Seattle Cirque & Acrobat Teams member Shadeed Abdul-Salaam flips over teammates David Inthakaysone, Abdi Osman and Trey Basknight during a performance June 2 at the annual Beacon Hill Festival at Jefferson Community Center. 

Family's Struggle Exemplifies Country's Health Care Ills   Marc Bostic has…

More than 50 years of school desegregation policy could be torn down with the rap of a gavel if the Supreme Court rules against Seattle's voluntary integration "Open Choice" program, which used race as a determination in its high school transfer policy.
The high court is expected to decide in the next few weeks if two cases of voluntary integration are simply helping increase student diversity or disguising the illegal practice of setting racial quotas.
The two cases, Parents in Community Schools v Seattle School District and Meredith v Jefferson County (Kentucky) Public Schools challenge the constitutionality of race-based admissions policies in America's public schools.
In both cases, parents and representatives of White students have sued school districts after their children were denied admission to the school of their choice because of their race.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The White House on Sunday dismissed Senate plans to hold a no-confidence vote on the attorney general and said the outcome will not undermine President Bush's resolve to keep Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department.
"Not a bit. Purely symbolic vote," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. He was asked in a broadcast interview whether Bush might reconsider his decision to support Gonzales should a sizable number of Republican senators vote for the no-confidence resolution.
"It is perfectly obvious that the president has the right to hire and fire people who serve at his pleasure," Snow said.
On Monday, the Senate planned to debate the one-sentence measure that declares Gonzales "no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people."

NEW YORK -- Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned at what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day: Hundreds of books disappeared from the shelves.
The removal of the books is occurring nationwide -- part of a long-delayed post-Sept. 11 federal directive designed to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.
Three inmates from Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected -- Islamic prayer books, Christian books, and ancient Jewish texts were among those removed.
"The set of books that have been taken out have been ones that we used to minister to new converts when they come in here," inmate John Okon, speaking on behalf of the prison's Christian population, told a judge last week.
Okon said it was unfortunate because "I have really seen religion turn around the life of some of these men, especially in the Christian community."

The Black Press of America's National Convention will be held in Seattle on June 20-24  hosted by The Skanner at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. Save the dates! For full details go to http://www.nnpa.org

Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your week...

WASHINGTON D.C. –- Despite President Bush's win of a restriction-free $120 billion Iraqi War-funding bill, some Congressional Black Caucus members are trying to sweeten his defeat of the Democrats' war proposal by highlighting the victories for Hurricane Katrina, minimum wage and other domestic funds.
"I feel real good about what we've done. I think that we've changed direction as far as policy is concerned," said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C..... Of the 40 voting members of the Congressional Black Caucus, only five joined Clyburn in voting for the final passage of the war-funding bill. Thirty-three voted against it. Two did not vote.

BALTIMORE — Parren J. Mitchell, an eloquent, but soft-spoken man who was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a champion of civil rights, has died.
Mitchell, 85, had been in intensive care and died on Memorial Day. 
He had been living in a nursing home since suffering a series of strokes several years earlier and died of complications from pneumonia, according to his nephew, former state Sen. Michael Mitchell.
"He had a very good life," Mitchell said.

When you're competing at state, it doesn't matter that you've dominated your team all season long. It doesn't even matter that you're a contender for first place in your event. 
Here's what matters: one-half inch and a twisted ankle.
One half inch is all Dominique Harris needed to win the triple jump event at the state track and field meet on May 19.....