It's time for parents, students and neighbors of local schools slated for closure or change to ask questions and state opinions at several school district meetings planned throughout Portland.

Portland Public Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips is proposing to create 17 new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools across the city

Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth is on paid administrative leave, pending an investigation of allegations that he sexually harassed a desk clerk six years ago.

Mayor Tom Potter placed Foxworth on leave Tuesday, saying that the decision was "probably the most difficult thing I've done as mayor." He appointed Southeast Precinct Commander Rosie Sizer as acting chief.

LAKE CHARLES, La.—For Elaine Stovall, getting on a bus for the two-hour trip back to Louisiana to vote for the future of New Orleans was just something she had to do.

"I would have walked to New Orleans if I had to. I would be less than a good citizen if I wasn't out here doing this," said Stovall, 62, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee staying in Houston who traveled 140 miles Monday to vote for the next mayor of New Orleans.

Oregon Health & Science University has good news for Portland job seekers. The opening of a new building at the university's hilltop campus in Southwest Portland is prompting a hiring boom.

OHSU needs nurses, physicians, housekeepers, administrative staff, hospital aides, social workers, pharmacists, technicians, therapists, warehouse workers, housekeepers and other workers to fill up to about 200 new positions for the new Peter O. Kohler Pavilion, which opens in June.

As any full-time caregiver knows, the strain and effort of caring for another human being's every need can be exhausting. But a day of relaxation is in store for caregivers to take time for themselves and learn some techniques for caring for themselves and their care receivers.

More than 60 employersrepresenting hundreds of employment opportunities will be featured at Portland Community College's Ninth Annual Cascade Job Fair.

The fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, in the Physical Education Building gym at the college's Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St. The event is free and open to PCC students and graduates and the community.

Beginning April 20, the Portland Community College Theater Arts program will present the 2006 Student One-Act Play Festival, which gives PCC students a chance to see their works performed.

Performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. April 20 through 22 and at 2 p.m. on April 23 in the Little Theatre at the Sylvania Campus, 12000 S.W. 49th Ave.

Woodlawn Elementary School students William Parker, left, and Shalaya Coleman, both 11, show off the photographs they took as part of the I Have a Dream Foundation's Class Nine program.

Police brutality and local gentrification are the topics in a discussion session sponsored next week by the Black Studies Department at Portland State University.

The speaker series, to be conducted during the next several months, will focus on issues of importance to the African American community.

YAKIMA—The United Farm Workers of America and one of the nation's largest labor recruiters have reached an unprecedented agreement to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for guest workers brought to the United States for farm work.