Local child care provider Grace Alams was honored at a luncheon Oct. 10 at "The First Child Care Providers Awards Ceremony," held in Washington, D.C.
Alams and 17 others were recognized for their commitment to providing quality child care. Their work has been featured on the award-winning PBS television series "A Place of Our Own."
Alams, the owner of Grace's Kiddie Korner, has been a child care provider in Seattle for 12 years.  At the suggestion of a friend who had her own child care business, she decided to open her own after a divorce left her as a single mother of four children.
Alams, who is originally from eastern Nigeria, didn't realize she was being honored until she arrived at the awards luncheon. Alams was profiled on the PBS program as part of "Child Care Provider of the Week" which aired in March.
"To be honored just blew me away," Alams said ...

Random drug and alcohol testing does not reliably keep student-athletes from using. In fact, the mere presence of drug testing increases some risk factors for future substance use, Oregon Health & Science University researchers report. The findings are published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, the journal of the Society for Adolescent Medicine ....

CHILDREN DON'T COME WITH A MANUAL .... BLACK GOLD.... WEATHERIZATION WORKSHOP.... GREETING CARDS....... TRIVIA IN NE PDX ......  PARTY WITH SAM ADAMS.... NONPROFIT CAREER FAIR...... MENTAL HEALTH AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE ..... THE URBAN INDIAN Experience.... GREAT GARDENING! ...   HOWLOWEEN AT THE ZOO........

On Oct. 11 The Skanner web site published a letter from the National Newspaper Publisher's Association sanctioning Seattle-based publisher Christopher H. Bennett. The NNPA board chair John B. Smith, states that Bennett acted without NNPA authority in requesting $50,000 in funds from the Eli Lillly Company. The matter is still under investigation.
Last week, Bennett, speaking on a local radio station, demanded an apology from The Skanner. So readers can make up their own minds, The Skanner is publishing both the letter of sanction, issued in July, and a letter from the Eli Lilly Company to Bennett dated last June .…

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stop executions for a while and perhaps they can be stopped forever. That calculation has been part of the strategy of capital punishment opponents for decades.
The Supreme Court-inspired slowdown in executions offers the first nationwide opportunity in 20-plus years to test whether the absence of regularly scheduled executions will lead some states to abandon the death penalty and change public attitudes about capital punishment.
Recent decisions by judges and elected officials have made clear that most executions will not proceed until the Supreme Court rules in a challenge by two death row inmates to the lethal injection procedures used by Kentucky. The inmates say Kentucky's method creates the risk of pain severe enough to be cruel and unusual punishment, banned by the Eighth Amendment.
Similar procedures are used by Texas, the far-and-away leader in lethal injections, and the 16 other states that have executed prisoners in the past two years.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Finance officials from the world's top economic powers pledged Friday to do all they can to limit damage to the global economy from a jarring credit crisis as Wall Street took another plunge.
"We remained committed to doing our part in sustaining strong global growth ....

Democratic Party Chairman and former presidential candidate Howard Dean will be speaking in Portland tonight in support of the Democratic agenda. Dean is a medical doctor and former governor of Vermont and was initially favored to win the Democratic nomination for president in the 2004 election ....

Sen. Margaret Carter, center, made a powerful speech about the importance of the PCC-Cascade Skills Center at the center's dedication ceremony Tuesday. The center helps the new generation of the workforce find jobs to help support an aging American society, she said. Speakers included Dr. Algie Gatewood, left, Cascade Campus president, Dr. Preston Pulliams, right, PCC president, Kathy Jackson, alumna from the Skill Center; state Sen. Peter Courtney, Sen. Gordon Smith, and the Just Us Jazz Band, Oregon National Guard, and others.

Drive through the streets of N.E. Portland and you will see the signs: "Prevent Foreclosure." For homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments those words may seem like the answer to their prayers.
But housing nonprofits warn that the promise of an easy solution can be deceptive. Better to get information about how to avoid foreclosure from a neutral party, they say. Better still — take a homebuying class before getting into a mortgage deal that turns into a nightmare.
Cheryl Roberts, executive director of the African American Alliance for Homeownership, said foreclosure can be prevented by getting help as soon as you are unable to make a payment.
"The way you prevent foreclosure is not to wait, but to get help as soon as your loan becomes delinquent," Roberts said. Instead they should call a neutral party such as a HUD-approved counseling agency who has nothing to gain. "We know the options and we can provide them with the information so they can work it out with ....

Just one week after the African American Health Coalition's free exercise program was shut down because of lack of money, funding has been restored. Corliss McKeever, the coalition's director, announced Friday that Providence Health Systems has stepped in with a $35,000 gift to ensure the program's survival until the end of the year.
"The CEO of Providence (Russ Danielson) saw the value of this program," said McKeever about a program that has the involvement of nearly 20 percent of Portland's African American community.
"We were impressed by the deep reach and the positive effect this program has had on the community, and we wanted to help it continue," Danielson said.
The coalition has been looking for sources of additional funding after they lost a $850,000 federal grant - half of its annual budget. Although it may sound like a catastrophic loss, McKeever says it's a routine adjustment that nonprofits learn to deal with.
"Funding comes and goes all the time," she said, adding she expects to face this same predicament the next time a grant runs out....