10-06-2024  2:52 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

The pilot program in 2024 allowed people in certain states with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. Those using the program claimed more than million in refunds, the IRS said.

Companies Back Away From Oregon Floating Offshore Wind Project as Opposition Grows

The federal government finalized two areas for floating offshore wind farms along the Oregon coast in February. But opposition from tribes, fishermen and coastal residents highlights some of the challenges the plan faces.

Preschool for All Growth Outpaces Enrollment Projections

Mid-year enrollment to allow greater flexibility for providers, families.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden Demands Answers From Emergency Rooms That Denied Care to Pregnant Patients

Wyden is part of a Democratic effort to focus the nation’s attention on the stories of women who have faced horrible realities since some states tightened a patchwork of abortion laws.

NEWS BRIEFS

Oregon’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year is Bryan Butcher Jr. of Beaumont Middle School

“From helping each of his students learn math in the way that works for them, to creating the Black Student Union at his school,...

Burn Ban Lifted in the City of Portland

Although the burn ban is being lifted, Portland Fire & Rescue would like to remind folks to only burn dried cordwood in a...

Midland Library to Reopen in October

To celebrate the opening of the updated, expanded Midland, the library is hosting two days of activities for the community...

U.S. Congressman Al Green Commends Biden Administration on Launching Investigation into 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre; Mulls Congressional Action

The thriving African American community of Greenwood, popularly known as Black Wall Street, was criminally leveled by a white mob...

Governor Kotek, Oregon Housing and Community Services Announce Current and Projected Homelessness Initiative Outcomes

The announcement is accompanied by a data dashboard that shows the progress for the goals set within the...

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate 'go back where you came from' in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the...

Washington state fines paper mill 0,000 after an employee is killed

CAMAS, Wash. (AP) — Washington state authorities have fined one of the world's leading paper and pulp companies nearly 0,000 after one of its employees was crushed by a packing machine earlier this year. The penalty comes after Dakota Cline, 32, was killed on March 8 while...

Moss scores 3 TDs as No. 25 Texas A&M gives No. 9 Missouri its first loss in 41-10 rout

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Le'Veon Moss was asked if he thought No. 25 Texas A&M shocked ninth-ranked Missouri after his big game propelled the Aggies to a rout Saturday. The running back laughed before answering. “Most definitely,” he said before chuckling...

No 9 Missouri faces stiff road test in visit to No. 25 Texas A&M

No. 9 Missouri hits the road for the first time this season, facing arguably its toughest challenge so far. The Tigers (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) know the trip to No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0) on Saturday will be tough for several reasons if they want to extend their...

OPINION

The Skanner News: 2024 City Government Endorsements

In the lead-up to a massive transformation of city government, the mayor’s office and 12 city council seats are open. These are our endorsements for candidates we find to be most aligned with the values of equity and progress in Portland, and who we feel...

No Cheek Left to Turn: Standing Up for Albina Head Start and the Low-Income Families it Serves is the Only Option

This month, Albina Head Start filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to defend itself against a misapplied rule that could force the program – and all the children it serves – to lose federal funding. ...

DOJ and State Attorneys General File Joint Consumer Lawsuit

In August, the Department of Justice and eight state Attorneys Generals filed a lawsuit charging RealPage Inc., a commercial revenue management software firm with providing apartment managers with illegal price fixing software data that violates...

America Needs Kamala Harris to Win

Because a 'House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand' ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

In Philadelphia, Chinatown activists rally again to stop development. This time, it's a 76ers arena

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Vivian Chang works on a narrow Philadelphia street that would have been consumed by a Phillies stadium had Chinatown activists not rallied to defeat the plan in the early 2000s. Instead of 40,000 cheering fans, the squeals of young children now fill the playground at Folk...

Mexican immigrant families plagued by grief, questions after plant workers swept away by Helene

ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) — With shaking hands, Daniel Delgado kissed a photo of his wife, Monica Hernandez, before lighting a candle in a supermarket parking lot. Family members hugged pictures printed on poster board, some collapsing into them in tears as search helicopters flew overhead in the...

San Francisco's first Black female mayor is in a pricey battle for a second term

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When London Breed was elected as San Francisco's first Black woman mayor, it was a pinch-me moment for a poor girl from public housing whose ascension showed that no dream was impossible in the progressive, compassionate and equitable city. But the honeymoon was...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: 'The Last Dream,' short stories scattered with the seeds of Pedro Almodovar films

The seeds of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's later cinematic work are scattered throughout the pages of “The Last Dream,” his newly published collection of short writings. The stories and essays were gathered together by Almodóvar's longtime assistant, including many pieces...

Book Review: Louise Erdrich writes about love and loss in North Dakota in ’The Mighty Red’

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louise Erdrich (“The Night Watchman,” 2021) returns with a story close to her heart, “The Mighty Red.” Set in the author’s native North Dakota, the title refers to the river that serves as a metaphor for life in the Red River Valley. It also carries a...

Book Review: 'Revenge of the Tipping Point' is fan service for readers of Gladwell's 2000 book

It's been nearly 25 years since Malcolm Gladwell published “The Tipping Point," and it's still easy to catch it being read on airplanes, displayed prominently on executives' bookshelves or hear its jargon slipped into conversations. It's no surprise that a sequel was the next logical step. ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene

As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend...

A faith is on the edge of vanishing in Georgia after being exiled from Russia centuries ago

GORELOVKA, Georgia (AP) — A 10-year-old boy proudly stands beside his father and listens to the monotone...

As affordable housing disappears, states scramble to shore up the losses

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For more than two decades, the low rent on Marina Maalouf’s apartment in a blocky...

Militants kill 6 Pakistani soldiers in a shootout

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants killed six Pakistani soldiers in a shootout, the army said Saturday, the...

Death threats assail Brazil's trailblazing trans candidates as they campaign

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Benny Briolly beamed as she strode through the concrete favela alleyway in a snow-white...

US launches airstrikes by fighter jets and ships on Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, going after...

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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