County health departments and the Oregon Department of Human Services are trying to ensure that everyone

Nine-year volunteer Mary Karas, left; Tim Tommaso, program manager of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's food services division; Clinton Berlin, 17, a student at the Portland International Community School; and McCoy Academy student Andrew Hill, 17, get first crack Tuesday at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's annual Thanksgiving dinner, held at the Patton Home. Hundreds of people enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal every year at the event.

In Orlando, Fla.,  police follow a simple rule for high-speed chases:  "If you can't cite 'em, you can't chase 'em."  
The Portland Police Bureau has more latitude in its high-speed pursuit guidelines.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Muhammad Ali can still draw a big crowd.
The boxing great took center stage in his hometown Saturday night to celebrate the opening of the Muhammad Ali Center, a six-story tribute to Ali's storied career and a legacy to his ideals of peace and tolerance.
The Hollywood-style event, at a performing arts center next door to the Ali Center

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer has added to the growing chorus of voices opposing the war in Iraq. A longtime critic of the war, the Oregon Democrat this week joined fellow Democratic Reps. John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Peter DeFazio of Oregon by releasing a detailed plan for withdrawal from Iraq.
Blumenauer's plan, however, goes further than laying out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces.

CHICAGO—It was the site of a seminal event in the civil rights movement, where a photograph was taken that gave the country a glimpse of the horrors of racism.
Today, a half century after scores of mourners filed into Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ and past the open casket of a brutally beaten 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till

ST. HELENA ISLAND, South Carolina—More than a quarter-century after the laborious work began, the New Testament has finally been translated into Gullah, the Creole language spoken by slaves and their descendants for generations along the sea islands of the Southeast U.S. coast.
Gullah is an oral language, so the translation was painstaking, beginning in 1979 with a team of Gullah speakers who worked with Pat and Claude Sharpe, translation consultants with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Erin Carey, a returned Peace Corps volunteer, will detail how nearly 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers currently serving in 71 countries around the world will return to the United States with greatly enhanced long-term employment prospects in business, education, technology, health, the environment and more.

Sonya Slaughter, front left, gets some suggestions from Seattle Public Librarian Jane Lopez-Santillana on a good book to give to a teenager for Christmas at the Books for Giving fair, held Nov. 22 at the Central library in downtown Seattle.

To live a decent life in Washington, it costs a single adult $10.77 an hour. Yet one-third of all job openings pay less than that, according to a study conducted by a Seattle organization.
"Searching for Work That Pays: The 2005 Northwest Job Gap Study" determined that the "Northwest is not creating living-wage jobs for all those who need them." When families cannot earn what they need to survive, the study notes, "many are forced to make difficult choices between adequate health care, balanced nutrition and paying the bills."
The study was prepared by the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, a regional federation of four statewide, community-based social and economic organizations. It encompassed Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Of the four states, Oregon and Washington had the highest living-wage requirement to pay for day-to-day needs.