She helped turn around test scores in one of Chicago's most notorious neighborhoods, brought world-class scientists, educators and Tai Chi instructors into schools to help students involved in gangs, and was the founding editor of Ebony Jr. magazine.
Now Connie Van Brunt is coming to Portland...

Maybe you've seen her. On Thursdays she stands on Williams Avenue carrying signs that read "Give me my grandchildren." Come rain or shine, Carollyn Smith is there, holding her  one-woman protest against Oregon's Child Welfare division.
Smith, a lively, 60-year-old grandmother, spends those Thursday mornings near the Department of Human Services office....

The National Newspaper Publishers Association, representing more than 200 Black newspaper publishers around the nation, recently gave new meaning to the so-called "Microsoft Media Skins Challenge."
Amidst a passionate — sometimes heated — exchange, Microsoft Corporation officials who represent Black and other minority business and organizational interests for the multi-billion dollar corporation conceded that Microsoft is among major companies that often think advertising in White-owned newspapers is a catchall ....................

New Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., talks with the media on Monday, July 9, after attending a training for math teachers at Northgate Elementary School. Goodloe-Johnson comes to Seattle from Charleston, S.C., where she was the superintendent of the Charleston County School District.

Anyone who's ever stepped inside a nail salon knows the smell of fumes and chemicals can be overwhelming. But thanks to a new Environmental Protection Agency program, local salons may be able to reduce their level of toxins.
The EPA has awarded two local nonprofit groups a $100,000 grant to help reduce toxin exposure in their salons. The Environmental Coalition of South Seattle and Community Coalition for Environmental Justice will research chemicals that are safer to use inside salons.
In low-income and communities of color in and around South Seattle, the "Toxic Beauty" Project will work with more than 70 Vietnamese-owned and operated nail salons to reduce exposure of toxins to workers and their patrons.
"It is an interesting environmental justice issue because.........

PORTLAND  JULY 12, 2007
EDUCATION RECEPTION. Come help the community welcome Connie Van Brunt, the new executive director of the Portland Schools Foundation. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Legacy Emmanuel Atrium, 2801 N. Gantenbein Ave.
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CREATIVE MOVEMENT. Have a moving and grooving good time, Iris Nason provides creative ways for children to learn body awareness. For children 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 years with parent. 10:30-11:15 a.m. St. Johns Library, 7510 N. Charleston Ave....

SEATTLE JULY 12 2007
TOWN HALL MEETING on impeachment and driving out the Bush regime with speakers and a film showing. 6:30-8 p.m. University Heights Community Center, 5031 University Way NE.
CANCER PREVENTION COOKING class: "Antioxidants and Phytochemicals." 10 a.m.-noon and 6-8 p.m. Whole Foods, 888 116th Ave. in Bellevue. Call 425-462-1400 for more information. ......

Portland Parks and Recreation's annual Summer Concerts in the Parks concert series is already underway. Sponsored by dozens of neighborhood and citywide groups, the unique concert series brings free music to your neighborhood all summer long. Following is a schedule of upcoming concerts in North and Northeast Portland parks:
Fernhill Park, Northeast 37th Avenue, south of Ainsworth Street.
Concerts begin at 6:30 p.m.
July 13: Dirty Martini Trio (singer/songwriters)
July 20: Northwest Community Gospel Chorus (ensemble)
July 27: Intervision (R&B/rock fusion).....

Cuba has sent about 60 doctors to Angola to reinforce the African nation's crumbling health system and strengthen ties between the two Cold War allies, Angola's state-run news agency said last week.
The medical personnel include surgeons, pediatricians and other specialists and are expected to begin work at public hospitals in and around the Angolan capital this week, Angop reported.....

Mayor Tom Potter, left, honors Oregon Sen. Avel Gordly, I-inner N/NE Portland, on Wednesday, July 11. Gordly, Oregon's first elected Black woman senator, announced last week that she will not run for re-election in 2009, but will instead take a position as an adjunct assistant professor in Portland State University's Black Studies department.