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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

Chair Jessica Vega Pederson Releases $3.96 Billion Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Investments will boost shelter and homeless services, tackle the fentanyl crisis, strengthen the safety net and support a...

New Funding Will Invest in Promising Oregon Technology and Science Startups

Today Business Oregon and its Oregon Innovation Council announced a million award to the Portland Seed Fund that will...

Unity in Prayer: Interfaith Vigil and Memorial Service Honoring Youth Affected by Violence

As part of the 2024 National Youth Violence Prevention Week, the Multnomah County Prevention and Health Promotion Community Adolescent...

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

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

Oregon university pauses gifts and grants from Boeing in response to student and faculty demands

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — An Oregon university said Friday it is pausing seeking or accepting further gifts or grants from Boeing Co. after students and faculty demanded that the school sever ties with the aerospace company because of its weapons manufacturing divisions and its connections to...

Oregon man sentenced to 50 years in the 1978 killing of a teenage girl in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Oregon man who was convicted in the 1978 killing of a 16-year-old girl in Alaska was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison. Donald McQuade, 67, told Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson that he maintains his innocence and did not kill Shelley Connolly,...

Elliss, Jenkins, McCaffrey join Harrison and Alt in following their fathers into the NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Kris Jenkins, Jonah Ellis and Luke McCaffrey have turned the NFL draft into a family affair. The sons of former pro football stars, they've followed their fathers' formidable footsteps into the league. Elliss was...

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...

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

Trump promised big plans to flip Black and Latino voters. Many Republicans are waiting to see them

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump says he wants to hold a major campaign event at New York's Madison Square Garden featuring Black hip-hop artists and athletes. His aides speak of making appearances in Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta with leaders of color and realigning American politics by flipping...

Dozens of deaths reveal risks of injecting sedatives into people restrained by police

Demetrio Jackson was desperate for medical help when the paramedics arrived. The 43-year-old was surrounded by police who arrested him after responding to a trespassing call in a Wisconsin parking lot. Officers had shocked him with a Taser and pinned him as he pleaded that he...

Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration is indefinitely delaying a long-awaited menthol cigarette ban, a decision that infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avoid a political backlash from Black voters in November. In a statement Friday, Biden’s top health...

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

#MeToo advocates vow the reckoning will continue after Weinstein's conviction is overturned

NEW YORK (AP) — #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has heard it before. Every time there’s a legal setback, the...

Rooting for Trump to fail has made his stock shorters millions

NEW YORK (AP) — Rooting for Donald Trump to fail has rarely been this profitable. Just ask a hardy...

Antony Blinken meets with China's President Xi as US, China spar over bilateral and global issues

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior...

A US-led effort to bring aid to Gaza by sea is moving forward. But big concerns remain

JERUSALEM (AP) — The construction of a new port in Gaza and an accompanying U.S. military-built pier offshore...

Ukraine pushes to get military-age men to come home. Some neighboring countries say they will help

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s foreign minister doubled down Friday on the government’s move to bolster the...

British Army says horses that bolted and ran loose in central London continue 'to be cared for'

LONDON (AP) — The military horses that bolted and ran loose when spooked by construction noise in central London...

Whitney Houston and her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown
Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — The brief, chaotic life of Bobbi Kristina Brown was never really her own.

Born and raised in the shadow of fame and litigation, shattered by the loss of her mother, Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina was overwhelmed by the achievements and demons of others before she could begin to figure out who she was.

Her demise was the most awful inheritance of all.

Bobbi Kristina died on Sunday at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, Georgia, about six months after she was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in the suburban Atlanta townhome she shared with Nick Gordon, the man she called her husband. She was 22-years-old.

"Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July, 26 2015, surrounded by her family. She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months," Kristen Foster, a representative for the Houston family said Sunday.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Bobbi Kristina's death Sunday night and will issue a news release on Monday.

Police said she was found Jan. 31. A police report described it as a "drowning."

Bobbi Kristina was the only child between Houston and Brown.

She was hospitalized for months in Atlanta — eventually being placed in hospice care — after being found in a manner grimly similar to the way her megastar mother died three years earlier. Gordon said at the time it seemed Bobbi Kristina wasn't breathing and lacked a pulse before help arrived.

Brown — the sole heir of her mother's estate — did have dreams.

She identified herself on Twitter as "Daughter of Queen WH," ''Entertainer/Actress" with William Morris & Co., and "LAST of a dying breed." She told Oprah Winfrey shortly after her mother's death in 2012 that she wanted to carry on her mother's legacy by singing, acting and dancing. But her career never took off. Actor and producer Tyler Perry said she had a future as an actress after her debut on his TV show "For Better or Worse" in 2012, but she only appeared in one episode. Aside from two ill-fated reality TV shows and the occasional paparazzi video, her image mostly showed up in the "selfies" she posted online.

She attended award shows and appeared on red carpets with her mother and father. She performed a duet with her mother in 2009, singing "My Love Is Your Love" in New York's Central Park. She became social media sensation, sending more than 11,000 tweets and attracting 164,000 followers.

As the news of her death spread across social media, several celebrities tweeted their condolences.

Grammy-winning performer Missy Elliot tweeted, "My heart is truly heavy. May u rest in peace with your mommy #BobbiKristina sending prayers 2 the Brown/Houston family."

"Empire" star Taraji P. Henson tweeted, "Rest in heaven."

"RIP #BobbiKristina My deepest sympathies 2 your father #BobbyBrown n your GrandMa #CissyHouston We will miss ya 4sho darling ;) Actress Vivica A. Fox said on Twitter.

And Winfrey tweeted, "Peace at Last!"

Whitney Houston, known as "America's Sweetheart," was an impossible act to follow.

The late singer sold more than 50 million records in the United States alone during her career. Her voice, an ideal blend of power, grace and beauty, made classics out of songs like "Saving All My Love For You," ''I Will Always Love You" and "The Greatest Love of All." She earned six Grammys and starred in the films "The Bodyguard" and "The Preacher's Wife."

Bobby Brown, who had a bad-boy image, also became a huge star, selling platinum records with New Edition and going solo before drugs and legal woes derailed his career.

Bobbi Kristina appeared alongside both parents in 2005 on the Bravo reality show "Being Bobby Brown," which captured her parents fighting, swearing and appearing in court. The Hollywood Reporter said it revealed that Brown was "even more vulgar than the tabloids suggest," and managed "to rob Houston of any last shreds of dignity."

Years earlier, as Houston was preparing to give birth to Bobbi Kristina, she expressly left Bobby Brown out of her will, putting everything in a trust "for the benefit of her children and more remote descendants," according to the Houstons' 2012 petition.

After their divorce in 2007, Houston kept custody of Bobbi Kristina and raised her alongside Gordon, an orphan three years older than her daughter. Houston brought Gordon into her family, and while she never formally adopted him or included him in the will, both teenagers called her "mom."

The threesome's tight bond was shattered when Houston's assistant found the singer's lifeless body face-down in a foot of water in her bathtub at the Beverly Hilton just before the Grammy Awards in 2012. Authorities found prescription drugs in the suite, and evidence of heart disease and cocaine in her body, but determined her death was an accidental drowning.

Bobbi Kristina, then 18, was at the hotel and became so hysterical she had to be hospitalized. "She wasn't only a mother, she was a best friend," she told Winfrey.

She and Gordon then went public with their romance, posting defiant messages online after the tabloids accused them of incest.

The Houstons tolerated their relationship, appearing with them on television that year in Lifetime's reality show "The Houstons: On Our Own."

But in one telling episode, the late singer's relatives lectured the pair about drinking after they show up in an obviously altered state, and accused Gordon of failing to take care of the grieving girl.

Relations between Gordon and some other relatives continued to sour over the past year after Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized. A protective order barred him from being within 200 feet of Pat Houston, Bobbi Kristina's aunt. A feud erupted over whether Gordon could visit Bobbi Kristina while she stayed in the hospital.

On June 24, Bobbi Kristina's court-appointed representative sued Gordon, accusing him of misrepresenting his relationship with Bobbi Kristina. The complaint accused him of being violent toward her and taking more than $11,000 from her account while she was in a medically induced coma after the Jan. 31 tragedy.

The lawsuit also accused Gordon of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment and conversion.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he and his office are interested in reviewing the investigative file to determine whether any charges will be filed.

Also on June 24, Pat Houston said Bobbi Kristina had been placed in hospice care.

Bobbi Kristina was fabulously wealthy for a teenager, but her money was in a spendthrift trust, designed to keep creditors and predators from taking advantage of people who can't manage their money. Bobbi Kristina's grandmother, Cissy Houston, and aunt, Pat Houston, eventually took over control of the trust and then took Bobbi Kristina to court to protect the estate.

The Houstons called Bobbi Kristina "a highly visible target for those who would exercise undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from (her) resources and celebrity," and urged a judge to delay how quickly she could control the money.

Bobbi Kristina agreed to the delay, and the judge granted their request to seal the case.

The size of Houston's estate is a privately held secret.

In May, a judge appointed Bobby Brown and Pat Houston as co-guardians of Bobbi Kristina, giving them joint responsibility in decisions related to her care and medical needs. Lawyer Bedelia Hargrove was appointed conservator to oversee Bobbi Kristina's assets, including her rights and legal claims.

Houston signed a $100 million record deal in 2001, but failed to deliver, and lost two homes to foreclosure toward the end of her life. But her untimely death revived a hunger for her music, and her name and likeness generated revenue that became part of Bobbi Kristina's inheritance.

By January 2014, the young couple who grew up as brother and sister were sharing a townhome in Roswell, Georgia, and calling themselves husband and wife.

They posted images of their hands wearing wedding rings, with the caption "#HappilyMarried. So #InLove. If you didn't get it the first time that is." They got identical "WH" tattoos with flying doves on their wrists, and Gordon added a large portrait of Houston's face on his arm.

Their marriage announcement troubled Pat Houston, who obtained a restraining order against Gordon two months later.

"Damn, lol, it's incredible how the world will judge you 4ANY&EVERYthing," Bobbi Kristina tweeted at the time.

By last September, Pat Houston said she was "very proud of Krissy."

"Young people today are up against so much with social media and everything else that presents itself to them," Pat Houston told The Associated Press. "We try to be there for her, just to try to guide and direct her."

Judging from her postings online, Bobbi Kristina was focused on the approaching anniversary of her mother's death. In one of her last tweets, she said, "Littlelady&yourgrowing young man @nickdgordon miss you mommy ..:') SOmuch.. loving you more every sec. #Anniversary!"

More: Autopsy to Investigate death of Bobbi Kristina Brown

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast