Editor's note: The following are excerpts from a speech by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the recent NAACP national convention.

When Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King went to India to learn more about nonviolence, they learned a translation of the word "nonviolence" in Sanskrit is "truth insistence." To insist on the truth — and isn't that what they were doing?

Monique Meade, left, comments to Charlotte Roach about a hat — modeled by Marilyn Dixon, background — at the Hattitude Tea, held July 23 at Bethesda Christian Church.

Leon Dudley, a high school principal in Dallas, Texas, who says he loves a challenge, will be Jefferson High School's new principal beginning Aug. 14.
Dudley was hired this week by Vicki Phillips, Portland Public Schools superintendent. Phillips also hired Cynthia Harris, a school administrator in California, to serve as area director for all schools in the Jefferson cluster, as well as the elementary and middle schools in the Wilson area.
"Leon Dudley and Cynthia Harris are outstanding school leaders,"
Phillips said. "While new to Portland, they are not new to the work at hand: providing a world-class education for students in urban schools."
Dudley, a principal at Dallas Independent School District's Roosevelt High School, has a track record leading urban middle and high schools and closing the achievement gap, according to Phillips.

According to a local union representative, last week's settlement of a class-action lawsuit between Rose Garden janitorial workers and their employer may bring an additional benefit to the Portland area — increased union membership.

For funeral director Angela McKenzie, a person's life doesn't end with a memorial…

Mayor Tom Potter has nominated Charles A. Wilhoite to become a commissioner on the Portland…

It's time to come out of the house and meet the neighbors during National Night Out on…

Benson High School's own Kelci Rae Flowers was crowned Miss Oregon Teen USA in November 2005, and will represent Oregon next month in the Miss Teen USA competition in Palm Springs, Calif. But needs a little help to get there.To make an online donation, visit www.kelci-rae.org

When National Minority Donor Awareness Day observes its 10th anniversary on Aug. 1, its original…