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.
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 ...
The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a $1,000 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 ...
Record numbers in the US are homeless. Can cities fine them for sleeping in parks and on sidewalks?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most significant case in decades on homelessness has reached the Supreme Court as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live. The justices on Monday will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based appeals court that...
The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?
ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...
Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...
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...
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. ...
The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?
ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...
Lawsuits under New York's new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states
FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Weihua Yan had seen dramatic demographic changes since moving to Long Island's Nassau County. Its Asian American population alone had grown by 60% since the 2010 census. Why then, he wondered, did he not see anyone who looked like him on the county's local...
USC cancels graduation keynote by filmmaker amid controversy over decision to drop student's speech
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California further shook up its commencement plans Friday, announcing the cancelation of a keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu just days after making the controversial choice to disallow the student valedictorian from speaking. The...
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 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...
The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?
ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014,...
Tennessee Volkswagen employees overwhelmingly vote to join United Auto Workers union
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to...
The man who set himself on fire outside the courthouse where Trump is on trial dies of his injuries
NEW YORK (AP) — The man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where...
NATO secretary-general says some allies have air defense systems they could give to Ukraine
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday pressed member countries to give more Patriot...
Russia pummels exhausted Ukrainian forces with smaller attacks ahead of a springtime advance
Russian troops are ramping up pressure on exhausted Ukrainian forces to prepare to seize more land this spring and...
The Latest | World leaders call on Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen
World leaders called on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli...
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Police Department has violated the constitutional rights of residents for years, permitting racial bias against blacks, using excessive force and killing people who did not pose threats, the Justice Department announced Friday after a yearlong investigation.
Among other findings, the report concluded that the pattern was "largely attributable to systemic deficiencies" within the department and the city. It also cited insufficient training and a failure to hold bad officers accountable.
"The resulting deficit in trust and accountability is not just bad for residents — it's also bad for dedicated police officers trying to do their jobs safely and effectively," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. The report lays "the groundwork for the difficult but necessary work of building a stronger, safer, and more united Chicago for all who call it home."
The Justice Department began investigating the nation's third-largest police force in December 2015 after the release of dashcam video showing a white police officer shoot a black teenager named Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times as he walked away holding a small folded knife. The video of the 2014 shooting, which the city fought to keep from being released, inspired large protests and cost the city's police commissioner his job.
Under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department has conducted 25 civil rights investigations of police departments, including Cleveland, Baltimore and Seattle. The release of a report is one step in a long process that, in recent years, has typically led to talks between the Justice Department and a city, followed by an agreed upon reform plan that's enforceable by a federal judge.
Chicago's report comes just days before a change in administration, from a White House that strongly backed the process to President-elect Donald Trump's, whose commitment to federal review is unclear.
The perception that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel badly mishandled the McDonald shooting hurt the former Obama chief of staff politically, and he may feel pressure to address many of the Justice Department's findings to restore his political fortunes.
The Chicago department, with 12,000 officers, has long had a reputation for brutality, particularly in minority communities. The most notorious example was Jon Burge, a commander of a detective unit on the South Side. Burge and his men beat, suffocated and used electric shock for decades starting in the 1970s to get black men to confess to crimes they did not commit.
The McDonald video, which showed officer Jason Van Dyke continuing to shoot the teen even after he slumped to the ground, provoked widespread outrage. It was not until the day the video was released, which was more than a year after the shooting, that Van Dyke was charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Police reports of the shooting later suggested a possible cover-up by other officers who were at the scene.