04-25-2024  10:45 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States

In support of DEI, Oregon and Washington have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Epiphanny Prince Hired by Liberty in Front Office Job Day After Retiring

A day after announcing her retirement, Epiphanny Prince has a new job working with the New York Liberty as director of player and community engagement. Prince will serve on the basketball operations and business staffs, bringing her 14 years of WNBA experience to the franchise. 

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

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 ...

Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge US to prosecute the company

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost 5 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers. ...

Authorities confirm 2nd victim of ex-Washington officer was 17-year-old with whom he had a baby

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a body found at the home of a former Washington state police officer who killed his ex-wife before fleeing to Oregon, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was that of a 17-year-old girl with whom he had a baby. ...

Missouri hires Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch for the same role with the Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri hired longtime college administrator Laird Veatch to be its athletic director on Tuesday, bringing him back to campus 14 years after he departed for a series of other positions that culminated with five years spent as the AD at Memphis. Veatch...

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...

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

Bishop stabbed during Sydney church service backs X's legal case to share video of the attack

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A Sydney bishop who was stabbed repeatedly in an alleged extremist attack blamed on a teenager has backed X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s legal bid to overturn an Australian ban on sharing graphic video of the attack on social media. A live stream of the...

Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok. Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley “HJ” Coleman IV to make putts on a...

2021 death of young Black man at rural Missouri home was self-inflicted, FBI tells AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation has concluded that a young Black man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a rural Missouri home, not at the hands of the white homeowner who had a history of racist social media postings, an FBI official told The Associated Press Wednesday. ...

ENTERTAINMENT

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....

Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots to headline the BET Experience concerts in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots will headline concerts to celebrate the return of the BET Experience in Los Angeles just days before the 2024 BET Awards. BET announced Monday the star-studded lineup of the concert series, which makes a return after a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Columbia's president, no stranger to complex challenges, walks tightrope on student protests

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik is no stranger to navigating complex international issues, having...

US abortion battle rages on with moves to repeal Arizona ban and a Supreme Court case

Action in courts and state capitals around the U.S. this week have made it clear again: The overturning of Roe v....

New York prosecutors in Trump's hush money trial say former president continues to violate gag order

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors said Thursday that Donald Trump again violated a gag order in his hush money trial,...

Russia vetoes a UN resolution calling for the prevention of a dangerous nuclear arms race in space

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan...

A Chinese ship remains the focus of the investigation into Baltic Sea gas pipeline damaged last year

HELSINKI (AP) — A Chinese container ship remains the focus of an investigation into what caused the damage last...

Macron outlines his vision for Europe to become an assertive global power as war in Ukraine rages on

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build...

Lisa Loving of The Skanner

As Portland boils with righteous anger over the police killing of a suicidally-despondent man – some in support of the shooting, many outraged by it -- the 631-page police report released this week only adds to the tragic story.

UPDATE: Mayor Sam Adams and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman Thursday afternoon announced they'll be joining with Black leaders to call for a U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights investigation into the fatal police shooting of Aaron Campbell.
Adams and Saltzman attended the African American Alliance breakfast event held this morning at the American Red Cross office to discuss "next steps" for community organizing around the tragedy.
Saltzman staffer Shannon Callahan confirmed the coalition of elected and community leaders will request a federal investigation into the shooting "and the larger issue of the Portland Police Bureau."
"It's a highly fluid situation," Callahan told The Skanner News.
The official announcement is set for Friday, Feb. 19 at 9:30 at the Northeast Precinct, while at noon another protest march is set for 3 p.m. at Pioneer Courthouse Square to urge Oregon Attorney General John Kroger to launch an investigation into the police shooting of Aaron Campbell.
Kroger had already scheduled a special event Friday Feb. 19 at Portland state University to flesh out his priorities for the state's new Civil Rights Unit, and introduce its new chief, Assistant Attorney General Diane Schwartz.
That event starts at 3:30 p.m., at the Urban Center, Room 250, at Southwest Fifth and Mill Streets.
Rev. Jesse Jackson – who spoke to Portlanders Wednesday night at Marantha Church – inspired a hundreds-strong rally Thursday at noon, protesting Frashour's return to duty. The group stormed City Hall, demanding to speak with Mayor Sam Adams, who met with Campbell family members after a tense confrontation.
Also today the Multnomah County District Attorney released a 454-page transcript of the Grand Jury proceedings into the Campbell shooting, plus a transcript of the 9-1-1 call that triggered the police response and the Medical Examiner's report. Read it here http://www.mcda.us/index.php 
The medical document failed to specify a time of death for Campbell, 25, who did not receive medical attention after being beanbag-gunned, attacked by a German shepherd and shot in the back with an AR-15 rifle.

The Police report was released Tuesday, hours before the Rev. Jesse Jackson met with city officials and addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland, calling Aaron Campbell's death an "execution."
Jackson, criticizing the Police Bureau for allowing Officer Ronald Frashour off desk duty and back to work as a community policing liaison in the East Precinct, called for people to march on City Hall as The Skanner News went to press Wednesday.
A hundreds-strong crowd confronted Mayor Sam Adams, who spoke to the group, then invited the Campbell family into his office for a private meeting before the demonstration broke up.
Also this week, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jean Kerr Maurer ruled to release the transcripts of the Grand Jury investigation on Campbell's death, which county officials said may be available Thursday, Feb. 18 on the Multnomah County District Attorney's website.
According to the police report, Campbell, shot in the back Jan. 29 after a 90-minute standoff in the parking lot of his girlfriend's apartment complex, had just concluded a successful negotiation with police crisis counselors and agreed via text messages not to hurt himself or anyone else.
However as he exited the apartment, a "containment and custody team" assembled in the dark, rainy parking lot – one officer armed with a "less lethal" bean-bag shotgun, one providing "lethal cover" with an AR-15 rifle, and a "take down" K9 officer/dog team – had not been kept in the loop of negotiation developments, and effectively took matters into their own hands.
While the negotiator, Officer James Quackenbush, established effective – even jocular – rapport with Campbell, eventually persuading him to put away his gun and give himself up, the officers outside say they were "surprised" by Campbell's "sudden" appearance, threatened by his quick movements and "very determined manner."
As word came to the crisis negotiators that Campbell was preparing to exit the apartment, and managing Sgt. Liani Reyna was called away from the scene to report to her two commanding officers, the three officers in the parking lot all three discharged their weapons, leaving Campbell bleeding on the pavement within one minute of closing off negotiations and stepping outside.
The "involved" officers, Ryan Lewton, Ronald Frashour, and Jeff Elias, refused to be interviewed by investigators on the night of the incident, and only gave their testimony with their lawyers present on Feb. 1.
Frashour, who fired the fatal shot, told investigators he was focused on his tactical role as "lethal cover," and didn't hear all the commands given to Campbell by Lewton, who appears to have set the final situation in motion by issuing commands that Campbell followed at first.
When, as Lewton testified, Campbell didn't put his hands up over his head as he was commanded to do, Lewton fired a bean bag "into his rear end" to "gain compliance." Lewton said he kept issuing commands and shooting the bean bags, hitting Campbell with every shot.
Within seconds – as Elias' dog Bono barked loudly – Campbell started running back toward the apartment.
While police witnesses differ on the final seconds, at about the time the bean bags were being shot in rapid succession, Elias loosed his dog on Campbell, and a few seconds later Frashour fired one shot, taking Campbell down just before the dog attacked.
Elias testified that he could hear the dog biting Campbell, but he couldn't hear Campbell making any sound. Elias said he had to remind the other officers that his dog was still "on" Campbell, and since the other officers couldn't decide what to do, he called the dog back.
Nevertheless, after he was shot, officers believed Campbell was potentially armed and dangerous and under cover of a vehicle, they said, and so for more than 20 minutes, no one approached Campbell to find out whether he was alive.
The police report confirms that Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) officers approached Campbell after he was shot, using a shield, and handcuffed his hands behind his back but never provided any medical assistance.
Multiple witnesses say officers called out to Campbell where he lay, commanding him to move his feet, but that it appeared he did not move at all.
A medical examiner's report the next day determined Campbell died from the single gunshot wound to the back.
He had multiple wounds from the bean bags and dog bites on this lower right leg.
The police file does not include the autopsy report and, while large sections of the Medical Examiner's report are blacked out, does not offer a time of death.
"Officer Frashour knew suicidal persons can be irrational, unpredictable, hostile and homicidal," the police report said. "Officer Frashour said his first thought was what needed to be done to protect the children."

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast