Direct from Ethiopia, the 3-million-year-old remains of the hominid known as "Lucy" are on display the Pacific Science Center in Seattle through March 8, 2009. The exhibit, "Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia," are built around the oldest and most complete fossils of an erect-walking human ancestor ever discovered. For more information about the exhibit, go to www.pacsci.org/.

Photo by Susan Fried

A new report highlighting the dangers of taking antibiotics has come out just in time for the cold and flu season. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, shows that in addition to the hazards of driving up antibiotic resistance, the drugs can cause a variety of unpleasant and potentially life-threatening side-effects. ....

Recurrent violence in oil-rich parts of Nigeria may provide a sobering lesson for oil companies hoping to work in Iraq — a place that is much more dangerous despite the fact that attacks are at their lowest level in more than four years....

New law empowers Justice of Department to re-open cold civil rights murder cases  
The NAACP commends President George Bush and members of the U.S. Congress for passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. The measure passed enthusiastically in both houses of Congress and was signed into law last night by President George Bush.
The NAACP supported legislation puts additional federal resources and authority into solving many of the heinous crimes that occurred in the early decades of the civil rights struggle that remain unsolved, aiming to bring perpetrators to justice. 
"By investing new resources into these decades-old crimes we may finally be able to bring resolution to these cases and allow some closure for the victims' loved ones, as well as our nation as a whole," ....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, says the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminds him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Gov. George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.
Republican candidate John McCain on Saturday called Lewis' remarks "shocking and beyond the pale.''
The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator doesn't believe McCain or his policy criticism is at all comparable to Wallace and his segregationist policies.
In a statement issued Saturday, Lewis said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.'' He noted that Wallace also ran for president.
"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights,'' said Lewis, who is black....

Don't wear campaign paraphernalia to voting polls on election day Nov. 4 or bring a sweater to cover it up, experts say. ''Whether or not they have a constitutional right to wear [campaign memorabilia] we tell them to leave it at home and avoid the hassle," says Laughlin McDonald, Director of ACLU Voting Right Project. "There is a Supreme Court decision that prohibited campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place so we advise that if they do wear a campaign button that they follow that state's law, unless they are trying to challenge it.''....

Many people look down on construction workers. In fact experts predict the shortage of construction workers will worsen over the next decade unless steps are taken to reverse the trend.
Ironically, the Pacific Northwest is in the midst of a golden age of .... 

Imagine the chaos if a tremendous earthquake …

A crowd of about 50 gathered in front of the Oregonian offices Monday to protest the distribution of a DVD that they say unfairly criticized Muslims. The DVD – a paid advertisement in The Sunday Oregonian – is titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" and the Oregonian's Publisher Fred Stickle said they were following normal advertising guidelines. The protestors and many others, call it hate speech.

"This is not about rights," says Promise King, executive director of the Oregon League of Minority Voters, regarding the DVD....

Demand for emergency food boxes in Oregon and Clark County, Wa., is, once again, on the rise, according to the Oregon Food Bank Network's annual statistics, released this week.
The report was released alongside the results from the Food Bank's Hunger Factors Assessment Survey of food-box recipients. 
In its 37-county service area distribution of emergency food boxes increased 5 percent – from 752,000 to 792,000 from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.
That's 40,000 more emergency food boxes – the first significant increase in four years. In some pockets of the state demand was up nearly 30 percent.
"During the previous three years, distribution of emergency food boxes remained at a high but stable level, giving us hope that we were beginning to turn the tide against hunger, but the recent economic slowdown has altered that," said Rachel Bristol, executive director and CEO of Oregon Food Bank.
The OFB Network conducts the Hunger Factors Survey every two years to better understand the factors leading Oregonians to seek emergency food.
During the past year, the number of people receiving an emergency food box increased from an average of 192,000 per month to more than 200,000 per month with an estimated 850,000 people annually needing help from the OFB Network....