03-20-2023  11:22 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Detective Files Discrimination Claim Against Seattle Police

Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin filed the tort claim Friday. It alleges she has faced daily discrimination during her 43 years with the department.

BNSF Trains Derail in Washington, Arizona; No Injuries

Two BNSF trains derailed in separate incidents in Arizona and Washington state on Thursday, with the latter spilling diesel fuel on tribal land along Puget Sound.

Oregon Legislature Advances $200M Housing Package

The package would dedicate about 0 million to the construction of more affordable housing, rehouse about 1,200 people without homes, prevent homelessness for more than 8,000 and expand shelter capacity by 600 beds.

NEWS BRIEFS

Tiffani Penson Announces Campaign for PCC Board, Zone 2

Penson is proud of the accomplishments of PCC ...

Black Bag Speaker Series: Oregon Black Pioneers Historic Photograph Collection

OBP will present the history and context of a photo album, found in a house located in historically Black North Portland, that was...

The Making of American Whiteness Book Presentation and Signing to be Held at OHS

The Making of American Whiteness book will be presented by Dr. Carmen P. Thompson, in conversation with Dr. Darrell Millner on...

Support for Survivors of Child Sex Trafficking Unanimously Passes Oregon Senate

SB 745 will require juvenile departments to screen for survivors of sex trafficking, connect identified survivors with critical...

Reusable Food Container Bill Passes Oregon Senate

SB 545 will allow restaurants to fill consumer-owned containers with food ...

With overdoses up, states look at harsher fentanyl penalties

RENO, Nev. (AP) — State lawmakers nationwide are responding to the deadliest overdose crisis in U.S. history by pushing harsher penalties for possessing fentanyl and other powerful lab-made opioids that are connected to about 70,000 deaths a year. Imposing longer prison sentences...

Idaho robbery suspect killed in Montana after hostage shot

ST. REGIS, Mont. (AP) — A suspect in an Idaho armed robbery was killed by law enforcement after shooting a hostage near a travel center in western Montana, authorities said. Two suspects involved in the Saturday morning robbery in Osburn, Idaho were seen by witnesses later that day...

The maddest March ever? Underdogs head to the Sweet 16

We know you're upset. Underdogs have blown up every bracket in the country. An upside of the upsets: perhaps the maddest March ever. Defending national champion Kansas and fellow No. 1 seed Purdue are gone — the Boilermakers with a slice of unwanted history. The Sweet...

March Madness betting guide: Upsets shuffle favorites' odds

LAS VEGAS (AP) — March Madness isn't just about filling out — and later trashing — brackets. There are more ways to bet the field in the NCAA Tournament, an event that will consume basketball fans over the next three weeks. Here's a look at the favorites, underdogs and long shots. ...

OPINION

Celebrating 196 Years of The Black Press

It was on March 17, 1827, at a meeting of “Freed Negroes” in New York City, that Samuel Cornish, a Presbyterian minister, and John Russwurn, the first Negro college graduate in the United States, established the negro newspaper. ...

DEQ Announces Suspension of Oregon’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program

The state’s popular incentive for drivers to switch to electric vehicles is scheduled to pause in May ...

FHA Makes Housing More Affordable for 850,000 Borrowers

Savings tied to median market home prices ...

State Takeover Schemes Threaten Public Safety

Blue cities in red states, beware: conservatives in state government may be coming for your police department. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Silicon Valley Bank collapse concerns founders of color

In the hours after some of Silicon Valley Bank’s biggest customers started pulling out their money, a WhatsApp group of startup founders who are immigrants of color ballooned to more than 1,000 members. Questions flowed as the bank’s financial status worsened. Some desperately...

New Arizona hotline sees few calls about race-based lessons

PHOENIX (AP) — Only a handful of complaints out of hundreds of calls to a new state hotline for reporting race-based lessons have warranted investigation, Arizona’s top education official said Friday. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne told radio station KTAR...

FACT FOCUS: Claims blame ‘woke’ policies on bank’s demise

As Wall Street reels from the swift demise of Silicon Valley Bank — the biggest American bank failure since the 2008 financial meltdown — some social media users are honing in on a single culprit: its socially aware, or “woke,” agenda. But the Santa Clara-based...

ENTERTAINMENT

Lance Reddick, 'The Wire' and 'John Wick' star, dies at 60

NEW YORK (AP) — Lance Reddick, a character actor who specialized in intense, icy and possibly sinister authority figures on TV and film, including “The Wire,” "Fringe” and the "John Wick” franchise, has died. He was 60. Reddick died “suddenly” Friday morning, his...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 26-April 1

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 26-April 1: March 26: Actor Alan Arkin is 89. Singer Diana Ross is 79. Singer Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is 75. Singer-actor Vicki Lawrence is 74. Actor Ernest Thomas (“Everybody Hates Chris,” ″What’s Happening”) is 74. Actor Martin...

Review: A writer investigates a UFO cult in East Texas

“The Donut Legion,” by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland) Charlie Garner, a former private detective turned novelist, was staring through his telescope at the rural East Texas sky late one night when he received an unexpected visit from his ex-wife, Meg. Or did he? ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Jury convicts 3 of murder in death of rapper XXXTentacion

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Three men were found guilty of first-degree murder on Monday in the 2018 killing of...

US: War crimes on all sides in Ethiopia's Tigray conflict

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Monday that it has determined all sides in the brutal...

Arrests as Kenya opposition leads anti-government protests

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — At least three Kenyan legislators and several protesters have been arrested and then...

Top Israeli minister: 'No such thing' as Palestinian people

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A firebrand Israeli minister claimed there’s “no such thing” as a Palestinian...

EU's top diplomat hails deal on artillery shells for Ukraine

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries have endorsed a fast-track procedure aimed at providing Ukraine with...

Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, Ørsted transformed

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Europe's most fossil fuel-intensive energy companies transformed completely in little...

Kam Williams Special to The Skanner News

Around 9 p.m. on April 19, 1989, a 28 year-old jogger was brutally beaten, sexually assaulted and left for dead in a wooded area of Central Park located off the beaten path. Because she was an investment banker with an Ivy League pedigree, the NYPD felt the pressure to apprehend the perpetrators of the heinous crime ASAP.



Within hours, cops had extracted confessions from Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, Jr., teenagers who had been denied their right to an attorney. Although none of the five had ever been arrested before, they were all convicted of rape and attempted murder on the strength of those incriminating admissions alone.

Part of the explanation for the legal lynching was that the victim was a wealthy white woman while the accused were poor black kids from Harlem. The press was all too willing to exploit the hot button issues of color and class, and the media sensationalized the case's lurid details, coining the term "wilding" to describe the alleged behavior of the defendants.

Real estate magnate Donald Trump even took out full-page ads in every New York City daily newspaper, calling for the death penalty and saying that the boys "should be executed for their crimes." In the face of the vigilante-like demand for vengeance, no one seemed concerned that the suspects' DNA failed to match the only semen found at the scene.

Sadly, they were only exonerated in 2002 after having completely served sentences ranging from 6 to 13 years when Matias Reyes, a serial rapist whose DNA was a match, confessed to the crime because of his guilty conscience. This gross miscarriage of justice is recounted in The Central Park Five, a riveting documentary co-directed by the father-daughter team of Ken and Sarah Burns, along with her husband, David McMahon.

The film features reams of archival footage, including videotapes of the framed quintet's coerced confessions. Mixed in are present-day reflections by them, their lawyers, and relatives, as well as by politicians, prosecutors and other pivotal players.

A heartbreaking expose' about a rush to judgment which ruined five, innocent young lives. 

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 119 minutes

Distributor: PBS/Sundance Selects

MLK Breakfast 2023

Photos from The Skanner Foundation's 37th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast.