Counties across the state must establish a deadly use of force planning authority, according to a law passed at the midnight hour of this year's legislative session.
"What will happen in the planning process, they will find out there is not an equal standard across the state when a controversial shooting happens," said state Sen. Margaret Carter, D-N.E. Portland, a sponsor of the bill, SB 111-C.
Each county's planning authority will consist of the district attorney; the sheriff; a non-management police officer and a private citizen, both selected by the district attorney and....

Democratic presidential frontrunner and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton confirmed to the Los Angeles Sentinel in an exclusive interview this week that she has hired two high-powered and influential African Americans to help run her historic race for the White House and she's assembling a team of African American advisors across the country.
"I want to have as inclusive and diverse a campaign as I can because that's the way I want to govern," Clinton said. "We just want to do things right." Clinton announced that Chicago-based banker and longtime friend Bob Nash would soon become her deputy campaign manager. Previously, Nash had worked as the director of White House personnel for President Bill Clinton for six years.

WASHINGTON (AP)  Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday's increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.
"My goal personally is to get a vehicle so I can independently go back and forth to work and maybe pick up extra work so I can have that extra income, because minimum wage is not cutting it," said Townsend, who is 24 and single. "Being a single person, you can't pay all your bills with one minimum wage job."
Many lawmakers, along with advocates for low-wage workers, are celebrating the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Yet many acknowledge that raising it from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 will provide only meager help for some of the lowest paid workers.
About 1.7 million people made $5.15 or less in 2006, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The reality for a minimum wage worker is that every penny makes a difference because low-wage workers make the choice between putting food on the table and paying for electricity or buying clothes for their children," said Beth Shulman, former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
"Saying that, it's clear going up to $5.85 is not enough to really make sure that people really can afford the things that all families need," said Shulman, author of "The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans."

ATLANTA -- A young man sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual sex with a teenager must wait weeks more behind bars while the state Supreme Court decides his fate. The state Supreme Court is expect to issue two key rulings after hearing arguments in the case of Genarlow Wilson before a courtroom packed with his supporters....

From left to right: Timothy Washington (background) of PO Soul Entertainment Ministries; Aminah Parks, 4; Jermaine Atherton, also of PO Soul Entertainment Ministries; and Jaylon Benjamin, 13 (background) clear litter near Jefferson High School on July 7, during the second annual "Stop Pointing a Finger and Lend a Hand Community Restoration Project," founded by PO Soul Entertainment Ministries and sponsored by several local businesses.

She helped turn around test scores in one of Chicago's most notorious neighborhoods, brought world-class scientists, educators and Tai Chi instructors into schools to help students involved in gangs, and was the founding editor of Ebony Jr. magazine.
Now Connie Van Brunt is coming to Portland...

Maybe you've seen her. On Thursdays she stands on Williams Avenue carrying signs that read "Give me my grandchildren." Come rain or shine, Carollyn Smith is there, holding her  one-woman protest against Oregon's Child Welfare division.
Smith, a lively, 60-year-old grandmother, spends those Thursday mornings near the Department of Human Services office....

The National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing more than 200 Black newspaper publishers around the nation, recently gave new meaning to the so-called "Microsoft Media Skins Challenge."
Amidst a passionate — sometimes heated — exchange, Microsoft Corporation officials who represent Black and other minority business and organizational interests for the multi-billion dollar corporation conceded that Microsoft is among major companies that often think advertising in White-owned newspapers is a catchall ....................

New Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., talks with the media on Monday, July 9, after attending a training for math teachers at Northgate Elementary School. Goodloe-Johnson comes to Seattle from Charleston, S.C., where she was the superintendent of the Charleston County School District.

Anyone who's ever stepped inside a nail salon knows the smell of fumes and chemicals can be overwhelming. But thanks to a new Environmental Protection Agency program, local salons may be able to reduce their level of toxins.
The EPA has awarded two local nonprofit groups a $100,000 grant to help reduce toxin exposure in their salons. The Environmental Coalition of South Seattle and Community Coalition for Environmental Justice will research chemicals that are safer to use inside salons.
In low-income and communities of color in and around South Seattle, the "Toxic Beauty" Project will work with more than 70 Vietnamese-owned and operated nail salons to reduce exposure of toxins to workers and their patrons.
"It is an interesting environmental justice issue because.........