04-17-2024  6:27 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

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.

Five Running to Represent Northeast Portland at County Level Include Former Mayor, Social Worker, Hotelier (Part 2)

Five candidates are vying for the spot previously held by Susheela Jayapal, who resigned from office in November to focus on running for Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. Jesse Beason is currently serving as interim commissioner in Jayapal’s place. (Part 2)

NEWS BRIEFS

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 ...

Bank Announces 14th Annual “I Got Bank” Contest for Youth in Celebration of National Financial Literacy Month

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a jumi,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 ...

Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Returns to Mt. Hood Community College with Acclaimed Artists

Performing at the festival are acclaimed artists Joshua Redman, Hailey Niswanger, Etienne Charles and Creole Soul, Camille Thurman,...

Idaho's ban on youth gender-affirming care has families desperately scrambling for solutions

Forced to hide her true self, Joe Horras’ transgender daughter struggled with depression and anxiety until three years ago, when she began to take medication to block the onset of puberty. The gender-affirming treatment helped the now-16-year-old find happiness again, her father said. ...

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. ...

Idaho's ban on youth gender-affirming care has families desperately scrambling for solutions

Forced to hide her true self, Joe Horras’ transgender daughter struggled with depression and anxiety until three years ago, when she began to take medication to block the onset of puberty. The gender-affirming treatment helped the now-16-year-old find happiness again, her father said. ...

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO (AP) — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest on Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway. ...

OPINION

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. ...

COMMENTARY: Is a Cultural Shift on the Horizon?

As with all traditions in all cultures, it is up to the elders to pass down the rituals, food, language, and customs that identify a group. So, if your auntie, uncle, mom, and so on didn’t teach you how to play Spades, well, that’s a recipe lost. But...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

North Carolina university committee swiftly passes policy change that could cut diversity staff

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The future of diversity, equity and inclusion staff jobs in North Carolina's public university system could be at stake after a five-person committee swiftly voted to repeal a key policy Wednesday. The Committee on University Governance, within the University...

Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai producing. An election coming. ‘Suffs’ has timing on its side

NEW YORK (AP) — Shaina Taub was in the audience at “Suffs,” her buzzy and timely new musical about women’s suffrage, when she spied something that delighted her. It was intermission, and Taub, both creator and star, had been watching her understudy perform at a matinee preview...

Republican AGs attack Biden's EPA for pursuing environmental discrimination cases

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Republican attorneys general attacked the Biden administration’s stated goal of pursuing environmental justice, calling it a form of “racial engineering.‘’ Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and 22 other GOP officials asked the EPA Tuesday to stop using...

ENTERTAINMENT

Robert MacNeil, creator and first anchor of PBS 'NewsHour' nightly newscast, dies at 93

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93. MacNeil died of natural causes at New...

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 week: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift will reign

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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Columbia's president rebuts claims she has allowed the university to become a hotbed of antisemitism

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Columbia University’s president took a firm stance against antisemitism in a...

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in US more likely to believe in climate change: AP-NORC poll

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are more likely than the overall...

House’s Ukraine, Israel aid package gains Biden's support as Speaker Johnson fights to keep his job

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday he strongly supports a proposal from Republican House...

House’s Ukraine, Israel aid package gains Biden's support as Speaker Johnson fights to keep his job

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday he strongly supports a proposal from Republican House...

US reimposes oil sanctions on Venezuela as hopes for a fair presidential election fades

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday reimposed crushing oil sanctions on Venezuela, admonishing...

What's inside the billion House package focused on aiding Ukraine and Israel

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled a long-awaited package of bills that will provide military...

CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- The day he returned to school from a three-day suspension, a Colorado first-grader and his family on Monday were still fighting his being disciplined for what the school labeled "sexual harassment" for quoting the song "Sexy and I Know It."

D'Avonte Meadows, who is African American, was suspended last week from Sable Elementary School in Aurora, just east of Denver. His suspension notice from the school claimed that the boy sang the LMFAO hit "I'm Sexy and I Know It" to a female classmate -- the second time he had done so.

His mother, Stephanie, told HLN's Vinnie Politan on Monday night that the first incident took place in art class and the second in a lunch line, describing both as her 6-year-old son's awkward attempts to impress a girl.

"It's an adolescent boy that possibly likes a girl and doesn't understand, 'Hey, I like you and I put it in those terms,' " Stephanie Meadows said. "That's the adolescent mind."

She added that while D'Avonte is now allowed back in school, his family is still trying to get the suspension for "sexual harassment" overturned.

"I don't want him to have this on his record like that," Meadows said.

The incident comes as school suspensions have become a national issue, particularly within the Black community: Several reports have indicated African American children are suspended and expelled at disproportional rates when compared with Whites.

Aurora school district officials did not comment directly on the boy's case on Monday. But the school district did release a statement explaining its policy on "offensive behavior," including its definition of "sexual harassment."

"'Sexual harassment' refers to behavior which is not welcome, is personally offensive and, therefore, interferes with the learning of the victim(s) and sometimes their peers," the district said. "This is not a criminal definition of sexual harassment; it is one that is focused on providing a safe learning environment for all Aurora Public School students."

The school district pointed to its anti-bullying program, saying that examples of sexual harassment include "sexually oriented 'kidding' or inappropriate references to sexual matters, continued or repeated verbal remarks about a person's body (and) making sexual or lewd gestures."

Meadows took issue with any assertion that her son's remarks, in an arts classroom and the school cafeteria, hurt anyone's education.

"I'm still kind of baffled how it was interrupting the learning, especially with this last incident, when all he was (doing) was singing this song," she said.

Belting out the tune Justin Bieber's smash "Baby," D'Avonte pointed out that he loves to sing.

"Karaoke is fun," he said.

And why did he sing part of "Sexy and I Know It," of all songs, in school?

"Because it's on every commercial, Elmo, and the M&Ms and 'on demand,' " he explained. The first reference is to a Sesame Street parody "I'm Elmo and I Know It," the second to the M&M spoof commercial that debuted in between the action at Super Bowl XLVI and the third to snippets of LMFAO's video that appear while surfing for music and programs on cable TV "on demand" services.

Meadows said that she has already impressed upon young D'Avonte that he should not sing that specific LMFAO song in school any more.

That said, she added she feels it's hard to shelter him from everything in the outside world -- noting, for instance, that she did not play "Sexy and I Know It" on the radio, though he likely heard it on TV in commercials and more.

"As much as you monitor, as much as you try to be careful, as much as you watch everything your child does ... they are going to be exposed to something," the mother said.

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The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast