For years, children of the Portsmouth and Columbia Villa neighborhoods had no club to call their own.
The opening of the Regence Boys and Girls Club will change that.
Built on the south side of the New Columbia development at 4430 N. Trenton St., the club will serve the estimated 1,200 children living in the immediate neighborhood, as well as hundreds from the surrounding area.
On Friday, Feb. 15, the club's founders celebrated the halfway point of construction.
You could still hear circular saws and smell freshly cut drywall in the air Friday, but the construction wasn't the only excitement. Representatives from Regence BlueCross/BlueShield presented an oversized, ceremonial check for $500,000 — the largest contribution in the company's history — to the Boys and Girls Club during Friday's celebration.
"(This community) is a vision where lots of people from different backgrounds can come and raise their families," said Steve Rudman, executive director of the Housing Authority of Portland, whose agency coordinated construction and design efforts.

On a storefront that was once covered in nothing but tobacco advertising signs, one sign now stands apart from the rest.
"Tobacco kills an estimated 45,000 African Americans every year," reads a sign on the front of the Going Street Market.
The sign symbolizes the goals of the African American Tobacco Prevention and Education Network, which is canvassing storeowners throughout Portland in the hopes that many will replace tobacco advertisements with tobacco warnings.

Two months after converting the Little Chapel of the Chimes into the Chapel Pub, the McMenamin brothers have agreed to purchase another north Portland icon.
The restaurateurs signed an agreement with the North Portland nonprofit group Ethos Music Center this week to buy the Masonic Temple, at 5308 N. Commercial Ave., next to the Chapel Pub.

Washington D.C. (from Radio Havana Cuba) — President George W. Bush has approved a Pentagon plan for a command center for Africa to oversee U.S. military activities on the continent. The White House says that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been given the order to get the new command, known as Africom, up and running by the end of September 2008.

Khalmille Harris, 19 months, left, and Rosie Sanchez, 9, play the drums at the 27th annual Festival Sundiata on Monday, Feb. 19.  The three-day event featured gospel, jazz, hip-hop and dance performances rooted in African culture.

OLYMPIA — The race for the White House is already heating up nationally, with candidates off and running in the first wide-open contest in 80 years.
But here? Not so much.
Party leaders and political operatives say both the Republicans and Democrats have a strong Top 3 here and some eager-beaver backups, but that the campaigns still have little organization on the ground and that activists are hanging back before committing to a particular candidate.
It's early for the casual voter to pay much attention, but the nominees of both parties could be known by this time next year, possibly before Washington's oddball hybrid of primary and caucuses.
"This is nuts," said pollster Stuart Elway, chuckling over the warp speed of the 2008 cycle. "We've got this rich stew of candidates, but they're going to front-load it and it'll all be over by Christmas."

After 31 years in the airline reservation industry, and one-and-a-half years from retirement, Chris Siapicas' job at United Airlines was outsourced and his pension forfeited. Instead of planning his retirement, Siapicas was left looking for a new career....Siapicas entered the web development program in summer 2005 and will graduate this spring with honors.

A celebration for people of African descent from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25 at Seattle Central Community College's Student Activity Center, 1718 Broadway St., Seattle.

If you like Reggae music, you won't want to miss the Northwest World Reggae Festival, sponsored by Conscious Productions and Mutant Audio, March 23 and 24 in Portland and Eugene.
Legendary reggae band The Abyssinians will headline. The March 23 show starts at 8 p.m. in the Wonder Ballroom, 128 N.E. Russell Ave., Portland. This show is all ages with ages 21 and over in the balcony area. The March 24 show will be held at Agate Hall in Eugene and is open to all ages.

JACKSON, Miss. -- A grand jury declined to issue an indictment in the 1955 slaying of Black Chicago teenager Emmett Till, who was kidnapped from his uncle's home in the Mississippi Delta and shot to death after allegedly whistling at a White woman.
The grand jury in Leflore County wrapped up its work this past week and issued a "no bill" against Carolyn Bryant, the widow of one of two White men originally acquitted of Till's death. A "no bill" means the grand jury found insufficient evidence existed for an indictment on a criminal charge.
Documents made public Tuesday show prosecutors sought a manslaughter charge.
Till was kidnapped from the Leflore County town of Money in 1955. Three days later, the 14-year-old's mutilated body was found in the Tallahatchie River.
Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant's husband, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, were acquitted of the crime by an all-White jury. The two men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine. Till had been accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, and some witnesses have said a woman's voice could be heard at the scene of the abduction.
The FBI reopened the case in 2004 but decided in 2006 not to press charges.