Oregon's Children are faring worse than at any time in the last 16 years. That's according to the annual report card from Children First for Oregon, that rates the state's progress in five benchmark areas that impact children's lives: Family Financial Stability, Youth Development and Education, Health, Early Care and Education and Child Welfare. This year the data added up to an overall D.
"D is not a good grade, it's true," said Robin Christian, executive director of Children First for Oregon. "But hope is on the way."
The figures highlight problems such as: a sharp, 10 percent, rise in the rate of abuse and neglect; 12 percent of Oregon's children lack health insurance and 20 percent of babies are born to mothers who received no prenatal care.
Still, Christian said, other problems look set to improve. The state legislature already has allocated $130 million over the next two years for programs that will help children, she said, including:

University of Washington associate professor Carolyn West Ph.D. is calling African Americans to action to combat domestic violence in communities of color. Church leaders, men's groups, parents, educators, children's advocates and policy makers all have a role to play in combating the crisis of violence within Black communities ....

One step forward, two steps back. That's the picture with higher education in Oregon in 2007. So what's going wrong? For a start, fewer first generation students are attending college. Then, colleges say, high schools are not properly preparing students for higher-level courses......

Ajany Tifa, 3 and his father, Amani Hall attended a fatherhood symposium titled "SOS: Dad Where Are You" which included Male/Female dialogue, a panel discussion and smaller group discussions about the importance of fatherhood. The event was sponsored by the First AME Church, Richard Allen Brotherhood, FAME Church School, VIBE, and FAME Fresh Start, Rev. Carey G. Anderson, Sr. Pastor, and was held on Oct. 13 at First AME Church.

Local child care provider Grace Alams was honored at a luncheon Oct. 10 at "The First Child Care Providers Awards Ceremony," held in Washington, D.C.
Alams and 17 others were recognized for their commitment to providing quality child care. Their work has been featured on the award-winning PBS television series "A Place of Our Own."
Alams, the owner of Grace's Kiddie Korner, has been a child care provider in Seattle for 12 years.  At the suggestion of a friend who had her own child care business, she decided to open her own after a divorce left her as a single mother of four children.
Alams, who is originally from eastern Nigeria, didn't realize she was being honored until she arrived at the awards luncheon. Alams was profiled on the PBS program as part of "Child Care Provider of the Week" which aired in March.
"To be honored just blew me away," Alams said ...

Random drug and alcohol testing does not reliably keep student-athletes from using. In fact, the mere presence of drug testing increases some risk factors for future substance use, Oregon Health & Science University researchers report. The findings are published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, the journal of the Society for Adolescent Medicine ....

CHILDREN DON'T COME WITH A MANUAL .... BLACK GOLD.... WEATHERIZATION WORKSHOP.... GREETING CARDS....... TRIVIA IN NE PDX ......  PARTY WITH SAM ADAMS.... NONPROFIT CAREER FAIR...... MENTAL HEALTH AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE ..... THE URBAN INDIAN Experience.... GREAT GARDENING! ...   HOWLOWEEN AT THE ZOO........

On Oct. 11 The Skanner web site published a letter from the National Newspaper Publisher's Association sanctioning Seattle-based publisher Christopher H. Bennett. The NNPA board chair John B. Smith, states that Bennett acted without NNPA authority in requesting $50,000 in funds from the Eli Lillly Company. The matter is still under investigation.
Last week, Bennett, speaking on a local radio station, demanded an apology from The Skanner. So readers can make up their own minds, The Skanner is publishing both the letter of sanction, issued in July, and a letter from the Eli Lilly Company to Bennett dated last June .…

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stop executions for a while and perhaps they can be stopped forever. That calculation has been part of the strategy of capital punishment opponents for decades.
The Supreme Court-inspired slowdown in executions offers the first nationwide opportunity in 20-plus years to test whether the absence of regularly scheduled executions will lead some states to abandon the death penalty and change public attitudes about capital punishment.
Recent decisions by judges and elected officials have made clear that most executions will not proceed until the Supreme Court rules in a challenge by two death row inmates to the lethal injection procedures used by Kentucky. The inmates say Kentucky's method creates the risk of pain severe enough to be cruel and unusual punishment, banned by the Eighth Amendment.
Similar procedures are used by Texas, the far-and-away leader in lethal injections, and the 16 other states that have executed prisoners in the past two years.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Finance officials from the world's top economic powers pledged Friday to do all they can to limit damage to the global economy from a jarring credit crisis as Wall Street took another plunge.
"We remained committed to doing our part in sustaining strong global growth ....