Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan, left, dishes up some vittles Monday at the Rose Garden during the Blazers' annual Harvest Dinner, put on for low-income Portlanders. In addition to the hundreds of meals served by McMillan and Blazers players, coaches and staff, attendees enjoyed videos, arts and crafts and special reading events for kids.

Invest in Kids released a report Wednesday charging that projected cuts to children's programs and law enforcement in the federal budget will lead to increased crime and greater social costs in the long run. The group, which is made up of police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and survivors of violent crime, advocates for social policies shown to prevent crime.
Titled "Congress Proposes Deep Cuts in Programs that Keep Oregon Kids From Becoming Criminals," the report argues that the current budget proposal before the House of Representatives should be rejected.
"This act is a real crime," said Martha Brooks, state director of Fight Crime Invest in Kids.

Last week U.S. News and World Report reported that a senior CIA official, Mary Margaret Graham, a 27-year agency veteran, had revealed the U.S. intelligence budget at an intelligence conference in San Antonio. This is the first time since 1998 that the administration has made public the amount of money spent on America's spy agencies.

Funky. Eclectic. Hip. The newest addition to the burgeoning Alberta Arts District fits right in with its neighbors.

Child welfare cases are hardly ever clear-cut. And with state resources stretched to capacity, Oregon's foster care system is struggling to meet the needs of the children and the families it serves.

Low-income Oregonians will get more financial help paying their heating bills and weatherizing their homes this winter, due to increased state aid.

Aryn Smith, left, Delores Montgomery, Deborah Belgrave and Anna Bailey dish up an early Thanksgiving meal Nov. 12 at the eighth annual Brothers on the Move Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner, held at the Cornerstone Community Church . . .

The 19th annual Winterfest, a five-week Northwest holiday tradition, begins the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, and runs through Jan. 2, 2006 at the Seattle Center. Daily hours, including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Christmas Eve hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The festival is closed Christmas Day.

Jovahn Davis, 8, warms up before the Youth and Teen Fitness Challenge to Nov. 12 at Garfield Community Center. The event featured kids age 6 to 19 doing fitness activities like push ups and sit ups. Proceeds benefited the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The percentage of Washington residents who go to bed hungry went up last year, placing the state's hunger rate significantly above the national rate.
The annual survey of Household Food Insecurity in America, conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Census Bureau, was released this month, at the same time the U.S. House of Representatives is debates a proposed $864 million cut to the food stamp program. The cuts are part of the Congress's current Budget Reconciliation Plan.
"We know that food stamps keep hunger at bay for thousands of families in our state," said Linda Stone, Eastern Washington Director of the Children's Alliance. "If the House votes to cut food stamps this week, our representatives in D.C. will be stealing food off the tables of thousands of Washington children."
The Children's Alliance, a nonprofit child advocacy group, this week released "Hungry in Washington," an overview . . .