With a two- to three-minute ceremony Friday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey formally brought an end to the Gonzales era at the Justice Department.
The retired federal judge took the oath as the nation's 81st attorney general -- and the Bush administration's third. He replaces Alberto Gonzales, who resigned in September after a months-long scandal that exposed White House political meddling at the fiercely independent Justice Department.
Mukasey, 66, now inherits a department struggling to restore its credibility with more than a dozen vacant leadership jobs and little time to make many changes before another president takes office.
At the closed-door ceremony Friday, Mukasey was joined by family members and a handful of Justice Department staff members who applauded when he took the oath, said agency spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
Afterward, Mukasey headed immediately into meetings with senior Justice Department officials, including a briefing on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Mukasey "got right to work," Roehrkasse said.
As a federal district judge in Manhattan, Mukasey oversaw

A report by the Federal Communications Commission will show that cable TV companies have met a subscriber saturation point that may lead to the agency exerting greater regulatory authority over the industry.
The finding is contained in an annual report that assesses competition in the pay-television market, according to an FCC official who asked not to be named

CarlosAlexis Cruz in "La Carpa del Ausente," Miracle Theatre Group's 13th annual Day of the Dead celebration will play through Nov. 11 at Milagro Theatre, 525 S.E. Stark Street. Tickets for this bilingual production are available online at www.milagro.org or by calling 503-236-7253.

The future is looking grim for Oregon's poorest residents, according to several reports by think tanks and nonprofits who advocate for working families. A story in the Oct. 24 edition of the Skanner told how the Oregon Food Bank is struggling to meet demand for emergency food aid.
Tough times. But wait – things could get worse. Two other reports released last week say that isn't the only problem with the state's safety net – especially if the economy slows down.
A report by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income Oregonians, warns that a recession, like the one that hit unexpectedly in 2001, would leave the state of Oregon with few resources to help cushion the blow for thousands of families. And a study for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations reported that living expenses have been rising much faster than wages, leaving thousands of working Oregonians struggling to make ends meet....

Light streams through the skylights in De La Salle North Catholic High School's new premises and gleams from the pale hardwood floors. The private high school, which sends 100 percent of its – mostly low-income — students to college each year, has finally taken up residence in the former Kenton Elementary school.
The move is a huge change for students and staff after seven years ....

D'Norgia Price hands out journals to the four seniors in her writing class at the Multicultural Senior Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. She encourages them to write about their early lives, then listens intently as they share their memories: memories of running barefoot on Hawaiian sands; of a snowy Christmas on the Klamath reservation; of a time when a new dress was the best present in the world.
Director of Senior Programs at the Urban League of Portland for the last six years, Price treasures these stories the elders tell about the past. She also knows the value of keeping a journal ....

When Jennifer Nash began her studies at the University of Washington, majoring in Retail Management and American Ethnic studies, an athletic scholarship in track and field helped her pay for her education. But in her second and third year, she suffered serious injuries that brought her running career to a standstill. Without the scholarship money, Nash needed a job and the help of her Delta Sigma Theta sorority sisters in order to continue her education.
Last Saturday, at the Bridging the Gap breakfast, organized by the university's ...

SEATTLE — Black soldiers court-martialed 63 years ago in the rioting death of an Italian prisoner of war at Fort Lawton were unfairly denied access to their attorneys and investigative records and should have their convictions overturned, the U.S. Army said Friday.
The ruling by the Army's Board of Corrections of Military Records applies to four soldiers who petitioned military investigators with the help of two congressmen, but could eventually cover two dozen more soldiers found guilty of rioting over alleged resentment of Italian prisoners' living conditions on the post.
Samuel Snow, 83, one of the petitioners who served a year in prison, said he was "elated" by the decision.
"It just knocked me off of my feet," Snow said from his home in ....

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will speak about the Jena 6 case in Seattle on Nov. 10 at New Hope Baptist Church, 124 21st Ave., Seattle, 7 p.m. The speech will injustices in the case itself and whatever happens at the pre-trial hearing on Nov. 7....

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