04-26-2024  1:30 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

City Council Strikes Down Gonzalez’s ‘Inhumane’ Suggestion for Blanket Ban on Public Camping

Mayor Wheeler’s proposal for non-emergency ordinance will go to second reading.

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. 

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 ...

Net neutrality restored as FCC votes to regulate internet providers

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday voted to restore “net neutrality” rules that prevent broadband internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from favoring some sites and apps over others. The move effectively reinstates a net neutrality order the...

Biden celebrates computer chip factories, pitching voters on American 'comeback'

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday sought to sell voters on an American “comeback story” as he highlighted longterm investments in the economy in upstate New York to celebrate Micron Technology's plans to build a campus of computer chip factories made possible in part with...

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

South Africa will mark 30 years of freedom amid inequality, poverty and a tense election ahead

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As 72-year-old Nonki Kunene walks through the corridors of Thabisang Primary School in Soweto, South Africa, she recalls the joy she and many others felt 30 years ago when they voted for the first time. It was at this school on April 27, 1994, that Kunene joined...

Repatriated South African apartheid-era artworks on display to celebrate 30 years of democracy

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A selection of South African artworks produced during the country’s apartheid era which ended up in foreign art collections is on display in Johannesburg to mark 30 years since the country's transition to democracy in 1994. Most of the artworks were taken out...

Tennessee lawmakers adjourn after finalizing jumi.9B tax cut and refund for businesses

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's GOP-controlled General Assembly on Thursday adjourned for the year, concluding months of tense political infighting that doomed Republican Gov. Bill Lee's universal school voucher push. But a bill allowing some teachers to carry firearms in public schools and...

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

Charges against Trump's 2020 'fake electors' are expected to deter a repeat this year

An Arizona grand jury's indictment of 18 people who either posed as or helped organize a slate of electors falsely...

Paramedic sentencing in Elijah McClain's death caps trials that led to 3 convictions

DENVER (AP) — Almost five years after Elijah McClain died following a police stop in which he was put in a neck...

A look at past and future cases Harvey Weinstein has faced as his New York conviction is thrown out

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein's landmark New York sexual assault conviction was thrown out by an appeals...

Guatemalan prosecutors raid offices of Save the Children charity

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan prosecutors raided the offices of the charity Save the Children on Thursday,...

AP Week in Pictures: Global

April 19-25, 2024 The U.S. House swiftly approves billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and...

Ship comes under attack off coast of Yemen as Houthi rebel campaign appears to gain new speed

JERUSALEM (AP) — A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden came under attack Thursday, officials said, the latest...

By Deirdre Walsh CNN Senior Congressional Producer



House Speaker John BoehnerWASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Republican leaders were forced on Thursday to delay rolling out their bill to raise nation's debt limit, after conservatives complained the package failed to include deep enough budget cuts and significant changes to entitlement programs.

The setback comes as Speaker John Boehner prepares to wrestle with his conference over how to ultimately handle short term spending and the prospect of a government shutdown beginning on Tuesday, if Congress does not act to refill federal coffers.

Boehner and his top lieutenants initially hoped to move ahead with their proposal to permit Washington to borrow more money to pay its bills while waiting for the Senate to vote on a plan -- called a continuing resolution -- to keep the government funded through mid-November.

The debt package includes a lengthy list of GOP priorities, including a one year delay of Obamacare, provisions to roll back regulations on businesses, tax reforms, and approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

But the added items have not garnered enough support from House Republicans.

"It definitely has a lot of goodies in it. Things that arguably would grow the economy and would arguably would generate more revenue," Alabama Republican Rep Mo Brooks told reporters, saying he was undecided on how he would vote on the plan.

But he added that the issue of government spending overall must be considered.

"Washington has a spending problem and this debt ceiling bill does not address the problem," Brooks said.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told CNN that she was also undecided but wanted to see deeper budget cuts on the measure.

"I came here to cut spending and to reduce the size of the federal government so when those opportunities arise I want to take advantage of them," Lummis said.

Some House Republicans questioned the strategy of skipping ahead to the debt ceiling fight before Congress resolved the question on spending and the possible shutdown. They argued the GOP still had some leverage to force a change to Obamacare on that measure.

"I think we need to focus on the CR first. I think it's important that we complete that before we move onto the debt ceiling," Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann said outside the House floor.

The draft plan GOP leaders had been working on was really a collection of bills previously approved by the Republican-controlled House.

Leaders learned from the last bruising fight in 2011 over the debt limit that a bloc of conservatives would resist any legislation to authorize new borrowing by the Treasury, so they decided to attach sweeteners.

Kansas Republican Rep Tim Huelskamp complained the GOP plan fell short of Boehner's pledge to demand an equal amount of spending cuts for the amount of the increase in new borrowing authority.

He also said it contained "very little" in the way of changes to entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid for the elderly and poor.

When asked early on Thursday about the scope of cuts, Boehner told reporters that "in this bill, we have spending cuts and we have issues that will help spur more economic growth. We think the balance is correct."

House Republican leaders likely will need to modify the package.

They need a unified conference because House Democrats won't vote for it, insisting the House should pass an extension of the debt limit without any conditions. Senate Democrats mocked the proposal.

"The House is attaching the Republican Party platform to the debt ceiling. In a week full of absurdities, this takes the cake," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said in a written statement.

At an event in Maryland on Thursday, President Barack Obama reiterated that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling.

As Boehner works to corral his own members on the debt limit vote he also needs to beat the clock to avoid a government shutdown.

Senate Democrats are scheduled to vote Friday on the House GOP passed spending bill and are expected to strip out the provision that defunds Obamacare.

Boehner indicated on Thursday that House Republicans will modify that bill and kick it back to the Senate as the clock ticks down toward the deadline.

The speaker dodged questions on what specifically House GOP would tack on, but he downplayed that this move - with so little time remaining - would increase the chances of a possible shutdown.

"We have no interest is seeing a government shutdown, but we've got to address the spending problems that we have in this town and so there will be options available to us. There's not going to be any speculation about what we're going to do or not do until the Senate passes their bill," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Multiple House GOP aides and members have told CNN that there are no final decisions, but the House could add a one year delay of the Obamacare requirement that all individuals enroll in health care coverage.

The administration already allowed a one year delay for corporations to provide coverage.

Another possible option, one most GOP aides believe could be used, is to add a provision that repeals a tax imposed on medical device manufacturers that helps pay for part of the costs of the new health care law.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the medical device tax a "stupid tax," but told reporters he doesn't want to deal with it as part of the stopgap spending bill.

Later, a Reid spokesman clarified that the Nevada Democrat was referring not to the tax itself, but to the idea of attaching that provision to the spending bill, saying the House should pass a "clean" spending measure.

Another option under consideration is adding a provision to the spending bill that repeals federal support for health care premiums that the government covers for members of Congress and their aides.

Under the Affordable Care Act, which is set to take effect in the states on Tuesday, members and their aides would obtain coverage under the new health care exchanges and the government, as their employer, would cover a major portion of that premium.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Charlie Dent told reporters he could support a so-called "clean" spending bill that continues funding, but warned "if there's going to be a relaunch it should be something that the Senate will accept before October 1st."

Boehner pushed back on the notion that continued back and forth over the measure only increases the chances of a shutdown. Though he said, "I do not expect that to happen."

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast