The National Association of Minority Contractors of Oregon and TriMet hosted an award celebration Nov. 14 to mark the success of TriMet's efforts to involve minority and emerging firms in its major construction projects -- the I-205/Portland Mall MAX Light Rail Project and the Washington County Commuter Rail project. To date, more than $14 million has gone to local DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) firms from these projects. ...

JENA, La. (AP) -- Legal proceedings against a Black teenager among a group whose prosecution in the beating of a White classmate led to a massive civil rights protest must be open to the public, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Because the charges involve violence, all proceedings against Mychal Bell -- including hearings, the trial and sentencing -- will be public even though Bell is being tried as a juvenile, state District Judge Thomas Yeager decided ....

About 30 percent of inmates who leave Oregon prisons are back within three years. It's been like that for a decade.
Each repeat crime costs taxpayers up to $200,000 for law enforcement, court costs and incarceration. Reducing the recidivism rate -- repeat crimes by released offenders -- could save taxpayers millions of dollars, cut crime and give ex-offenders a better shot at a new life.
The cost-benefit analysis emerged this week during the first meeting of the Re-entry Council, appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski to address the problem ....

BALTIMORE (NNPA) - Frances Murphy II, the first woman to chair the Afro-American Newspapers board of directors, the publisher emeritus of the Washington Afro-American and popular columnist at the Baltimore Afro-American and granddaughter of the newspaper's founder, has died. She was 85 ....

A competitor in the Ethos Music Center's B-Boy Battle shows off his moves on the floor of the Reed College Student Union on Saturday night, where hundreds gathered to watch breakdancers compete. Saturday's event was a fund-raiser for the nonprofit Ethos, as well as for its director, Charles Lewis, who is raising money for his bid for City Commissioner.
Photo by Jenny Konopinksi 

Eric Ward, the field director with the Center for New Community, a faith-based civil rights organization sited in Chicago;  believes the Oregon initiatives are part of a nationwide trend toward pointing to immigrants and refugees as the cause of all kinds of social and economic problems.
"In the wake of the collapse of the national bipartisan immigration reform legislation, we notice that the anti-immigration movement has grown ever more powerful and more hateful," Ward told the Skanner. 
"It is not finding any real solutions for the forced migration that really is a global phenomenon – including here in the USA. But what it is doing is scapegoating immigrants and refugees for the real problems we face — the disparity in wealth in this country, for example.
Ward, who attended Lane Community College in Eugene and graduated from the University of Oregon, said if Initiative 112 were to be passed it would erode civil rights for all Americans – and particularly people of color.
"It will have a substantial impact on African Americans and further disenfranchise many African Americans," he said. "One of the largest impacts of anti-immigrant legislation is that where it has passed African American participation in elections has fallen by around 5 percent." ....

You've heard that old saying, "The South shall rise again." You'd probably never guess that the South could rise again in the Pacific Northwest. But you'd be wrong.
The Portland Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is constructing a park to honor Jefferson Davis, who helped create the Confederacy and served as its president throughout the Civil War.
 The park, on a quarter acre of private property along I-5 just south of Carty Road, will prominently feature a highway marker dedicated to Davis that was placed in Vancouver in 1939....

Betty Walker runs to meet the school bus when it pulls up outside her door. But the wide-eyed 7-year-old who comes into the house and asks for his Mickey Mouse doll is not Walker's son or grandson. Alimasi is one of Walker's two foster children.
"This is a seven day job, 24 hours a day," Walker said. "People sometimes think I stay home all day doing nothing, but it's rare to have one or two days a week when you don't have a meeting or something you need to do. You can keep yourself really busy."....

What's happening for us this week in Portland?

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The African Children's Choir performed Friday, Nov. 9 at the First Covenant Church in Seattle. The choir, whose members range in age from 7 to 11, are from Uganda and have lost one or both parents to AIDS. The concert was a fund-raiser to help pay for schools and emergency relief in Uganda and other African countries.