04-18-2024  7:50 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

Four Ballot Measures for Portland Voters to Consider

Proposals from the city, PPS, Metro and Urban Flood Safety & Water Quality District.

Washington Gun Store Sold Hundreds of High-Capacity Ammunition Magazines in 90 Minutes Without Ban

KGW-TV reports Wally Wentz, owner of Gator’s Custom Guns in Kelso, described Monday as “magazine day” at his store. Wentz is behind the court challenge to Washington’s high-capacity magazine ban, with the help of the Silent Majority Foundation in eastern Washington.

NEWS BRIEFS

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 jumi,000 savings account ...

Literary Arts Transforms Historic Central Eastside Building Into New Headquarters

The new 14,000-square-foot literary center will serve as a community and cultural hub with a bookstore, café, classroom, and event...

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Announces New Partnership with the University of Oxford

Tony Bishop initiated the CBCF Alumni Scholarship to empower young Black scholars and dismantle financial barriers ...

Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Returns to Mt. Hood Community College with Acclaimed Artists

Performing at the festival are acclaimed artists Joshua Redman, Hailey Niswanger, Etienne Charles and Creole Soul, Camille Thurman,...

Idaho's ban on youth gender-affirming care has families desperately scrambling for solutions

Forced to hide her true self, Joe Horras’ transgender daughter struggled with depression and anxiety until three years ago, when she began to take medication to block the onset of puberty. The gender-affirming treatment helped the now-16-year-old find happiness again, her father said. ...

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. ...

University of Missouri plans 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is planning a 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. The Memorial Stadium Improvements Project, expected to be completed by the 2026 season, will further enclose the north end of the stadium and add a variety of new premium...

The sons of several former NFL stars are ready to carve their path into the league through the draft

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. wears his dad’s No. 54, plays the same position and celebrates sacks and big tackles with the same signature axe swing. Now, he’s ready to make a name for himself in the NFL. So are several top prospects who play the same positions their fathers played in the...

OPINION

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. ...

COMMENTARY: Is a Cultural Shift on the Horizon?

As with all traditions in all cultures, it is up to the elders to pass down the rituals, food, language, and customs that identify a group. So, if your auntie, uncle, mom, and so on didn’t teach you how to play Spades, well, that’s a recipe lost. But...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

US deports about 50 Haitians to nation hit with gang violence, ending monthslong pause in flights

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence. The Homeland Security Department said in a...

Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai producing. An election coming. ‘Suffs’ has timing on its side

NEW YORK (AP) — Shaina Taub was in the audience at “Suffs,” her buzzy and timely new musical about women’s suffrage, when she spied something that delighted her. It was intermission, and Taub, both creator and star, had been watching her understudy perform at a matinee preview...

Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson confronts history at US pavilion as its first solo Indigenous artist

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Jeffrey Gibson’s takeover of the U.S. pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale contemporary art show is a celebration of color, pattern and craft, which is immediately evident on approaching the bright red facade decorated by a colorful clash of geometry and a foreground...

ENTERTAINMENT

Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS 'NewsHour' nightly newscast, dies at 93

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93. MacNeil died of natural causes at New...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 21-27

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 21-27: April 21: Actor Elaine May is 92. Singer Iggy Pop is 77. Actor Patti LuPone is 75. Actor Tony Danza is 73. Actor James Morrison (“24”) is 70. Actor Andie MacDowell is 66. Singer Robert Smith of The Cure is 65. Guitarist Michael...

What to stream this week: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift will reign

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson confronts history at US pavilion as its first solo Indigenous artist

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Jeffrey Gibson’s takeover of the U.S. pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale...

Two shootings, two different responses — Maine restricts guns while Iowa arms teachers

Six months after a deadly mass shooting by an Army reservist, Maine lawmakers this week passed a wide-ranging...

Trump loses bid to halt Jan. 6 lawsuits while he fights criminal charges in the 2020 election case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the...

Senate advances renewal of key US surveillance program as detractors seek changes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate advanced legislation Thursday that would reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance tool...

Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint, saying Israel will decide how to respond to Iran's attack

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday his country would be the one to decide...

Israelis grapple with how to celebrate Passover, a holiday about freedom, while many remain captive

JERUSALEM (AP) — Every year, Alon Gat’s mother led the family's Passover celebration of the liberation of the...

By Kim Segal and Greg Botelho CNN



Enough with the texting, a Florida judge told Kaitlyn Hunt after hearing testimony about thousands of text messages -- some of them explicit -- the Florida teenager reportedly sent to her underage girlfriend after being ordered not to while awaiting trial on charges of having sex with the girl.

Judge Robert Pegg sent Hunt, 19, to jail Tuesday, ordering her held on bond pending trial. She'll also be limited to communicating with her lawyers, guards, fellow inmates and perhaps a few choice visitors.

Hunt was 18 when she was charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery after allegedly having sexual relations with the girl, who was 14.

Pegg made his ruling after an Indian River Sheriff's Office detective testified about the contents of an iPod that Hunt had given the younger girl -- including more than 20,000 text messages, "explicit" videos and nude pictures -- despite a court order that the two not communicate, electronically or otherwise.

"It's overwhelming that Ms. Hunt has chosen to violate the conditions of her bond deliberately and willfully on several occasions," Pegg said in explaining his decision.

In addition to the extensive exchange of messages since March 2013 -- which began days after the no-contact order was issued -- Detective Jeremy Shepherd further testified that he'd learned the two had secretively met as recently as a few weeks ago.

Under cross-examination, Shepherd noted that in some cases, the younger girl initiated contact, though he emphasized that Hunt had given her the iPod on which they illicitly communicated. And the detective added, the younger teenager "has not told me the full truth in a couple of my interviews."

After Shepherd left the stand, Hunt's lawyer, Julia Graves, did not dispute that there "has been some contact with the victim" and her client.

"We're not going to contest all the evidence," Graves said Tuesday in court. "But what we would ask for is that the defendant (be able to be) bonded out, to be placed on house arrest without any electronic communication of any kind ... We think that would keep the judicial process safe."

The judge, though, thought differently.

"She simply can't be trusted to abide by the court order," Pegg said of Hunt.

The court hearing Tuesday was graphic and, for Hunt, emotional. She held a tissue in her handcuffed hands that she repeatedly used to wipe tears from her eyes. The proceeding marked the latest turn in a story that first captured the nation's attention months ago.

Hunt's family says the relationship was consensual, with their lawyer claiming authorities wouldn't have gone after her if it had involved a male and a female instead of two teenage girls. In Florida, a person under the age of 16 is not legally able to consent to sex.

Hunt's parents went public with their story after their daughter was charged. They essentially accused the alleged victim's family of going after their daughter because she is gay, while Hunt spoke out about her fears of paying for a relationship that she didn't think was wrong.

"I'm scared of losing my life, the rest of my life," she said earlier this year, "not being able to go to college or be around kids, be around my sisters and my family."

The younger girl's family, though, said that wasn't true and insisted that they were only trying to protect their own daughter.

"We had no other alternative but to turn to the law, use it basically as a last resort," the victim's father, Jim Smith, had previously told CNN affiliate WPEC.

This debate has been playing out publicly since Hunt was charged, during which time prosecutors offered her at least two plea deals. The most recent one -- offered in July, according to Bruce Colton, the state attorney for Florida's 19th judicial circuit -- would have led to Hunt being subject to a curfew and having to do community service, but avoiding jail time and not having to register as a sex offender.

But Hunt's defense team didn't accept either plea deal.

Then, on August 6, the victim's father alerted authorities to the iPod and its contents, Shepherd said.

He interviewed the underage girl the next day, when she told him she'd given Hunt her locker combination and found the iPod in her locker on the last day Hunt was in their school.

This type of iPod allows people to exchange text messages and other media.

On some of those texts, Hunt indicated that she understood that such communications violated the court order.

"No matter what, if they find out that we talked, I'm going to jail until the trial starts," she wrote, according to Shepherd.

Pictures on the iPod showed the young couple together and a nude Hunt. There was also video of a naked Hunt touching herself in a sexual manner, the detective testified.

Authorities determined these images originated at Hunt's home in the weeks and months after the no-contact order had been issued, said Shepherd.

Hunt, who turned 19 last week, was booked into detention Monday night after her bail bond company declined to secure her $5,000 bond any longer and picked her up.

Her family has not commented on the latest developments in the case.

The original charges against Hunt carry a maximum of 15 years in prison upon conviction.

Based on the newly revealed evidence, prosecutors filed a new charge against Hunt for "transmission of material harmful to minor by electronic equipment."

CNN's Sara Ganim contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast