Darryl Miles surveys the room of young men and their families inside the Jefferson High cafeteria and grins. Soon, these faces will be familiar as the year begins.
The affable 45-year-old, ex-Enron executive is jumping into one of Portland's most novel educational experiments – the same-sex academies at Jefferson.
"My hope for this school is that we can affect positive change and show these young boys what it means to become productive men," Miles says. 

Nyela Richardson, 6, left, Abrianna Tatum, center, and two other Hawthorne Elementary School Rhythm Nation Dance Team members perform during the school's annual Multicultural Night, held Wednesday May 23. This year's "One World" event included merengue, African and Mexican dancers, and Vietnamese singers.

This past Memorial Day weekend honored not only those who have sacrificed their lives for their…

WASHINGTON D.C. — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., was indicted today on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money laundering in a long-running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.
The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria, Va., is more than an inch thick and list 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 200 years.
Almost two years ago, in August 2005, investigators raided Jefferson's home in Louisiana and found $90,000 in cash stuffed into a box in his freezer.

NEW YORK -- Federal authorities said a plot by a suspected Muslim terrorist cell to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery could have caused "unthinkable" devastation.
But while pipeline and security experts agreed that such an attack would have crippled America's economy, particularly the airline industry, they said it probably would not have led to significant loss of life as intended....

JACKSON, Miss. -- The federal trial of a reputed Klansman in Mississippi presents a tableau of contrasts between the old South and the new.
Opening arguments are set to start Monday in the case of James Ford Seale, 71, who has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 beating and drowning deaths of two Black teenagers, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore.
The crimes took place in the woods of rural southwest Mississippi at a time when local law officers often looked the other way as the Ku Klux Klan terrorized anyone who dared challenge the strictly segregated society....

Read here a day-by-day diary of free community events to fill your week...

Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper calls the "war on drugs" a "war on people." And most of those people are people of color.

Greeted by a throng of Liberian refugees and immigrants at Concordia University last week, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said she is trying to bring prosperity to her country after 14 years of brutal civil war.
"My old Liberian compatriots," she said. "I'm energized by the crowds we see here and the expressions of welcome and support on all of your faces."

At age 20, Terry Sanborn thought his life's career had been laid out for him. Working for a fast food chain, the former youth offender, who had spent most of his high school days in the McLaren Youth Correction Facility, figured he'd move his way up to manager while starting a family. All that changed when he learned about the Portland Youth Builders.
Now a third-year construction trades apprentice, Sanborn says he wished he'd learned about the program earlier.
Sanborn and others hope a new multi-agency program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might give Portland's most vulnerable youth an earlier shot at a promising future.