04-24-2024  9:46 pm   •   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

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. ...

Sister of Mississippi man who died after police pulled him from car rejects lawsuit settlement

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A woman who sued Mississippi's capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday. George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019,...

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

Ukraine uses long-range missiles secretly provided by US to hit Russian-held areas, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine for the first time has begun using long-range ballistic missiles provided secretly by...

Australia and New Zealand honor their war dead with dawn services on Anzac Day

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Australia and New Zealand for dawn...

Relatives of those who died waiting for livers at now halted Houston transplant program seek answers

DALLAS (AP) — Several relatives of patients who died while waiting for a new liver said Wednesday they want to...

Australian police arrest 7 alleged teen extremists linked to stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in...

European leaders laud tougher migration policies but more people die on treacherous sea crossings

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Children dead in the English Channel. Morgues full of migrants reaching capacity in...

Ethnic Karen guerrillas in Myanmar leave a town that army lost 2 weeks ago as rival group holds sway

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from the main ethnic Karen fighting force battling Myanmar’s military...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a "Get Out the Vote" event at Rundlett Middle School, in Concord, N.H., Saturday Feb. 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
LISA LERER, KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — With a victory seemingly out of reach in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton is looking ahead to the next round of voting to reposition her campaign to counter the rising primary threat of insurgent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clinton hopes to use a narrower-than-expected loss in this first primary state as a springboard into contests later this month in Nevada and South Carolina, where she hopes a more heavily-minority electorate will build the foundation for a delegate-by-delegate drive toward the Democratic nomination.

Part of that strategy means cutting into the double-digit advantage that Sanders has enjoyed in New Hampshire for several months. Her aides fear that a huge win here will help him make headway among women and minority voters, two key blocs of the coalition that twice elected President Barack Obama. Sanders' strength with younger voters only heightens the threat he poses to what was once her decisive national lead.

But while Clinton has vowed to fight for every vote in New Hampshire, at least some of her operation is moving on. This weekend, former President Bill Clinton wooed voters in Las Vegas, campaign surrogates knocked doors in San Antonio and Clinton's aides announced a meeting with top civil rights leaders next week in New York City.

Clinton herself is planning on leaving the state for a quickly scheduled visit to Flint, Michigan, on Sunday, an unusual step for a candidate trailing in the polls here. Aides said she was invited by the city's mayor, Karen Weaver, and plans to hold a town hall meeting with residents before flying back to New Hampshire in the evening. She's frequently pointed to the crisis of lead-poisoned water in the city as an example of racial and economic injustice, an issue that resonates among Democrats but particularly with African-American voters.

"People in New Hampshire probably care about what's happening to the kids, the families in Flint," said Clinton's chief strategy Joel Benenson. "People voting, particularly in a Democratic primary and I would hope even voting in the Republican primary, care about the disgrace of what's happened."

Clinton aides argue that the heavily white and liberal electorates of New Hampshire and Iowa, where Clinton barely eked out a win, make them outliers in the Democratic primary race. They say Clinton will find more success in the South Carolina primary on Feb 20 and the Nevada caucuses a week later, where polls show her with a wide lead.

In recent days, she's been using the state as a testing ground for new campaign messages targeted at specific demographic groups, alluding to her gender with vows to break "the highest and hardest glass ceiling" and promising young voters that she'd "be for them" even if they support Sanders.

On Saturday, Clinton said during a town hall meeting in Henniker that her proposals to address college affordability and to build upon Obama's health care law were superior to Sanders' approach. She also cast her plans as more fiscally responsible. "I think it's important that those of you who are trying to make this decision by Tuesday really look at whether the numbers add up because, you know, it matters," she said.

The day before, during a blizzard in Manchester, she joined a fleet of female senators for a volunteer rally. While they were flown into the state to back her bid, their message seemed aimed at a far broader audience.

"When folks talk about a revolution, the revolution is electing the first women president of the United States. That's the revolution," said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a clear dig at Sanders call for a "political revolution."

Sanders, too, has been casting ahead, hoping to boost his profile among black voters who make up more than half of the South Carolina electorate. On Saturday night, he left the state for an appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" with comedian Larry David, whose imitations of Sanders on the show have quickly gone viral.

The day before, his campaign scheduled a press conference to tout the endorsement of former NAACP president Ben Jealous. Though the campaign canceled the event because of heavy snow, Jealous told reporters on a conference call that Sanders "has the courage to confront the institutionalized bias that stains our nation." He was quickly dispatched to South Carolina for campaign events on Saturday with Erica Garner, whose father died in 2014 after a white New York police officer put the black man in a choke hold.

Sanders backers believe that as African-Americans learn more about the Vermont senator, they will warm to his liberal message. Clinton is one of the best known political figures in the world and has strong backing among Latinos and black voters.

"Before a few weeks ago, I never gave Bernie Sanders the time of day," said state Rep. Justin Bamberg, who recently switched his backing from Clinton. "But if you look at Sanders he has been solid as concrete with regards to his passion for racial, social and economic justice."

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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report from Columbia, S.C.

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The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast