05-05-2024  12:59 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Police Detain Driver Who Accelerated Toward Protesters at Portland State University in Oregon

The Portland Police Bureau said in a written statement late Thursday afternoon that the man was taken to a hospital on a police mental health hold. They did not release his name. The vehicle appeared to accelerate from a stop toward the crowd but braked before it reached anyone. 

Portland Government Will Change On Jan. 1. The City’s Transition Team Explains What We Can Expect.

‘It’s a learning curve that everyone has to be intentional about‘

What Marijuana Reclassification Means for the United States

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use. Some advocates for legalized weed say the move doesn't go far enough, while opponents say it goes too far.

US Long-Term Care Costs Are Sky-High, but Washington State’s New Way to Help Pay for Them Could Be Nixed

A group funded by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood is attempting to undermine the financial stability of Washington state's new long-term care social insurance program.

NEWS BRIEFS

April 30 is the Registration Deadline for the May Primary Election

Voters can register or update their registration online at OregonVotes.gov until 11:59 p.m. on April 30. ...

Chair Jessica Vega Pederson Releases $3.96 Billion Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Investments will boost shelter and homeless services, tackle the fentanyl crisis, strengthen the safety net and support a...

New Funding Will Invest in Promising Oregon Technology and Science Startups

Today Business Oregon and its Oregon Innovation Council announced a million award to the Portland Seed Fund that will...

Unity in Prayer: Interfaith Vigil and Memorial Service Honoring Youth Affected by Violence

As part of the 2024 National Youth Violence Prevention Week, the Multnomah County Prevention and Health Promotion Community Adolescent...

Escaped zebra captured near Seattle after gallivanting around Cascade mountain foothills for days

SEATTLE (AP) — A zebra that has been hoofing through the foothills of western Washington for days was recaptured Friday evening, nearly a week after she escaped with three other zebras from a trailer near Seattle. Local residents and animal control officers corralled the zebra...

Safety lapses contributed to patient assaults at Oregon State Hospital, federal report says

Safety lapses at the Oregon State Hospital contributed to recent patient-on-patient assaults, a federal report on the state's most secure inpatient psychiatric facility has found. The investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that staff didn't always...

The Bo Nix era begins in Denver, and the Broncos also drafted his top target at Oregon

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — For the first time in his 17 seasons as a coach, Sean Payton has a rookie quarterback to nurture. Payton's Denver Broncos took Bo Nix in the first round of the NFL draft. The coach then helped out both himself and Nix by moving up to draft his new QB's top...

Elliss, Jenkins, McCaffrey join Harrison and Alt in following their fathers into the NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Kris Jenkins, Jonah Ellis and Luke McCaffrey have turned the NFL draft into a family affair. The sons of former pro football stars, they've followed their fathers' formidable footsteps into the league. Elliss was...

OPINION

New White House Plan Could Reduce or Eliminate Accumulated Interest for 30 Million Student Loan Borrowers

Multiple recent announcements from the Biden administration offer new hope for the 43.2 million borrowers hoping to get relief from the onerous burden of a collective

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

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...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

With a vest and a voice, helpers escort kids through San Francisco’s broken Tenderloin streets

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Wearing a bright safety vest with the words “Safe Passage” on the back, Tatiana Alabsi strides through San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood to its only public elementary school, navigating broken bottles and stained sleeping bags along tired streets that occasionally...

As US spotlights those missing or dead in Native communities, prosecutors work to solve their cases

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It was a frigid winter morning when authorities found a Native American man dead on a remote gravel road in western New Mexico. He was lying on his side, with only one sock on, his clothes gone and his shoes tossed in the snow. There were trails of blood on...

The Kentucky Derby is turning 150 years old. It's survived world wars and controversies of all kinds

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — As a record crowd cheered, American Pharoah rallied from behind and took aim at his remaining two rivals in the stretch. The bay colt and jockey Victor Espinoza surged to the lead with a furlong to go and thundered across the finish line a length ahead in the 2015 Kentucky...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11: May 5: Actor Michael Murphy is 86. Actor Lance Henriksen (“Millennium,” ″Aliens”) is 84. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 81. Actor John Rhys-Davies (“Lord of the Rings,” ″Raiders of the Lost Ark”) is 80....

Select list of nominees for 2024 Tony Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Select nominations for the 2024 Tony Awards, announced Tuesday. Best Musical: “Hell's Kitchen'': ”Illinoise"; “The Outsiders”; “Suffs”; “Water for Elephants” Best Play: “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”; “Mary Jane”; “Mother...

Book Review: 'Crow Talk' provides a path for healing in a meditative and hopeful novel on grief

Crows have long been associated with death, but Eileen Garvin’s novel “Crow Talk” offers a fresh perspective; creepy, dark and morbid becomes beautiful, wondrous and transformative. “Crow Talk” provides a path for healing in a meditative and hopeful novel on grief, largely...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Panamanians vote in election dominated by former president who was banned from running

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panamanians head to the polls Sunday to vote in an election that has been consumed by...

25 arrested at University of Virginia after police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters

Twenty-five people were arrested Saturday for trespassing at the University of Virginia after police clashed with...

A Holocaust survivor will mark that history differently after the horrors of Oct. 7

KIBBUTZ MEFALSIM, Israel (AP) — When Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, the militant group that...

Kremlin critics say Russia is targeting its foes abroad with killings, poisonings and harassment

The military defector was killed in a hail of gunfire and then run over by a car in Spain. The opposition figure...

United Methodist delegates repeal their church’s ban on its clergy celebrating same-sex marriages

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — `United Methodist delegates on Friday repealed their church’s longstanding ban on the...

AP PHOTOS: Greek Orthodox mark Good Friday with solemn bier processions

NAFPAKTOS, Greece (AP) — The procession of “Epitaphios," symbolizing the bier that carried the body of Jesus...

CNN Wire Staff

BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- The jury considering the fate of Jerry Sandusky reconvened Friday for a second day of deliberations.

Jurors deliberated until about 9:30 p.m. Thursday before breaking off, and began reviewing testimony from two witnesses when they resumed their duties Friday morning.

The former Penn State assistant football coach is charged with dozens of counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 alleged victims over a 15-year period.

The case went to the jury as new revelations came to light.

Matt Sandusky, one of six adopted children of Jerry Sandusky, 68, said through his attorney Thursday that he was sexually abused by the former Penn State assistant football coach, adding that he had been prepared to testify against him.

The new accusation could lead to additional charges, including incest, even though he is adopted, according to Marci Hamilton, a Cardozo Law School professor who has represented victims and written on sexual abuse cases.

"At Matt's request, we immediately arranged a meeting between him and the prosecutors and investigators," attorneys Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici said in a statement. "This has been an extremely painful experience for Matt, and he has asked us to convey his request that the media respect his privacy."

The jurors decide Jerry Sandusky's fate without having heard from the former Penn State defensive coordinator on the witness stand.

During closing arguments, his defense sought to poke holes in the prosecution's case, pointing to inconsistencies with the testimony of Mike McQueary, a former graduate student and assistant coach who said he saw Sandusky apparently sodomizing a boy in a university shower.

Defense attorney Joe Amendola reminded jurors of the lack of physical evidence in the case. He accused the alleged victims of conspiring for financial gain while blaming the media for what he described as biased coverage.

During the arguments, Sandusky's wife, Dottie, quietly wept.

Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan rebuffed the defense's account of a coordinated action among Sandusky's accusers allegedly bent on financial windfall.

"The commonwealth has overwhelming evidence against Mr. Sandusky," he said.

Judge John Cleland announced that three of the counts were dropped against the former coach, bringing the total number of charges to 48.

He told jurors that all three counts pertain to "alleged victim 4," while the defense further petitioned to have all counts related to "alleged victim 8" dismissed as well.

Cleland said one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse duplicated another charge. Two other counts -- one of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and another of aggravated indecent assault -- were not supported by testimony and the evidence presented, Cleland found.

Prosecutors dropped one of the original 52 counts earlier this week because the statute on which that charge was based wasn't in effect on the date of the alleged incident.

Dr. Elliot Atkins testified that he diagnosed Sandusky with histrionic personality disorder, part of a class of conditions called dramatic personality disorders that are marked by unstable emotions and distorted self-images. But a second psychologist, prosecution witness Dr. John O'Brien, disputed those findings, saying that the "personality profile Mr. Sandusky exhibited was within normal limits."

Some court observers had said that if Sandusky were to testify, prosecutors could submit as new evidence a TV interview the ex-coach had with NBC sportscaster Bob Costas.

Matt Sandusky's name came up during testimony from one of the alleged victims.

The accuser talked about what occurred after he played racquetball once with Jerry and Matt Sandusky.

"Matt went into the shower, and then me and Jerry came in ... he started pumping his hand full of soap, like he was going to throw it. Matt got out ... he went to another shower [area]."

According to some alleged victims, Jerry Sandusky would often use shower "soap fights" as a prelude to inappropriate sexual contact.

In his 2001 autobiography, "Touched," Jerry Sandusky wrote about his relationship with Matt Sandusky, whom he met through Second Mile when the youth was 7 or 8.

Sandusky detailed the youth's discipline problems and struggles, ultimately becoming close to his new family.

Meanwhile, a man who claims he was repeatedly sexually abused by Sandusky while a child spoke out Thursday.

"He (once) told me if I ever said anything that nobody was going to believe me and he would get my dad fired from Penn State," Travis Weaver, 30, told NBC's "Rock Center with Brian Williams."

Weaver did not testify in Sandusky's trial, but filed a civil action against the former coach.

CNN's Susan Candiotti, Ross Levitt, Jason Carroll, Dana Garrett, Laura Dolan and In Session's Michael Christian and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast