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NORTHWEST NEWS

Pastor Mark Knutson on Strengthening Sanctuary and Responding to Trump’s Threats

Augustana Lutheran Church is part of an interfaith network in Portland organizing to protect immigrants.

“Young Black Men Are ___”, A Multimedia Interactive Storytelling Project, Opens February 1

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PHOTOS: The World Arts Foundation Presents Lifetime Achievement Award on MLK Day in Portland

Bernie and Bobbie Foster, The Skanner News founders, were presented with the award.

Cascade Festival of African Films Celebrates 35th Year

The Cascade Festival of African Films runs from Jan. 31 through March 1, featuring more than 20 films from 14 countries

NEWS BRIEFS

AG Rayfield Reacts to Latest Victory in Trump’s Attempt to Block Birthright Citizenship Order

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Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Launches Research on the Long-Term Impacts of Mentorship

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Rayfield Announces Initial Victory in Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Illegal Federal Funding Freeze

Today a federal judge in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit filed by Oregon and a coalition of 22...

Fresh lawsuit hits Oregon city at the heart of Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The small Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed cities across the country to enforce homeless camping bans is facing a fresh lawsuit over its camping rules, as advocates find new ways to challenge them in a legal landscape...

Western Oregon women's basketball players allege physical and emotional abuse

MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) — Former players for the Western Oregon women's basketball team have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging emotional and physical abuse. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Marion County, seeks million damages. It names the university, its athletic...

Fresh lawsuit hits Oregon city at the heart of Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The small Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allowed cities across the country to enforce homeless camping bans is facing a fresh lawsuit over its camping rules, as advocates find new ways to challenge them in a legal landscape...

Western Oregon women's basketball players allege physical and emotional abuse

MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) — Former players for the Western Oregon women's basketball team have filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging emotional and physical abuse. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in Marion County, seeks million damages. It names the university, its athletic...

OPINION

Bending the Arc: Advancing Equity in a New Federal Landscape

January 20th, 2025 represented the clearest distillation of the crossroads our country faces. ...

Trump’s America Last Agenda is a Knife in the Back of Working People

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As Dr. King Once Asked, Where Do We Go From Here?

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A Day Without Child Care

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AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Trump consoles crash victims then dives into politics with attack on diversity initiatives

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US Supreme Court rejects likely final appeal of South Carolina inmate a day before his execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Thursday what is likely the final appeal of a South Carolina inmate the day before his scheduled execution for a 2001 killing of a friend found dead in her burning car. Marion Bowman Jr.'s request to stop his execution until a...

Trump's orders take aim at critical race theory and antisemitism on college campuses

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ENTERTAINMENT

Book Review: Hunted by the FBI and Russian Oligarch, a hedge fund manager flees into the wilderness

Paul Brightman, a former hedge fund manager, has been keeping a low profile, changing his name to Grant Anderson and making a modest living as a boat builder in a small New Hampshire town. But Paul fears it’s only a matter of time before he’s found. The FBI is hunting him. The CIA...

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni get March 2026 trial date for her 'It Ends With Us' lawsuit

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Movie Review: Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon collide in comedy 'You're Cordially Invited'

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U.S. & WORLD NEWS

David Espo AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The No. 2 Republican in the House says he's still confident that a bipartisan deficit "supercommittee" will be able to reach agreement even though there's little more than a week to go before its deadline.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he knows the panel is under great pressure but he believes its members can succeed by Nov. 23.

The panel is charged with coming up with at least $1.2 trillion worth of deficit cuts over the coming decade but has been deadlocked over taxes and cuts to benefit programs. Failure would trigger automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon budget and a wide range of domestic programs.

The Virginia Republican declined to otherwise comment on the committee's work, including last week's GOP proposal for revenue hikes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Despite prodding from President Barack Obama, members of Congress' supercommittee concede no deal is in sight to meet their goal of $1.2 trillion or more in deficit savings over the next decade.

Instead, with only 10 days remaining until a Nov. 23 deadline, the panel is divided along partisan lines and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said Sunday the six committee members of his own party "have not coalesced around a plan."

Despite the difficulties, Clyburn and Republicans on the deficit panel all said they haven't given up hope of a deal by the deadline.

"But if this was easy, the president of the United States and the speaker of the House would have gotten it done themselves," said Rep Jeb Hensarling of Texas, the Republican chairman of the committee.

Obama mentioned his own unsuccessful negotiations with Speaker John Boehner in passing at a news conference in Hawaii on Sunday where he urged the members of the committee to show more flexibility. "It feels as if people continue to try to stick with their rigid positions rather than solve the problem," he said.

"There's no magic formula. There are no magic beans that you can toss on the ground and suddenly a bunch of money grows on trees," Obama added. "We got to just go ahead and do the responsible thing."

Despite some concessions, the two sides remain divided over the same basic issues that thwarted earlier deficit reduction efforts - finding a mutually agreeable blend of tax increases and cuts in the largest government benefit programs.

Democrats on the supercommittee say they are willing to make significant reductions in programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid only after Republicans agree to higher tax revenue, including a larger bite out of the income of the wealthy.

Republicans say that the soaring deficits result from too much spending, and not from a shortage of revenue to the Treasury, and tax increases would crimp efforts to create jobs.

In an offer they said marked a significant concession, GOP members on the panel offered last week to raise taxes by $250 billion over a decade as part of an overhaul of the tax code that simultaneously would cut the top rate from 35 percent to 28 percent.

Democrats swiftly rejected that as a tax cut for the wealthy in disguise, and separately jettisoned an earlier proposal that would have slowed the growth in cost of living increases under Social Security.

There has been little, if any, indication of progress in the talks since then.

But Hensarling seemed to suggest in an interview Sunday that the two parties could find a way around the fast-approaching Thanksgiving deadline by coming to a general understanding with respect to raising new revenue, without actually having to agree on a process or specific remedy.

"There could be a two-step process that would hopefully give us pro-growth tax reform, which by the way, every other bipartisan effort that has said that some revenues have to be raised in this method," he told CNN in an interview. "That is again broaden the base, historically this is how we both produce jobs and more revenues for the government."

For the most part, however, officials in both parties seem to be positioning themselves publicly for political advantage in case the talks falter.

Hensarling said the panel has a goal of cutting deficits by $1.2 trillion, but added it also has a duty.

"The duty is to put forth legislation that actually addresses long-term structural debt. Now the president himself has said that the drivers of our debt are Medicare, Medicaid and health care. Nothing else comes close," he said, adding that Republicans have done that.

But Obama described the situation differently at a news conference after wrapping up an economic summit with leaders of Pacific-region nations.

"If we've got to raise money, it makes sense for us to start by asking the wealthiest among us to pay a little bit more before we start asking seniors, for example, to pay a lot more for their Medicare," he said.

Nor do the two sides agree about a fallback plan already in place to make sure deficits are reduced even if the panel fails to reach an agreement.

Obama said twice over the weekend Congress shouldn't count on being able to change the automatic spending cuts that would take effect beginning on Jan. 1, 2013.

About $450 billion in cuts would come from defense and the same amount from domestic accounts, with savings on interest payments making up the balance of a $1.2 trillion total.

Republicans, joined by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, say the Pentagon couldn't sustain reductions of that magnitude, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said there would be a "lively debate" in Congress on changing which programs the cuts would affect.

Clyburn and Toomey appeared on Fox. Hensarling was interviewed on CNN.

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AP reporter Erica Werner in Hawaii contributed to this story.

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