OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A cooling housing market helped cut about $132 million from the state's expected income, dropping the government's total surplus to less than $1.4 billion as Gov. Chris Gregoire and lawmakers prepare to update the state budget.
ChangMook Sohn, the state's chief economist, said Thursday the income drop was the first major setback in quarterly revenue projections in about four years.
Still, Sohn called the lower income numbers  ...

Seattle doesn't say hip-hop like New York City, Detroit or Los Angeles. Sure, Sir Mix-A-Lot grabbed national attention in the mid 1980s with "Baby Got Back, " but that was eons ago in hip-hop time. Now, with exciting young artists such as Blue Scholars, Unexpected Arrival, Dyme Def and Oldominion stepping onto the Emerald City's hip-hop stage, that looks set to change.
The city's new generation of hip-hop artists have something to say. And not just about back, booty and trunk junk. Take Anthony Shears, for example.  With the ...

Dida Abuna and his 2-year-old son, Moti Abuna ...

Tony Swan is not famous. He lives in a small apartment in North Portland. He takes public transport when he visits his friends. Yet the modest guy with a voice that any late night dj would envy, is the proud owner of not one, but two Olympic Gold medals.
In October, Tony Swan won a gold medal in the doubles bowling at the Special Olympic World Games in Shanghai, China. He also earned a gold medal for rollerskating at the 1991 Special Olympics games, held in Minneapolis. Next month, Swan will be honored with the Shriver Greatness Award at the Governor's Gold Awards ...

PROPER'S THANKSGIVING FEAST ...  TAKE A HIKE.....   PORTLAND FARMERS MARKET....    BOTTLED WATER ...    TUESDAY MORNING YOGA ...    WRITERS IN THE SCHOOLS...    TEEN ART....    "AN UNREASONABLE MAN" ....     SELMA JAMES...    PCC PANTHERS....    KWANZAA MARKETPLACE....    SUNDAY CINEMA CLASSIC....

The way Wanda Broadous sees it, if the only remaining African American fraternal organization in the city is lost, yet another piece of Portland's Black heritage will be lost with it.
But unfortunately, the organization's home – which is open to the public – is rundown. Aging and weather-worn, most of its windows boarded-up for nearly two decades, the Billy Webb Elks Lodge building, 6 N. Tillamook off Williams Avenue, is in need of repair. It's also in need of community support, says Broadous, who has been commissioned to increase participation at the old community hall. ...

Award-winning Seattle Guitarist Michael Powers helps Shima True 3, play a shoe box guitar she made into the microphone at a Creativity Workshop featuring children's book writer and illustrator Javak Steptoe and Michael Powers, Sunday Nov. 18 at the Douglas Truth Library.

The National Association of Minority Contractors of Oregon and TriMet hosted an award celebration Nov. 14 to mark the success of TriMet's efforts to involve minority and emerging firms in its major construction projects -- the I-205/Portland Mall MAX Light Rail Project and the Washington County Commuter Rail project. To date, more than $14 million has gone to local DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) firms from these projects. ...

JENA, La. (AP) -- Legal proceedings against a Black teenager among a group whose prosecution in the beating of a White classmate led to a massive civil rights protest must be open to the public, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Because the charges involve violence, all proceedings against Mychal Bell -- including hearings, the trial and sentencing -- will be public even though Bell is being tried as a juvenile, state District Judge Thomas Yeager decided ....

About 30 percent of inmates who leave Oregon prisons are back within three years. It's been like that for a decade.
Each repeat crime costs taxpayers up to $200,000 for law enforcement, court costs and incarceration. Reducing the recidivism rate -- repeat crimes by released offenders -- could save taxpayers millions of dollars, cut crime and give ex-offenders a better shot at a new life.
The cost-benefit analysis emerged this week during the first meeting of the Re-entry Council, appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski to address the problem ....