05-01-2024  9:30 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

What Marijuana Reclassification Means for the United States

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use. Some advocates for legalized weed say the move doesn't go far enough, while opponents say it goes too far.

US Long-Term Care Costs Are Sky-High, but Washington State’s New Way to Help Pay for Them Could Be Nixed

A group funded by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood is attempting to undermine the financial stability of Washington state's new long-term care social insurance program.

A Massive Powerball Win Draws Attention to a Little-Known Immigrant Culture in the US

An immigrant from Laos who has been battling cancer won an enormous jumi.3 billion Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month. But Cheng “Charlie” Saephan's luck hasn't just changed his life — it's also drawn attention to Iu Mien, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.

City Council Strikes Down Gonzalez’s ‘Inhumane’ Suggestion for Blanket Ban on Public Camping

Mayor Wheeler’s proposal for non-emergency ordinance will go to second reading.

NEWS BRIEFS

April 30 is the Registration Deadline for the May Primary Election

Voters can register or update their registration online at OregonVotes.gov until 11:59 p.m. on April 30. ...

Chair Jessica Vega Pederson Releases $3.96 Billion Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Investments will boost shelter and homeless services, tackle the fentanyl crisis, strengthen the safety net and support a...

New Funding Will Invest in Promising Oregon Technology and Science Startups

Today Business Oregon and its Oregon Innovation Council announced a million award to the Portland Seed Fund that will...

Unity in Prayer: Interfaith Vigil and Memorial Service Honoring Youth Affected by Violence

As part of the 2024 National Youth Violence Prevention Week, the Multnomah County Prevention and Health Promotion Community Adolescent...

Tension grows on UCLA campus as police order dispersal of large pro-Palestinian gathering

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Law enforcement on the UCLA campus donned riot gear Wednesday evening as they ordered the dispersal of over a thousand people who had gathered in support of a pro-Palestinian student encampment, warning over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest. ...

Appeals court rejects climate change lawsuit by young Oregon activists against US government

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a long-running lawsuit brought by young Oregon-based climate activists who argued that the U.S. government's role in climate change violated their constitutional rights. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

The Bo Nix era begins in Denver, and the Broncos also drafted his top target at Oregon

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — For the first time in his 17 seasons as a coach, Sean Payton has a rookie quarterback to nurture. Payton's Denver Broncos took Bo Nix in the first round of the NFL draft. The coach then helped out both himself and Nix by moving up to draft his new QB's top...

Elliss, Jenkins, McCaffrey join Harrison and Alt in following their fathers into the NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Kris Jenkins, Jonah Ellis and Luke McCaffrey have turned the NFL draft into a family affair. The sons of former pro football stars, they've followed their fathers' formidable footsteps into the league. Elliss was...

OPINION

New White House Plan Could Reduce or Eliminate Accumulated Interest for 30 Million Student Loan Borrowers

Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

Loving and Embracing the Differences in Our Youngest Learners

Yet our responsibility to all parents and society at large means we must do more to share insights, especially with underserved and under-resourced communities. ...

Gallup Finds Black Generational Divide on Affirmative Action

Each spring, many aspiring students and their families begin receiving college acceptance letters and offers of financial aid packages. This year’s college decisions will add yet another consideration: the effects of a 2023 Supreme Court, 6-3 ruling that...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Advocates say Supreme Court must preserve new, mostly Black US House district for 2024 elections

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Voting rights advocates said Wednesday they will go to the Supreme Court in hopes of preserving a new majority Black congressional district in Louisiana for the fall elections, the latest step in a complicated legal fight that could determine the fate of political careers and...

House passes bill to expand definition of antisemitism amid growing campus protests over Gaza war

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Wednesday that would establish a broader definition of antisemitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws, the latest response from lawmakers to a nationwide student protest movement over the Israel-Hamas war. ...

Ethan Hawke and Maya Hawke have a running joke about ‘Wildcat,’ their Flannery O’Connor movie

Ethan Hawke and his daughter Maya Hawke have a running joke about their Flannery O’Connor movie. “Wildcat,” which Ethan directed and Maya stars in as O’Connor, was made with complete sincerity. It’s a deeply creative investigation into the Southern Catholic novelist and...

ENTERTAINMENT

Music Review: Neil Young delivers appropriately ragged, raw live version of 1990's 'Ragged Glory'

The venerable Neil Young offers a ragged and raw live take of his beloved 1990 album “Ragged Glory” with a new album, titled “Fu##in’ Up.” Of course, the 2024 version doesn't have the same semi-youthful energy that the 44-year-old Young put into the original. Maybe his voice...

Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi is 'tickled pink' to inspire a Barbie doll

Like many little girls, a young Kristi Yamaguchi loved playing with Barbie. With a schedule packed with ice skating practices, her Barbie dolls became her “best friends.” So, it's surreal for the decorated Olympian figure skater to now be a Barbie girl herself. ...

Book Review: Rachel Khong’s new novel 'Real Americans' explores race, class and cultural identity

In 2017 Rachel Khong wrote a slender, darkly comic novel, “Goodbye, Vitamin,” that picked up a number of accolades and was optioned for a film. Now she has followed up her debut effort with a sweeping, multigenerational saga that is twice as long and very serious. “Real...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Pregnancy-related deaths have fallen to pre-pandemic levels, new US data says

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. pregnancy-related deaths have fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, new government data...

At time of rising antisemitism, Holocaust survivors take on denial and hate in new digital campaign

DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Herbert Rubinstein was 5 years old when he and his mother where taken from the...

Appeals court rejects climate change lawsuit by young Oregon activists against US government

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a long-running lawsuit brought by young...

Drone footage shows devastation in Ukraine's strategic eastern city of Chasiv Yar as Russians near

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Months of relentless Russian artillery pounding have devastated a strategic city in eastern...

Kremlin parades Western equipment captured from Ukrainian army at Moscow exhibition

MOSCOW (AP) — An exhibition of Western military equipment captured from Kyiv forces during the fighting in...

AP PHOTOS: Workers rule the streets on May Day

For one day, workers ruled the world’s biggest streets. Thousands strong marched Wednesday to...

By Ben Brumfield and Gul Tuysuz CNN

Turkey's prime minister called on protesters camped out in Istanbul's Gezi Park to pack up and leave. "We are running out of patience," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his party in the capital, Ankara, on Thursday.

"I am making this warning for one last time."

Rather than softening his stance toward the protesters, he intensified his heated rhetoric, at times pushing into the absurd.

Gezi Park reeks, making it high time for police to clear it out, Erdogan said.

"It stinks of pee. In fact, some of them even poo in there."

He lashed out at rowdy demonstrators, whom he called "vagabonds" and "thugs." But he also told peaceful protesters they need not complain about the actions of his police, because they had put themselves in the line of tear gas fire by associating with the wrong people and illegal groups.

"Where dry wood is burning, fresh wood will also burn unnecessarily," he said. He vowed to continue routing out rowdies and ordered peaceful protesters out of the park, asking them to leave police alone with "illegal groups."

"Come forward mothers, fathers, please, claim your children. Let those children withdraw from that area," he said. "Gezi Park does not belong to occupation forces, Gezi Park belongs to Istanbul's people and the whole nation."

Erdogan's party has organized counterprotests for the weekend to give a voice to Turkey's "quiet majority to the people and the world," he said. They will show the international community "a real, true picture of Turkey."

Two rallies will be held away from anti-government protests to avoid possible confrontations, he said.

No negotiations

Potential negotiations between Erdogan and protest leaders deteriorated Wednesday, when many of the leaders backed out over resentment of heavy-handed police measures the previous night.

The meeting turned into a powwow between the prime minister and protesters friendly with his government, one protest leader who did not attend said.

With no sign of meaningful negotiations with protesters on the horizon, Turkey, a NATO ally with a democratically elected government, could see clashes grip more of the country. And harsh actions against protesters could strain Erdogan's strategic friendships with much of the West -- relationships that are particularly critical in light of the civil war ravaging Turkey's neighbor, Syria.

The anti-Erdogan protests show no sign of abating.

What began in late May as a demonstration focused on the environment -- opposition to a plan to build a mall in Gezi Park -- has evolved into a wider protest against Erdogan that's spread around the country.

International criticism

Erdogan also dealt a slap to the European Union for a resolution it passed Thursday condemning his country's police crackdown on protesters and the suppression of opposition voices.

"The European Parliament's decisions about us, I am not recognizing those decisions," he said.

The comments triggered a thunderous standing ovation and roaring cheers from party members.

"How dare you make such decisions about my country?"

His angry words were echoed by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said the European Parliament had no right to censure Turkey if it didn't do the same when other European nations tackled protests in similar ways.

For example, he said, water cannons and tear gas were used by German security forces at an Occupy protest in Frankfurt on June 1, the same day as they were deployed in Turkey, without drawing criticism.

"Turkey will always support the freedom of demonstration ... but if this is misused, we distinguish between the innocent demonstrators and the marginal groups who try to misuse the right of demonstration," he said.

He accused some people of trying to damage Turkey's image in the eyes of the world.

Turkey has for many years expressed the desire to become a member of the European Union.

Experts and human rights groups say Erdogan's government lags when it comes to human rights and freedom of expression by opponents.

"Prosecutors and courts continued to use terrorism laws to prosecute and prolong incarceration of thousands of Kurdish political activists, human rights defenders, students, journalists and trade unionists," Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2013 report on Turkey.

Turkish journalists are afraid to write anything critical of the government, and media companies are slapped with huge tax fines for covering uncomfortable topics.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkish authorities have targeted journalists with detention for covering the protests.

The prime minister has said many times he will not back down.

CNN's Ivan Watson, Nick Paton Walsh, Gul Tuysuz and Arwa Damon reported from Istanbul; Josh Levs, Ben Brumfield and Greg Botelho reported from Atlanta.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast