Another seven probable cases of influenza A, also known as swine flu, were identified in King County Thursday, bringing the probable total to 10. None have been confirmed but officials said laboratory samples have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for final confirmation.  As of late Thursday afternoon, Oregon public officials said the number of cases identified as probable Influenza A remained at one, with additional samples still being tested by the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory. . . .

A man convicted of helping the Taliban testified at a terrorism trial Wednesday that it was his idea to create a militant jihad training camp in Oregon to recruit men from England and the United States to fight in Afghanistan, but he no longer supports terrorist causes. James Ujaama, a Muslim convert who lived in Seattle, told a jury in Manhattan federal court that he envisioned the camp, which never came to fruition, in 1999 as a place for Muslims to get military training to fight in Afghanistan . . .

Black publishers of the National Newspaper Publishing Association (NNPA) are concerned that there is nothing "designed" in President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus package to do business with struggling Black newspapers in this flailing economy. "While we publishers wholeheartedly applaud the president's efforts of making certain economically devastated communities of color are able to benefit from the billions of dollars within the stimulus package, it is unclear whether any of the money has been earmarked to otherwise help educate the very communities serviced by the Black media, as well as how they are to access the myriad of opportunities," NNPA Board Chairman John B. Smith, Sr. wrote in an April 23 letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel; President Obama's Special Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus . . . .

Oregon State health officials have identified six more probable cases of swine flu, increasing the number of Oregonians likely hit with the illness to 11.
Dr. Mel Kohn, acting director of the Oregon Public Health Division, said the probable cases are in Multnomah, Washington, Polk, Lane, Wallowa, Umatilla and Marion counties and include three children, two teenagers and six adults . . . .

Pamela Butler has become one among the average looking men, women and children from a variety of economic, social and ethnic backgrounds who make up the more than 102,764 active missing persons in the U.S., according to the National Crime Information Center. Mainstream media continues to fail to present what is in fact a very diverse missing persons population while mostly concentrating on White women. Butler's story received local news coverage by the local television networks, News Channel 8, MSNBC and the Washington Post, but not on a national level. . . .

A business group floated a plan this week aimed at protecting school funding by suspending implementation of a get-tough-on-crime measure endorsed by Oregon voters last fall. It's a politically charged proposal, though. Opponents say it would thwart the will of voters who approved Measure 57 to lengthen prison sentences for repeat property and drug crimes and mandate drug and alcohol treatment for certain offenders. However, the idea is gaining some traction at the Capitol as lawmakers and Gov. Ted Kulongoski struggle to find ways to pay for key services at a time of shrinking state revenue and an increasing prison population. . . .

The mangled state of today's economy isn't giving this year's class of graduating college students much optimism about securing employment after they cross that stage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that as many 1.4 million college graduates are about to enter a severely contracted job market that seems to be getting worse. For many, the anxiety of figuring out life after school, in some ways, trumps the joys of finishing the four-year college grind. The worries are worse for Black graduates, who are historically among the first fired and the last hired, according to statistics. . . .

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu last night delivered the 40^th Annual Collins Lecture at the University of Portland Chiles Center. The sold-out talk was on the topic of "The Transformational Power of reconciliation in Society." Sponsored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. . . . Photo by Antonio Harris

... Herrin and his team of interns wanted to probe more deeply than into just the military aspects of the war, as is often done in standard textbooks. They also wanted to learn about issues affecting the home front -- including civil liberties, slavery and African-American and women's stories. "I think it's a very important story,'' Herrin said, adding that the area's history encapsulates, in many ways, a microcosm of the struggles that led to and followed the Civil War. . . .