03-28-2023  6:02 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Signs of Love on Rucker Ave: Blushing Rocks, Scrambled Eggs, A Coffee Date

Messages on display on Totem Family Diner and Pacific Stone Co. retro signs in Everett, Wash. reveal “secret crushes.”

Idaho Hospital to Stop Baby Deliveries, Partly Over Politics

A rural hospital in northern Idaho will stop delivering babies or providing other obstetrical care, citing a shifting legal climate in which recently enacted state laws could subject physicians to prosecution for providing abortions, among other reasons

Water Contamination in Oregon Could Prompt EPA to Step In

It's been three decades since state agencies first noted high levels of nitrate contamination in the groundwater in Morrow and Umatilla counties and residents have long complained that the pollution is negatively impacting their health.

North Portland Library to Undergo Renovations and Expansion

As one of the library building projects funded by the 2020 Multnomah County voter-approved bond, North Portland Library will close to the public on April 5, 2023, to begin construction processes for its renovation and expansion.

NEWS BRIEFS

County Distributes $5 Million in Grants to Community-Based Organizations

Awards will help 13 community-based organizations fund capital improvements to better serve historically marginalized...

Call for Submissions: Play Scripts, Web Series, Film Shorts, Features & Documentaries

Deadline for submissions to the 2023 Pacific Northwest Multi-Cultural Readers Series & Film Festival extended to April 8 ...

Motorcycle Lane Filtering Law Passes Oregon Senate

SB 422 will allow motorcyclists to avoid dangers of stop-and-go traffic under certain conditions ...

MET Rental Assistance Now Available

The Muslim Educational Trust is extending its Rental Assistance Program to families in need living in Multnomah or Washington...

Two for One Tickets for Seven Guitars on Thursday, March 23

Taylore Mahogany Scott's performance in Seven Guitars brings to life Vera Dotson, a woman whose story arose in August Wilson's...

Judge: BNSF intentionally violated Swinomish tribe agreement

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge ruled Monday that BNSF Railway intentionally violated the terms of an easement agreement with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in Washington state by running 100-car trains carrying crude oil over the reservation. The ruling in the civil case...

Washington moves to end child sex abuse lawsuit time limits

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — People who were sexually abused as children in Washington state may soon be able to bring lawsuits against the state, schools or other institutions for failing to stop the abuse, no matter when it happened. House Bill 1618 would remove time limits that have...

MLB The Show breaks barrier with Negro League players

LOS ANGELES (AP) — MLB The Show has broken a video game barrier: For the first time, the franchise will insert some of the greatest Negro League players — from Satchel Paige to Jackie Robinson — into the 2023 edition of the game as playable characters. Video gamers are now able...

Jacksonville's Armstrong: HR surge 'out-of-body experience'

Jacksonville’s Kris Armstrong could always hit for power, but never like this. Armstrong slugged six home runs over eight at-bats against Central Arkansas this past weekend, and he's gone deep eight times in 15 trips to the plate since Thursday. “It's kind of an...

OPINION

Oregon Should Reject Racist Roots, Restore Voting Rights For People in Prisons

Blocking people with felony convictions from voting started in the Jim Crow era as an intentional strategy to keep Black people from voting ...

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 ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Residents of historically Black town sue to stop land sale

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of the first historically Black towns in the U.S. is suing the local school board to stop the sale of land that is tied up with Florida's legacy of racial segregation decades ago and the state's fast-paced growth nowadays. An association dedicated to the...

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...

India expels Rahul Gandhi, Modi critic, from Parliament

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's top opposition leader and fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expelled from Parliament Friday, a day after a court convicted him of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking the surname Modi in an election speech. The...

ENTERTAINMENT

Taron Egerton slots Tetris story into place in new biopic

The origin story of the iconic computer game “Tetris” is more thrilling than you may think. It involves border crossing, authority dodging, underhand deals, putting your house on the line and — finally — trying to secure the rights for the game from behind the Iron Curtain....

'The Big Door Prize' asks deep questions about happiness

NEW YORK (AP) — Not to be rude, but are you living your best life? Are you sure? Might you be destined to be something else? Do you know what that could be? Those are some of the deep questions residents of the fictional town of Deerfield are dealing with as they confront...

Gwyneth Paltrow accuser calls Utah ski crash 'serious smack'

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The man suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 skiing collision at an upscale Utah resort told a jury Monday that the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer crashed into him from behind and sent him “absolutely flying.” “All I saw was a whole lot of snow. And I...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Pirates board oil tanker with 16 crew in Gulf of Guinea

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Pirates have boarded a Liberian-flagged oil tanker with 16 crew members in West Africa's...

Wisconsin school bans Miley, Dolly duet from class concert

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Administrators at a Wisconsin elementary school stopped a first-grade class from performing...

AP sources: No more action from Trump grand jury this week

NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money paid on Donald Trump’s behalf is not...

Why does Russia want tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus?

Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the...

Montenegro's president: EU's neglect gave Russia a platform

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro's pro-Western president criticized the European Union for allegedly...

Muslim leader for Scotland a sign of UK political diversity

LONDON (AP) — Humza Yousaf was confirmed as first minister of Scotland on Tuesday, becoming the first person of...

Nekesa Mumbi Moody AP Music Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- They won't be there in person, but Whitney Houston's millions of fans worldwide will be able to share in her homecoming service Saturday as they watch her private funeral on the Internet and elsewhere.

Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, announced Wednesday that The Associated Press will be the only video camera allowed inside at Saturday's funeral in Newark. The AP will stream the service on http://livestream.com/aplive. The event also will be available to broadcasters via satellite.

It will provide a much-needed connection for fans who have lacked a formal place to eulogize Houston, one of the world's best-selling artists who died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday at the age of 48.

Some have gathered and placed flowers outside the Newark, N.J., church where the funeral will be held by invitation-only at the request of Houston's family, who wish to maintain some privacy. Others have stopped by the funeral home. But many have longed to share more fully in commemorating the superstar's life, and have shown their grief in one of the few ways available to them - by buying her music.

Houston's funeral will be at New Hope Baptist Church, where she sang as a child. Her eulogy will be given by gospel singer Marvin Winans, a Grammy Award winner and longtime family friend. Afterward, Houston will be buried in Fair View Cemetery in Westfield, N.J., according to her death certificate. Her father, John Russell Houston Jr., was buried there in 2003.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, investigators for the coroner's office have subpoenaed records from the singer's doctors and pharmacies who dispensed medication found in the hotel room where she died.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said such inquiries are routine in virtually all death investigations.

Investigators have not said what medications they have recovered from Houston's room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The singer was found underwater in a bathtub by a member of her staff hours before she planned to attend her mentor Clive Davis' swank pre-Grammy gala. Police have said there were no signs of foul play and Winter said there were no signs of trauma on her body when an autopsy was conducted on Sunday.

It will be weeks before toxicology results reveal the medications and quantities, if any, that were in Houston's system when she died. The Grammy winner's history of substance abuse has added to the speculation that her death may have been caused by prescription drugs.

In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston talked about how she was deeply shaken by the death of Michael Jackson. Jackson died at age 50 that year from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.

Houston recalled taping a show celebrating Jackson's 30th anniversary celebration in 2001. Houston was strikingly thin - so much so that rumors spread soon after that she had died. Jackson was also frail.

"I was getting scared," she told Winfrey. "I was looking at myself going, `No, I don't want this to be like this. This can't happen. Not both of us.'"

Like Jackson, Houston was on the verge of a career comeback before her death on Feb. 11. And, like Jackson, sales of her recordings have soared since her passing as fans try to recapture her glory days in the 1980s and 1990s. Old recordings have been propelled to the top of sales charts on iTunes and Amazon.com.

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Associated Press entertainment writer Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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MLK Breakfast 2023

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