Sue Price, left, Tricia Tillman, Marlene Holliday, Yolanda Armstrong, Tori Tipton and Kimmy Figueroa — all members of the African American Outdoors Association — enjoy a recent hike in Tryon Creek State Park. The AAOA encourages African Americans to increase their fitness, health and wellness through outdoor activities.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is seeking to partner with about 30 medium-to-small businesses in south-central Seattle to conduct an obesity-prevention study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study will mainly recruit at worksites where employees have traditional blue- and pink-collar jobs.

Editorial With a host of pressing issues demanding attention, many African Americans have not…

  2006 Breakfast InformationFor tickets e-mail [email protected] or come to The…

NEW ORLEANS—Mayor Ray Nagin, whose shoot-from-the-hip style was both praised and scorned after Hurricane Katrina, narrowly won re-election over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on Saturday in the race to oversee one of the biggest rebuilding projects in U.S. history.

"We are ready to take off. We have citizens around the country who want to come back to the city of New Orleans, and we're going to get them all back," Nagin said in a joyful victory speech that took on the tone of Sunday sermon.

"If we are unified there is nothing we cannot do," he said. "It's time for us to stop the bickering."

Vicente Fox

OLYMPIA—When Mexican President Vicente Fox visits Washington state, he will meet the state's business elite at Seattle's tony Rainier Club, but also get his shoes dirty by traipsing around a Yakima Valley farm.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's office released the itinerary for Fox's visit next Wednesday and Thursday, describing it a well-rounded, whirlwind tour of town and country, with plenty of opportunity to meet Mexican nationals who have become a key part of the state economy.

"We're getting our money's worth out this trip," enthused Antonio Ginatta, the governor's Equadorian-born policy adviser.

Rep. William Jefferson

WASHINGTON—FBI agents searched the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana Saturday evening in connection with a public corruption investigation that has already netted two guilty pleas by two associates, authorities said.

In just over two years of operation, the Wellness Project, a free mental health clinic in Vancouver, has treated more than 1,300 clients. In 2005 alone, it conducted approximately 4,500 appointments.

To celebrate its accomplishments, the Wellness Project is having an open house from 3 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 11, at 317 E. 39th St. in Vancouver.

James Brown 

WASHINGTON—Major League Baseball has at long last picked someone to buy the Washington Nationals, choosing a group that's led by real estate developer Theodore Lerner and includes former Atlanta Braves executive Stan Kasten.

Also among the team's new owners are TV sports announcer James Brown and Paxton Baker, president of event productions and executive vice president and general manager of digital networks for Black Entertainment Television.

Gloria Baker- Blandford: 1943-2006Services were held on May 10 at Emmanuel Temple Church for…