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DENVER (AP) Democrat Barack Obama got what he may need most when he chose Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate â€' a vice presidential candidate with encyclopedic foreign policy know-how and a political brawler ready to take on Republican John McCain's frontal assault on his opponent's newness on the national stage.
Through the month of August - in the days leading up to the national party conventions - McCain whittled away at Obama's slight lead in the polls with relentless attacks designed to paint the first-term Illinois senator as an inexperienced celebrity-seeking elitist not ready for the White House.
While the 47-year-old Obama fought back blow-for-blow and even adopted some negative tactics himself, his campaign has not adopted the kind of visceral sharpness he is facing from McCain's operation.
It will be hard to imagine Biden, who is 65, being as low-key as was Obama after McCain charged his opponent this summer with being ready to lose the Iraq war for the sake of winning the presidential election. Obama has sought, as he can, to moderate his responses - some say to avoid looking like an angry black man in an election contest that could put the first African American in the U.S. presidency. ...

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Despite record numbers of voters who turned out during the presidential primaries last spring, eight million African-Americans are still not registered to vote.
This according to Rick Wade, African-American vote director for the Obama for America presidential campaign.
"Our principle focus has been a 50-state voter registration initiative. I think we all appreciate that if we increase the number of African-American registered voters and then increase turnout and get people to the polls on Nov. 4, then Sen. Obama will be the next president of the United States," Wade says.
Wade explains that the eight million unregistered Black voters accounts for 32 percent of eligible Black voting population nationwide....

Watch a video of Michelle Obama and the kids taken on Monday before her big speech on the website posted below. It's a short, behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the preparation it takes to make a speech at one of the biggest events of the last four years....
If you missed it last night, visit the website below to watch Michelle Obama speak on the first day of the Democratic National Convention. She talks about her family, her experiences, and why she knows her husband would make a wonderful president...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kevin Duckworth, 44, a two-time NBA All-Star who starred on Western Conference Championship teams in Portland in 1990 and 1992, passed away Monday evening in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.
A member of the Trail Blazers from 1986-93, the 7-footer - affectionately known to Trail Blazers fans simply as "Duck" - also played for San Antonio, Washington, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers during his 11-year NBA career.
"Today is an extremely sad day for the Trail Blazers family," Trail Blazers President Larry Miller said. "Kevin will be remembered by fans as one of the most popular and recognizable players to ever wear the Blazers uniform, but to people who knew him, he'll be remembered as one of the warmest and biggest-hearted."
Duckworth remained in the Portland area after his playing career ended, where he was an avid fisherman & outdoorsman, and a skilled carpenter. He was on the Oregon Coast representing the Trail Blazers as a Heritage Ambassador on the team's 19-city Statewide Summer Tour.  The cause of his death is unknown, and will be determined by a Lincoln County Medical Examiner.
A second-round draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs out of Eastern Illinois University in 1986, Duckworth was only 14 games into his NBA career when he was acquired by the Trail Blazers from San Antonio in exchange for Walter Berry....

To protest or to lobby? Oregon's Democratic African American delegation is choosing the latter.
Several delegates at the Democratic National Convention say the busy, and at-times overwhelming, event is allowing them the opportunity to be heard by some of the biggest decision makers in the United States.
Shirley Minor, delegate for the 3^rd Congressional District, John Cuff, delegate-at-large, and Gail Rasmussen, superdelegate, spoke with The Skanner over the phone this week about their time at the Denver convention.

Sen. Margaret Carter's Third Annual 10th Street Block Party drew the whole neighborhood to Northeast 10th Avenue between Siskyou and Stanton. The event featured four live bands, a rib cook-off, a silent auction benefitting Project Hope, and a cake-baking contest. Left to right are Chante Hardy, 8, and Bridget Egan, 7. In the background, the "Just Us" jazz trio plays.
Photo by Julie Keefe

So far, 2008 has seen a record high number of shots-fired reports investigated by the Portland Police Gang Enforcement Team.
A total of 41 call-outs had been posted as of Aug. 6 – already one incident more than all of last year.
In 2003, 46 were investigated; 45 in 2004.
"And we still have a few months to go," said officer Jason Hubert.
The statistics were delivered at a meeting of the Youth Violence Prevention Committee last Friday morning at the Portland Police Northeast Precinct.
"It's been crazy out there," Hubert told the gathering. "There was a lull for about five years and now these kids are coming out, and some are very violent people."
Hubert reported that one shooting occurred after the low-rider show at the Portland Expo two weeks ago, one block from Northeast Precinct – about 40 yards away from two police officers.
"We're going back to the early '90s where the kids don't care," he said.
"I'm out there and I'm not seeing anyone stop anyone and talk to these young people," said Ronisha Harris, founder of the Respect Project. "I just think we need to get out there and be with these kids."
"You will never be able to reach all the kids because some of them are in the life," said CREW Director Pernell Brown. "You have to wait it out, also target the ones on the edge, who aren't totally in it yet — so don't get discouraged because you talk to these kids and they just go out anyway."
Harris said Measure 11 mandatory minimums are at the heart of the problem....

Carollyn Smith's fight continues, but she may be running out of time. Smith has been battling state Child Services since 2005 for custody of two grandchildren, Kofi and C'Lynn, ages 7 and 4, who have lived much of their short lives in the foster care system...

The construction company site in the Pearl District where a noose was hung early Aug. 4 was broken into by vandals, company officials said. R&H Construction CEO John Ward, in an email message to The Skanner, indicated ... "unauthorized entry," over the preceding weekend....