Every Saturday Rev. Frances Lee of Frances Lee Ministries hosts a television show on Portland Community Media, and once a month she hosts a larger forum, "Women in Ministry" and invites several local female ministers to be part of a round table discussion ...
Photo by Julie Keefe

Earlene Staples was born on June 26, 1946 to Grant and Earline Brown in Lexington, Miss. She died Nov. 4 ... In the end, her heartfelt wish was to see Barrack Obama elected president of the United States. Her dream came true and she passed away quietly soon after his brilliant acceptance speech ....

Annie Mae Miller was born on May 7, 1925, in Texas, one of eight children born to James and Surmentha Scott. She died Oct. 19 and services were held at the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on Oct. 31. She received her education in Marshall, Texas. She moved to Oregon in 1964 with her family ...

Vickie Tyler died on Nov. 16. She was 42. A service was held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21 at Greater Solid Rock Church of God in Christ in Portland. Vickie was born on May 14, 1966 in Seattle. She came to Portland by way of Galesburg, Ill. in 1976. She attended Vernon and Portsmouth schools in Portland ...

Carl Oliver Campbell was born on Feb. 20, 1962 to Edna William and Wilfred Campbell in Lafayette, La. He was the sixth child out of 12 children. He died on Oct. 29. Family members say Campbell was a man with potential....

A service will be held at 3 p.m. on Nov. 23 at Rose City Funeral Home for John "Bay" Manlove, who died Nov. 11. He was 65. John was born on Jan. 6, 1943 in Hamburg, Ark. He moved to Portland at the age of 2 and attended Roosevelt High School ...

Lung cancer continues to be a most deadly enemy for African Americans and other minorities. Despite recent improvements in diagnosis and treatment, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among African Americans ... a novel approach: an anti-cancer vaccine ...

During the era of Apartheid, the South African wine industry wasn't exactly a booming industry. In a climate that just begs for wine production, institutional racism and it's subsequent effects on exports had a significant impact on the 350-year-old tradition. But since Apartheid ended in 1994, wine production has increased nearly three-fold. Despite this resurgence, Black South Africans represent a small minority of wine makers, despite being over 80 percent of the population. With no access to the American market, and poor distribution at home, indigenous wines seemed destined to stagnate. Then along came Selena Cuffe ...

The U.S. Census Bureau is already looking for job applicants to work for the 2010 Census. Peak hiring will be from February 2009 through the end of May 2010 for temporary assignments, most lasting 5 to 10 weeks. By working on this once-a-decade population headcount, residents have an opportunity to be a part of history ...

School districts throughout Washington state will buy more than the 30 new, less-polluting school buses with help from the Washington Department of Ecology. They provide up $20,000 for each school bus from School Bus Replacement Grant funds. The money helps pay to replace the oldest and most heavily polluting diesel school buses ...