Making everyone count

Calling it the civil rights issue of the new decade, Los Angeles officials on Monday helped kick off the 2010 U.S. Census - a $300 million effort to count every single resident of the U.S. Daily News.

The U.S. Census Bureau started its effort in Los Angeles and 12 other major cities with a Portrait of America road tour - a traveling van that features stories about Americans and explains how important an accurate census is to receive federal money in local communities and appropriate representation at the state and federal levels.

"We're engaged in an effort to make sure every Angeleno is counted," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, adding it was an issue that would determine the region's political power in the future.