Services for Myrtle Nickerson will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 3, at Rose City Cemetery Chapel, 5625 NE Fremont. She died Sept. 25 at age 85 ....

Ollie Bolds died Sept. 20. He was born in Boynton, Okla. on October 27, 1927 to Van Ralph Bolds and Meddra Henderson Bolds. He grew up the second youngest of six children.
He spent most of his youth in Tulsa, where he became an apprentice bricklayer before entering the military toward the end of World War II. He served time on Guam as cook for his battalion ...

Five years ago, several Portland elementary schools embarked on a new teaching method. The Oregon Reading First grant program used scientifically-based reading research to improve literacy skills on students as early as pre-K. Teachers shared more students and were more involved in each students' success; training programs helped teachers with their own teaching skills; and schools would visit other schools to see where their own practices could be improved. ...

Infants who slept in a bedroom with a fan ventilating the air had a 72 percent lower risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome compared to infants who slept in a bedroom without a fan, according to a new study...

Poet Rochelle Hart has had a wonderful year. The articulate, self-described revolutionary poet is set to release a new spoken-word CD in December. She's shopping for a publisher for her recently-completed biography of a local music producer ....

Martin Owino, one of the 98 artists opening their workplaces to the public during Portland Open Studios, lets you travel to Africa by way of southeast Portland on Oct. 11, 12 and 18, 19.
"Pure Africa" is in the jumping hands and prancing feet of the women who revel in good times even as the times are changing. Owino's original batik paintings capture the colorful spirit of his native Kenya...

Direct from Ethiopia, the 3-million-year-old remains of the hominid known as "Lucy" are on display the Pacific Science Center in Seattle through March 8, 2009. The exhibit, "Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia," are built around the oldest and most complete fossils of an erect-walking human ancestor ever discovered. For more information about the exhibit, go to www.pacsci.org/.

Photo by Susan Fried

A new report highlighting the dangers of taking antibiotics has come out just in time for the cold and flu season. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, shows that in addition to the hazards of driving up antibiotic resistance, the drugs can cause a variety of unpleasant and potentially life-threatening side-effects. ....

Recurrent violence in oil-rich parts of Nigeria may provide a sobering lesson for oil companies hoping to work in Iraq — a place that is much more dangerous despite the fact that attacks are at their lowest level in more than four years....

New law empowers Justice of Department to re-open cold civil rights murder cases  
The NAACP commends President George Bush and members of the U.S. Congress for passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. The measure passed enthusiastically in both houses of Congress and was signed into law last night by President George Bush.
The NAACP supported legislation puts additional federal resources and authority into solving many of the heinous crimes that occurred in the early decades of the civil rights struggle that remain unsolved, aiming to bring perpetrators to justice. 
"By investing new resources into these decades-old crimes we may finally be able to bring resolution to these cases and allow some closure for the victims' loved ones, as well as our nation as a whole," ....