Daily News Feed 5.19.08

75,000 Gather for Obama Rally in Oregon
Senator Barack Obama drew the largest crowd of his campaign so far on Sunday, addressing an estimated 75,000 people who had gathered here on the banks of the Willamette River. Wow! Wow! Wow!” were his first words as he surveyed the multitude, which included people in kayaks and small pleasure craft on the river on an unseasonably hot day in Oregon. It is “fair to say this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd” of his campaign, he told the audience. His wife and daughters, who have been with him most of the weekend, joined him on the stage at the beginning of the event but left as he was about to speak. Mr. Obama has been campaigning extensively in Oregon, a state he hopes to win in Tuesday’s primary, as the Democratic presidential nominating race ticks down to its last handful of contests. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has been on a four-day swing through Kentucky, which also holds its primary on Tuesday and where she appears likely to draw the most votes. (Continue Reading…)

Fundraiser Held for Mayor Kilpatrick’s Legal Defense
A fundraiser to support Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s legal defense was held Friday at Seldom Blues restaurant. Chris Garrett, one of the mayor’s Washington D.C.-based spokespeople, said that the event was not the first for the mayor. Kilpatrick faces a string of felony charges. His supporters developed the Detroit Justice Fund to help pay his legal bills. Garrett would not say how much money was raised Friday or how much money has been raised. The Detroit Justice Fund was launched in late March. It is seen as vital for a mayor who makes $176,000 a year, but whose legal bills could cost millions of dollars. His salary would pay roughly six weeks of full-time work from lead lawyer Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney who reportedly charges $750 an hour. (Continue Reading…)

South Africa gangs kill foreigners
Mobs rampaged through poor suburbs of Johannesburg in a series of attacks against foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, over the weekend, killing seven people, injuring at least 50 and forcing hundreds to seek refuge at police stations. Two of those killed were burned to death and three beaten to death. The injured suffered gunshot and stab wounds. Johannesburg police were warning motorists to avoid the city’s business district. “It’s spreading like a wildfire and the police and the army can’t control it,” said Emmerson Zifo, a Zimbabwean. President Thabo Mbeki announced a panel had been set up to discover what lay behind the violence and the leader of the ruling ANC, Jacob Zuma, condemned the violence, warning that “we cannot be a xenophobic country”. He said he could not understand how South Africans could be hostile to foreigners when the same foreign countries had given refuge to South Africans during the liberation struggle. (Continue Reading…)