SAVELUGU, Ghana -- The little girl screams in pain and reaches for the hand slowly drawing a thin, white worm from her blistered foot.
"Stop it! Do stop it!" she begs.
Finally, the worm is out, and the veranda full of other infected children explodes in claps and shouts of congratulation.
It took six weeks to draw the worm out, and another is about to emerge from her other foot.
A 20-year fight to eradicate guinea worm disease, or dracunculiasis, is in the last and most difficult stages. It could be the first parasitic disease wiped out worldwide -- and only the second disease ever to be eliminated; the first was smallpox in 1979.
Ghana provides a glimpse of the serious obstacles that stand in the way of guinea worm being vanquished.
Enormous strides have been made since former President Jimmy Carter dedicated himself to the cause after seeing a worm emerging from a woman's breast in Ghana's remote north in 1988.
Carter, who rallied the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the U.N. World Health Organization and the Japanese government to the effort, estimated it would be eradicated in 10 years. Now, at age 82, he hopes it will happen in his lifetime.

Drummer Obo Addy, left, leads a group of Ghanaian performers during the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Ghana's Independence at lunchtime Tuesday, March 6 in Pioneer Courthouse Square. The celebration began with a welcome to the crowd and a pouring of libations by Ghanaian Elder Kwaku Mensah, not pictured. The celebration continues with a dinner and a dance, beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at the Holiday Inn Airport. For tickets, call James Tetteh at 503-282-9955.

Call it a homecoming for Lavert Robertson. The new leader of the Arts and Technology Academy — one of the four new academies that will soon make up the whole of Jefferson High School – graduated from Jefferson in 1994.
He left Portland for a while – first to a administrator job at an elementary school and then to a position as a high school administrator in Champagne, Ill. — but Robertson says he always kept an eye on his hometown.
Now at the forefront of the most news-making high school in Portland, Robertson says he's used to being thrown into the hot seat.
"You can't make mistakes," he says about being a school administrator. "… Or you might end up in the news."

Two days before joining Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former President Bill Clinton in Selma, Ala. to remember the civil rights marchers killed 42 years ago by riot police on Bloody Sunday, presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., apologized to members of the Black press for not speaking to publishers and editors sooner; but said he is dedicated to winning over African American voters.

The boarded-up, single pane, leaky windows at the Ethos Music Center are now a thing of the past, says Director Charles Lewis. The nonprofit music education center, at the corner of Killingsworth Street and Williams Avenue, is in the midst of a cosmetic remodel after receiving a $20,000 storefront improvement grant from the Portland Development Commission.
More extensive renovations also are in store for Ethos now that the group's sale of the old Masonic Temple, two blocks away from Ethos at 5308 N. Commercial Ave., has gone through.

The U.S. Congress is expected to give special recognition to the Black Press on its 180th anniversary during the annual observance of Black Press Week, March 14-17.
A congressional resolution introduced by the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus will be presented to officials of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, sponsors of Black Press Week, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade group for the more than 200 Black newspapers. The resolution will cite the historic role of the Black Press as the strong, influential voice of the Black community beginning with the anti-slavery movement and the founding of the first Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal on March 17, l827.

AUSTIN, Texas — Dennis Johnson, former player for the Seattle SuperSonics and the Boston Celtics died Thursday, Feb. 22, after collapsing at the end of his developmental team's practice. He was 52.
Johnson, coach of the Austin Toros, was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at Austin Convention Center. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him for 23 minutes before he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
"He was one of the most underrated players in the history of the game, in my opinion, and one of the greatest Celtic acquisitions of all time," said former Boston teammate Danny Ainge, now the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations.

The Trail Blazers honored six Portlanders as part of the team's month-long Black History celebration. The Trail Blazers presented the honorees with a ticket section and a grant for $500 to donate to the charity of their choice. The 2007 roster of Trail Blazers Black History Month honorees includes:
Judge Ancer Lee Haggerty, Gregory Gudger , The Reverend Alcena Elaine Caldwell Boozer, Garfield de Bardelaben, Kenneth W. Berry, Antonio Harvey.

A new report by the Democratic Policy Committee shows that President George W. Bush's recent budget engages in gimmickry to distract from the fact that he is once again cutting funding for education, housing, health care, economic development and other programs critical to the African American community.

You wouldn't know it by the laidback atmosphere inside Bradley-Angle House's new Healing Roots Center, but this North Portland community center for Black women and children experiencing domestic violence is pretty revolutionary.
"There's nothing else like this in the country," says Healing Roots Program Director Galadriel Mozee. "We're unique."
Of course, being on the cutting edge is nothing new for Bradley-Angle House. The 32-year-old Portland nonprofit was the first domestic violence shelter on the West Coast, and recently made headlines for its new Allies for Hope program, which brings men into the campaign against domestic violence.