11-10-2024  9:54 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

In Portland, Political Outsider Keith Wilson Elected Mayor After Homelessness-focused Race

Wilson, a Portland native and CEO of a trucking company, ran on an ambitious pledge to end unsheltered homelessness within a year of taking office.

‘Black Friday’ Screening Honors Black Portlanders, Encourages Sense of Belonging

The second annual event will be held Nov. 8 at the Hollywood Theatre.

Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson Wins Governor’s Race in Washington

Ferguson came to national prominence by repeatedly suing the administration of former President Donald Trump, including bringing the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s initial travel ban on citizens of several majority Muslim nations. 

African American Alliance On Homeownership Turns 25, Honors The Skanner Cofounder Bernie Foster

AAAH's executive director Cheryl Roberts recalls how the efforts of Bernie Foster led to an organization that now offers one-on-one counseling for prospective home buyers, homebuyer education, foreclosure prevention services, estate planning, assistance with down payments and more.

NEWS BRIEFS

Volunteers of America Oregon Announces Retirement CEO, Kay Toran

Toran's tenure at VOA Oregon is marked by decades of dedicated public service in the State of Oregon and unwavering commitment to...

NAACP Launches Innovative $200 Million Fund of Funds to Transform the Venture Capital Landscape

The fund will invest in fund managers and startups that are focused on closing gaps facing communities of color. ...

Legal Services Corporation Announces 2025 Grant Awards for Civil Legal Services

The grants are part of LSC's ongoing effort to support legal aid organizations in providing essential services to underserved...

Maxine Dexter Elected to Fill Earl Blumenauer's Seat

Blumenauer: “I can think of no person I would rather have take my place” ...

Dan Rayfield Elected Oregon’s Next Attorney General

Rayfield thanks AG Ellen Rosenblum and is honored "to follow her footsteps." ...

Man accused of stabbing at least 5 people in Seattle ordered held on [scripts/homepage/home.php]M bail

SEATTLE (AP) — A 37-year-old man who police say stabbed five people in Seattle in broad daylight Friday and possibly four others the day before made his first court appearance Saturday where a judge ordered him held on [scripts/homepage/home.php] million bail. “People who live in and travel to the...

Longtime Blazers broadcaster Brian Wheeler dies at 62

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Former Portland Trail Blazers broadcaster Brian Wheeler, the radio voice of the team from 1998-2019, has died. He was 62. The Trail Blazers said Wheeler, affectionately called Wheels, passed away on Friday following a long illness. Wheeler had...

Missouri hosts Eastern Washington following Cook's 25-point game

Eastern Washington Eagles (1-1) at Missouri Tigers (1-1) Columbia, Missouri; Monday, 7 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Eastern Washington plays Missouri after Andrew Cook scored 25 points in Eastern Washington's 93-86 victory against the Seattle U Redhawks. Missouri...

Young returns fumble for TD with 22 seconds left to lift Missouri past Oklahoma, 30-23

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Zion Young returned a fumble 17 yards for a touchdown with 22 seconds remaining as Missouri stunned Oklahoma 30-23 on Saturday night. Triston Newson sacked Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold and knocked the ball loose. Young, a defensive end, picked it up and raced in...

OPINION

Why Not Voting Could Deprioritize Black Communities

President Biden’s Justice40 initiative ensures that 40% of federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities, addressing deep-seated inequities. ...

The Skanner News 2024 Presidential Endorsement

It will come as no surprise that we strongly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. ...

Black Retirees Growing Older and Poorer: 2025 Social Security COLA lowest in 10 years

As Americans live longer, the ability to remain financially independent is an ongoing struggle. Especially for Black and other people of color whose lifetime incomes are often lower than that of other contemporaries, finding money to save for ‘old age’ is...

The Skanner Endorsements: Oregon State and Local Ballot Measures

Ballots are now being mailed out for this very important election. Election Day is November 5. Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid postmark by 8 p.m. Election Day. View The Skanner's ballot measure endorsements. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

One person is dead after a shooting at Tuskegee University

TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — Homecoming Week at Tuskegee University in Alabama was marred early Sunday by a shooting that left one person dead, school officials said. The victim of the shooting was not a university student, but some of those who were injured were. “The...

Racist text messages referencing slavery raise alarms in multiple states and prompt investigations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Racist text messages invoking slavery raised alarm across the country this week after they were sent to Black men, women and students, including middle schoolers, prompting inquiries by the FBI and other agencies. The messages, sent anonymously, were reported in...

Young Black and Latino men say they chose Trump because of the economy and jobs. Here's how and why

WASHINGTON (AP) — Brian Leija, a 31-year-old small-business owner from Belton, Texas, was not surprised that a growing number of Latino men of his generation voted for Donald Trump for president this year. Leija had voted for the Republican in 2016 and 2020. Leija's rationale was...

ENTERTAINMENT

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will feature Ariana Madix, T-Pain, 'Gabby’s Dollhouse' and pasta

NEW YORK (AP) — A eclectic group of stars — including reality TV's Ariana Madix, Broadway belter Idina Menzel, hip-hop's T-Pain, members of the WNBA champions New York Liberty and country duo Dan + Shay — will feature in this year's Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Music...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 10-16

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 10-16: Nov. 10: Blues singer Bobby Rush is 90. Actor Albert Hall (“Ally McBeal,” ″Beloved”) is 87. Country singer Donna Fargo is 83. Lyricist Tim Rice is 80. Actor Jack Scalia is 74. Director Roland Emmerich (“The Patriot,”...

Music Review: State Champs’ self-titled album is enjoyable, quintessential, predictable pop-punk

New York pop-punk band State Champs’ self-titled album is one fans of the genre have heard before — a band musing about awkward interactions at parties, overthinking their romantic relationships and scorning the mundane. Across 12 tracks, the album is charming, but unchallenging. ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

AP PHOTOS: Death by water, burial by mud. Images of Spain's floods of the century

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Twelve days have passed since catastrophic flash floods carved a muddy scar through...

As Russian forces close in on Kurakhove, hundreds of residents remain in the front-line city

KURAKHOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Set on Ukraine's eastern front, Kurakhove is surrounded on three sides,...

King Charles III and Kate attend remembrance event as both slowly return to duty

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III led the nation Sunday in a two-minute silence in remembrance of fallen service...

Attacks on Israeli soccer fans in the Netherlands prompts prime minister to cancel climate trip

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Saturday canceled a trip to United Nations...

While Syrian refugees don't want to return, officials in Lebanon and Syria see exodus as opportunity

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to their country since Israel launched a...

Hungry Palestinians in north Gaza search for food, sealed off from aid for a month by Israeli siege

JERUSALEM (AP) — With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of...

Jason Straziuso Associated Press


United Nations headquarters in New York

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Sudan activists on Thursday called for the United States and the international community to intervene in a region of Sudan inaccessible to outsiders after a U.S. group released satellite photos of what they said appear to be mass graves.

Details about mass graves, aerial bombardments and other violence in the same South Kordofan region are described separately in an internal June report by Sudan's U.N. peacekeeping mission that was circulating Thursday at United Nations headquarters in New York.

The Satellite Sentinel Project images show what appear to be freshly dug sites in South Kordofan state, where Sudan's Arab military has been targeting a black ethnic minority loyal to the military of the newly independent Republic of South Sudan. A witness told the project that he saw 100 bodies or more put into one of the pits.

"The DigitalGlobe satellite images contain many of the details and hallmarks of the mass atrocities described by at least five eyewitnesses to the alleged killings," said Nathaniel A. Raymond, of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which analyzes the project's images.

Fighting broke out in the region on June 5. Neither the U.N., outside aid groups nor journalists have access to the region, raising fears that more violence is being carried out than is known publicly.

"The problem is that we cannot confirm or deny what is going on because we cannot get into those areas," said U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux. "And that's even more the case now that we no longer have a mandate there."

The report was written by the human rights section of the UNMIS peacekeeping mission before its mandate expired on the eve of South Sudan's secession from the north on Saturday.

Despite its name, South Kordofan is in the north and the Sudanese government refused to renew the mandate of peacekeepers inside its territory after the south seceded.

South Sudan wants a U.N. force on its side of the border and the U.N. is currently putting together a proposed new mission for the south. The U.N. Security Council recently authorized a new 4,200-strong peacekeeping force to be temporarily deployed along the border for six months in the oil-rich Abyei region.

The unpublished U.N. peacekeeping document reported significant rights violations in the South Kordofan area, including executions, abductions, house-to-house searches and systematic destruction of homes. It said a U.N. mission staff member detained by Sudanese troops told of seeing about 150 bodies around the military compound.

Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, called for the world body to take quick action and "show Khartoum there is a price for expelling U.N. peacekeepers in order to pursue its horrific campaign in Southern Kordofan."

Samuel Totten, a genocide scholar at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said it is "imperative" that a team of investigators from The Hague-based International Criminal Court travel to the graves quickly to ascertain who the dead are, how many people were killed and in what manner, and "to ward off any more mass killings." He urged the establishment of a no-fly zone.

A spokesman for Sudan's ruling party denied the project's allegations and said the area is accessible to observers, though aid groups say it is not.

"Even if there is any suspicion on such pictures, people can go there and visit the area and see what is the actual reality," said Rabie A. Atti, National Congress Party spokesman. "I think this is only rumors trying to, you know, blacken the people of our government."

Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts who has written a book on the atrocities in western Sudan's Darfur region and is following the violence in Kordofan, said reports have been coming out of the Nuba Mountains for weeks of targeted killings.

"The evidence demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that there are mass graves in Kadugli," Reeves said Thursday. "In short, these accounts strongly suggest a carefully orchestrated campaign of ethnically targeted destruction, and a follow-up effort to hide the evidence from international witnesses."

The satellite group said three excavated areas measuring about 26 meters (yards) by 5 meters (yards) are visible near a school in the town of Kadugli. The group said that an eyewitness reported seeing 100 bodies or more put into one of the pits on June 8.

After the violence broke out, the U.N. said at least 73,000 people fled the region. Many of the displaced are ethnic Nuba who have long been marginalized. They are mostly seeking shelter in nearby communities or hiding out in the Nuba Mountains where they have no access to medical assistance, food and clean water.

A church leader in Kadugli, Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, said it was devastating to know that members of his community have been killed and "are lying now in mass graves." He urged the international community to send a peacekeeping force to monitor the situation and for aid groups to be allowed to return with food and medicine.

John Prendergast, a co-founder of the Satellite Sentinel Project, along with actor George Clooney, said diplomacy on the issue with no tangible international pressure "is a recipe for ongoing death and destruction."

"This evidence demonstrates the urgent need for a full-scale international investigation into the violence in South Kordofan, and underlines the imperative to protect civilian populations from their own government in Khartoum," said Prendergast.

A U.N. report obtained by The Associated Press last month said that Sudanese intelligence agents posed as Red Crescent workers and ordered refugees to leave a U.N.-protected camp in South Kordofan. The U.N. report contained no information about what happened to those people afterward.

The satellite project said it was told by an eyewitness that Sudanese Armed Forces troops, militia fighters, men in brown uniforms like those worn by prisoners and individuals dressed in a manner consistent with Sudan Red Crescent Society workers were seen driving large green trucks close to the alleged mass grave site.

Because the authorities in South Kordofan are barring international aid agencies from entering the region, and journalists are not able to safely access it, activists fear the Khartoum government is carrying out targeted killings like those in Darfur over the last decade.

"Men at the site were reportedly unloading dead bodies from the trucks and depositing them in the open pits. The individual claims to have seen some bodies in what appeared to be bags," said the report.

The project did not identify any witnesses or its means of communicating with them for fear of reprisal attacks.

Reeves said that his contacts in Kadugli have reported security roadblocks, house-to-house searches for supporters of the South Sudan military, and executions on the street.

"What's happening beyond Kadugli, beyond the Nuba Mountains, in places we haven't heard of, is that these Nuba people are being exterminated," he said.

The Nuba people have been targeted by Khartoum before. Reeves said that during killings in the 1990s, information from the region was sealed tight, and that no one knew the killings were taking place for two or three yeas.

"It was a black box genocide, as Darfur is becoming a black box genocide, and as I will predict will happen in Kordofan in the next couple months," Reeves said.

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Associated Press writers Maggie Fick in Juba, South Sudan, and Anita Snow at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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