NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A costumed club dressed as King Arthur's knights paraded through New Orleans' crowded streets Tuesday in what has become the city's unofficial opening of Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season, with 12 days of parades, parties, drinking and lots of near-nudity in the city's famed French Quarter.
Several members of the Half-Fast Walking Club, whose parade opens the celebration, wiped sweat from their foreheads in unusually warm, muggy weather.
"Oh, I'm feeling fine. You always feel fine on Mardi Gras,"...

Nearly 1,300 people converged at the state capitol building Monday for the 2008 African American Legislative Day in Olympia, helping to raise awareness and issues affecting African Americans in Washington State.
Sponsored by the Commission on African American Affairs, the event included adults and children bused in in large motor coaches from various schools, churches, organizations and businesses in Tacoma, Bremerton and Seattle. ...

Local Black leaders in HIV prevention will be at high traffic intersections in Seattle this Thursday, talking with people to create greater awareness and help prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS in the African American community. This outreach is part of a national effort on Feb. 7 to raise awareness through National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day.
"Many people in the Black community don't realize that HIV and AIDS still pose a threat to people in all walks of life," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "We need to educate one another, promote HIV testing and get treatment to those who need it." Feb. 7 has been declared as Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day by Sims...

Enthusiastic Barack Obama supporters Marlenna Kulkarni and Teresa Porter joined other supporters at a campaign kickoff rally at Westlake Center on Feb. 2. The rally was the meeting point of an Obama Unity March that had two starting points, Occidental Park and Seattle Center.  More than 100 people heard from local leaders who are endorsing Obama, including former Mayor Norm Rice, Bob Santos, the "Mayor of Chinatown," Rev. Vaughn Profit-Breaux from Mt Zion Baptist Church, and King County Councilman Larry Gossett.

HEART HEALTHY LECTURES … WORKSPACE EXERCISES….

"BAMAKO" Cascade Festival of African Films….AMERICAN IRANIAN PEACE FORUM 2008 …"RACE, POLITICS, and the 2008 elections…AFRICAN-AMERICAN READ IN ….CHILDREN AT WAR ….JONES …"HOW FIRM A FOUNDATION…PANEL ON MEDIA REFORM …WRITE AROUND ..LIVING WITH CHRONIC …"EZRA….6MONEY ..PRISON ISSUES ….

The Skanner Foundation's 22^nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast brought together 1000 people, to celebrate the life and legacy of the civil rights hero. This year the theme of the breakfast was "In Green Pastures: An Environment Where King's Dream Will Grow. Keynote speaker at the event was Steven Coleman, executive director of Washington Parks and People and a longtime activist for green spaces in urban neighborhoods. Coleman talked about his work with a coalition that revitalized Malcolm X park in Washington DC and helped turn one of Washington's most dangerous parks, from an illegal drug market into Marvin Gaye Park, a neighborhood park with open air performance space.

Tucked away near a railroad yard and grain silos on the Willamette River's eastern bank is an unassuming new art gallery.
But you will find no oil paintings, no watercolors and no photographs on the walls of the Chiles & Cross Unique Framed Fabrics Art Gallery. Marvin Chiles, the studio's artist and creative director, has a knack for fabric.
"I'm trying to do something that is different," Chiles says, standing among his creations.
From a giant mud cloth from Mali, to pieces of Japanese Obi cloth, to the vibrantly colored cloths creations of Laurel Burch, Chiles is a master of composition, placing pieces of fabric with a variety of mattes and frames.
The completed pieces resemble paintings themselves, but Chiles says he has a much greater creative license when it comes to fabric. Unlike a framed painting, no two pieces of framed fabric are the same. Stitching, design and color all vary, even on pieces that are culled from the same stretch of fabric...

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in four Democratic contests, Saturday and one Sunday completing the best night of his campaign and securing a burst of momentum for upcoming races Tuesday.
President George W. Bush, meanwhile, described John McCain, in an interview to air Sunday, as a "true conservative." The comments were aimed at helping the presumptive Republican nominee woo the party's skeptical base of conservatives, a difficult task evidenced by the veteran Arizona senator's embarassing, but largely symbolic, losses the night before to rival Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, snatched two victories Saturday from McCain. Although the wins in Kansas and Louisiana were no threat to the Arizona senator's lead, they reflected the difficulty he faces convincing conservatives who view him as a political maverick out-of-step with the party on key issues like immigation, tax cuts and campaign finance reform....

Lawmakers will have about $180 million less to spend in the current fiscal cycle than they thought just two months ago, according to new figures released Friday from state economists.
That's even more than lawmakers had budgeted for in their worst-case scenario, and suggests that the monthlong session that began Monday won't include much in the way of new funding for state programs.
The decline comes thanks to a swift drop in corporate income tax revenue, which is $62 million less than economists had predicted when lawmakers left Salem last June.
Friday's gloomy economic forecasts means that Oregon taxpayers won't see a personal income tax kicker check in 2009, after getting the largest checks in the state's history last December.
Still, state economist Tom Potiowsky said Oregon will probably escape the worst of a potential national recession, especially since the state has been relatively shielded from the housing industry meltdown. Instead, Potiowsky predicted that Oregon is likely to face extremely sluggish growth in personal income statewide. ...

I want to thank you for your participation in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blood and Organ Donor Registry Drive.
The stories you ran on the Parker/Weiss family donation and the community challenge issued by Charles Hunter, Sr. and Dr. Bethel were very important for visibility to us. The stories you also ran about Yolanda Holmes receiving an organ donation and blood are the foundation for education the local community about African American health disparities and importance of helping a local community member like Dr. T. Allen Bethel waiting for a kidney transplant.
Just as important were your words from the podium and the contact with the 1000 plus who attended The Skanner's annual MLK Breakfast event....