The Skanner Foundation held its 22nd annual Martin Luther King Breakfast last Monday.  Every year, the breakfast looks at an issue related to Dr. King's struggle for civil rights, equality and justice in America. This year the theme of the breakfast was: In Green Pastures: An Environment Where King's Dream Will Grow.
By looking at struggles for environmental justice, The Skanner's publisher Bernie Foster said he hoped to highlight opportunities for African Americans to improve our urban environment for future generations and generate "clean, green jobs" for urban youth. . . .

This week, Portland Mayor Tom Potter is in Washington DC, for the Mayors Innovation  Project. High on the agenda will be climate change, energy conservation and how to build an economy that creates green jobs, including living wage jobs for people of color and low-income people.
Here in Portland,  job opportunities already are growing. That's because key city leaders and minority advocates are taking crucial steps to make sure that Portland is on the cutting edge of the green economy.
"It's a new phenomenon, and we need to take advantage of it," said Fay Burch, consultant, entrepreneur and board member of the Oregon branch of the National Association of Minority Contractors....

The Oregonian called it a symbol, but Sen. Avel Gordly said it was much more than that: "This is how beloved community behaves," she told the audience at The Skanner's Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, last Monday. What were they talking about: Mayor Tom Potter's decision to move his office to Jefferson High School for a week. It was a week he called the best week in his administration.
As Portland's bigwigs descended on the school before the mayor's State of the City Address Friday, students between classes were laughing, socializing and trying to figure out if their teachers were allowing them to attend the City Club meeting....

CLARK COLLEGE JAZZ FESTIVAL. Held through Jan. 26.... "CHALLENGES FACING RELIGION TODAY" Imam Mamadou Toure of the Institute of Islamic & Interfaith Studies will speak at the Quaker Meeting House.... KBOO AT A CROSSROADS and needs to hear from the community to set its direction and goals for positive change.....

Patrick Kimbrough, 14, joined at least 100 young people on Jan. 19 at the 7th annual "We have a Dream" Martin Luther King Jr. March and Event sponsored by the Seattle Parks and Recreation Teen Signature Programs.
The marchers walked from Martin Luther King Jr. Park to the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.

The Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously approved $443,000 for public health pilot programs. The programs – part of the Children's Health Initiative — are designed to ensure that uninsured children have greater access to health care.
"Healthy children grow up to be healthy adults. Children who lack health care face a future of health disparities that will impact the rest of their lives," said Councilmember Larry Gossett, prime ...

Oregon State Sen. Avel Gordly, after receiving The Skanner Foundation's Drum Major for Justice Award, talked to the crowd of over 1,000 about the importance of community-based mental health centers. She called upon Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (left) and Senate President (right) Peter Courtney to act to protect patients at the Oregon State Hospital.

Charges of domestic violence have been dropped against Seattle Councilmember Richard McIver after a judge ruled that statements his wife made to police were hearsay.
Marlaina Kiner-McIver gave two different accounts of an argument to 9-1-1 operators and police, and has refused to testify at trial against her husband of 30 years. The Oct. 10 9-1-1 call Kiner-McIver placed stated that the couple had gotten into a purely verbal argument after McIver had come home after several drinks...

NAIVASHA, Kenya -- Ethnic clashes convulsed western Kenya on Sunday as gangs fought with crude weapons and set homes ablaze in this tourist gateway, pushing the death toll from a month of violence over the country's flawed presidential election to nearly 800.
The bloodshed -- with Sunday marking exactly one month since the Dec. 27 vote -- has transformed this once-stable African country, pitting longtime neighbors against each other and turning towns where tourists used to gather for luxury holidays into no-go zones....