06-04-2023  5:13 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Portland Mulls Ban on Daytime Camping Amid Sharp Rise in Homelessness

The measure before the Portland City Council on Wednesday would prohibit camping between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in city parks and near schools and day cares.

Truck Driver Indicted on Manslaughter Charges After Deadly Oregon Crash That Killed 7 Farmworkers

A grand jury in Marion County Court on Tuesday indicted Lincoln Smith, a 52-year-old truck driver from California, on 12 counts, including seven charges of manslaughter, reckless driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Amazon Workers Stage Walkout Over Company's Climate Impact, Return-to-Office Mandate

The lunchtime protest comes a week after Amazon's annual shareholder meeting and a month after a policy took effect requiring workers to return to the office three days per week.

Happy Black Birders Week: Local Group Promotes Inclusivity in Birdwatching, Outdoor Enjoyment

Birdhers is in its fifth year of weekly walks and annual retreats.

NEWS BRIEFS

Albina Music Trust Special Event Free to the Public

Albina Music Trust announces a special collaboration between experimental video artists Spoiler Room and the band Greaterkind ft. Lo...

Portland Parks & Recreation’s Summer Free For All Returns for 2023

Full slate of free movies, concerts, Free Lunch + Play, and more ...

Kiasia Baggenstos Awarded Avel Louise Gordly Scholarship

Parkrose grad, UO sophomore is inaugural winner. Award ceremony to be held at The Soul Restoration Center, Sunday, June 4. ...

Oregon and Washington Memorial Day Events

Check out a listing of ceremonies and other community Memorial Day events in Oregon and Washington. A full list of all US events,...

Communities Invited to Interstate Bridge Replacement Neighborhood Forums in Vancouver and Portland

May 31 and June 6 forums allow community members to learn about the program’s environmental review process ...

Slow start to New York's legal pot market leaves farmers holding the bag

ARGYLE, N.Y. (AP) — Seth Jacobs has about 100 bins packed with marijuana flower sitting in storage at his upstate New York farm. And that’s a problem. There aren’t enough places to sell it. The 700 pounds (318 kilograms) of pungent flower was harvested last year...

Lawsuit alleging ex-deputy falsified arrest report settled for 0K

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by a Washington oyster farmer accusing a former county deputy of falsifying an arrest report and urging a person to lie during a domestic-violence investigation has been settled for 0,000. Gerardo Rodarte, the owner of Samish Gold...

Foster, Ware homer, Auburn eliminates Mizzou 10-4 in SEC

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Cole Foster hit a three-run homer, Bryson Ware added a two-run shot and fifth-seeded Auburn wrapped up the first day of the SEC Tournament with a 10-4 win over ninth-seeded Missouri on Tuesday night. Auburn (34-9), which has won nine-straight, moved into the...

Small Missouri college adds football programs to boost enrollment

FULTON, Mo. (AP) — A small college in central Missouri has announced it will add football and women's flag football programs as part of its plan to grow enrollment. William Woods University will add about 140 students between the two new sports, athletic director Steve Wilson said...

OPINION

Significant Workforce Investments Needed to Stem Public Defense Crisis

We have a responsibility to ensure our state government is protecting the constitutional rights of all Oregonians, including people accused of a crime ...

Over 80 Groups Tell Federal Regulators Key Bank Broke $16.5 Billion Promise

Cross-country redlining aided wealthy white communities while excluding Black areas ...

Public Health 101: Guns

America: where all attempts to curb access to guns are shot down. Should we raise a glass to that? ...

Op-Ed: Ballot Measure Creates New Barriers to Success for Black-owned Businesses

Measure 26-238, a proposed local capital gains tax, is unfair and a burden on Black business owners in an already-challenging economic environment. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Jimmy Carter and the Kings: A key alliance for race relations, but only after MLK's assassination

ATLANTA (AP) — The voice of Martin Luther King Sr., a melodic tenor like his slain son, carried across Madison Square Garden, calming the raucous Democrats who had nominated his friend and fellow Georgian for the presidency. “Surely, the Lord sent Jimmy Carter to come on out and...

Hoskin seeks second term as leader of powerful Cherokee Nation

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) — Citizens of the Cherokee Nation — the largest Native American tribe in the U.S. — are set to decide whether Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. should lead the tribe for another four years as it enters a golden era after courts recognized its sprawling reservation and...

Community mourns teenager's death after gas station owner charged with murder

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Elected officials met a South Carolina community mourning the death of a 14-year-old boy who authorities say was fatally shot in the back by a gas station owner with calls to channel their righteous anger into collective support and political action. Over 60...

ENTERTAINMENT

Erykah Badu basks in her new era of reinvention and expansion

New York (AP) — Erykah Badu has unintentionally occupied the role of culture shifter and influencer for 20 plus years, well before it became a trendy, social media descriptor. Her impact has vibrated throughout music and fashion, and the “Green Eyes” songstress sees it clearly. ...

Book Review: 'The Celebrants' by Steven Rowley will make you want to call an old friend

“The Celebrants” by Steven Rowley (G.P. Putnam's Sons) Steven Rowley is one of those authors where if you read one of his novels, his name gets added to a mental “TBR” (to-be read) list. That is, of course, if you love rich characters written with love and humor that you'd...

Music Review: Ben Folds sings about motel flings and other topical subjects on hook-filled album

“What Matters Most,” Ben Folds (New West) Ben Folds’ pop confections are sweet and tart, a recipe that makes him popular with both boomers and college students. He’s a master melodist and sly satirist, a sentimental cynic and piano pounder who loves a waltz. All...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Apple is expected to unveil a sleek, pricey headset. Is it the device VR has been looking for?

Apple appears poised to unveil a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real...

Biden's 2024 pitch highlights pragmatism over Trump's pugilism

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden promised voters in 2020 that he knew how to get things done in Washington...

'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' swings to massive 0.5 million opening

NEW YORK (AP) — “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened in U.S. and Canadian theaters with a massive...

China tightens access to Tiananmen Square, 32 detained in Hong Kong on anniversary of 1989 protests

BEIJING (AP) — China tightened access to Tiananmen Square in central Beijing on Sunday, the anniversary of the...

Hundreds of thousands march in Poland anti-government protests to show support for democracy

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people marched in an anti-government protest in Poland's capital...

8 dead in South Africa shooting at men's hostel near Durban

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Gunmen burst into a room at a men's hostel near the eastern South African city of...

Bill Mears CNN Supreme Court Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a lawsuit challenging the federal government's sweeping electronic eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists and spies.

The case put personal liberty at odds with national security, making it one of the most important rulings of the high court's term.

The 5-4 conservative majority concluded the plaintiffs -- which included attorneys and journalists -- lacked "standing" or jurisdiction to proceed, without proof that suspects have been eavesdropped upon. The super secret National Security Agency has in turn refused to disclose specifics, which detractors call "Catch-22" logic.

Justice Samuel Alito said plaintiffs "cannot demonstrate that the future injury they purportedly fear is certainly impending."

The justices did not address the larger questions of the program's constitutionality, and this ruling will make it harder for future lawsuits to proceed.

At issue: Can these American plaintiffs who deal with overseas clients and co-workers file suit if they reasonably suspect -- but cannot know for sure -- that the government was reading and hearing their sensitive communications?

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was revised by Congress in 2008 to give the attorney general and the director of national intelligence greater authority to order "mass acquisition" of electronic traffic from suspected foreign terrorists or spies. The law previously required the government to justify a national security interest before any monitoring of phone calls and e-mails originating in another country. A federal judge had to sign any search warrant.

The larger issue involves the constitutionality of the federal government's electronic monitoring of targeted foreigners. A federal appeals court in New York ruled against the Obama administration, prompting the current appeal.

After such "warrantless wiretapping" was exposed, President George W. Bush and his congressional allies moved to amend the existing law, which supporters say is designed to target only foreigners living outside the United States.

Alito said that there were enough legal safeguards to ensure that any information gathered by the NSA would be used properly in court, and that a judicial FISA panel could review any particular surveillance.

"If the government were to prosecute one of the (plaintiffs') foreign clients using authorized surveillance, the government would be required to make a disclosure," Alito said. He was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer said the harm claimed by the plaintiffs "is not speculative. Indeed it is as likely to take place as are most future events that commonsense inference and ordinary knowledge of human nature tell us will happen." He was backed by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International told the court that little is known about the FISA Amendments Act, such as who has been targeted, how often it has been used and whether any problems or abuses have occurred.

A key point of contention was whether those amendments would stifle free speech of the work of lawyers, journalists and activists by forcing them to do their jobs less diligently, for fear of being monitored and perhaps prosecuted.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, speaking for the Justice Department, said that to the contrary, if the lawyer "took precautions, it would be because of a belief that (he or she) had to comply with an ethics rule, and the ethics rule would be the cause of (him or her) taking those precautions."

Either way, he said, there was no "concrete application" of the law permitting someone to come into court and make a claim based on "speculation."

The case is Clapper v. Amnesty International USA (11-1025).