10-04-2024  12:01 pm   •   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...

Man deemed violent predator caught after removing GPS monitor, escaping and prompting 3-day search

SEATTLE (AP) — Officials are investigating how a man convicted of assaulting a woman was able to cut off his GPS monitor and escape from a restrictive housing complex in Washington state, prompting a multistate search until he was captured Thursday. Damion Blevins, 33, was arrested...

Senators ask Justice Department to take tougher action against Boeing executives over safety issues

Two U.S. senators have asked the Department of Justice to take tougher action against Boeing executives by holding them criminally accountable for safety issues that have impacted its airplanes. In a letter dated Wednesday and sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Democratic...

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...

No. 9 Missouri looks to improve to 5-0 in visit to No. 25 Texas A&M

No. 9 Missouri (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) at No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0), Saturday, 12 p.m. ET (ABC). BetMGM College Football Odds: Texas A&M by 2 1/2. Series record: Texas A&M leads 9-7. WHAT’S AT STAKE? The winner will...

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 Michigan, Harris works to solidify union support amid signs some of it could be slipping to Trump

REDFORD CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting the union stronghold of Flint in the critical swing state of Michigan on Friday as she battles with Donald Trump for working-class voters who could tip the scales in this year's election. Her appearance...

For Pittsburgh Jews, attack anniversary adds to an already grim October

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jewish communities everywhere reacted with horror at last year's Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, but the approaching one-year commemoration of the assault hits home particularly hard in Pittsburgh's Jewish community, which already marks a grim anniversary each October. ...

Civilization 7 makers work with Shawnee to bring sincere representation of the tribe to the game

MIAMI, Okla. (AP) — Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes grew up playing video games, including “probably hundreds of hours” colonizing a distant planet in the 1999 title Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. So when that same game studio, Firaxis, approached the tribal nation a quarter-century...

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 year later, Israeli survivors reflect on the lingering toll of Oct. 7

Lilach Almog walks past the remains of a police station seized by Hamas militants and buildings pockmarked by...

Supreme Court steps into a fight over plans to store nuclear waste in rural Texas and New Mexico

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to step into a fight over plans to store nuclear waste at...

Cousins throws for 509 yards, hits Hodge in OT to give Falcons 36-30 win over Bucs

ATLANTA (AP) — Kirk Cousins sure earned all that money Thursday night. The 0 million...

US arranges flights to bring Americans out of Lebanon as others seek escape

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-arranged flights have brought about 350 Americans and their immediate relatives out of...

Clashes in Kenya as people discuss the deputy president's impeachment motion

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Supporters and opponents of Kenya's deputy president clashed Friday at public forums over...

Rainstorms and heavy floods hit large parts of Bosnia, killing at least 16 people

KISELJAK, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A severe rainstorm struck Bosnia overnight Friday, killing at least 16...

Vivian Kuo CNN

(CNN) -- Despite telling the court they were indigent, George Zimmerman and his wife discussed -- in code, according to prosecutors -- money raised online to help in his defense on second-degree murder charges, jailhouse phone calls released Monday show.

Prosecutors had claimed the Zimmermans lied about their financial means before a Florida judge set his bond, which the suspect then posted to get out of jail. Zimmerman, accused in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is now back behind bars after the judge revoked his bail, citing the misrepresentations.

Six calls made public Monday, out of about 151 total that Zimmerman made while incarcerated, appear to back up the prosecutor's assertions.

At her husband's April 20 bond hearing, Shellie Zimmerman testified she didn't know how much had been raised through the website her husband had set up before charges being filed.

And when asked whether the couple had money available to assist in his defense, she replied, "Um, not -- not that I'm aware of."

In one jailhouse phone conversation, Zimmerman asks his wife, "In my account, do I have at least $100?" She answers no, then tells him he has more like "$8, $8.60."

"So total everything, how much are we looking at?" Zimmerman asks his wife.

"Like $155," she responds.

Prosecutors claim the husband and wife were speaking in a type of code about their available funds, an assertion Zimmerman's lawyer Mark O'Mara says the defense has "never contested."

"There's no question that they were talking in this sort of simplistic kind of code, where they were talking about $155 when, without question, they were talking about $155,000," O'Mara told CNN's Piers Morgan on Monday night.

In another call, Zimmerman asks his wife to "pay off all the bills," including Sam's Club and American Express bills, prosecutors said.

The couple also discusses how much money can be accessed and what to do with it, including transferring funds that were raised online for his defense to accounts belonging to Zimmerman's sister and wife, prosecutors state in a probable cause affidavit.

Records released Monday show that tens of thousands of dollars were transferred out of a bank account. Prosecutors allege a total of $47,000 was transferred from George Zimmerman's account to his sister's account from April 16 and 17, and that Shellie Zimmerman transferred more than $74,000 from her husband's account to her account between April 16 and April 19.

After George Zimmerman was released on bond this spring, his wife transferred more than $85,500 from her account back to his account, according to the affidavit.

Prosecutors allege the couple actually had about $135,000 of donations at their disposal when they both told the court, under oath, they were indigent.

O'Mara, Zimmerman's lawyer, later said his client ended up netting a total of $204,000 via PayPal accounts -- about $150,000 of which is now in an independently managed trust after $30,000 was used to pay for "life in hiding" and $20,000 has been kept liquid.

On June 1, Seminole County Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. agreed with the prosecution that the Zimmermans were dishonest about their financial status and, after revoking George Zimmerman's bond, ordered that he return to jail. He remains behind bars and has a second bond hearing set for June 29.

On June 12, Shellie Zimmerman was arrested on a perjury charge, accused of lying at her husband's bond hearing about the couple's finances. She was released later that day after meeting the conditions of a $1,000 bond, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said.

The defense team on Monday filed a motion asking a judge to reconsider the release of a witness statement and to clarify a previous ruling on the release of additional jail phone calls. Both issues will be addressed during next week's bond hearing.

It all ties into the larger case against Zimmerman, who prosecutors say ignored a police dispatcher's instruction and pursued Martin as he was walking in a Sanford, Florida, gated community last winter and shot the unarmed teenager. The 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, meanwhile, has insisted he shot Martin in self-defense.

Independent attorneys told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell the jailhouse recordings should be relevant in the case -- both as the judge weighs how high to set Zimmerman's bail and, once the trial begins, potentially affecting jurors' assessment as to whether his account of what happened February 26 can be trusted. While investigators talked to several neighbors and others, no one saw the shooting directly except for Zimmerman and the now-deceased Martin.

"His credibility is everything. Why would he risk it on something that is so trivial as this?" Georgia-based lawyer Pilar Prinz said of the Zimmermans' jailhouse discussions about their money. " I can't understand it."

O'Mara acknowledged the Zimmermans inflicted a "great blow to their credibility," making it clear the two had available funds and were not honest about it -- something that might prompt Judge Lester to order the defendant to stay in jail until the trial because he feels "he can no longer trust him."

But the lawyer said, in the 30 hours of calls between the couple, there's no indication the Zimmermans intended to deceive the judge, and also pointed out that his client came clean to him four days later. O'Mara also said the couple was stressed, fearful and distrustful at the time.

"I only hope that ... critics give it a more global perspective -- which is what (Zimmerman) was going through and what his family was going through as to why they may not have been completely honest about the money ... and sort of what they were facing," he said.

Lastly, O'Mara stressed that the questions about their finances are distinct from what happened the night of the shooting.

"It truly has so little to do with what counts in the case, which is what happened when Trayvon Martin passed away," he said.

Besides the conversations about finances, the newly released phone calls shed light on the relationship between George and Shellie Zimmerman. In one exchange, they talk optimistically about their future together.

"After this, ... you're going to be able to just have a great life," Shellie Zimmerman said.

"We will," replies her husband.

The two also talk about the support Zimmerman has received from the public, in the wake of the controversy that followed the Martin shooting.

"You're special and (an) amazing role model to people, honey," his wife said.

"Hmm, I wish, I wish I were," Zimmerman said.