VANCOUVER, Wash.—Shareefah Abdullah, founder and president of the Vancouver-based Hot Ovations Communications Coaching & Training Co., has won a coveted Bronze Beacon award from the Oregon Columbia International Association of Business Communicators. 

Metro will work with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify and inventory petroleum-based brownfield sites throughout the region.

Harold Lloyd Warren Sr. died on June 11 at the age of 59.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon installed new officers to serve on the Board of Directors at its Annual Community Awards and Celebration Dinner

The last listening session focusing on racial profiling in Portland will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 22, in Emmanuel Temple Church, 1033 N. Sumner St.

For people experiencing difficulty in their lives, the power of words can have a transformative effect. Write Around Portland, a nonprofit group dedicated to aiding others through written language, helps to spread this power through the Portland community.

The Portland School Board voted 4-3 to extend the district's current teacher contract for two years (through June 30, 2008), with a cost-of-living increase of 2.5 percent in each of those two years.

WorkSource North, a publicly operated center dedicated to enhancing the skills and employment opportunities of community residents recently opened at the New Columbia housing development.

The Portland Children's Museum offers visitors all-day, summer-long fun seven days a week.
The museum has three art studios, and original and entertaining puppet shows are performed twice daily Wednesday through Saturday. Daily Family Storytime is offered for all ages, and for the youngest visitors, there's Tots, Tales and Tunes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The Northwest Disciples Wrestling Club has received a community grant of $2,500 from The Fred Meyer Foundation to help support its amateur wrestling program.