When Al Forthan knew he was going to die, his only regret was not having more time to give to those in need. Although most of his life consisted of drug dealing, hustling, criminality and prison, Forthan spent his last 10 years helping others at the Volunteers of America Men's Residential Center. Now, nearly three years after his death, an education scholarship in his name has grown to nearly $10,000 and is helping low-income students affected by addiction get an education...

Like it or not, sometime within the next five years, you'll definitely be paying a toll — no one knows how much it will cost — to pass through Portland on Interstate 5 – probably. At least for a little while. The Oregon Legislature's new law requiring an experimental "congestion pricing" highway toll pilot project ...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Schools, universities, prisons, state police and courts could all be cut if voters reject a pair of tax measures aimed at raising $733 million from big companies and wealthy Oregonians, lawmakers said Monday...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Washington County has the worst record in the state for protecting children in state foster care.
Last month, state caseworkers failed to see more than 400 Washington County youngsters living in foster homes. And nearly 70 reports of suspected abuse or neglect were not investigated in the 24 hours or five days recommended, depending upon the urgency of the call ...

PARKLAND, Wash. -- A man with an extensive criminal past, whose 95-year prison sentence was commuted in Arkansas nearly a decade ago, was being sought Sunday as a "person of interest" in a deadly ambush on four police officers who were gunned down inside a coffee shop.
Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told reporters that Maurice Clemmons, 37, was one of several people investigators want to talk to and that he could not be called a suspect at this point.

For many people, especially Black males, the recession is looking more and more like a depression everyday...Among those looking for solutions is the Oregon League of Minority Voters. The League, established two years ago, recently launched a multipronged Poverty Campaign.

On Dec. 1, thousands of people will observe Worlds AIDS Day as a reminder that the disease infects a new person every 9.5 minutes. African Americans are disproportionately affected by the fatal disease, making up more than half of new cases across the United States. Black women are increasingly the face of what was once primarily a White gay man's disease. Most women get the disease from heterosexual contact with heterosexual men or through sharing needles when injecting drugs. In the Portland area, there will be a number of events related to World AIDS Day. Listed below are just a few events. For the full listing, click here.

Sitting down to a bounty of collard greens, fresh bread and organic chicken, residents of Seattle's Central District had much to be thankful for on a recent autumn evening. The diners—reflecting a wide diversity of ages, faiths and ethnicities—were celebrating a successful harvest of crops grown on the Clean Greens farm in Duvall.

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- At the newly opened Cannabis Cafe, people sit around taking tokes from a "vaporizer" -- a contraption with a big plastic bag that captures the potent vapors of heated marijuana without causing combustion. Glass jars hold donations of dried, milky-green weed, and the cafe serves up meals and snacks for the hungry.

In a new study, the amount of television viewed by many young children in child care settings doubles the previous estimates of early childhood screen time, with those in home-based settings watching significantly more on average than those in center-based daycares.
The study is the first to examine screen time in child care settings in more than 20 years.