Renee Hart, left, squares off against her friend, Sequoia Causey-Waters, right, for game of chess at the Chess for Success booth while Aushonii Glover, center, looks on. The three girls were attending GirlFest, held Sept. 30, at the Portland Expo Center.

Leaders from all faiths are joining forces to mobilize a religious response to global warming.
Oregon Interfaith Power and Light, a project of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, will participate in Interfaith Power & Light's "Spotlight on Global Warming." This inter-religious, nationwide screening of educational films about global warming — featuring Paramount's "An Inconvenient Truth" and HBO's "Too Hot Not to Handle" — includes more than 175 Oregon congregations in at least 35 cities and towns.

Robert Moseley, who works at the Home Depot store located at 4738 N. Vancouver Ave, volunteered his time helping to clean up the courtyard at Madison High School. Volunteers from Home Depot and Hands On Portland removed debris, weeded the campus, built benches and painted as part of Corporate Month of Service, a national initiative to increase volunteerism. 

Martin Luther King Jr. "Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for…

Vernon Elementary School students Deandre McDonald, left, Delonce Davis, Brian Boly, Arial Montalvo, Anna Madison and De'osha McDonald show off their model rockets Sept. 20. NASA scientists visited the school to announce that Vernon had been selected as a NASA Explorer school.

Voters will be asked in November to take a look around them and decide if they want to improve their natural environment: parks, greenspaces, water, fish and wildlife.
Ballot Measure 26-80, known as the 2006 Natural Areas Bond Measure, would issue $227.4 million in general obligation bonds. Those bonds would preserve targeted natural areas in the region; protect and restore watersheds for improved water quality; protect streams, fish and wildlife; and increase the presence of nature in neighborhoods.
The estimated cost of the bonds is $19 cents per $1,000 of assessed value; the average homeowner would pay about $2.50 to $2.92 per month or $30 to $35 a year.
Among the measure's goals, supporters say, is to bring parks and greenspaces closer to those who don't have easy access to existing parks.
Although some residents may say the Portland metro area appears to have a lot of parks and natural areas — and the city does rank fairly well with other cities of its size nationally

Ulanda Watkins' already-unlikely journey may be poised for its most momentous turn. The Portland attorney is running for the Multnomah County Circuit Court seat vacated by the passing of Judge Clifford Freeman.
To say that the Northeast Portland native has faced obstacles in her life would be an understatement. Watkins was raised from birth to age 9 by her grandmother when her parents, teenagers at the time, were too poor to do raise her. Despite financial hardship, Watkins credits her "Grandma Ruth" with instilling the work ethic that has carried her to where she is today, a partner in the downtown firm of Walker, Warren and Watkins at the ripe old age of 36.

In response to criticism of the Portland Development Commission voiced by African Americans and other minorities recently, the commission will make "significant" changes, said Bruce Warner, the commission's executive director.
Warner will create a new executive-level position to address community relations and business equity; that person — who is expected to be hired within the next three months — will report directly to Warner.

Pat Wright, left, director of the Total Experience Gospel Choir, and Gena Brooks belt it out along with the  rest of the choir Sept. 24th at a musical benefit for the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle & King County at Damascus Baptist Church.

Maple Elementary School is among the first Blue Ribbon Schools selected in the 2006 No Child Left Behind — Blue Ribbon Schools Program.
The Seattle school received a certificate last week from U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Deputy Assistant Secretary Cindi Williams.
The 250 public and private K-12 schools are being honored for helping close the achievement gap and for students who achieve at very high levels. A second group of schools will be announced in October when more data on achievements is available.
"These schools show what wonderful accomplishments can be made when we focus on the bottom line in education — student achievement," Spellings said. "All these schools have students from all subgroups who've made impressive test gains or who scored in the top tier on state tests. They are outstanding examples of how all students can achieve to higher standards."