Hip hop artist M-Famous cranks up the volume Friday Sept. 28 at the Douglass-Truth Library. The library provided free pizza, and no one was told to be quiet.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) –Just days after the American Library Association's Banned Book Week ended on Oct. 6, some Michigan school administrators want to return English textbooks that include the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ``Topdog/Underdog,'' which made author Suzan-Lori Parks the first Black woman to win the theater award. The annual Banned Book Week encourages everyone to read works of literature that others have sought to ban because of controversial content.
If they can't return the 140 copies of ``The Literary Experience,'' administrators might cut out about 70 pages from the 1,846-page anthology before distributing it to four Advanced Placement classes, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
Parks' tale of two brothers is a dark, often wildly comic riff on sibling rivalry, a verbal and sometimes physical slugfest between two wary relatives who con not only others but themselves as well.
It won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for drama. The play contains profanity and descriptions of sexual ....

GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) -- The half-century search for justice in the murder of Emmett Till petered out last February when a Leflore County grand jury declined to indict Carolyn Donham on criminal charges.
``There is nobody left to indict,'' said Greg Watkins, one of 19 members from the grand jury. ``It will be debated forever probably, but there is no one left living to send to jail.''

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Call it the health insurance companies and nursing homes versus doctors and the AARP, a classic, inside-the-Beltway struggle that erupted when House Democrats sought changes to Medicare.
Publicly, all sides trumpeted their concern for older people in the United States and scarcely mentioned their own financial and political self-interests, if at all.
Together, they have spent millions on lobbyists, television ads and polling to influence lawmakers. They stand ready to renew the battle this fall ...

New Portland Schools Superintendent Carole Smith had an interesting conversation with the children of Kate Anderson's Spanish Immersion kindergarten class at Clarendon Elementary, and then posed for a picture with all the children. Smith replaces former Superintendent Vicki Phillips, who left to pursue a job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the full story, see page 9.

It's nothing new; reports of membership increases in White supremacist groups have been trickling in for several years now.
Early in 2007, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group that monitors hate groups, reported an explosion in the activity and membership of Ku Klux Klan groups across the nation. A year ago in the New York Times, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that large numbers of White supremacists and neo-Nazis had infiltrated the military, despite a 10-year ban on racist group membership.
White supremacists are once again on the move in Portland. From Oct. 5 to the 7, somewhere in the Portland Metro region, the neo-Nazi group the Hammerskins, will be celebrating their 20th anniversary. Also involved in organizing the event is Volksfront, a Portland-based White supremacist group.
To counteract Hammerfest 2007's message of hate, a group of anti-racists are holding their own rally Saturday, Oct.6 at 1 p.m. in Lents Park, Southeast 92nd and Steele Street.
Portland's history of hate group activity includes the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethopian student who was beaten to death in Southeast Portland by three members of a racist skinhead group.

Next week, Portland and its surrounding counties will take part in Topoff 4, a full-scale disaster preparedness exercise, organized and funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The idea is to prepare the city to act quickly and effectively in the event of a disaster—which could be anything from an earthquake, to a flu epidemic or a terrorist attack....

To the people who worked closely with John Canda, he was the man who could and would go the distance for Portland youth. With his knowledge of street culture and the pressures that push kids into gangs and into trouble, Canda had the credibility to bring all the players to the table....

Coaches Jamar Jones and LeMaine Davis talk to the 6th grade Rainier Eagles at half time of a league game
against the Norwest Rams from Tacoma, Saturday, Sept. 29 at Rainier Playfield.  The Rainier Eagles are members of the Greater Puget Sound Youth Football League.  The league consists of 10 teams from Gig Harbor to South Seattle, in age groups 7 to 13 years old.  The Norwest Rams went onto beat the Rainier Eagles 6th graders.

Last Monday, a standing-room-only crowd of 350 people joined King County Councilmembers at a Council Town Hall forum to examine the status of ongoing reforms in King County's criminal justice system and to focus on community partnerships that help deter crime, prevent recidivism and encourage self-empowerment.
"I was extremely pleased by the large turnout," said King County Council Chair and district host Larry Gossett. "By their presence and comments, the community let it be known that the simple approach of increased arrests, incarcerations and the building of more jails have proven not to solve crime. Prevention, intervention and strong partnerships with communities in addressing socioeconomic issues have been proven to be the most effective and cost efficient ways to ensure safe neighborhoods."
Councilmembers were briefed on how a 'paradigm shift' focusing on alternatives to incarceration has helped King County avoid nearly a quarter-billion dollars in additional incarceration costs over the last seven years, while reducing the county's need to build a third jail or a second youth detention facility.