Seattle Firefighter Matt Hartl helps (from left) Jacob Samol, 5, Karen Valencia, 3, and Fernado Valencia, 1, sit in the driver's seat of a fire truck at an open house at Fire Station 28, 5968 Rainier Ave. S., on April 21. Firefighters at Station 28, which is scheduled to be reconstructed in 2008, held the open house as a way to get input from the community during the design process.

OLYMPIA — The state Legislature passed a measure this week that would give all employees in Washington five weeks of paid leave for a new child.
The Senate passed the bill on a 26-22 vote to agree with changes made in the House that scaled down the measure significantly from what the Senate initially passed. It now heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it.
Six Democrats crossed the aisle to vote against the measure: Sens. Mary Margaret Haugen of Camano Island, Chris Marr of Spokane, Erik Poulsen of Seattle, Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville, Phil Rockefeller of Bainbridge Island and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch.
Under the bill, starting in 2009, workers would get $250 a week for up to five weeks to care for a newborn or a newly adopted child.
Originally, the measure would have allowed workers also to take leave to care for a seriously ill relative. It also would have imposed a 2-cent-an-hour tax on employees' pay to cover the program, but under an agreement between House and Senate lawmakers, that language was removed.

Veteran civil rights leader and Pastor Emeritus of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Rev. Samuel B. McKinney, U.S. Congressman Adam Smith and one of the emerging leaders in the Pacific Northwest, Marcia Tate Arunga will be the keynote speakers at a gathering of supporters for presidential candidate Barack Obama, at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave.

Washington, D.C. – More than 2,000 events will be held across the county as part of Cover the Uninsured Week (April 23-29), the largest, nonpartisan mobilization in history seeking solutions for the millions of African Americans who are uninsured.

Walter Mosley, author of more than 25 books, read sections of his latest book "This Year You Write Your Novel" to a packed house at the Elliott Bay Bookstore in downtown Seattle last weekend, on April 22. Mosley, who is very popular in Seattle, visited the city for the first time in 1990 and has been back numerous times to promote his books. Mosley is the author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, "Devil in the Blue Dress," which was turned into a Hollywood movie starring Denzel Washington, and others. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award, the Sundance Institute's Risktaker Award and Carl Brandon Society's Parallax Award.

Nation Son Holmes, local Seattle filmmaker, will show her first independent feature length film about domestic violence, entitled "W.O.E." (Walking on Eggshells) at the fourth annual African American Film Festival that runs through April 29 at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center, 104 17th Ave. S.
"W.O.E.," was written, directed and produced by Holmes. A narrative, poignant film about domestic abuse and relationships and decisions people make in their lives, "W.O.E." transcends the social boundaries that separate people.

A task force has found that, despite the number of sensational cases reported by Portland media over the past few years, the use of force by Portland police is fairly rare.
After analyzing use of force data from August 2004 to December 2006, Portland's Force Task Force released a report on April 24 that said Portland Police use force in 1 percent of calls and in 5 percent of arrests.
The data analyzed 4,579 Use of Force reports that included incidents in which officers used physical control (83 percent), taser (19 percent), blunt impact strike (17 percent), pepper spray (7 percent) and non-lethal impact munitions (2 percent)....

The producers of the television series "African American Lives 2" are seeking an African American to join Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and an all-new group of distinguished African Americans on an extraordinary journey of discovery. The series is tentatively scheduled to air on PBS in February 2008.
"What we find in doing this research is that even a regular person has extraordinary stories within his or her family," says Professor Gates. "In African American Lives 2, we'll work with one such person to show that the technology and resources for discovering these stories are available to all Americans, especially those of African descent."

The Alaska/Oregon/Washington State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in conjunction with the Western Region I Office, would like to announce a special election for the Portland branch of the NAACP. This special election is designed to elect the executive committee of the branch.
The special election will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 28 in Terrell 122 of the Portland Community College, Cascade campus.....

"The Last King of Scotland" is a powerful historical film based on the award-winning novel by journalist Giles Foden. It tells the story of infamous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and how a Scottish doctor becomes his confidante during an unusual time in Uganda.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, "The Last King of Scotland" follows Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) who comes to Uganda in the early 1970s to work at a missionary clinic just as Amin (Forest Whitaker) takes control of the country in a military coup.
The two characters meet when Garrigan is rushed to help the injured Amin. Amin instantly takes a liking to Garrigan after learning that the young doctor is Scottish. Amin, who once served with the British Highland regiments, was familiar with Scottish customs and admired the culture – he even gave his son a Scottish name. The two became close and Amin makes Garrigan his personal doctor/advisor.