Genetta Williams was born on Oct. 26, 1961 in Portland, Oregon, to Mary Glen Ola Williams -McSwain and the late Deacon L.C. Williams.  She died on May 26, 2008. She was 46. She was a member of Philadelphia Community Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of the late Pastor B.M. McSwain, where she attended Sunday school and sang in the choir faithfully. ...

Sen. Gordon Smith, right, sponsored the Housing and Foreclosure Prevention Fair on May 27 at PCC-Cascade to help offer assistance and advice to homeowners and potential homeowners. The event was designed for people concerned about keeping their homes, or who are interested in buying their first home. Participants included credit counselors, homebuyer educators, experts in first-time home buying, foreclosure prevention specialists, nonprofit housing staff and mortgage professionals.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama was within striking distance of the Democratic nomination heading into Puerto Rico's primary Sunday after top party officials agreed to seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half-votes, riling Hillary Rodham Clinton backers who threatened to fight to the August convention. Clinton won the Puerto Rico vote by a 2 to 1 margin, but still falls short of being able to gather enough delegates. A territory, Puerto Rico cannot vote in the fall general election.
The Rules Committee's compromise decision sought to end a bitter dispute that threatened Democrats' chances for the White House but it was a blow to Clinton, whose struggling campaign had pressed hard for a full reinstating of all 366 delegates from the two states. ...

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) _ A 37-year-old Medford man was arrested this week on hate crime charges.
Police believe Gary Moss was involved in a case of racial intimidation that left a cross and the letters "KKK" scorched into a west Medford home of a mixed-race couple late on Memorial Day.
The couple received another hate-filled message this week; now they say they are planning to move elsewhere in the Rogue Valley. ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Civil rights advocates have won access to the New York Police Department's internal, electronic database to search for any racial bias among hundreds of thousands of pedestrian street-stop cases.
The information could "give New Yorkers a better understanding of the extent to which the NYPD targets communities of color and particularly African-American males for aggressive stops, even though they're doing nothing wrong," New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman said Friday. ...

The International Center for Traditional childbearing last week kicked off a new round of training for young women planning careers in the area of pregnancy support, family education and infant mortality prevention.
In a word, each woman hopes to become a doula.
"They offer pregnancy and birth support for the mother and the husband, with pre-natal care and post-partum too," said ICTC founder and director Shafia Monroe. "They're really making that village concept and improving birth outcomes."
The Center recently won a grant from the Kellogg Foundation to provide doula training for free to local women of color – although last week women traveled from all over the West coast to participate in a 22.5-hour-long series of workshops in the field....

More than a million Oregonians turned in ballots Tuesday, boosting Barack Obama's presidential campaign but giving poor outcomes for other Black contenders in the Portland area.
For the first time ever, Oregon's primary figured prominently in a presidential bid, although observers say Obama's 58 percent versus Hilary Clinton's 41 percent vote count was cancelled out by Clinton's win in the Kentucky primary, where she took 65 percent and vowed not to give up the fight.
Meanwhile, City Council candidate John Branam was edged out of the runoff for the seat vacated by Mayor-elect Sam Adams by slightly more than half a percentage point, losing the runoff spot to Charles Lewis. Lewis faces Amanda Fritz in November.
For City Council Position 2, candidates Fred Stewart and Harold Williams II won single-digit percentages in a race where Nick Fish wiped out the opposition with almost 62 percent of the vote....

John Head, author of "Standing in the Shadows: Black Men and Depression"

Gayathri Ramprasad has a Master of Business Administration, a family history of mental illness, and a mission to help communities of color find treatment and healing for depression and other mental health problems.
"They are disorders of the brain and can be treated," she says....

The Portland State University NAACP hosts "Black America: State of Emergency," Saturday, May 24 at Cramer Hall. The one-day series of seminars includes 16 workshops presented by educators and activists such as Charles McGee of the Black Parent Initiative, Kayse Jama of the Center for Intercultural Organizing, and PSU Urban Studies Professor Karen Gibson. The events are free and lunch is provided. Organizers want to make it an annual event....

What's happening for me in my City this week? Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your week. For a full calendar please click on "Read the complete article" below.