Kaliea Miller, 10, gets impromptu French horn lessons from Charles Crabtree, 16, on Aug. 18 at a community festival in Arbor Lodge Park. Crabtree, principal horn player in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and others were teaching children the basics of several instruments, including vibes and violin. Many bands performed during the afternoon, including the headlining Oregon Symphony. The symphony will play another free outdoor concert at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 30 in Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Bobbie Bonner Nunn, educator, longtime civil rights activist and a Portland icon, died Sept. 24. She was 82.
"She was a tireless workaholic for civil rights," said Myrtle Carr her friend for more than 60 years and a former NAACP secretary. "She was a trail blazer and a community activist. She has given so much of herself at all times. You could always count on Bobbie Nunn." ...

Metro Councilman Rex Burkholder says there's only one thing holding up a multimillion dollar Convention Center hotel project: Financing.
Sure, there are a few other items of business Metro will have to decide upon before going forward with the hotel project, Burkholder said, but he is confident that if a financial review — due at the beginning of September — provides a way to pay off construction costs with revenue ...

Peggy Ross is living proof that mammograms can save lives. Ross, director of the office of affirmative action for the state of Oregon, was diagnosed with cancer after a mammogram screening.
"I had one sister die of breast cancer," Ross told The Skanner. "then I was diagnosed in April. I know that early detection is important because it was caught by a physical when I was in early stage one. If I had not had a mammogram, it would have been in a later stage. So I am a survivor." ...

Black fathers across Portland are encouraged to take part in the national Million Father March, an event that aims to get hundreds of thousands of fathers to take their children to school on the first day. The event, locally sponsored by the Black Parent Initiative, encourages strong family structures that include a positive male role model, which studies have shown leads to decreased drug and alcohol abuse, premature sex and violence. ...

A free seminar titled "Building Parent Professional Partnerships with Your Child's School" will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Sept. 11 at the Swindells Center, 830 N.E. 47th Ave, in Portland.
This workshop will cover: Different strategies to improve communication between parents and professionals in the school setting; positive ways to manage conflict; attributes of successful partnerships; ...

Just 5,000 online votes are needed to make Instant Birth Control – hormonal contraception – eligible for millions of dollars in program development and expansion funding.
Instant Birth Control, available now to women in Oregon and Washington, is one of 10 finalists in an international competition that seeks to identify Disruptive Innovations ...

University of Portland's record-setting incoming freshmen class has not yet started classes, but some have already been assigned their first reading. Their assignment: Barbara Ehrenreich's best-selling investigative book about poverty in America, "Nickel and Dimed."
A total of 810 freshmen students, the largest in the school's 100-plus-year history — is set to start classes on Monday. But prior to that, about 190 freshmen will participate Thursday and Friday in a two-day service project called the Service Plunge. ...

With a cacophony of multicultural dance, music, art, poetry, puppetry, food, kid's activities, community services and just plain fun, the Alberta Street Fair is celebrating its 10th anniversary. This year's 10th Annual Alberta Street Fair will occur from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15.  Northeast Portland's premier family friendly street fair will stretch from Northeast 12th Avenue to Northeast 31st Avenue. A parade led by the Lions of Batucada will be held at 1 p.m. ...

Vancouver, WA – A major effort to plan for Highway 99 and points east will be the focus of neighborhood meetings and tours beginning Sept. 12, in preparation for an all-day community design forum on Sept. 27.
Clark County planners will meet with neighborhoods to present an overview of the current effort to build on previous work by creating an official "sub area plan" for areas between Northeast 63rd and 134th streets, Highway 99 and the BPA right of way, as follows: ...