12-02-2024  2:41 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Oregon Tribe Has Hunting and Fishing Rights Restored Under a Long-Sought Court Ruling

The tribe was among the dozens that lost federal recognition in the 1950s and ‘60s under a policy of assimilation known as “termination.” Congress voted to re-recognize the tribe in 1977. But to have their land restored, the tribe had to agree to a federal court order that limited their hunting, fishing and gathering rights. 

Forecasts Warn of Possible Winter Storms Across US During Thanksgiving Week

Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “bomb cyclone” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Fewer than 25,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power Sunday evening.

Huge Number Of Illegal Guns In Portland Come From Licensed Dealers, New Report Shows

Local gun safety advocacy group argues for state-level licensing and regulation of firearm retailers.

'Bomb Cyclone' Kills 1 and Knocks out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

A major storm was sweeping across the northwest U.S., battering the region with strong winds and rain. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Grants up to $120,000 Educate About Local Environmental Projects

Application period for WA nonprofits open Jan. 7 ...

Literary Arts Opens New Building on SE Grand Ave

The largest literary center in the Western U.S. includes a new independent bookstore and café, event space, classrooms, staff offices...

Allen Temple CME Church Women’s Day Celebration

The Rev. Dr. LeRoy Haynes, senior pastor/presiding elder, and First Lady Doris Mays Haynes are inviting the public to attend the...

Vote By Mail Tracking Act Passes House with Broad Support

The bill co-led by Congressman Mfume would make it easier for Americans to track their mail-in ballots; it advanced in the U.S. House...

OMSI Opens Indoor Ice Rink for the Holiday Season

This is the first year the unique synthetic ice rink is open. ...

AP Top 25: Ohio St, Miami, Clemson drop; Texas, Penn St, Notre Dame, Georgia in line behind Oregon

Ohio State, Miami and Clemson plunged in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday following their losses during a wild weekend, eight of the top 10 teams moved up one spot and Oregon was No. 1 for the seventh straight week. The shakeup creates two top-five matchups in...

Oregon tribe has hunting and fishing rights restored under a long-sought court ruling

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. (AP) — Drumming made the floor vibrate and singing filled the conference room of the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, on the Oregon coast, as hundreds in tribal regalia danced in a circle. For the last 47 years, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz...

Cal visits Missouri after Wilkinson's 25-point game

California Golden Bears (6-1) at Missouri Tigers (6-1) Columbia, Missouri; Tuesday, 7 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Cal faces Missouri after Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 25 points in Cal's 81-55 win over the Mercyhurst Lakers. The Tigers are 6-0 on their home court....

Judd leads Missouri against Jacksonville State after 22-point game

Jacksonville State Gamecocks (4-1) at Missouri Tigers (6-3) Columbia, Missouri; Sunday, 3 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: Missouri plays Jacksonville State after Ashton Judd scored 22 points in Missouri's 85-57 win against the Wichita State Shockers. The Tigers have...

OPINION

A Loan Shark in Your Pocket: Cellphone Cash Advance Apps

Fast-growing app usage leaves many consumers worse off. ...

America’s Healing Can Start with Family Around the Holidays

With the holiday season approaching, it seems that our country could not be more divided. That division has been perhaps the main overarching topic of our national conversation in recent years. And it has taken root within many of our own families. ...

Donald Trump Rides Patriarchy Back to the White House

White male supremacy, which Trump ran on, continues to play an outsized role in exacerbating the divide that afflicts our nation. ...

Why Not Voting Could Deprioritize Black Communities

President Biden’s Justice40 initiative ensures that 40% of federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities, addressing deep-seated inequities. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

California bill would give public university admission priority to slaves' descendants

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California lawmaker said he will introduce a bill Monday that would give admission priority to the descendants of slaves at the University of California and California State University, the state’s two large public university systems. Assemblymember...

A white Kansas detective accused of preying on Black women for decades faces trial

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A white Kansas police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls and terrorizing those who tried to fight back is about to go on federal trial, part of a tangle of cases tied to decades of alleged abuse. Prosecutors say female residents...

Summations set in trial of veteran charged with death of NYC subway rider he put in chokehold

NEW YORK (AP) — Closing arguments are set for Monday in the trial of a military veteran charged with recklessly choking to death a mentally ill, homeless man after an outburst on a New York subway. Daniel Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent...

ENTERTAINMENT

Music Review: The Breeders' Kim Deal soars on solo debut, a reunion with the late Steve Albini

When the Pixies set out to make their 1988 debut studio album, they enlisted Steve Albini to engineer “Surfer Rosa,” the seminal alternative record which includes the enduring hit, “Where Is My Mind?” That experience was mutually beneficial to both parties — and was the beginning of a...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 1-7

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 1-7: Dec. 1: Actor-director Woody Allen is 89. Singer Dianne Lennon of the Lennon Sisters is 85. Bassist Casey Van Beek of The Tractors is 82. Singer-guitarist Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult is 80. Drummer John Densmore of The Doors is 80....

Music Review: Father John Misty's 'Mahashmashana' offers cynical, theatrical take on life and death

The title of Father John Misty's sixth studio album, “Mahashmashana,” is a reference to cremation, and the first song proposes “a corpse dance.” Religious overtones mix with the undercurrent of a midlife crisis atop his folk chamber pop. And for those despairing recent events, some lyrics...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Biden has pardoned his son Hunter. What does that mean?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden had long pledged that he would not pardon his son, Hunter, who was set to...

Before exiting, Biden heads to Africa to highlight his own counter to China. Will Trump take it up?

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — President Joe Biden is finally making his long-promised visit to Africa this...

Lake-effect snow blankets the Great Lakes as Thanksgiving travelers head home

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Lake-effect snow blanketed swaths of the U.S. as Thanksgiving travelers journeyed home...

US Navy destroys Houthi missiles and drones targeting American ships in Gulf of Aden

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s...

Hong Kong launches panda sculpture tour as the city hopes the bear craze boosts tourism

HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of giant panda sculptures will greet residents and tourists starting Saturday in Hong...

Taiwan's president arrives in Hawaii for a 2-day stop in the US as part of South Pacific visit

HONOLULU (AP) — Taiwan's president Lai Ching-te arrived Saturday in Hawaii to begin a two-day transit in the...

CNN and The Skanner News



The U.S. National Security Agency has secretly succeeded in breaking much of the encryption that keeps people's personal data safe online, according to reports by The New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica.

The reports, produced in partnership and published Thursday, are the latest to emerge based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to Britain's Guardian newspaper.

According to the reports, the NSA, alongside its UK equivalent, Government Communications Headquarters, better known as GCHQ, has been able to unscramble much of the encoding that protects everything from personal e-mails to banking systems, medical records and Internet chats.

The agencies' methods include the use of supercomputers to crack codes, covert measures to introduce weaknesses into encryption standards and behind-doors collaboration with technology companies and Internet service providers themselves.

"Through these covert partnerships, the agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities -- known as backdoors or trapdoors -- into commercial encryption software," The Guardian says.

And the agency spends $250 million a year to get corporations and tech companies to cooperate.

The Guardian cites a 2010 GCHQ memo that it says describes a briefing on NSA accomplishments given to GCHQ employees.

"For the past decade, NSA has lead (sic) an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to break widely used Internet encryption technologies," the memo reportedly says. "Vast amounts of encrypted Internet data which have up till now been discarded are now exploitable."

A second memo is quoted as saying that when the British analysts, who often work alongside NSA officers, were first told about the program, "those not already briefed were gobsmacked."

Another document states that GCHQ has been working to find ways into the encrypted data sent via four big Internet firms, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft's Hotmail, the reports claim.

GCHQ told CNN it had no comment on The Guardian report.

The reports claim that the NSA worked to develop more covert ways of unscrambling online data after losing a public battle in the 1990s to insert a government "back door" into all programming.

'Foundation of web security'

Computer security expert Mikko Hypponen believes the revelation is the most important leak to date from Snowden.

"It may not have gained as many headlines as some of his other stories, because most people don't understand how crypto systems work. If indeed U.S intelligence does indeed have such a wide range of systems, then I'm surprised," he told CNN.

Crypto encryption is relevant to everyday applications that everyone uses, for example in communications and transactions, he said. "Now we learn that the foundation of web security has been compromised."

Hypponen, the chief research officer for F-Secure, said he believes the NSA and GCHQ had probably cracked the encryption by placing moles in key companies at key locations. "Any major service provider must have sizable amounts of moles from intelligence agencies. Remember that the NSA has 35,000 people working for it," he said.

"The ordinary user should not be worried by these revelations -- it's obvious that intelligence agencies are not interested in hacking financial transactions -- but they should be outraged."

He suggested those outside the United States should be the most concerned.

"How many U.S. politicians use French cloud-services? Almost none. But how many French politicians use U.S. cloud services? All of them," he said. "Remember that 96 percent of the planet's inhabitants are foreigners to the United States, so it's wrong that the U.S. has a legal right to access foreign communications."

Public concern

The scope of hidden U.S. surveillance programs has been brought to public light through leaks to media outlets by Snowden, who fled the United States and is now in Russia under temporary asylum. He faces espionage charges.

The revelations have led many Americans, according to polls, to harbor skepticism about the NSA programs. They've also generated concern in Congress as well as from privacy groups and libertarians.

Last month, President Barack Obama sought to allay people's unease over the work of the intelligence agency in an interview with CNN "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo.

Obama said he was confident no one at the NSA is "trying to abuse this program or listen in on people's e-mail." The president chalked much of the concern with domestic snooping on changes in technology.

"I think there are legitimate concerns that people have that technology is moving so quick," Obama said. "What I recognize is that we're going to have to continue to improve the safeguards and as technology moves forward, that means that we may be able to build technologies that give people more assurance."

CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

 

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