06-02-2024  7:09 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Oregon Regulators Rule PacifiCorp Cannot Limit Liability for Wildfire Claims

Oregon utility regulators have rejected a request from PacifiCorp that sought to limit its liability in wildfire lawsuits. KGW reports that under the proposal, PacifiCorp would only have been responsible for paying out actual economic damages in lawsuit awards. In its rejection of the proposal, the Oregon Public Utility Commission said such a move would prohibit payouts for noneconomic damages such as pain, mental suffering and emotional distress

Appeals Court: Oregon Defendants Without a Lawyer Must be Released from Jail

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that Oregon defendants must be released from jail after seven days if they don't have an appointed defense attorney

Seattle Police Chief Dismissed From Top Job Amid Discrimination, Harassment Lawsuits

Adrian Diaz's departure comes about a week after police Capt. Eric Greening filed a lawsuit alleging that he discriminated against women and people of color.

Home Forward, Urban League of Portland and Le Chevallier Strategies Receive International Award for Affordable Housing Event

Organizations were honored for the the Hattie Redmond Apartments grand opening event

NEWS BRIEFS

Lineup and Schedule of Performances Announced for 44th Annual Cathedral Park Free Jazz Festival

The final lineup and schedule of performances has been announced for the free Cathedral Park Jazz...

Most EPS Foam Containers Banned From Sale and Distribution in WA Starting June 1

2021 state law ends era of clamshell containers, plates, bowls, cups, trays and coolers made of expanded polystyrene ...

First Meeting of Transportation Committee Statewide Tour to be at Portland Community College

The public is invited to testify at the Portland meeting of the 12-stop Transportation Safety and Sustainability Outreach Tour ...

Forest Service Waives Recreation Fee for National Get Outdoors Day

National Get Outdoors Day aims to connect Americans with the great outdoors and inspire them to lead healthy, active lifestyles. By...

Acclaimed Portland Author Renée Watson Presents: I See My Light Shining

The event will feature listening stations with excerpts from the digital collection of oral testimonies from extraordinary elders from...

Oregon officials close entire coast to mussel harvesting due to shellfish poisoning

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon authorities have closed the state's entire coastline to mussel harvesting due to an “unprecedented” outbreak of shellfish poisoning that has sickened at least 20 people. They've also closed parts of the Oregon coast to harvesting razor clams, bay clams...

Chad Daybell sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s 2 children in jury decision

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A jury in Idaho unanimously agreed Saturday that convicted killer Chad Daybell deserves the death penalty for the gruesome murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children, ending a grim case that began in 2019 with a search for two missing children. ...

Duke tops Missouri 4-3 in 9 innings to win first super regional, qualify for first WCWS

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — D'Auna Jennings led off the top of the ninth inning with a home run to end a scoreless pitching duel between Cassidy Curd and Missouri's Laurin Krings and 10th-seeded Duke held on for a wild 4-3 victory over the seventh-seeded Tigers on Sunday in the finale of the...

Mizzou uses combined 2-hitter to beat Duke 3-1 to force decisive game in Columbia Super Regional

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Laurin Krings and two relievers combined on a two-hitter and seventh-seeded Missouri forced a deciding game in the Columbia Super Regional with a 3-1 win over Duke on Saturday. The Tigers (48-17) had three-straight singles in the fourth inning, with Abby Hay...

OPINION

The Skanner News May 2024 Primary Endorsements

Read The Skanner News endorsements and vote today. Candidates for mayor and city council will appear on the November general election ballot. ...

Nation’s Growing Racial and Gender Wealth Gaps Need Policy Reform

Never-married Black women have 8 cents in wealth for every dollar held by while males. ...

New White House Plan Could Reduce or Eliminate Accumulated Interest for 30 Million Student Loan Borrowers

Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Arizona tribe temporarily bans dances after police officer is fatally shot responding to disturbance

SANTAN, Ariz. (AP) — The Gila River Indian Community has issued a temporary ban on dances after a tribal police officer was fatally shot and another wounded while responding to a reported disturbance at a Santan home, tribal officials said Sunday. Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the...

Germany coach blasts public broadcaster for asking if there should be more white players in his team

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany (AP) — Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann says he's shocked that a public broadcaster asked participants in a survey if they would prefer more white players in the national soccer team. Nagelsmann agreed Sunday with midfielder Joshua Kimmich’s comments the day...

100 years ago, US citizenship for Native Americans came without voting rights in swing states

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Voter participation advocate Theresa Pasqual traverses Acoma Pueblo with a stack of sample ballots in her car and applications for absentee ballots, handing them out at every opportunity ahead of New Mexico's Tuesday primary. Residents of the tribal community's...

ENTERTAINMENT

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who skewered fast food industry, dies at 53

NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America's food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53. Spurlock died Thursday in New...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 2-8

Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 2-8: June 2: Actor Ron Ely (“Tarzan”) is 86. Actor Stacy Keach is 83. Actor-director Charles Haid (“Hill Street Blues”) is 81. Singer Chubby Tavares of Tavares is 80. Film director Lasse Hallstrom (“Chocolat,” “The Cider House...

Book Review: Emil Ferris tackles big issues through a small child with a monster obsession

There are two types of monsters: Ones that simply appear scary and ones that are scary by their cruelty. Karen Reyes is the former, but what does that make her troubled older brother, Deeze? Emil Ferris has finally followed up on her visually stunning, 2017 debut graphic novel with...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Most US students are recovering from pandemic-era setbacks, but millions are making up little ground

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — On one side of the classroom, students circled teacher Maria Fletcher and practiced vowel...

Zelenskyy accuses China of pressuring other countries not to attend upcoming Ukraine peace talks

SINGAPORE (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused China on Sunday of helping Russia to disrupt an...

American veterans depart to be feted in France as part of 80th anniversary of D-Day

ATLANTA (AP) — Hilbert Margol says he didn't look on himself as a hero when his U.S. Army artillery unit fought...

Zelenskyy accuses China of pressuring other countries not to attend upcoming Ukraine peace talks

SINGAPORE (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused China on Sunday of helping Russia to disrupt an...

Condemnations mount over Israeli proposal to label UN aid agency a terrorist group

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned an Israeli parliamentary bill that seeks to...

Ultra-Orthodox protesters block Jerusalem roads ahead of Israeli court decision on draft exemptions

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked roads in Jerusalem on Sunday as Israel's Supreme Court heard arguments...

Mariano Castillo CNN

(CNN) -- An Argentinian judge has ordered Facebook to remove a profile from its site that allegedly was defaming a local business.

Judge Nestor Osvaldo Garcia also said that going forward, the social networking giant must prohibit any content that "insults, offends, assaults, violates, impairs or affects the privacy (or) commercial activity" of a bookstore, Librerias Lader.

The ruling, which came down Monday, is the not the first in which Argentina's judiciary has ordered Facebook to delete or modify content on its site.

The bookstore was founded in the city of Rosario, about 185 miles northwest of Buenos Aires, some 30 years ago, and now consists of eight locations there.

Recently, Librerias Lader became the target of an anonymous Facebook profile that threatened the store's management, said Marcelo Fizzani, the chain's sales manager.

The bookstore owners suspect that behind the offending profile -- which was registered with a fictitious name -- were one or more former employees.

The profile accused Librerias Lader of exploiting its workers and named specific managers by name, Fizzani said.

The profile page went as far as publishing the addresses of the eight bookstore locations, together with the codes to disarm the alarm system, he said.

"We then contacted our lawyers," Fizzani said. "The goal was to remove the page. It was affecting our work and the safety of the people who work here."

Business, however, was not affected negatively by the Facebook postings, he said.

"The right to one's own image is a personal right, individual, like an extension of personality, contained within the limits of a person's privacy. Therefore, everyone has an exclusive right over his image that extends to its use, such that one can oppose its distribution when done so without authorization," the ruling states.

The judge didn't take into account whether the accusations being made against the bookstore were true or not. If indeed there are violations happening at Librerias Lader, the complainants should abide by the legal avenues for making denunciations, the judge wrote.

To do otherwise, as the anonymous Facebook page did, "is to enter a path with no return that implies the belief that 'justice' is being done by one's self, which is nothing more than a return to a time when man roamed thousands of years ago seeking to substitute reason for force and force for reason," the ruling states.

Representatives for Facebook on Tuesday said they had not read the ruling and could not comment. However, the offending profile appeared to no longer be on the site.

Outside free speech considerations, it is possible that the profile in question violated Facebook's terms of use. It is against Facebook rules to threaten to harm others.

The global reach of social media means that companies have to deal with different freedom of speech laws in different parts of the world, said Jeff Hermes, director of the Digital Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

"You face a very different philosophy as far as freedom of the press, freedom of speech and the role of government," he said.

In this case, U.S. law and Argentinian law may not coincide. In the United States, there is usually not a right to privacy in cases where someone's image is used in a nonexploitative way, Hermes said. Argentinian law appears to give much more strength to the right of privacy of its citizens.

It puts companies in a position where they have to decide whether or not to abide by such rulings, or to block offending content in some countries, but allow it in others.

"It becomes a very difficult patchwork," Hermes said.

In 2010, a judge in the Argentinian city of Rafaela ordered Facebook to remove a fake profile of a man. The man argued that someone used his name and photo to build a profile and made claims about his sexual orientation. That ruling also ordered Google, Yahoo! and Bing to amend its search engines so that the offending page would not show up in search results.

Also that year, a judge in Mendoza ordered Facebook to close all "groups" created by minors that promoted truancy and other delinquency. That ruling said the social networking site should remove all groups made by minors that "promote objectives that could cause harm" to them.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast