The Girls Rock! Program, now accepting signups for fall, combines self-esteem building with mountaineering, mentoring and performing arts, right in urban Seattle....

Rising fuel prices and an economic downturn have caused a record number of suburban residents to use Metro buses....

In order to bring peace to the community and stop youth violence, the Freedom Church, Village of Hope and the People's Institute Northwest are gathering before sunrise on Saturday for the pre-dawn Maafa Commemoration...

Ohio's first Black Congressional Representative is reportedly in critical condition after suffering a brain hemorrhage on Wednesday ... According to news reports, she has very limited brain function....

http://www.miniclip.com/games/puzzle-pirates/en/ Puzzle Pirates  …

DENVER (AP) Democrat Barack Obama got what he may need most when he chose Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate â€' a vice presidential candidate with encyclopedic foreign policy know-how and a political brawler ready to take on Republican John McCain's frontal assault on his opponent's newness on the national stage.
Through the month of August - in the days leading up to the national party conventions - McCain whittled away at Obama's slight lead in the polls with relentless attacks designed to paint the first-term Illinois senator as an inexperienced celebrity-seeking elitist not ready for the White House.
While the 47-year-old Obama fought back blow-for-blow and even adopted some negative tactics himself, his campaign has not adopted the kind of visceral sharpness he is facing from McCain's operation.
It will be hard to imagine Biden, who is 65, being as low-key as was Obama after McCain charged his opponent this summer with being ready to lose the Iraq war for the sake of winning the presidential election. Obama has sought, as he can, to moderate his responses - some say to avoid looking like an angry black man in an election contest that could put the first African American in the U.S. presidency. ...

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Despite record numbers of voters who turned out during the presidential primaries last spring, eight million African-Americans are still not registered to vote.
This according to Rick Wade, African-American vote director for the Obama for America presidential campaign.
"Our principle focus has been a 50-state voter registration initiative. I think we all appreciate that if we increase the number of African-American registered voters and then increase turnout and get people to the polls on Nov. 4, then Sen. Obama will be the next president of the United States," Wade says.
Wade explains that the eight million unregistered Black voters accounts for 32 percent of eligible Black voting population nationwide....

Watch a video of Michelle Obama and the kids taken on Monday before her big speech on the website posted below. It's a short, behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the preparation it takes to make a speech at one of the biggest events of the last four years....
If you missed it last night, visit the website below to watch Michelle Obama speak on the first day of the Democratic National Convention. She talks about her family, her experiences, and why she knows her husband would make a wonderful president...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kevin Duckworth, 44, a two-time NBA All-Star who starred on Western Conference Championship teams in Portland in 1990 and 1992, passed away Monday evening in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.
A member of the Trail Blazers from 1986-93, the 7-footer - affectionately known to Trail Blazers fans simply as "Duck" - also played for San Antonio, Washington, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers during his 11-year NBA career.
"Today is an extremely sad day for the Trail Blazers family," Trail Blazers President Larry Miller said. "Kevin will be remembered by fans as one of the most popular and recognizable players to ever wear the Blazers uniform, but to people who knew him, he'll be remembered as one of the warmest and biggest-hearted."
Duckworth remained in the Portland area after his playing career ended, where he was an avid fisherman & outdoorsman, and a skilled carpenter. He was on the Oregon Coast representing the Trail Blazers as a Heritage Ambassador on the team's 19-city Statewide Summer Tour.  The cause of his death is unknown, and will be determined by a Lincoln County Medical Examiner.
A second-round draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs out of Eastern Illinois University in 1986, Duckworth was only 14 games into his NBA career when he was acquired by the Trail Blazers from San Antonio in exchange for Walter Berry....

To protest or to lobby? Oregon's Democratic African American delegation is choosing the latter.
Several delegates at the Democratic National Convention say the busy, and at-times overwhelming, event is allowing them the opportunity to be heard by some of the biggest decision makers in the United States.
Shirley Minor, delegate for the 3^rd Congressional District, John Cuff, delegate-at-large, and Gail Rasmussen, superdelegate, spoke with The Skanner over the phone this week about their time at the Denver convention.