Leilani Jones of Washington and Sharitha McKenzie of Oregon.
Of the eight African American women competing in this year's Miss USA Pageant, two of them are from the Pacific Northwest.

Like many cities, the District of Columbia has a crime problem. It is getting worse, not better, as…

WASHINGTON -- Republican support for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales eroded Sunday as three key senators sharply questioned his honesty over last fall's firings of eight federal prosecutors. Additionally, two Democrats joined the list of lawmakers calling for Gonzales' ouster.
Several Republicans also urged President Bush to allow sworn testimony from his top aides about their role in dismissing the U.S. attorneys -- a standoff threatening to result in Capitol Hill subpoenas of White House officials.
The embattled attorney general was facing the toughest test of his two-year tenure at the Justice Department with the release of documents suggesting he was more involved with the firings than he indicated earlier.
Democrats have accused the Justice Department and the White House of purging the prosecutors for political reasons. The Bush administration maintains the firings were not improper because U.S. attorneys are political appointees....

Listening to Willie Mae Hart talk about her life, and the life of her ancestors, is like opening a book you can't put down.
A few weeks shy of her 91st birthday, Willie Mae's memory is as sharp as any 20-year-old's and her story has all the makings of a classic novel.
First, there are the characters: great-grandmother Sarah Reid Moseley was born a slave, experienced the terror of the Civil War, raised 13 children and lived more than 100 years before passing her legacy on to Willie Mae, the family historian. Another great-grandmother, "Grandma Martha," was White, of Irish descent, and her family — including her own identical twin sister — disowned her after Martha married a Black man
Then there are the historical chapters: When John F. Kennedy ran for president, Willie Mae and her friend, Beatrice Mott-Reed, hosted a picnic for the senator at Jansen Beach, to give Portland's African American voters a chance to speak to the senator and share their views. Willie Mae remembers JFK as a very laidback man, who propped himself up in the grass on his elbows to drink a Coca Cola, and talked to the people as if he had all the time in the world.

Jefferson High graduate Neal Brown, class of 2000, is a perfect example of a Neil Kelly scholarship recipient.
While attending Jefferson, Brown said he mentored younger students at Self Enhancement, Inc., volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, while also working a part-time job at UPS.

"That's the way I was raised … to help other people," he said. "I knew if I didn't work hard, I wouldn't make it through school."
When Brown was applying for colleges, he knew scholarships would have to be part of the equation. The 12 scholarships he received, including the Neil Kelly Memorial Scholarship, helped Brown earn a sociology degree from the University of Portland.

With excavation of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church site already underway, Deacon Lee Magee says he can finally close a troubling chapter in his life.
After a month-long investigation into the fire that destroyed the 88-year-old church, officials announced last week that there were "no detectable signs of arson." They said the exact cause of the fire is "undetermined."
Magee said he's relieved by the investigation's results.
"I definitely did not want it to be arson. Now I can move on," Magee said.
Portland Fire Capt. Rich Stenhouse said he would like nothing more than to pinpoint the course of the fire's path through the 88-year-old church.
"But I can't do that," he said. "I find that immensely frustrating."

Selection for the 2007 Rose Festival princesses began March 5 at Central High School and wraps up March 23 at Wilson High. Pictured in this week's edition of The Portland Skanner are the princesses from Benson Polytechnic and Jefferson high schools. Look for winners from Roosevelt, Grant and Madison in upcoming issues of The Skanner.
After a performance by the Jefferson Dancers on Thursday, March 8, Mercedes Whitecalf was crowned as the Rose Festival Princess for Jefferson High School. Here, Mercedes is congratulated by her brother, LaCroix Johnson-Whitecalf, left, and her mother, Zoey Whitecalf.

Keeping with tradition, Lew Frederick, outgoing board member, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, receives a hat from the 2003 production of "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream," from Executive Director Paul Nicholson.

Incoming Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill Rauch recently unveiled his inaugural season. 
While continuing to maintain a strong commitment to Shakespeare and American classics, Rauch has also put his unique stamp on the playbill by including an epic text outside the Western canon, two new plays, a world premiere production that will head to Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center in July, and the first-ever 20th-century play to be produced on OSF's outdoor Elizabethan Stage.

Mount Zion Women's Chorus members Alice Thomas, left, and Dorothy Mungin sing at a special service titled "Celebrating Women in Ministry" on Sunday, March 11 at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.  The service honored the contributions of women in the church and included musical performances and a guest preacher, Dr. Flora Wilson Bridges.

NEW YORK — Bruce S. Gordon's recent decision to quit as NAACP president after clashing with the board over the group's mission highlights a stubborn problem for activists: how to do civil rights work in an era decades after the movement's peak.