­
mances.
The Rev. Lucious W. Smith o f the Friendship
Baptist C hurch in Pasadena gave the greeting on
the same stage where Jackson had been rehears­
ing for a concert series in the days before his June
25 death at age 50. Then M ariah Carey sang the
opening perform ance with a sweet rendition of
the Jackson 5 ballad “ I'll Be There," a duet with
Trey Lorenz.
“We com e together and we rem em ber the time,"
said Smith, riffing on one o f Jackson's lyrics. "As
long as we rem em ber him, he will always be there
to com fort us.”
M illions o f fans around the world gathered at
odd hours to w atch the cerem ony, w hich was
broadcast by the m ajor TV networks and cable
channels from Tokyo to Paris to New York and
stream ed everyw here online in one of the biggest
celebrity send-offs ever seen.
A m o n g th o se w h o s a lu te d Ja c k so n w ere
M otow n music m ogul Berry Gordy Jr.. Brooke
Shields, the Rev. Al Sharpton and basketball greats
Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant. Jennifer Hudson
sang Jackson's hit “Will You Be There" and John
M ayer played guitar on a w hisper-light rendition
o f “Human N ature”
continued
on page A2
Census: No H ead Left Uncounted
Outreach begins
for vital survey
by J ake T homas
T he P ortland O bserver
U.S. C ensus Bureau w orker G ladys
Romero has a line she uses when people
are uneasy about giving up personal
inform ation to the federal governm ent:
“ If Portland is undercounted, it will re­
ceive less m oney than it needs.”
She hopes the explanation helps as­
suage peoples' concerns. So does the
bureau she w orks for.
The census is the largest non-m ili­
tary operation conducted by the gov­
ernm ent that determ ines w here billions
o f dollars are (and aren ’t) allocated and
how much political clout each region of
the country has. The C ensus Bureau
and local elected officials are stepping
up to make sure that every head in O r­
egon is counted.
T he C ensus Bureau caused a dust
up when it last did its last count 10 years
ago. Shortly after the num bers were
com piled, the bureau revealed that it
had missed over 3 m illion people, with
m inorities particularly affected. Blacks
were twice as likely to be overlooked as
w hites. L atinos w ere three tim es as
much, and A m erican Indians were five
times more likely to be missed than their
w hite counterparts.
There is also a hefty sym bolic co m ­
ponent o f being undercounted, since
under the original U.S. C onstitution
blacks were only counted as three-fifths
o f hum an beings.
Today, the results o f the C ensus have
more tangible effects.
C ensus num bers are used to deter­
mine how many congressional seats are
allocated to each state. The results also
have bearing on how the federal gov­
ernm ent doles out billions o f dollars
each year.
O ff ic ia ls
say
O re g o n
w as
undercounted by 43,000 people in the
2000 census, which had big implica-
Census worker John Chism chats with Tricia Griffin (from left), Stanitra Robinson and Yalonda Sinde at last
month's Good in the Neighborhood Fair in northeast Portland.
tions.
A c c o rd in g
to
a s tu d y
by
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the state was
slated to lose over $4 m illion from fed­
eral coffers between 2002 and 2012 due
to the undercount.
N o n -p ro fits also rely on C e n su s
num bers so they can craft statem ents
o f needs and apply for grants. For in­
stance, a non-profit that works with im ­
m igrants w ould have a hard tim e in
w rangling up funds if it d id n 't have a
sense o f how big a com m unity it was
serving. Local elected officials are hop­
ing to avoid a repeat o f this scenario in
the 2010 census.
M ultnom ah County C om m issioner
D e b o ra h K a fo u ry an d N ick F ish
launched the 2010 Complete Count Com­
mittee early last month. The com m ittee
is still being assem bled, but will consist
o f representatives from social service
non-profits, faith -b ased in stitu tio n s,
and organizations based in ethnic com ­
munities, like El Programa Hispánico.
These organizations will explain to
people that they have nothing to worry
about when they get mail from the gov­
ernment asking for sensitive inform a­
tion, or get a knock on the door from a
census worker.
A com m unity o f particular concern is
immigrants, who may have lim ited E n­
glish skills, or may not understand how
the census works, said Kafoury.
If will aim to reach out to traditionally
u n dercounted com m unities to m ake
sure they understand that there is noth­
ing to fear from the census, and should
stand up and be counted.
“Any tim e you have a government
body looking for information, you have
people w ho are cautious about giving
inform ation out," said Kafoury.
Nationally, the bureau is setting up
operations sim ilar to Portland's C om ­
plete Count Com mittee that will partner
with organizations rooted in tradition­
ally undercounted com m unities.
“Each population has its own issues
and cultural m isperceptions," said Deni
Luna, media specialist for the Census
continued
on page A2