NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A state judge has agreed to open the trial of a Black teenager accused of beating a White school mate in a case that has drawn nationwide attention and fueled civil rights protests in Louisiana.
District Judge J.P. Mauffray agreed Thursday to open the trial of Mychal Bell, 17, but noted in a court filing that he was not required to open pretrial hearings. Typically, juvenile trials are closed to the public.

"They said, 'We're looking for a fat boy from Chicago,'" Parker remembered.
The pair were looking for his cousin, Emmett Till, after the 14-year-old Black child had whistled at a White woman outside a Money, Miss., grocery store a few days before.
They found Till and dragged him out of the house. The boy's body was found a few days later in the Tallahatchie River, strapped to a cotton gin fan. The incident is credited with helping spark the civil rights movement.
"I was in the home when they took him. They came to my room first," said the 68-year-old Parker, who lives outside Chicago. "I'm thinking I'm going to get killed. I think I had the whole bed shaking ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Keith Ellison said Friday he'll pursue legislation that would require states to let ex-felons vote in federal elections once they're out of jail or prison, which would nullify laws in states across the country.
Ellison, a freshman Minnesota Democrat, had introduced legislation to let ex-felons vote when he was in the Minnesota Legislature. Now he's aiming for a bigger impact. "Allowing felons to vote signals our ....

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates presents a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition software to National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) National Chairperson and CEO Darryl Dickerson as part of a national software donation Microsoft made to all NSBE educational chapters nationwide.

240 N. Broadway. You could easily walk by this blighted building without ever noticing it. Known to many as Multi-Craft Plastics, the building has been vacant for years. But before that, it housed a plastics factory, a pharmaceutical drug maker, a confectionery and ice cream parlor. Rumor says during the 1920s it was a speakeasy. But for a golden moment in the 1940s, it was The Dude Ranch, one of Portland's premier "Black and Tan" jazz clubs. Now, a local developer and musician, Daniel Deutsch is lovingly restoring the building to create a community art space that will reflect its storied past ....

Carolyn  Leonard, longtime education advocate and PPS administrator received an Equal Opportunity award at the Urban League's annual Equal Opportunity Day dinner Nov. 6 at the Oregon Convention Center. Leonard is pictured here with her brother, Pastor Robert Probasco (L) and Marcus Mundy, Executive Director of the Urban League. State Sen. Avel Gordly, N.E./S.E. Portland, was also honored at the event.

When soldiers on horseback rode into his tiny home village in Darfur, Western Sudan, Mohammed Yahya lost 21 family members. That was at the beginning of the genocide that is continuing to kill thousands of Africans and has forced more than 2 million people into refugee camps.
Yahya was in Cairo, studying philosophy at Alzahar University, when he learned about the attack on his village. He learned that two of his grandparents had been burned alive, when the Janjaweed militia set fire to their hut. He heard that women in his family had been raped and that his parents, brothers and sisters had fled and were now missing.

Wordstock, Portland's premier literary event, has a bit of a diversity problem. Out of almost 200 authors scheduled to speak or appear at the annual book fair, only two are African American – Roscoe Orman, Sesame's Street's Gordon and children's book author; and Anjuelle Floyd, author of a collection of interconnected stories set in the Bay area, "Keeper of Secrets."
Add Oregon's Japanese American poet laureate Lawson Inada, Chinese American poet Tung Hui Hu, Seattle writer Kathleen Alcala and a couple of others, and there you have it. The number of writers of color represented at Wordstock can be tallied on your fingers.
But according to festival director Greg Netzer, Wordstock  .....

King County Councilman Larry Gossett greets Lacy Steele, Seattle NAACP President Emeritus, the Rev. Charles Lee White Jr., National NAACP director of field operations, and the Rev. Carey G. Anderson, of the First AME Church, at the 94th Anniversary Celebration of the Seattle King County Branch of the NAACP on Nov. 3 at First AME. The Rev. Charles Lee White Jr. was the keynote speaker at the event.

At the age of 12, when most kids are outside playing, James Thomason was hanging out at a funeral home. Thomason's mother, Irene, worked as a cosmetologist at Temple & Sons Funeral Home in Oklahoma City, Okla.
 "She kinda drug me around the funeral home while she was working and I always wanted to know what went on in the back. She said, 'OK, I'm going to let you find out,' Now here 38 years later, I know what goes on in the back," Thomason said laughing.
Today Thomason is the first African American president in the 106-year history of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association. In August, he was elected president at the association's 106th annual convention held at the Campbell's Resort at Lake Chelan in Chelan, WA.
"I think it's mostly an honor for the African American community. I don't try to make it a big deal for or about myself," Thomason said. "The association is 106-years old, so I think that's worth mentioning… it's such a great honor to serve as president."
Currently, Thomason is the funeral director and embalmer with Mountain View Funeral Home in Lakewood, WA .....