Concerns about diversity awareness at the Portland State University campus and a desire to celebrate multicultural roots are bringing together student organizations for the university'sfirst-ever ROOTS Festival.

The festival is a daylong celebration of diversity at PSU that will commemorate people's origins, cultures and commonalities, as well as respective differences. PSU students and members of the greater community are encouraged to attend.

Lois Jackson, left, and Mrs. Isaac Wasson show off the 2006 Jefferson High School Senior Community Quilt after a school assembly on May 25.

"THE LEGENDARY PRESTIGE QUINTET SESSIONS"MILES DAVIS* * * * *In the latter part of…

  2006 Breakfast InformationFor tickets e-mail [email protected] or come to The…

Woodlawn Elementary School students Honni Brown, left, Lyric Branch, D.J. Gonzales — all members of the school's Kukatonon African Dancers.

Woodlawn Elementary School's Kúkátónón Dance Troupe will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, June 2, in the Self Enhancement Inc. auditorium.

The Seattle City Council this week passed a resolution supporting the naming of a park for rock-n-roll legend Jimi Hendrix.
The resolution supports the naming of the Colman School Lot, located in Seattle's Central Area, to recognize Hendrix's cultural contributions. The park is adjacent to the Northwest African American Museum at the Urban League Village, which is scheduled to open next year.

Margaret Carter

Oregon State Sen. Margaret Carter is joining The Skanner as vice president of corporate affairs and will lend her clout, intellect, connections and energy to The Skanner's mission of Challenging People to Shape A Better Future Now.

JoAnn Bowman

A new report on racial profiling by Portland Police Bureau officers confirms what Portlanders of color have known for a long time: Police routinely stop — and search — people of color more often than they do White people.

After several years of behind-the-scenes planning, negotiating and stalling, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is about to burst with new development.

But as new projects — valued at between $80 and $100 million — begin to change the boulevard's look, opportunities for existing businesses also are emerging. Staffers for the Portland Development Commission say they are developing "tools" that will stimulate "wealth creation," add more jobs in the area and transform the rag-tag thoroughfare into a "livable and functional main street."

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to reauthorize the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Called the "Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006," the bill, introduced on May 2, would extend the act for 25 years. It also would update several provisions of the original Voting Rights Act to take into account continuing obstacles to voting by minority voters.