10-05-2024  8:15 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

The pilot program in 2024 allowed people in certain states with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. Those using the program claimed more than million in refunds, the IRS said.

Companies Back Away From Oregon Floating Offshore Wind Project as Opposition Grows

The federal government finalized two areas for floating offshore wind farms along the Oregon coast in February. But opposition from tribes, fishermen and coastal residents highlights some of the challenges the plan faces.

Preschool for All Growth Outpaces Enrollment Projections

Mid-year enrollment to allow greater flexibility for providers, families.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden Demands Answers From Emergency Rooms That Denied Care to Pregnant Patients

Wyden is part of a Democratic effort to focus the nation’s attention on the stories of women who have faced horrible realities since some states tightened a patchwork of abortion laws.

NEWS BRIEFS

Oregon’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year is Bryan Butcher Jr. of Beaumont Middle School

“From helping each of his students learn math in the way that works for them, to creating the Black Student Union at his school,...

Burn Ban Lifted in the City of Portland

Although the burn ban is being lifted, Portland Fire & Rescue would like to remind folks to only burn dried cordwood in a...

Midland Library to Reopen in October

To celebrate the opening of the updated, expanded Midland, the library is hosting two days of activities for the community...

U.S. Congressman Al Green Commends Biden Administration on Launching Investigation into 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre; Mulls Congressional Action

The thriving African American community of Greenwood, popularly known as Black Wall Street, was criminally leveled by a white mob...

Governor Kotek, Oregon Housing and Community Services Announce Current and Projected Homelessness Initiative Outcomes

The announcement is accompanied by a data dashboard that shows the progress for the goals set within the...

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate 'go back where you came from' in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the...

Washington state fines paper mill 0,000 after an employee is killed

CAMAS, Wash. (AP) — Washington state authorities have fined one of the world's leading paper and pulp companies nearly 0,000 after one of its employees was crushed by a packing machine earlier this year. The penalty comes after Dakota Cline, 32, was killed on March 8 while...

Moss scores 3 TDs as No. 25 Texas A&M gives No. 9 Missouri its first loss in 41-10 rout

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Le'Veon Moss was asked if he thought No. 25 Texas A&M shocked ninth-ranked Missouri after his big game propelled the Aggies to a rout Saturday. The running back laughed before answering. “Most definitely,” he said before chuckling...

No 9 Missouri faces stiff road test in visit to No. 25 Texas A&M

No. 9 Missouri hits the road for the first time this season, facing arguably its toughest challenge so far. The Tigers (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) know the trip to No. 25 Texas A&M (4-1, 2-0) on Saturday will be tough for several reasons if they want to extend their...

OPINION

The Skanner News: 2024 City Government Endorsements

In the lead-up to a massive transformation of city government, the mayor’s office and 12 city council seats are open. These are our endorsements for candidates we find to be most aligned with the values of equity and progress in Portland, and who we feel...

No Cheek Left to Turn: Standing Up for Albina Head Start and the Low-Income Families it Serves is the Only Option

This month, Albina Head Start filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to defend itself against a misapplied rule that could force the program – and all the children it serves – to lose federal funding. ...

DOJ and State Attorneys General File Joint Consumer Lawsuit

In August, the Department of Justice and eight state Attorneys Generals filed a lawsuit charging RealPage Inc., a commercial revenue management software firm with providing apartment managers with illegal price fixing software data that violates...

America Needs Kamala Harris to Win

Because a 'House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand' ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

San Francisco's first Black female mayor is in a pricey battle for a second term

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When London Breed was elected as San Francisco's first Black woman mayor, it was a pinch-me moment for a poor girl from public housing whose ascension showed that no dream was impossible in the progressive, compassionate and equitable city. But the honeymoon was...

Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate 'go back where you came from' in forum

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.” Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the...

Judge denies an order sought by a Black student who was punished over his hair

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday denied a request by a Black high school student in Texas for a court order that the student’s lawyers say would have allowed him to return to his high school without fear of having his previous punishment over his hairstyle resume. Darryl...

ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: 'The Last Dream,' short stories scattered with the seeds of Pedro Almodovar films

The seeds of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's later cinematic work are scattered throughout the pages of “The Last Dream,” his newly published collection of short writings. The stories and essays were gathered together by Almodóvar's longtime assistant, including many pieces...

Book Review: Louise Erdrich writes about love and loss in North Dakota in ’The Mighty Red’

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louise Erdrich (“The Night Watchman,” 2021) returns with a story close to her heart, “The Mighty Red.” Set in the author’s native North Dakota, the title refers to the river that serves as a metaphor for life in the Red River Valley. It also carries a...

Book Review: 'Revenge of the Tipping Point' is fan service for readers of Gladwell's 2000 book

It's been nearly 25 years since Malcolm Gladwell published “The Tipping Point," and it's still easy to catch it being read on airplanes, displayed prominently on executives' bookshelves or hear its jargon slipped into conversations. It's no surprise that a sequel was the next logical step. ...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

A Texas execution is renewing calls for clemency. It's rarely granted

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas man set to die this month is at the center of another push for clemency in the...

After the deluge, the lies: Misinformation and hoaxes about Helene cloud the recovery

WASHINGTON (AP) — The facts emerging from Hurricane Helene's destruction are heartrending: Businesses and homes...

Floods inundate Thailand's northern tourist city of Chiang Mai

BANGKOK (AP) — Chiang Mai, Thailand's northern city popular with tourists, was inundated by widespread flooding...

Mexico’s new president promises to resume fight against climate change

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In her first days as Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum made a point of distancing...

AP PHOTOS: In their 80s, these South Korean women learned reading and rap

CHILGOK, South Korea (AP) — Wearing an oversized bucket hat, silver chains and a black Miu Miu...

Rescue teams search for missing after floods, landslides kill at least 16 in Bosnia

JABLANICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Rescue teams on Saturday searched for those still missing after flash...

Roger M. Groves Professor of Law Florida Coastal School of Law

When a little boy starts dreaming big of being a great athlete, I suspect he is still watching cartoons and tickled with the simple pleasures of life. I doubt his mind is genetically programmed to say, "I am going to violate any NCAA rule there is in order to make millions for me." At the same time there are adults circling above waiting for the time when crayons turn to touchdowns.

NCAA President Mark Emmert is paid substantial money to oversee and regulate the relationship between adults and the teenagers we call student-athletes. With 15 high profile football programs under investigation just this year, Emmert looked at who was influencing who and said the real problem is with the adults. His challenge to boosters, college presidents and sports administers was to change the risk-reward proposition of not the players – the adults.

Emmert, like college football fans throughout America thought they heard it all after 14 of the tall cotton colleges in the sport had enforcement problems. Then came the University of Miami. Miami was once so successful it became known as "the U" - the school that over a decade ago was the cream of the crop in college football.  After their fall from grace, they tried to get back to former prominence and seemed to takes some risks along the way.

Miami got caught, through a convicted Ponzi scheme felon of still undetermined veracity. More than 70 players were implicated. Several players were subsequently suspended by the school while the NCAA continues its investigation. But Miami does not have to give back the money made on the backs of those now-disgraced players. It does not have to return funds from gate receipts. It does not have to put electrodes to the brains and hearts of new found or reclaimed fans and make them go back to Miami apathy. Nor does it have to refund the millions annually received as royalties from sales of logoed merchandise.

Miami-gate would not have happened if the reward was not worth the risk, and money was not as revered as a means of access. The felon, Nevin Shapiro, gained access because he was willing to pledge $150,000 to the athletic program. He got access to the players he revered and a student-athlete lounge named after him. It's hard to imagine he could have the lounge for them to hang out and he not have the ability to hang with them. And what did he risk? If he is inclined to have a Ponzi investment scheme, he is certainly willing to live on his wits, and risk the most volatile aspects of a very volatile securities market. And he must have been willing to risk beyond his knowledge base – be it voluminous securities laws or voluminous NCAA rules.

Miami or other big time athletic programs could certainly and easily have a rule that rejects sums of over, say, $1,000 per donor.  Congress struggles with the same issue: when is too much money the equivalent of too much influence over the purpose of the law – the purpose to go good for American or in the case of the school its own student athletes. Either laudable cause, it is still lobbying for a more pernicious and pecuniary gain that is the enemy. Neither Congresspersons nor athletic programs have done a good job of resisting the wiles of the booster. And it appears they are losing the war of principalities.   

The NCAA, or the conferences, or the institutions could but have failed to establish an anti-lobbying rule with teeth. The lobbyist is either an individual or corporation. It matters little whether it is a student lounge or a luxury box. That is a matter of degree not of kind. The kind of transgression is the same. 

There are other adults to consider.  We have a group of well-intentioned decision makers that are old-styled corporate executives struggling to understand how to reach players that come from a culture and way of thinking with which they are unfamiliar. These decision makers have different titles, like NCAA executive committee members, conference and college presidents, commissioners, directors of athletics. But over 90 percent of them are older white males that are generationally challenged. Much like General Motors executives who could not understand and react to a changing marketplace, they are not the likely source for new ideas. I have been quite impressed with the ideas of a younger cross-cultural set of law students and young professionals. But they do not have a seat at the decision-making table. That is an analysis for another day.

And there is no final solution until the good grownups filter out the bad grownups that can have access to and prey upon at-risk teenagers. They have access primarily because they have money. Miami-gate is Exhibit A to the problem. Nevin Shapiro is a Ponzi schemer and now convicted felon because of it. But he was previously able to donate $150,000 to the Miami program and receive a student lounge named after him. He thereby gained access to the players. If he had not gained access he would not have had the opportunity to help over 72 players receive…shall we politely call…untoward recruiting favors.

So we can continue to heap more punishment on current players and colleges and coaches. But until we attack this problem from all its source points the root causes of the issues will still grow new infractions. Many of us will again simply blame the teenagers, claiming "they don't get it", when in fact the phrase is equally applicable to us.

 Previous installments of this series on how the NCAA can change itself:
Use technology to keep tabs on repeat offenders
Demand action from corporate entities
Set up a strong mentoring program