04-25-2024  7:21 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

A Conservative Quest to Limit Diversity Programs Gains Momentum in States

In support of DEI, Oregon and Washington have forged ahead with legislation to expand their emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in government and education.

Epiphanny Prince Hired by Liberty in Front Office Job Day After Retiring

A day after announcing her retirement, Epiphanny Prince has a new job working with the New York Liberty as director of player and community engagement. Prince will serve on the basketball operations and business staffs, bringing her 14 years of WNBA experience to the franchise. 

The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting. 

Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

 Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color

NEWS BRIEFS

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...

OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide

Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...

Governor Kotek Announces Chief of Staff, New Office Leadership

Governor expands executive team and names new Housing and Homelessness Initiative Director ...

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 ...

Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge US to prosecute the company

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost 5 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers. ...

Authorities confirm 2nd victim of ex-Washington officer was 17-year-old with whom he had a baby

WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a body found at the home of a former Washington state police officer who killed his ex-wife before fleeing to Oregon, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was that of a 17-year-old girl with whom he had a baby. ...

Missouri hires Memphis athletic director Laird Veatch for the same role with the Tigers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri hired longtime college administrator Laird Veatch to be its athletic director on Tuesday, bringing him back to campus 14 years after he departed for a series of other positions that culminated with five years spent as the AD at Memphis. Veatch...

KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...

OPINION

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...

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. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Bishop stabbed during Sydney church service backs X's legal case to share video of the attack

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A Sydney bishop who was stabbed repeatedly in an alleged extremist attack blamed on a teenager has backed X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s legal bid to overturn an Australian ban on sharing graphic video of the attack on social media. A live stream of the...

Biden just signed a bill that could ban TikTok. His campaign plans to stay on the app anyway

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden showed off his putting during a campaign stop at a public golf course in Michigan last month, the moment was captured on TikTok. Forced inside by a rainstorm, he competed with 13-year-old Hurley “HJ” Coleman IV to make putts on a...

2021 death of young Black man at rural Missouri home was self-inflicted, FBI tells AP

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation has concluded that a young Black man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a rural Missouri home, not at the hands of the white homeowner who had a history of racist social media postings, an FBI official told The Associated Press Wednesday. ...

ENTERTAINMENT

Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch fully embraces the freedom that comes with improvisation on his solo album “Silent, Listening,” spontaneously composing and performing tunes that are often without melody, meter or form. Listening to them can be challenging and rewarding. The many-time...

Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace

Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....

Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots to headline the BET Experience concerts in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardi B, Queen Latifah and The Roots will headline concerts to celebrate the return of the BET Experience in Los Angeles just days before the 2024 BET Awards. BET announced Monday the star-studded lineup of the concert series, which makes a return after a...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

The Latest | Israeli strikes in Rafah kill at least 5 as ship comes under attack in the Gulf of Aden

Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip killed at...

Columbia's president, no stranger to complex challenges, walks tightrope on student protests

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik is no stranger to navigating complex international issues, having...

TikTok has promised to sue over the potential US ban. What's the legal outlook?

NEW YORK (AP) — Legislation forcing TikTok's parent company to sell the video-sharing platform or face a ban in...

A Russian actress who called for peace was fined for hosting an 'almost naked' party

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Moscow court on Thursday imposed a 50,000-ruble (0) fine on a TV presenter and...

Controversy over spiked antifascist speech dominates Italy's Liberation Day anniversary

ROME (AP) — Italy on Thursday marked its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule amid a fresh media...

Third man is detained in a major bribery case that involves Russia's deputy defense minister

A third man has been detained in a bribery case involving one of Russia's most senior defense officials, Moscow's...

Halimah Abdullah CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jonathan remembers the day, several years ago, when the father of two was forced to sit his young daughter down and explain that, as an undocumented immigrant, she probably wouldn't be allowed to tour the White House with her eighth-grade class.

That day still breaks his heart.

"It's hard because what happens is your hopes begin to fade away and your future is in the short term," Jonathan said. "You're living day-by-day, not by year."

The family, who is living illegally in Florida and asked that their last names be withheld to protect their identities, is one of thousands who have the most at stake following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to largely overturn Arizona's immigration law.

Political pundits have argued the legal merits of the case for months. But for those in the United States without documentation, those whose job prospects have been usurped by cheaper illegal labor, and the local governments forced to absorb the enormous costs associated with illegal immigration, the case goes far beyond politics.

For them, it is a daily battle between a fear of arrest and deportation and a government some feel hasn't done enough to stop illegal immigration.

The court struck down core portions of the Arizona law in a 5-3 ruling concluding, as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, that "the national government has significant power to regulate immigration."

However, the court also upheld the provision that lets police officers enforcing other laws scrutinize the immigration status of someone if they believe that "reasonable suspicion" exists that the person is in the United States illegally.

"This is a gray day for people like me," reacted Jonathan to that provision, dubbed by critics as "show me your papers." "This basically gives the state of Florida permission to follow in Arizona's footsteps.

"Imagine the exodus of all the people who are afraid," he said. "Families will be separated."

But both Republicans and Democrats rushed to claim a limited victory.

"I am pleased that the Supreme Court has struck down key provisions of Arizona's immigration law," President Barack Obama said in a written statement Monday.

"At the same time, I remain concerned about the practical impact of the remaining provision of the Arizona law that requires local law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of anyone they even suspect to be here illegally," Obama said.

Republican leaders did not share the same opinion. "Once again we are reminded that President Obama has failed to keep his promise on immigration reform," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "In the absence of presidential leadership, states have acted on their own to serve their people and enforce the law, but the issue cannot fully be resolved with a president unwilling to keep his promises. This decision makes that job even more difficult, and it leaves Americans waiting for a plan the president promised to deliver years ago."

For immigrants such as Jonathan who've spent years living in the shadows, the ruling may offer a glimmer of hope. But it also makes him feel as if life is about to get a lot more precarious.

"When all of this was happening and (Florida's) Gov. (Rick) Scott was talking about the Arizona law and how they wanted to do the same," Jonathan says, his voice breaking. "The walls were closing in on us pretty fast. We were losing hope."

Experts say, at its core, the anxiety over immigration has to do with the nation's drastically shifting racial demographics.

"Most of the vitriol and anxiety people feel about immigration has to do with one simple concept, the changing demographics of America," said CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette.

According to recent Census figures, minorities are half of the U.S. population under age 1. When these children come of age, they could help consolidate a political power base in places like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. That political power hold will stretch across the Southwest all the way to California, experts say. The states with the biggest increases in minority birthrates are also the states that had been considering tough laws like Arizona's.

And there are those who still see laws like the Arizona measure as a necessary step to fixing the poor job the federal government has done in resolving the immigration crisis.

"I have a cousin who is in construction. He has had to bring his prices down; he is constantly looking for work; he can't get work as a skilled laborer because he has to compete with the suppressed wages from illegal immigration," said Pauline Olvera, a former small business owner and vice chair of the Denver Republican Party. "We cannot be the only country in the world that doesn't enforce immigration laws."

She said she has watched in frustration as American citizens have been unable to get jobs.

"When illegal immigrants are here...nobody blames them for wanting to pursue the opportunity," she said. "When you have the people here illegally, the opportunity for exploitation in the workforce is higher, and it makes it difficult for American workers to compete for jobs."

Jonathan, an engineer by training, said he understands those concerns. But for him, "it feels like it is Gestapo."

He is one of the lucky ones with government-issued identification. So, he feels a bit safer. For now.

But he's prepared to flee if things take a turn. After all, it's what his close friends plan on doing.

"If I'm pulled over and I'm asked for my papers, I have a license," Jonathan said. "For our (friends), they're going to pack up and go to friendlier pastures. Friendlier states."

CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast