Oregon and Washington lawmakers this week kicked off a public-private partnership aimed at helping lower and moderate income Washington and Oregon taxpayers – including those eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, active-duty military, students, and seniors – to electronically prepare and e-file their taxes for free.

Portland-native Bosko is holding an exclusive listening party for his new album "The Good Life Movement" on Feb. 10 at Berbati's Bar in Portland from 8 to 11 p.m.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu says he doubts Zimbabwe's unity government can work and he still thinks President Robert Mugabe should step down.
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be prime minister and Mugabe president ...

Oakland, CA- On Tuesday, leadership and members of ColorOfChange.org will confront Tom Orloff, the Alameda County District Attorney responsible for prosecuting crimes related to the police killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California....

Last year, Karanja Crews was face to face with a teacher's worst nightmare: Most of his students lacked basic literacy skills, and to top it off, they didn't have any motivation to learn ... With the help of a graphic designer and his own resources, he created "Journey to Freedom: The Power to Read and Write," a board game that follows the story of a Southern slave on his quest to freedom....

ST. LOUIS (NNPA) – Responding to an inquiry by the editor of The St. Louis American newspaper, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood last week outlined portions of the $827 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that he says will specifically impact the Black community....

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) -- Namibia has a new national park -- a landscape of dunes, plains, dramatic rock arches and even ghost towns in what was once a diamond mining area.
Environment and tourism minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said at the launch of the Sperrgebeit park Friday that the 2.6 million hectare reserve supports nearly a quarter of Namibia's plant diversity on less than 3 percent of the country's land surface. ...

SEATTLE – The Seattle Foundation announced today it is awarding more than $800,000 in grants from the Building Resilience Fund to help Puget Sound families hit hard by the tough economy. The targeted grants were awarded to five multi-service agencies and will help an estimated 800 people and 352 families in the Puget Sound area....

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - "It's tough," Kadiatou Diallo told the AmNews on the eve of the 10th anniversary of her son being gunned down in a fusillade of 41 bullets outside his home in the Bronx. "We are doing an event on the 5th of February at Bronx Community College, where he was a student, to remember him and commemorate his passing." ....

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - Upon its 100th anniversary this week, the NAACP under the leadership of Benjamin Todd Jealous, set aside euphoria over the historic inauguration of the first Black president and challenged the Obama administration on where he stands on human and civil rights issues as they pertain to people of color. 
''We're not simply interested in a bail out for Main Street, it's a good goal. It's a good starting point. But, we want a fix for back street,'' says Jealous ...