The future of the Children's Investment Fund is on the line this year. The program's funding will need voter approval simply in order to survive.
The first hurdle will be the Portland City Council meeting of Feb 20, when city commissioners will vote on whether to put the Children's Investment Fund on the November ballot.
Portland voters approved funding for the Children's Investment Fund in 2002, with a five-year property tax levy that raises about $10 million a year for 66 programs. Among them are: Albina Early Head Start, which receives $424,000 and Self Enhancement Inc., which receives $339,000. Together these two programs serve about 200 African American children. In addition, the fund supports: health screenings for 800 children, substance abuse counseling for homeless teens, respite care for children at-risk of abuse or neglect and mentoring for students in Portland Public Schools....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama campaigned in Wisconsin Saturday as he reached out for support among working-class voters just days ahead of the Midwestern state's primary where Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes to begin her comeback in the closely contested Democratic presidential race.
On the Republican side, John McCain moved closer to securing the party's nomination as he picked up a total of 50 national nominating delegates from Michigan and Louisiana, where state conventions divided up delegates to the party's national convention in September.
Obama crisscrossed Wisconsin ahead of Tuesday's primary to shore up his support. He met with students, faculty and community members at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, where he called for making community colleges more affordable to help workers gain the skills needed to compete in a rapidly changing economy. ....

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- The United States intensified pressure on Kenya's rival politicians to end a bloody political crisis as the country's foreign minister warned Sunday that any solution imposed by foreigners would ultimately fail.
Washington is pressing Kenya's rivals to strike a power-sharing deal to end the turmoil that has engulfed much of the country since a flawed Dec. 27 presidential vote, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to visit the country Monday to help push forward deadlocked peace talks. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is only one anti-bias law -- the one against discrimination based on age -- that would cover all nine Supreme Court justices, if such laws applied to them.
The justices, ranging in age from 53 to 87, are the last people to worry about such things in their own lives. They have life tenure and no mandatory retirement age.
Yet the justices are confronted by allegations of age discrimination in five cases this term. While the sheer number of cases probably can be explained away as coincidence, the topic is one of growing importance as more people work longer because of economic necessity or by choice.
"The importance of protecting older workers as the work force ages is enormous," ...

Should state Sen. Margaret Carter move from state government to city government? According to the buzz, that's a question being asked around town in everywhere from boardrooms to basketball courts. The Skanner can't reveal our sources on this, but it seems a group of business leaders have asked Sen. Carter to ditch her job in Salem and make a bid for the seat Commissioner Sam Adams is vacating in City Hall....

This year, Washington state's Feb. 19 primary election seems destined to play a significant role in deciding the winner of the Democratic nomination. And even Oregon's primary in late May, could play a key role in deciding whether Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination...

When it comes to getting help for depression and other mental illnesses, far too many African Americans are falling through the cracks, says Dr. Norwood Knight Richardson, a psychiatrist and senior policy advisor at Oregon Health and Science University.
Far too often, sufferers – especially African Americans — end up in jails rather than hospitals, he said.
"In the city of Portland we are small number of the population, but we end up being overrepresented in the jail and the judicial system. That is true for children as well in the juvenile system."
About one in 10 African Americans will go through a major depression during their lifetime, according to statistics from the National Institutes of Mental Health. Yet just 45 percent will receive any treatment....

After a nearly two and a half hour closed-door meeting, Northeast Coalition of Neighborhood board members voted overwhelmingly to fire the executive director of their organization, Joseph Santos-Lyons effective Monday night. One member of the Board's Executive Committee abstained, 15 members voted for the firing and one voted against the firing.
Santos-Lyons, the first person who was not African American to lead the coalition...

Films will show at:
Hollywood Theater, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd.
McMenamins Kennedy School Theater, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.
PCC Cascade's Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St. Moriarty Building 104 is on Albina Ave. 
All films are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the Web site at www.africanfilmfestival.org.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A costumed club dressed as King Arthur's knights paraded through New Orleans' crowded streets Tuesday in what has become the city's unofficial opening of Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season, with 12 days of parades, parties, drinking and lots of near-nudity in the city's famed French Quarter.
Several members of the Half-Fast Walking Club, whose parade opens the celebration, wiped sweat from their foreheads in unusually warm, muggy weather.
"Oh, I'm feeling fine. You always feel fine on Mardi Gras,"...