05-22-2025  7:13 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Prosper Portland Fights For Continued City Funding

Two city councilors suggest ending city’s funding to wide-reaching economic development agency. 

The Bottle Redemption Law may Change due to Concerns over Drugs and Homelessness 

Oregon's trailblazing bottle redemption law may undergo changes because of concerns that redemption centers have become gathering places for drug users and homeless people while having no services to support them. Proposed changes could allow nonprofits to run alternative bottle redemption centers possibly mobile centers such as trucks. Stores could stop accepting bottles after 8pm and convenience stores in some areas after 6pm

PHOTOS: The Skanner Celebrates Its 50th with Longtime Sponsors, Supporters, Community

More than 200 people raised their glasses to toast The Skanner’s 50th anniversary at the Oregon Convention Center on April 24. 

Senator-designate Courtney Neron to Serve Remainder of Term Held by Late Senator Aaron Woods

County commissioners in Washington, Clackamas and Yamhill counties have chosen State Rep. Courtney Neron yesterday to serve in Senate Dist.13. The district covers Wilsonville, Sherwood, King City, Tigard and parts of Beaverton and Yamhill County. It was most recently represented by the late Sen. Aaron Woods

NEWS BRIEFS

Actor & Author Hill Harper, and National Law Enforcement Leaders Join Oregon Legislators for Community Townhall

"Gaslighting: Challenging the Disconnect Between Public Policy and the Reality in Community" was recently hosted in Portland by the...

Sellwood-Moreland Library Will Close June 6 For Vital Updates as Part of Refresh Projects

Library will receive new furniture, technology from this work ...

East Portland TIF District Community Leadership Committees – Applications Now Open

Each district-specific committee’s purpose is to advise PHB and Prosper Portland staff, the Portland City Council, and the Prosper...

Merkley, Wyden Blast Trump Administration’s Attacks on Head Start

42 lawmakers write to RFK Jr. demanding answers on Trump admin’s actions undermining Head Start as Trump reportedly plans to...

Alerting People About Rights Is Protected Under Oregon Senate Bill

Senate Bill 1191 says telling someone about their rights isn’t a crime in Oregon. ...

OPINION

Policymakers Should Support Patients With Chronic Conditions

As it exists today, 340B too often serves institutional financial gain rather than directly benefiting patients, leaving patients to ask “What about me?” ...

The Skanner News: Half a Century of Reporting on How Black Lives Matter

Publishing in one of the whitest cities in America – long before George Floyd ...

Cuts to Minority Business Development Agency Leaves 3 Staff

6B CDFI affordable capital for local investment also at risk ...

The Courage of Rep. Al Green: A Mandate for the People, Not the Powerful

If his colleagues truly believed in the cause, they would have risen in protest beside him, marched out of that chamber arm in arm with him, and defended him from censure rather than allowing Republicans to frame the narrative. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

ENTERTAINMENT

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor

(CNN) -- A Catholic college in Ohio has apparently become the nation's first to drop its health care plan because it opposes parts of the federal health care law signed by President Barack Obama.

The Franciscan University of Steubenville posted on its website last week that it is discontinuing its health care plan.

"The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover 'women's health services' including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the university says.

"We will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life," the statement says.

The coverage includes emergency contraceptives such as Plan B, which can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, but not drugs like RU-486, which can end an early pregnancy.

The school is also dropping its health insurance plan for students because the new health care law requires employers to provide more robust coverage, making it more expensive, said Tom Sofio, a spokesman for the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

"It was our own moral reasons and then the rising cost of health care because of the act," Sofio said, explaining the university's decision.

Sofio said school officials are not aware of another college that has dropped its health insurance plan out of disagreements with the federal health care law.

A spokeswoman for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing three religious schools that are challenging the health care law, said that she was also unaware of another college that had taken such action.

A spokeswoman with the Health and Human Services Department, charged with implementing the new health care law, said Wednesday that the department had no comment on the school's decision and that it does not keep track of changes to college health insurance plans.

The Obama administration faced a firestorm of controversy from many religious groups this year over a proposed rule that would require employers to provide no-cost contraception coverage to their employees.

In what it called a compromise, the White House revised the rule to require health insurance companies -- not employers -- to provide contraception coverage, mollifying some Catholic critics. Other Catholic groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are not satisfied by the revised rule.

The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of contraception.

"We're paying the health insurance company, and if they provide abortion-causing drugs, that's against our religious beliefs," Sofio said Wednesday.

About 200 of the Franciscan University of Steubenville's 2,500 students rely on the university health care plan, which costs about $50 a month, Sofio said. He said the school is retaining its health care plan for employees because it is hopeful that legal challenges to the health care law will prevent much of it from taking effect.

Sofio said that the school sent letters about its decision to students and parents in April and that it has received overwhelming support from both constituencies. Ninety-five percent of students at the university are Catholic, he said.

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