Everyone needs some assistance at one time or another, and that's why Northwest Harvest is there to help. With the busiest season for hunger underway, which lasts through the month of January, Northwest Harvest, Washington State's only statewide hunger relief agency, is in critical need of donations.
Washington State has the 16th highest median household income and the 20th lowest poverty rate in the nation, according to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau, but 30 percent of Washington households meet the Economic Policy Institute's definition of low-income.
Nationally, about 1 in 5 Americans participates in one of the USDA's food assistance programs during the year. More than half of those served by Northwest Harvest partner food banks and meal programs are either ....

Nearly a year after six African American high school students in Jena, La. were charged with attempted second-degree murder for a school-yard fight with a White student, college students more than 2,500 miles away are still talking.
In the University of Washington's Ethnic Cultural Theater on last week, students gathered to dialogue about the events surrounding the controversial Jena 6 case.  Organized by the University's Black Student Union and a community organization called "Soul Food," the night featured artistic expressions and group discussions about whether the events in Jena were over-exaggerated or symptoms of systemic injustice.
The night's co-facilitators, Yasmin Ravard-Andresen of Soul Food and BSU member Tajiana Ellis, recounted what happened in Jena, La.  They explained the series of events that ....

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up endorsements from dozens of Black ministers Tuesday in South Carolina, an early voting state where she and rival Barack Obama have been courting the critical Black vote.
Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman said the endorsements were highly valued by candidates. "There's very stiff, intense competition for the hearts and minds of the African-American clergy," He said. "Collectively, they have huge influence."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up endorsements from dozens of Black ministers Tuesday in South Carolina, an early voting state where she and rival Barack Obama have been courting the critical Black vote.
Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman said the endorsements were highly valued by candidates. "There's very stiff, intense competition for the hearts and minds of the African-American clergy," He said. "Collectively, they have huge influence."
Nearly half of South Carolina's Democratic primary voters are Black, and ministers can play a huge role in shaping the political direction of their congregations. More than 60 ministers gathered with Clinton on a stage at a hotel in ....

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- As an inmate test subject for medical experiments being conducted at Holmesburg State Prison, Edward "Butch" Anthony says he had mysterious substances dabbed on his skin and injected in his veins.
Then came faintness, painful rashes, hands ballooning to the size of boxing gloves, nails so thick and rough they required a wood file, pus-filled blisters that left him in agony.
But it wasn't until he was handed a little cup of clear liquid to drink that things got so strange, he says, the inmates gave him a new name: Outer Limits....

NEW YORK (AP) _ Will Don Imus be defiant or contrite? Will he mock his skeptics while making his triumphant return to radio Monday.
Or will he muzzle his mouth?
"That question is part of the drama of his reemergence," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, an industry trade journal. "Imus faces some choices."
Imus isn't talking, yet, but it's safe to say radio's best-known curmudgeon will have lots to say when his show kicks off at 6 a.m. EST Monday on WABC-AM and other Citadel Broadcasting Corp. stations around the country, ending his nearly eight-month banishment from the air.
The morning show will be simulcast on cable's RFD-TV, owned by the Rural Media Group Inc., and rebroadcast on radio in the evenings. ...

The Skanner 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast will be held on Monday January 21, 2008, from 8:30-10:30 a.m. at the Hilton Portland Executive Tower Hotel, 921 SW 6th Avenue, Portland. Reserve your table at MLKBreakfast@theskanner.com

If you are searching for a well-paid career in an exciting and growing field, you might want to take a look at information technology or engineering. The trouble is … African Americans seem to be looking the other way.
Just about seven out of every 100 ...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A cooling housing market helped cut about $132 million from the state's expected income, dropping the government's total surplus to less than $1.4 billion as Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers prepare to update the state budget.
ChangMook Sohn, the state's chief economist, said Thursday the income drop was the first major setback in quarterly revenue projections in about four years.
Still, Sohn called the lower income numbers  ...

Seattle doesn't say hip-hop like New York City, Detroit or Los Angeles. Sure, Sir Mix-A-Lot grabbed national attention in the mid 1980s with "Baby Got Back, " but that was eons ago in hip-hop time. Now, with exciting young artists such as Blue Scholars, Unexpected Arrival, Dyme Def and Oldominion stepping onto the Emerald City's hip-hop stage, that looks set to change.
The city's new generation of hip-hop artists have something to say. And not just about back, booty and trunk junk. Take Anthony Shears, for example.  With the ...