SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. reiterated Tuesday its belief that the economic crisis will persist at least into the second half of 2009 but attempted to reassure analysts that it will continue to cut costs and spend wisely.
Microsoft shares fell 3 percent in midday trading.
Speaking at a meeting in New York, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said Microsoft is looking to the television maker RCA as a role model. RCA spent money on research and development through the Great Depression, then dominated its market, he said.
Ballmer pointed to areas of Microsoft's business that will be hit hardest by the downturn and sketched out the products and projects that will get the bulk of the company's $27.5 billion in annual operating expenses.
Microsoft, which recently resorted to its first mass layoffs ever, will feel the economic pain most acutely in its businesses that sell the Windows operating system and Office desktop software . . .

Evelyne Ello-Hart with her co-worker, Shariff Mohamed, the youth coordinator for the African Women's Coalition, strategize on how to improve access to community services for African immigrants.
... not only are immigrant families under-served by area health providers, but by lumping them together in statistical studies as "Black" and "African American," the immigrants' actual population isn't really counted by local government agencies ...

A 15-year-old shot in the chest just after noon on Sunday told police he had also been shot the day before.
The unidentified youth was found Feb. 8 in the 4600 block of Northeast Sumner Street. Police say he was shot near 42nd and Killingsworth ... Officials say he is recovering, but remains gravely injured – and refuses to cooperate with the investigation....

The Metro Council voted Feb. 5 to approve a resolution that required traffic reducing devices – such as tolls — be applied to any final bridge design, which has yet to be decided. Councilors – as well as many supporters and critics – have said they don't want the bridge to attract additional congestion, which would make the $4 billion investment nearly moot....

Nicole West, her father T. West and sisters (not in frame) Nichelle and Ashley West, members of Heaven Gift, perform at the third annual African Heritage Unity Celebration, Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Charles H. Mitchell Activity Center at Seattle Central Community College.  The event included dance, music, art and traditional food, celebrating African heritage.

President Barack Obama announced Monday that he will nominate King County Executive Ron Sims to be deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In other news, the Seattle P.I. reported that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske might be named as the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy....

Isaiah Francis, Ilhan Ali and Chris Johnson wage a snowball fight in July at Lake Sally Ann in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Students participating in the Urban Wilderness Project are Jamaican, Eritrean and African American. The Strange Fruit workshop will help create strategies for overcoming the psychological barriers to enjoying the wilderness....

The findings from a National Online Harris Poll, commissioned by the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, show 93 percent of African Americans believe improving foster care should be a national priority.
The poll also found that although the community deems the issue important, 87 percent of African American adults polled know little or nothing about the experiences of children in foster care, and more than half (49 percent) know nothing at all about these children....

What's happening for you in Seattle this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your spare time. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.…

What's happening for you in Portland this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your spare time. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.…