04-24-2024  3:55 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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

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.

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 ...

Biden administration is announcing plans for up to 12 lease sales for offshore wind energy

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Biden administration is preparing to announce plans for a new five-year schedule to lease federal offshore tracts for wind energy production, with up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year and continuing through 2028. The plan was to be...

A conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum in states

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it. Tennessee became the latest when the Republican...

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

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges' financial ties with Israel

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel — or any companies that empower its ongoing war in Gaza. The demand has its roots in a decades-old campaign against Israel's...

Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi is 'tickled pink' to inspire a Barbie doll

Like many little girls, a young Kristi Yamaguchi loved playing with Barbie. With a schedule packed with ice skating practices, her Barbie dolls became her “best friends.” So, it's surreal for the decorated Olympian figure skater to now be a Barbie girl herself. ...

A conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum in states

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it. Tennessee became the latest when the Republican...

ENTERTAINMENT

What to stream this weekend: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift reigns

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...

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....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Blinken begins key China visit as tensions rise over new US foreign aid bill

SHANGHAI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a critical trip to China armed with a...

The Latest | Germany will resume working with UN relief agency for Palestinians after a review

Germany said Wednesday that it plans to follow several other countries in resuming cooperation with the U.N....

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges' financial ties with Israel

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their...

A Russian strike on Kharkiv's TV tower is part of an intimidation campaign, Ukraine's Zelenskyy says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian missile strike that smashed a...

The Latest | Tent compound rises in southern Gaza as Israel prepares for Rafah offensive

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appear to show a new compound of tents being built near Khan...

China blasts US military aid to Taiwan, saying the island is entering a 'dangerous situation'

BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday blasted the latest package of U.S. military assistance to Taiwan on Wednesday,...

Breaion King, who was violently thrown to the ground by a white Austin, Texas, police officer during a traffic stop in 2015, speaks at a news conference Friday, July 22, 2016, in Austin, Texas. King said Friday she feels the U.S. must come together after newly released patrol car video of her 2015 arrest again raised nationwide tension over police treatment of black people. (Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A black Texas teacher thrown to the ground by a white officer during a traffic stop, and then told by another white officer on the way to jail that blacks have "violent tendencies," said Friday she is grateful the police chief has publicly apologized.

But Breaion King said Austin police still have culture changes to make and called on the U.S. to come together after patrol car video of her arrest again heightened national attention and tension over police treatment of black people.

Newly released footage of her June 15, 2015, arrest is the latest in a string of videos showing tense encounters between police and blacks across the country. The most charged run-ins in recent weeks have been fatal, setting off protests, police officers being fatally shot and President Barack Obama holding a televised town hall on race.

Officer Bryan Richter nearly threw King into an adjacent truck in the parking lot of a Wendy's after pulling her over for going 15 mph over the speed limit around lunchtime. Following a struggle, King was handcuffed and driven to jail by Officer Patrick Spradlin, who told her that "I don't blame" whites for being afraid because of violence in the black community.

Both officers have been placed on desk duty and prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Richter's actions during the stop.

"If something is wrong, everyone needs to be held accountable," King said. "So for me, I feel we're starting to take the necessary steps for us to be able to come together as a community and the nation."

King, an elementary school teacher, did not file a complaint after her arrest and said Friday she didn't know she had that option at the time.

"I was embarrassed and I was ashamed and I did not know what I needed to do," King said. "So through everything, honestly, what I did was I waited. I prayed. ... And everything comes together when it's time."

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo condemned both officers' actions and has called comments on the video "disturbing." He said he had been unaware of the stop or the video until the Austin American-Statesman obtained a copy and began asking about it, and was critical of his chain of command for not alerting him at the time of the arrest.

Acevedo said the investigation of the officers will include their conduct in the year since the incident. He said the traffic stop had been originally classified as a level three use of force, which Acevedo said means there was no serious injury or complaint.

In one of two videos, Spradlin is heard asking King, "Why are so many people afraid of black people?"
King replies that she is also trying to figure that out.

"I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way," he said. "Violent tendencies."

Spradlin goes on to say, "Some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating."

It is only a few moments into the traffic stop when Richter is heard in the video ordering King to "stop resisting" as he orders her out of the car. The angle of the video doesn't fully show King while she is inside the car.

Richter orders King to put her hands behind her back while the two struggle on the ground.

Richter has been a police officer since 2010 and Spradlin since 2001, according to Austin police. Listed phone numbers for the officers could not be found.

Acevedo said he reviewed the video Wednesday with black community leaders for nearly 3 ½ hours. He said they included Fatima Mann, an activist with the Austin Justice Coalition, who said she didn't understand how no one in the department had previously raised concerns about the video.

"If that was a white woman, would he have yanked her out ... and slammed her on the ground? Most of us could say absolutely not," Mann said. "But for some reason, for some strange reason, when people look like me, we're more of a threat, and that means we get treated and thrown around as if we don't matter."

The Austin police union said in a statement that it understands the public's reaction to Richter's response and that Spradlin's comments were "wrong and not reflective of the values and beliefs of the men and women who serve this community."
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Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast