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4B – Daily News – Tuesday, January 26, 2010 Join the Fight for Northern California's Water! Paid Political Advertisement Paid for by Butte-Sutter Basin Area Groundwater Users Alaska village up first in census NOORVIK, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Census Bureau is launching its 2010 count of the nation's residents in a remote Alaska village. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves flew to Noorvik in northwest Alaska on Monday to count the first household in the Inupiat Eskimo community of 650. Groves and other officials were taken to the village school by sled dog teams driven by schoolchildren; he even took a brief stint at the reins. ''Thank you for that greeting, that was spectacular,'' Groves told Noorvik Mayor Bobby Wells after a large crowd gathered at the school to meet him. The first to be counted will be Clifton Jackson, a World War II veteran and the oldest resident, according to residents. Villagers have prepared a day of festivities at the school to wel- come Groves and other visiting federal, state and tribal officials. The residents plan to hold tradi- tional dances, an Inupiat fashion show and a feast of subsistence foods including moose and cari- bou. The school also will serve as lodging for Groves and most of the 50 visitors, who will bunk down in empty classrooms. Census workers and trained locals are expected to take a week to interview the rest of Noorvik's residents, using the same 10-question forms to be mailed to most households on March 15. Census workers also will visit 217 other rural Alaska communities in the coming weeks. Alaskans in rural communities that, like Noorvik, are not linked by roads have been the first resi- dents counted since the 1990 cen- sus. These communities are the places where the process is first conducted in person by census workers, who also make personal visits to nonresponding residents around the country. It's easier to get census coun- ters to the villages around Alaska before muddy conditions brought on by the spring thaw makes access more difficult, according to Ralph Lee, director of the bureau's Seattle region, which oversees Alaska. Many rural Alaskans also still live off the land, fishing and hunting for their food. Lee said it's important to reach villagers before they set off for fishing camps or hunting expeditions. After the weather warms, Noorvik residents will hunt for moose, caribou, seal, geese and ducks. They also will fill their freezers with salmon, trout and other fish from the Kobuk River. Noorvik Mayor Bobby Wells said a handful of residents spend even winter in their camps, but they're expected to be in the community for the count because of its influence on federal fund- ing and congressional representa- tion. Noorvik, just north of the Arc- tic Circle, was chosen as the launching point after census offi- cials met with leaders in a num- ber of Alaska villages. Lee said Noorvik turned out be ideal because it is a good size and only 45 miles east of a hub town, Kotzebue, a destination for com- mercial flights. From the town of 3,100, the census travelers are taking a quick charter flight to Noorvik. Village leaders also were very open about wanting the enumera- tion to begin there, Lee said. Usher testifies he saw Kan. abortion doctor's slaying WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Jurors hearing the case of a man charged with killing prominent abortion provider Dr. George Tiller heard the word abortion for the first time Monday, when an usher testified about seeing protesters at the church the doctor had attended. District Attorney Nola Foulston first said the word abor- tion during the second day of testimony in the trial of Scott Roeder when she asked usher Keith Martin about numerous protests at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, where Tiller was shot to death on May 31. Prosecutors previously had avoided using the word abortion in front of jurors, try- ing to focus on the facts — a doctor gunned down in his church — rather than allow the trial to become a debate over abortion. Roeder, 51, has publicly admitted he killed Tiller but has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the case. The Kansas City, Mo., man said in a court filing that the trial would be a ''charade'' if he were not allowed to argue that the killing was necessary to save ''preborn babies'' from abortion. Martin testified Monday Roeder at the church a half dozen times before the shooting. Unlike other churchgoers, Scott Roeder always brought his own Bible and sat by him- self, Martin said. He also testified that protests had made church members suspicious of newcomers even before the shooting. Foulston asked him if the protests appeared to be ''involving the position on abortion.'' Martin said they seemed to be. He related at least five instances since 1991 in which vis- itors had disrupted the service. At times visitors had stood up in the congregation and started shouting. Some even tried to take over the microphone, Martin said, and at one time someone tried to push a pianist off the stool. Still, Martin said, he didn't closely watch Roeder the day Tiller was shot because he had seen Roeder before at ser- vices without incident. Martin also testified about the evangelical Lutheran church's five-page ''social statement'' adopted in 1991 on abortion, saying it encourages alternatives such as adoption but allows the procedure as ''an absolutely last resort'' pro- vided it corresponds with the law. Roeder's attorneys have been keeping their defense strat- egy under wraps. Defense attorney Steve Osburn may have dropped the first hint during his cross examination earlier in the day of usher Gary Hoepner, who had testified about the day of the shooting. He said he watched Roeder approach the doctor in church, put a gun to his head and pull the trig- ger. Osburn asked Hoepner if he thought that action was ''reasonable.'' Hoepner, clearly surprised by the question, responded, ''No.'' Roeder's attorneys are expected to build a case for a con- viction of voluntary manslaughter. In Kansas, voluntary manslaughter is ''an unreasonable but honest belief that cir- cumstances existed that justified deadly force.''