Trying to stay dry waiting for the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade to start Saturday morning are, from left to right, Jaeleb Robinson, 6, Emony Robinson, 9, Khalfani Cason, 6, and Khalfani's twin brother Kefentse Cason, 6. For more photos of the 2007 Grand Floral Parade....

Scanning the crowd at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's recent showing of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," Bridget B. Sullivan saw three other African American faces and one person of Asian descent. The rest of the audience was White and elderly.

A little corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is quickly becoming ground zero in the fight over abortion rights in Portland.
Last Thursday afternoon, as most Portlanders made their way home from work and school, Nina Rhea and Jen Laverdure faced off on MLK Boulevard and Northeast Beech Street, where a parcel of land owned by the Portland Development Commission is slated to become a Planned Parenthood clinic and staff headquarters.

NEW YORK — Fox News Channel apologized on air last week for running tape of a different U.S. congressman while reporting on the indictment of Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-La., on bribery charges.
The network ran footage of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers instead. Both congressmen are Black.
Fox blamed the mistake on a 22-year-old production assistant hurriedly grabbing the wrong videotape. Fox's Washington bureau chief, Brian Wilson, said he was mortified by the error.

Like many longtime Northeast Portland residents, Pauline Bradford remembers the way her community looked right after World War II. She remembers the businesses that flourished and flopped before Interstate 5 divided the peninsula; and the streetcar that used to run up and down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
But the one thing Bradford remembers most of all, is how it is to forget – especially when a neighborhood's history is not preserved.

The Rose Festival. Good in the 'Hood. July Fourth. With so many other celebrations occurring this summer, it's almost easy to overlook one of the oldest celebrations – the Juneteenth commemoration.
This year, community members have their choice of several Juneteenth celebrations. Starting Saturday, June 16 — three days before the actual Juneteenth — Portlanders can dance, watch a parade, eat great food and celebrate the emancipation of slavery.

Cheryl Parker gives her cocker spaniel, Cooper, a hug after participating in the eighth annual Furry 5K Fun Run & Walk, held June 10 at Seward Park. Hundreds of dogs and their human companions converged on Seward Park for the event, which benefits orphaned and neglected animals.

The top threat facing Washington's minority-owned businesses, according to a recently released University of Washington study, is competition from big business.
"About 99 percent of the business growth in Washington and nationally is in small business, and the question is how do they compete?" says Dr. Vandra Huber, professor of human resource management at UW and a co-author of the recently released Washington Minority Small Business Survey.
"When you think of superstores like Wal-Mart putting small business out of business, it puts additional pressure on these organizations," Huber says.
"The threat of competition from large businesses is particularly felt by minority firms that seek government contracts," says William Bradford, another of the study's authors and a UW professor.

Ranjnii Eddins, the local poet and teacher who was arrested two months ago, after inquiring about a student's arrest, is reaching out to family, friends, community and the media on the popular online site, MySpace.com.
In a series of blogs on the personalized site at www.myspace.com/rajniicares, Eddins describes his April arrest and calls on justice organizations, educators and business leaders to support his plight.

E.J. Penn grew up in a family with five children and a working mother, so he gets it. He understands that mothers and fathers are sometimes so busy trying to make ends meet that keeping track of their 12-year-old during the summer is nearly impossible. 
That's why Penn developed the All-American Youth Basketball Camp, a summertime program sponsored by Portland Parks and Recreation and First Step Sports Academy for boys and girls ages 5 to 18.
"It's so important that kids have a place to feel completely comfortable," Penn says. "Having that place will help keep them out of trouble."