A union representing fourteen part-time recycling specialists at Portland State University has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Chancellor George Pernsteiner and the Oregon State Board of Higher Education.
They say the University refused to include the recyclers in bargaining negotiations over terms of a new contract for the four thousand five-hundred classified employees at the university.
The recyclers, who voted unanimously to join SEIU Local 503, are believed to be the first group of undergraduate students to join a union in Oregon.

A school district in Washington is starting a little late this year.  Teachers in the Kent school district are on strike against the orders of the King County Superior Court.  They’re asking for better conditions for students and more efficient funding.
KBOO’s Stefan Kamph has more.
 

Tonight, The Other Team focuses on books, music and schools.

Carla interviews Zena, from the Oregon Safe Schools and Communities Coalition, about what's happening in Oregon Schools, including networking with Gay Straight Alliances and being a resource for school staff and students.

Next, we talk with Erin Malus and Twig Deluje from Bare Bones Press & Productions about their favorite picks from Young Adult literature that LGBTQ youth might be interested in.

Listen to the November 2nd, 2009 airing of the KBOO Evening News in its entirety! ^__^

The number of homeless students has risen by fourteen percent this year, according to the Oregon Department of Education. This year eighteen-thousand students are homeless, compared to about fifteen-thousand last year and eight-thousand in 2003 and 2004, when numbers were first reported.
Kenna Gair of KBOO sat down with Michael Anderson of the Oregon Opportunity Network, a non-profit housing and community development organization. He says that more students are homeless not only because of the general economic downturn, but because the Federal government has not done enough to increase access to affordable housing since the seventies.
 

Portland State University has, for many years, provided assistance to community members with disabilities through the Assistive Technology Center.  Now, that center has closed its doors to the community due to budget cuts.
KBOO’s Nathan Jimenez (heh-MEN-ez) brings us this commentary on this and other cuts to services for the disabled in Portland:
 

 Common Sense Talk Radio
 Hosted by Kayse Jama, Grassia Melendez, and Lucilene Lira
From the Center for Intercultural Organizing

Hand in Hand     

Since 1997 Hand in Hand has been establishing integrated Jewish/Arab public schools in Israel.  We speak with Lee Gordon about these bilingual schools, the effects of integrated education on the pupils, their families, and the neighborhoods where the schools have been founded.

You can get more information about Hand in Hand at www.handinhandk12.org

Hand to Hand

On October 18th the Jewish Federation of Portland and the Mittleman Jewish Community Center host