WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Republican Party chose the first Black national chairman in its history Friday, just shy of three months after the nation elected a Democrat as the first African-American president. The choice marked no less than "the dawn of a new party," declared the new GOP chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
Republicans chose Steele over four other candidates, including former President George W. Bush's hand-picked GOP chief, who bowed out declaring, "Obviously the winds of change are blowing."  ...

(GIN) – A former U.S. banker has secured a huge tract of arable land in southern Sudan in what has been called Africa's largest post-colonial private land deal.
Investor Phillipe Heilberg called the property bordering the Nile "a ripe opportunity for investment and development." Its size is nearly twice the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
Heilberg's company leased 400,000 acres .... This is frontier land. It's also extremely fertile land. ...

King County Executive Sims has been tapped by President Barack Obama to serve as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, working with newly appointed HUD Director. Shaun Donovan, a former New York City housing commissioner. Sims will be moving to Washington D.C. pending his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

During a meeting that nearly descended into a riot, the Seattle School Board last Thursday voted to close five schools and move all or part of eight other programs. Seattle NAACP President James Bible was forcibly ejected from the meeting by Seattle police, although, news reports said, he was quietly leaning against a wall. When two White officers approached him and demanded that he take a seat or leave, the crowd erupted into a furor and Bible was ejected from the meeting ...

Filmmaker and curator Marc Moscato presents a screening of "A Not Too Distant Past," a collection of short films that examine the radical social movements that helped shape activism as we now know it.
From Black Panthers to the battle for an 8-hour work day, Moscato originally debuted the collection on the 40^th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The films include ....

This week, President Obama's economic stimulus plan passes from the U.S. House to the Senate for finalization. As it stands currently, the bill will send an $819 billion...

Eric Holder was sworn in today as U.S. Attorney General, the nation's top law enforcement officer. He was confirmed Monday in a 75-21 Senate vote, with all the opposition coming from Republicans. Holder takes charge of an office buffeted ....

The longest-serving woman in Congressional history, Ohio, Rep. Marcy Kaptur is encouraging homeowners facing foreclosures to stay in their homes. On today's edition of Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, she lays out the legal rights of homeowners facing eviction ...

Valerie Allen took advantage of Portland Community College's financial aid day and got her Free Application for Student Aid paperwork in order with the help of Kristen Lena, a financial aid technician II. Allen is interested in returning to college to get a degree in drug and alcohol counseling.

In spite of the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, St Andrew Catholic Church in inner North/Northeast Portland, has secured more than 50 percent of their $3.4 million dollar modernization project.
According to church officials, the project's fund-raising campaign has received pledges totaling more than half a million from church members and a substantial grant from the Terrell Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation. ...