Ashaunté Richmond, 3, admires the work of Peggy Alter, face painter and board member of the…

Fannie I. Parker: 1926-2006Services were held April 26 for Fannie Isabel Powe Parker.She was born…

"ENDS AND MEANS"VINCENT HERRINGHIGHNOTE* * * * *The first track on this Highnote…

  2006 Breakfast InformationFor tickets e-mail mlkbreakfast@theskanner.com or come to The…

James Brown

WASHINGTON—Major League Baseball has at long last picked someone to buy the Washington Nationals, choosing a group that's led by real estate developer Theodore Lerner and includes former Atlanta Braves executive Stan Kasten.

Also among the team's new owners are TV sports announcer James Brown and Paxton Baker, president of event productions and executive vice president and general manager of digital networks for Black Entertainment Television.

"This has been a long journey. ... While I do apologize for the time, I think history will prove it maybe was time well spent," Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Wednesday in announcing the $450 million agreement.

Former Trail Blazer Michael Harper and Matt Wingard, director of the school choice program for Cascade Policy Institute, discuss the institute's report on Jefferson High School during a news conference Tuesday. The report says that, despite numerous reforms at the high school, thousands of students have graduated unprepared.

Jefferson High School is the target of a report by the Cascade Policy Institute, which blasts the Portland Public Schools for establishing numerous academic reforms over the past several years that have failed.

Pictured Jim Hill

The troubled Oregon Health Plan is at the heart of the health care debate among gubernatorial candidates. But they disagree on how or if the plan should be rescued.

The plan was considered a national model when it launched in 1994, expanding insurance coverage for Oregonians. But during a tight state budget in 2004, the Legislature decided to close enrollment in a portion of the plan. Thousands of Oregon-ians have since been dropped from its rolls.

For now, Portland Boulevard will remain just that: Portland Boulevard, not Rosa Parks Way.

Following a Portland City Council meeting at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center last week, the council decided to delay a decision about renaming the street and perhaps find another way to honor the woman who sparked the civil rights movement.

Pictured Emilie Boyles

The city ruled last week that council candidate Emilie Boyles is ineligible for public campaign money and demanded that she return $145,000.

Auditor Gary Blackmer ruled that Boyles violated the public financing code by taking out a year's lease on her campaign headquarters — a former restaurant that she planned to use after the campaign for a food bank she runs.

OLYMPIA, WA—Gov. Chris Gregoire, already deep into a two-year overhaul of education, says the next big challenge is health care.