The Skanner Foundation's 2014 Martin Luther King Breakfast

The 28th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast will be held on Monday, January 20, 2014 from 8:30 am —10:30 am. At the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Junior Blvd.,Portland, OR 97232. 

This event will be broadcast live on Portland TV, Channel 30, CITYNET.

Keynote speaker for the  Breakfast is Bruce Goldberg, M.D., Oregon Health Authority director recently named temporary executive director of CoverOregon, which has yet to register a single insurance client via its website.

In a departure from our usual format for the event, The Skanner News will take three questions for Goldberg from the floor, giving our community members the chance to hold the state accountable for health care issues locally.

“We just think healthcare is such a big issue in America,” The Skanner News Publisher Bernie Foster said. “We’ve got to make this thing work.”

Delivering the Invocation at the event is Pastor Emmett Wheatfall of Remember the Hope Christian Fellowship. He is a gifted poet who earned national acclaim for his recorded jazz collaboration with Noah Petersen, “When I was Young,” in 2010. Wheatfall is especially beloved for his annual delivery of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the World Arts Association’s annual “Keep Alive the Dream” event.

As in past years, canned goods and boxed meals will be collected for the St. Andrew’s Catholic Church food pantry. 

CoverOregon, the state’s Affordable Care Act website, has emerged as a major black eye for the state – and a source of worry for those who will be penalized for not enrolling in an insurance plan.

Some $140 million has been spent to develop the website over the past two years but the platform remains essentially unusable, with only a tiny fraction of enrollees entered into the system.

State officials say Goldberg is a temporary replacement for CoverOregon Executive Director Rocky King, who announced Monday that he would be taking a leave of absence due to health issues.

That announcement came the same day the CoverOregon board demanded a firm answer from King on when the enrollment website is expected to start working.

Goldberg is a family medicine physician who has spent his professional career in various areas of public health service.

Goldberg was key in the formation of the Oregon Health Authority, permanently appointed as the director by Gov. John Kitzhaber in February of 2011.  

He was a faculty member at Oregon Health and Science University for more than 15 years; he is a graduate of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and completed his family medicine training at DukeUniversity.

The Skanner News Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast is Monday, Jan. 20, 2014, from 8:30-10:30 at the Oregon Convention Center. Secure your tickets here using our ticket reservation form.

SPONSORS OF THE SKANNER FOUNDATION'S 2014 MARTIN LUTHER KING BREAKFAST