All over the Northwest volunteers made the effort to get people to register to vote, and what a difference they made.
In Oregon more than 98,000 new voters registered for the May primary. "I think it's a reasonable prediction for us that we will have in excess of 200,000 new registrants since January 1," said John Lindback, state elections director. Democrats accounted for the bulk of that increase.
Washington State officials report similar statistics.

The Rev. Joshua D. Phillips, once an orphan who spent his life parenting those in need of unconditional love, including some of Portland's most prominent ministers and community leaders - died Nov. 3, 2008. He was 84.
Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008 at Life Change Christian Center, 3635 N Williams Ave, Portland. Burial will follow at Skyline Memorial Gardens, 4101 NW Skyline Blvd. in Beaverton....

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services this week ordered a life insurance company to change the way it sells annuities after finding that the company sold policies to seniors who couldn't afford them....

Carollynn Smith discusses her case with attorney Gino Pieretti

Judge Nan Waller says her hands are tied. On Oct. 30, Grandmother Carollynn Smith was hoping to get a bit of a reprieve in her four year battle for custody of her two youngest grandchildren. But her latest efforts turned out to be too little, too late – at least by government standards....

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 While you were fixated on the election campaign and on the collapsing economy and your vanishing retirement investments, stuff happened.
Iraq stood tough -- against the U.S.; Afghanistan bled; Guantanamo refused to close, all pledges to the contrary notwithstanding; At home, the deficit swelled. So did the national debt. It is now twice as big as it was when President Bush took over from Bill Clinton.
The Big Three automakers raised the possibility of becoming the not-so-big two.
The Bush administration tried to relax rules intended to protect animals and plants in danger of extinction.
You no doubt noticed that a funny thing happened at the gasoline station -- prices dropped. But that made alternative energy sources less attainable.
From Associated Press reporters covering these developments, a rundown of some things that happened while you may not have been watching:
The Big Three automakers raised the possibility of becoming the not-so-big two.
The Bush administration tried to relax rules intended to protect animals and plants in danger of extinction.
You no doubt noticed that a funny thing happened at the gasoline station -- prices dropped. But that made alternative energy sources less attainable.
From Associated Press reporters covering these developments, a rundown of some things that happened while you may not have been watching....

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Longtime Birmingham civil rights leader Abraham Woods, who stood behind Martin Luther King during his "I Have a Dream" speech, has died after a long illness. He was 80.
He was pronounced dead Friday in the emergency department of Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Dodd said. He had been battling cancer for several years.
Woods helped coordinate the March on Washington and stood behind King in 1963, looking out over a crowd of 250,000 as King gave his famous speech.
Woods served as longtime president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He often led community marches in Birmingham to protest police shootings, slumlords and neighborhood violence.
The Rev. Woods had been pastor of St. Joseph Baptist Church since 1967 and was pastor of the First Metropolitan Baptist Church in the early 1960s...

A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life. "We are still making discoveries," but researchers also are busy assembling data already collected into the big picture of life in the oceans...

Miriam Makeba, the musical symbol of Black South Africans' struggle against apartheid, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing at a concert in Italy....

There are always dogs and cats looking for permanent homes. Check out the Seattle Animal Shelter's website