Oregon County Plants Trees to Honor Victims of Killer 2021 Heat Wave
Family members of people killed by record-breaking heat in the Portland area three years ago gathered over the weekend to plant trees across Multnomah County in honor of its 72 victims. Authorities say more people died from the heat in the greater Portland area that June than in the entire state over the past 20 years.
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Portland Establishes Monument Review Process
City Council unanimously votes to create policy for questioning public monuments, now classified as separate from public art.
Lawsuit Accuses Portland Police Officer of Fatally Shooting Unarmed Black Man in the Back
According to the complaint, in 2022, the officer shot Immanueal Clark in the back as he ran away.
Black Girls Do Engineer is a nonprofit dedicated to getting more Black and brown girls into STEM ...
Rose Festival Princess From Grant High School Selected
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Portland Rose Festival 2024 Court Member from Cleveland High School Announced
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Portland Rose Festival 2024 Court Member from Central Catholic High School Announced
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Portland Rose Festival 2024 Court Member from Lincoln High School Announced
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Oregon man found guilty of murder in 1980 cold case of college student after DNA link
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Oregon county plants trees to honor victims of killer 2021 heat wave
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Family members of some of the people killed by record-breaking heat in the Portland, Oregon, area three years ago gathered over the weekend to plant trees across Multnomah County in honor of its 72 victims. The event, coordinated by county and local officials...
Georgia ends game on 12-0 run to beat Missouri 64-59 in first round of SEC tourney
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Georgia faces Missouri in SEC Tournament
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OP-ED: Congress Is Right: Federal Reserve’s Reg II Will Hurt Minority Communities in America
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OP-ED: A Silent Killer No More
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Message from Commissioner Jesse Beason: February is 'Black History and Futures Month'
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Ending Unfair Contracts Harming Minority Businesses Will Aid Gov. Kotek’s Affordable Housing Goals
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6 former Mississippi law officers to be sentenced for torture of 2 Black men
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Supreme Court appears receptive to NRA free-speech lawsuit against a former New York state official
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Descendant of judge who wrote infamous Dred Scott decision pens a play about where we are now
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The Lionheart: Dan Wheldon documentary covers grief, loss, love and familial legacy
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A new generation of readers embraces bell hooks' 'All About Love'
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Housing Secretary Fudge Resigning. Biden Hails Her Dedication to Boosting Supply of Affordable Homes
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US defense chief vows continued aid to Ukraine, even as Congress is stalled on funding bill
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Tuesday's primaries include a key Senate race in Ohio and clues for the Biden-Trump rematch
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The UK's contentious plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda is close to clearing Parliament
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South Korea will suspend licenses of 2 senior doctors in first punishment for doctors' walkouts
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Notre Dame Cathedral's restoration has been a 5-year journey of dedication and recovery
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DUBLIN (AP) — Gay couples of Ireland woke up Sunday in what felt like a nation reborn, with dreams of wedding plans dancing in their heads.
This new reality was sinking in after the Irish people voted with a surprisingly strong 62 percent "yes" to enshrine the right to gay marriage in the country's conservative 1937 constitution. Thousands of revelers of all sexual identities celebrated until dawn after the result was announced Saturday night.
The Justice Department confirmed Sunday it plans to draft a marriage bill this week that will permit those taking vows in civil ceremonies to choose either to be "husband and wife" or "spouses of each other." It will ensure that no church is required to perform a gay marriage, a key demand of the dominant Catholic Church and also the main Protestant and Muslim communities in Ireland.
Deputy Prime Minister Joan Burton said she expects the bill to become law by early July. Because existing law requires a minimum three-month notice for any civil marriages, the first gay weddings cannot happen until the fall.
For Sen. Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan, their day has nearly come. Since 2003 they have fought for legal recognition of their Canadian marriage, suffering setbacks and delays as they sued the state all the way to the Supreme Court.
"For so long, I've been having to dig in my heels and say ... Well, we ARE married. I'm a married woman!" said Zappone, a Seattle native who settled with her Irish spouse in Dublin three decades ago.
"We are now entering a new Ireland," said Gilligan, a former nun.
Zappone and Gilligan thrilled a crowd of thousands of rainbow flag-waving revelers Saturday at the results center at Dublin Castle with a playful promise to renew their vows. Zappone dramatically broke off from a live TV interview, stared directly into the camera, and asked Gilligan to marry her all over again.
"I said yes to Katherine 12 years ago at our marriage in Canada," Gilligan, nearby, shouted to the crowd. "And now we are bringing the 'yes' back home to Ireland, our country of Ireland! Yes, yes, yes!"
In a more sober mood Sunday, the couple reflected on their long road to social acceptance and the remaining wait to get officially hitched in Ireland, before Christmas they hope.
"It took us hours to get a taxi (Saturday night) because so many people came up to us in tears, wanting to talk to us. They now felt so much freer, and proud," said Zappone, who became Ireland's first openly lesbian lawmaker when Prime Minister Enda Kenny appointed her to the Senate in 2011.
"There aren't that many moments in life where you are surrounded with an exuberance of joy. These are rare moments," said Gilligan, a former Loreto nun who left the order in her mid-20s to pursue social justice as a lay Catholic. She wasn't sure about her sexuality until Zappone entered their first theology class together at Boston College in 1981.
"The door opened, and this gorgeous woman came in. I didn't know I was lesbian. I'm a late learner," Gilligan recalled with a laugh. "I fell in love with Katherine, and I went for it. I simply adored her, and I wanted to be with her forever and ever, and here we are!"
They married in Vancouver and sued Ireland for legal recognition, but in 2006 the High Court ruled that Irish law — while never explicit in defining marriage as solely between a man and woman — universally understood this to be the case. The Supreme Court kicked their appeal back to the High Court in 2012.
Months later Gilligan, who is in her late 60s, was hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. Zappone, yet again, faced bureaucratic presumptions when trying to see her wife, since hospital admissions didn't recognize her as a spouse or other family member. She could have lied and said they had an Irish-recognized civil partnership, a weaker form of marriage-style contract enacted into Irish law in 2010, but Zappone insisted on stating uncomfortable reality: "I am married to her, and you have to recognize that," she recalled.
The medical staff understood and, after Zappone had spent five weeks at Gilligan's bedside, a doctor wrote them a long note of appreciation, wishing he had what they had.
What they still won't have, for many months to come, is an Irish-recognized marriage.
The family section of Ireland's constitution eventually will read, "Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex." First, parliament must pass the same-sex marriage bill. Analysts expect easy passage, since all parties support the measure. Then Ireland's ceremonial head of state, President Michael D. Higgins, will sign the bill into law and amend the constitution.
"Technically and legally we'll probably have to wait until towards the end of the year," Zappone said. "Then we'll head towards the big day."
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