They've been called the "backbone of the economy" by President Obama.

For years, the Northwest Health Foundation has funded the efforts of many of the local, low-income health clinics in Portland.

In a heartbreaking instant, Andre Dupree Payton, 19, was shot and killed last weekend in downtown Portland. The shooting was another tragic outbreak of gang-related violence – but those who knew the teen well say that he was a decent young man who was hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Sam Williams, in-school coordinator with Self enhancement Inc., has been working with Payton for the last 4 years. "He worked very, very hard to graduate from Grant High School in the class of 2010," Williams said. "I want to emphasize what a good, good kid Andre was."

Includes Hydrotherapy, AromaTherapy, and Polarity Therapy.

If an emergency strikes your neighborhood, Carmen Merlo wants her staff at Portland Office of Emergency Management to have your contact information. Say, a bridge has collapsed, for example, or dangers such as downed power lines, or a toxic chemical spill are lurking in your neighborhood, they could send you warnings in the form of texts, emails or voicemails.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The recession spread poverty into thousands of mom-and-dad households where good jobs had been common, a study of food stamp use in Oregon concludes.

If you're a felon, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna wants to make sure you can't vote until you're no longer under the jurisdiction of the state.
This week, the state's top law enforcement officer traveled to San Francisco to argue before an 11-member panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to strike down a January 2010 decision that found the state's prohibition on prisoner suffrage violated the Voting Rights Act

In what will be a first for the state, the Portland City Council last week approved a recommendation to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to restrict the sale of certain alcoholic beverages at stores.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Low tax collections are driving a new state budget deficit of about $520 million through mid-2011, leading to spending cuts of about 6.3 percent from Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The last time a quake struck Oregon was over 310 years ago.
Experts predict that another could happen any year now.
So when the next big earthquake rolls through Portland, how prepared for our town's destruction will you be?