Cheryl Parker gives her cocker spaniel, Cooper, a hug after participating in the eighth annual Furry 5K Fun Run & Walk, held June 10 at Seward Park. Hundreds of dogs and their human companions converged on Seward Park for the event, which benefits orphaned and neglected animals.

The top threat facing Washington's minority-owned businesses, according to a recently released University of Washington study, is competition from big business.
"About 99 percent of the business growth in Washington and nationally is in small business, and the question is how do they compete?" says Dr. Vandra Huber, professor of human resource management at UW and a co-author of the recently released Washington Minority Small Business Survey.
"When you think of superstores like Wal-Mart putting small business out of business, it puts additional pressure on these organizations," Huber says.
"The threat of competition from large businesses is particularly felt by minority firms that seek government contracts," says William Bradford, another of the study's authors and a UW professor.

Ranjnii Eddins, the local poet and teacher who was arrested two months ago, after inquiring about a student's arrest, is reaching out to family, friends, community and the media on the popular online site, MySpace.com.
In a series of blogs on the personalized site at www.myspace.com/rajniicares, Eddins describes his April arrest and calls on justice organizations, educators and business leaders to support his plight.

E.J. Penn grew up in a family with five children and a working mother, so he gets it. He understands that mothers and fathers are sometimes so busy trying to make ends meet that keeping track of their 12-year-old during the summer is nearly impossible. 
That's why Penn developed the All-American Youth Basketball Camp, a summertime program sponsored by Portland Parks and Recreation and First Step Sports Academy for boys and girls ages 5 to 18.
"It's so important that kids have a place to feel completely comfortable," Penn says. "Having that place will help keep them out of trouble."

Adventures Without Limits
The five-day camp includes a variety of outdoor adventure activities and one overnight camping experience.
Ages: 9-13
Phone: 503-359-2568...

Student Filmmakers Celebrate at a graduation reception in their honor June 13 at The Skanner News Group. Nine graduates finished Phase I of the Train the Trainer program in Multimedia, an educational project of The Skanner Foundation's North Portland Multimedia Training Center. Trainees participated in nine weeks of classes learning journalism principles and how to tell a story using digital video and audio recording equipment. The reception included screening of students' productions, "Cleaning up the Boulevard" and "101 and Still Counting."

JACKSON, Miss. -- Sometime soon in the tiny east Texas community of Hooks, pastor Tim Mason plans to talk to his all-Black congregation at Cedar Grove Baptist Church about the power of forgiveness and redemption.
His words will come from his family's own wrenching experience of racial violence.
Mason's older cousin, Charles Eddie Moore, and a friend, Henry Hezekiah Dee, were brutally slain by Ku Klux Klansmen in rural southwest Mississippi on May 2, 1964. The two Black 19-year-olds were abducted, beaten and tossed into a muddy Mississippi River backwater while the Klan pursued false rumors that Black people were stockpiling weapons during a time of strict racial segregation.

RALEIGH, North Carolina -- His law license lost and reputation in tatters, Mike Nifong seemingly can fall no further.
But the disgraced prosecutor who committed "intentional prosecutorial misconduct" in his pursuit of the Duke lacrosse rape case faces an uncertain -- and likely troubled -- future.
The falsely accused players and their families, having racked up millions of dollars in legal bills, appear likely to file civil lawsuits against the disbarred prosecutor.

Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your week...

 The Seattle Skanner will host the National Newspaper Publishers Association convention in downtown Seattle, June 20-24 at the Fairmount Olympic Hotel, 411 University St.
This year's theme is "Building Coalitions for the Future."
The NNPA, also known as The Black Press, is a 65-year-old federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers from across the country.
Celebrating the 180th anniversary of The Black Press, the four-day convention welcomes publishers and editors from the Black press throughout the United States.