04-23-2024  4:11 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
  • Cloud 9 Cannabis CEO and co-owner Sam Ward Jr., left, and co-owner Dennis Turner pose at their shop, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, in Arlington, Wash. Cloud 9 is one of the first dispensaries to open under the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board's social equity program, established in efforts to remedy some of the disproportionate effects marijuana prohibition had on communities of color. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

    The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

    A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting.  Read More
  • Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

    Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

     Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color Read More
  • A woman gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up in San Francisco, Aug. 29, 2023. The Supreme Court will hear its most significant case on homelessness in decades Monday, April 22, 2024, as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live. The justices will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based federal appeals court that found punishing people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

    Supreme Court to Weigh Bans on Sleeping Outdoors 

    The Supreme Court will consider whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment on Monday. The case is considered the most significant to come before the high court in decades on homelessness, which is reaching record levels In California and other Western states. Courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to fine and arrest people sleeping in homeless encampments if shelter Read More
  • Richard Wallace, founder and director of Equity and Transformation, poses for a portrait at the Westside Justice Center, Friday, March 29, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

    Chicago's Response to Migrant Influx Stirs Longstanding Frustrations Among Black Residents

    With help from state and federal funds, the city has spent more than $300 million to provide housing, health care and more to over 38,000 mostly South American migrants. The speed with which these funds were marshaled has stirred widespread resentment among Black Chicagoans. But community leaders are trying to ease racial tensions and channel the public’s frustrations into agitating for the greater good. Read More
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NORTHWEST NEWS

The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting. 

Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

 Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color

Don’t Shoot Portland, University of Oregon Team Up for Black Narratives, Memory

The yearly Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary shows the power of preservation.

Grants Pass Anti-Camping Laws Head to Supreme Court

Grants Pass in southern Oregon has become the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled for April 22. The case has broad implications for cities, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. Since 2020, court orders have barred Grants Pass from enforcing its anti-camping laws. Now, the city is asking the justices to review lower court rulings it says has prevented it from addressing the city's homelessness crisis. Rights groups say people shouldn’t be punished for lacking housing.

NEWS BRIEFS

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...

OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide

Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...

Governor Kotek Announces Chief of Staff, New Office Leadership

Governor expands executive team and names new Housing and Homelessness Initiative Director ...

Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

5 Million dollars from Oregon CHIPS Act to be allocated to new Child Care Fund ...

Bank Announces 14th Annual “I Got Bank” Contest for Youth in Celebration of National Financial Literacy Month

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a $1,000 savings account ...

Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They're banning the book ban

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed when she heard that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and helped persuade their school board to make it...

US advances review of Nevada lithium mine amid concerns over endangered wildflower

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower. ...

KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...

Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...

OPINION

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...

OP-ED: Embracing Black Men’s Voices: Rebuilding Trust and Unity in the Democratic Party

The decision of many Black men to disengage from the Democratic Party is rooted in a complex interplay of historical disenchantment, unmet promises, and a sense of disillusionment with the political establishment. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Mississippi lawmakers move toward restoring voting rights to 32 felons as broader suffrage bill dies

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators advanced bills Monday to give voting rights back to 32 people convicted of felonies, weeks after a Senate leader killed a broader bill that would have restored suffrage to many more people with criminal records. The move is necessary due...

With graduation near, colleges seek to balance safety and students' right to protest Gaza war

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The University of Michigan is informing students of the rules for upcoming graduation ceremonies: Banners and flags are not allowed. Protests are OK but in designated areas away from the cap-and-gown festivities. The University of Southern California canceled...

Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They're banning the book ban

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed when she heard that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and helped persuade their school board to make it...

ENTERTAINMENT

What to stream this weekend: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift reigns

Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” landing on Netflix and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” album are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as...

Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch fully embraces the freedom that comes with improvisation on his solo album “Silent, Listening,” spontaneously composing and performing tunes that are often without melody, meter or form. Listening to them can be challenging and rewarding. The many-time...

Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace

Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Global plastic pollution treaty talks hit critical stage in Canada

Thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations are gathering in the Canadian...

Trump could avoid trial this year on 2020 election charges. Is the hush money case a worthy proxy?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faces serious charges in two separate cases over whether he...

What to know about the Supreme Court case about immunity for former President Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has scheduled a special session to hear arguments over whether former...

Aid approval brings Ukraine closer to replenishing troops struggling to hold front lines

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian commander Oleksiy Tarasenko witnessed a frightening shift last month in Russia's...

Israel's military intelligence chief resigns over failure to prevent Hamas attack on Oct. 7

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The head of Israeli military intelligence resigned on Monday because of Hamas' Oct. 7...

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous

BEIJING (AP) — The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting...

CNN Staff




A day after President Barack Obama made his case for both military intervention and diplomacy in Syria, world powers worked Wednesday to defuse the crisis.

Syria has agreed to a Russian plan to give up its chemical weapons, a move that could forestall international military strikes and possibly give diplomacy some positive traction.

But the bloody conflict in Syria continues to rage, and roadblocks and questions remain as to what's next for the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation.

Latest developments Wednesday:

-- Republican House member Mo Brooks of Alabama said he rejects President Obama's "argument that the best way to keep Syrians from killing Syrians is for Americans to kill Syrians. America has peaceful options. We should pursue them more vigorously."


Scroll down for the rest of President Obamas speech on Syria

Previous developments:
World diplomacy
-- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be heading to Geneva, Switzerland, for talks Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The two diplomats have talked nine times since the August 21 attack.

-- French President Francois Hollande, in a statement, said Paris is determined to explore all avenues at the U.N. Security Council "to allow an effective and verifiable monitoring" of chemical weapons in Syria. "France will remain - in constant contact with its partners - ready to" take action against "the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and to dissuade it from doing it again," Hollande said.

-- China says it will stay in communication with all relevant parties on possible actions that could be taken by the U.N. Security Council. "We maintain that actions taken by the Security Council should be based on the consensus reached between all parties through full consultation. And these actions should help ease tensions in Syria, maintain stability in the region and solve the Syrian issue politically," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

-- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "the proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons beyond use is potentially a positive development" and that "the Syrian regime must now demonstrate that they are willing to implement this without any delay." Barroso stressed that "only a political solution stands a chance of delivering the lasting peace that the Syrian people deserve."

-- The United States, France, and the United Kingdom are discussing a U.N. Security Council draft resolution, according to a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron. "The Russian government has put an idea forward and the situation has moved forward a bit quicker that initially envisaged," the spokesman said.

-- The Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, urged the U.S. Congress and parliaments of other nations to drop plans for an American attack on Syria, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.

U.S. Congress:

-- Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democratic senator, is part of a bipartisan group of senators working on an alternative resolution on Syria that would set key benchmarks that must be met to avoid a military strike in Syria. "What we're working on now, a number of us in the Senate, is a measure that will still incorporate, maintain the use of force authorization," he told CNN's "New Day." "But added to that would be a set of conditions that the Syrian regime would have to meet. They'd have to meet them on a strict timetable."

-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "all eyes are on" Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow pursues an initiative to put Syrian chemical arms under international control. "We all know that he was former head of the KGB. We all know about the KGB. He is president of that very big country and we are all so grateful that even though relations aren't perfect with Russia they are OK. So much better than they have been prior to the breakup of that massive country, the Soviet Union. So we hope that Russia is a productive partner in these negotiations."

-- U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, said he wished President Obama was "just as concerned about Americans murdered by terrorists" in Benghazi, Libya last year as he is with "Syrians being killed by Syrians."

On the ground:

-- Oxfam, the aid and development charity, says it welcomes steps by the United States and other governments to seek "peaceful means of bringing Syria's life threatening chemical weapons under control." "We have serious concerns that the use of military intervention will damage the prospects for peace and threatens to further destabilize the region," President Ray Offenheiser said.

-- Israeli President Shimon Peres weighed in Wednesday on the crisis."The world cannot remain silent regarding the bloodshed and murder of children that is taking place in Syria. Diplomacy is always preferable to war but the main issue at present is integrity and in particular the integrity of the Syrian regime. If Syria is honest and will take real steps to remove and destroy the chemical weapons in its territory, the U.S. will not attack. If there will be a crack in Syria's integrity I have no doubt that the U.S. will act militarily. Syria will not go back to being what it was, the war and terror have divided that country into parts, into a number of countries."

-- Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said on Twitter "there is no military solution to this crisis and that the cycle of violence and the continuing bloodshed of the Syrian people MUST stop as soon as possible."

-- "The Russian initiative to put the Syrian chemical weapons under international control represents a significant development in the course of addressing the current crisis," Elaraby tweeted.

U.N. Commission of Inquiry report:

-- The U.N. Commission of Inquiry report about Syria issued Wednesday details nine mass killings from March to June, eight believed to be carried out by government and pro-government forces and one thought to be perpetrated by anti-government armed groups.

-- One of the eight massacres the report attributed to government forces was a notorious event that occurred in the village of al-Bayda last May.

-- Some victims in al-Bayda "appeared to have been hit in the head with blunt, heavy objects. Bodies of 30 women, also apparently executed, were found in a house not far from the centre while tens of bodies were strewn in the streets. Between 150-250 civilians were allegedly killed," the report said. "There are reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and affiliated militia including the National Defence Forces are the perpetrators of the Al-Bayda massacre."

-- "Government forces have committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and violations of international human rights law" and "some anti-government armed groups have committed war crimes," according to the U.N. panel, which is investigating the violation of international law in the Syria crisis.

-- Fighting is "raging between Government forces, pro-Government forces, anti-Government armed groups and Kurdish armed groups," the commission said Wednesday. Civilians "continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict," the commission said.

-- "Government and pro-government forces have continued to conduct widespread attacks on the civilian population, committing murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance as crimes against humanity," the commission said. "They have laid siege to neighborhoods and subjected them to indiscriminate shelling. Government forces have committed gross violations of human rights and the war crimes of torture, hostage-taking, murder, execution without due process, rape, attacking protected objects and pillage."

-- "Anti-government armed groups have committed war crimes, including murder, execution without due process, torture, hostage-taking and attacking protected objects. They have besieged and indiscriminately shelled civilian neighborhoods."

-- "Anti-government and Kurdish armed groups have recruited and used child soldiers in hostilities," the report said.

-- "Allegations were received regarding the use of chemical weapons, predominantly by government forces," the commission said. "On the evidence currently available, it was not possible to reach a finding about the chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrators. Investigations are ongoing."

-- "The majority of casualties result from unlawful attacks using conventional weapons. Nevertheless, the debate over what international action to take, if any, has assumed new urgency following the alleged use of chemical weapons in August," the commission said.

-- Recent missions to Syria, including a U.N. mission to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons, "give rise to hopes that the commission will be able to visit the country in the near future," the commission said.

-- The commission said "regional armed actors" have gotten involved with the conflict "increasingly on sectarian lines."

-- Hezbollah militants fight with the government and Iraqi Shiites are traveling to Syria to fight for the regime, the U.N. report said.

-- Iran has extended a $3.6 billion credit line to the government. A loan from Russia "is reportedly under discussion, while pre-conflict arms deals between Moscow and Damascus continue to be honored."

-- Influential Sunni clerics from several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are urging Sunnis "to join the jihad against" the Syrian government and its supporters. There are appeals for money and weapons to anti-government armed groups.























The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast