04-20-2024  9:35 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Don’t Shoot Portland, University of Oregon Team Up for Black Narratives, Memory

The yearly Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary shows the power of preservation.

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.

NEWS BRIEFS

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 ...

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 $1,000 savings account ...

Literary Arts Transforms Historic Central Eastside Building Into New Headquarters

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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 ...

Record numbers in the US are homeless. Can cities fine them for sleeping in parks and on sidewalks?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The most significant case in decades on homelessness has reached the Supreme Court as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live. The justices on Monday will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based appeals court that...

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...

University of Missouri plans 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri is planning a 0 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. The Memorial Stadium Improvements Project, expected to be completed by the 2026 season, will further enclose the north end of the stadium and add a variety of new premium...

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

The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year...

Lawsuits under New York's new voting rights law reveal racial disenfranchisement even in blue states

FREEPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Weihua Yan had seen dramatic demographic changes since moving to Long Island's Nassau County. Its Asian American population alone had grown by 60% since the 2010 census. Why then, he wondered, did he not see anyone who looked like him on the county's local...

USC cancels graduation keynote by filmmaker amid controversy over decision to drop student's speech

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California further shook up its commencement plans Friday, announcing the cancelation of a keynote speech by filmmaker Jon M. Chu just days after making the controversial choice to disallow the student valedictorian from speaking. The...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of April 21-27

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What to stream this weekend: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift reigns

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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...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

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Tennessee Volkswagen employees overwhelmingly vote to join United Auto Workers union

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The man who set himself on fire outside the courthouse where Trump is on trial dies of his injuries

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NATO secretary-general says some allies have air defense systems they could give to Ukraine

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Russia pummels exhausted Ukrainian forces with smaller attacks ahead of a springtime advance

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The Latest | World leaders call on Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen

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CNN Wire Staff

OAK CREEK, Wisconsin (CNN) -- Community members are coming together to seek emotional healing in the wake of Sunday's shooting spree that killed six people and wounded four at a religious service in a Milwaukee suburb.

For a third consecutive night, mourners and supporters will hold a vigil Tuesday, CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV reported, to remember the dead, pray for the wounded and grapple with grief and shock.

An Army veteran who neighbors say played in a far-right punk band was the lone gunman in the rampage at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, according to information Monday from law enforcement authorities.

Wade Michael Page, 40, was shot to death by police responding to the attack, the community's chief of police told reporters.

Hundreds attended a memorial for the victims at a Sikh center in the town of Brookfield Monday, with the line of supporters overflowing outside the temple, WTMJ reported.

"This is one very large community," said Deanna Singh, who attended the service. "We're all one huge family."

"I think it's a sad day for all of us. It's horrific what happened," said Harbander Sithi.

A Methodist church in Oak Creek also held a candlelight vigil Monday night to comfort victims' families and friends.

More than 200 attended, including members of Oak Creek's Sikh temple, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Sunday's attack in Oak Creek occurred 16 days after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded scores at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi said Monday that he spoke with Aurora's mayor to get some advice on how to cope with the tragedy.

"He gave me some pointers and some suggestions on how to not only deal with the immediate but how we deal with the next few weeks," Scaffidi said, pointing out that the Colorado town was in its third week of coping.

"We're not going to let this define us; we'll never let it define us," Scaffidi said. "There are a lot of great people here, and we're not going to let this get in the way."

Worshipers at the temple in Brookfield, which is also a Milwaukee suburb, began fearing for their own safety on the morning of the shooting spree in Oak Creek, when they received calls from friends informing them of the tragedy, said one Sikh devotee.

"We really appreciate Brookfield police officers -- that they did send squads, blocked the driveways, just in case," said Parvinder Singh Sangha, before entering Brookfield's gurdwara -- Sikh temple -- to participate in Monday's remembrance.

"If there is a shooter over there, is somebody else heading over here?" he asked, describing the fears of the congregation.

Although the Sikh religion is not affiliated with Islam, Sikh men, who wear head coverings and let their beards grow, have been subject to Islamophobic hate crimes by perpetrators mistaking them for Muslims.

"We always feared this since 9/11, that someday this thing might happen. It did happen on a smaller level, but not on this level," Gurcharan Singh Grewal, president of Sikh Temple in Brookfield, told CNN affiliate WITI.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker visited the Brookfield Sikh temple Monday to show support.

President Barack Obama ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff through Friday "as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence."

The shootings in Oak Creek and in Aurora have heated up the debate on gun control as election campaigns are in full swing in the United States, and although both Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have condemned the violence and expressed condolences to victims' families, tightening access to guns has remained a political hot potato.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent and an outspoken proponent of gun control, has criticized Obama and Romney for not advocating tougher laws to prevent dangerous people from obtaining guns.

Bernard Zapor -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent in the investigation -- said Monday that the 9mm semiautomatic handgun with multiple ammunition magazines used by the attacker had been legally purchased.

Page bought the gun on July 28 at the Shooters Shop in West Allis, Wisconsin, and picked it up two days later, according to a law enforcement official. The suspect bought ammunition there and used the shop's range at some point, said the official.

Sunday's attack occurred about 10:30 a.m., when temple members were reading scriptures and cooking food in preparation for the main Sunday service and community lunch. The temple has more than 350 members.

According to witnesses, the gunman started shooting in the parking lot, killing at least one person. He then entered the temple and continued firing, they said.

According to Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards and the FBI, authorities have received tips that Page might have links to the white supremacist movement, but nothing had been confirmed. "I don't want to use that term (white supremacist) until we want to put it out there for sure," Edwards said Monday night. "That's not something I can take back."

Two neighbors of Page identified him in photos that showed him playing in the far-right punk band "End Apathy" with Nazi flags hanging nearby him. The nephew of the slain president of the Sikh temple said the attacker had a 9/11 tattoo on his arm.

According to a man who described himself as Page's old Army buddy, the attacker talked about "racial holy war" when they served together in the 1990s. Christopher Robillard of Oregon, who said he lost contact with Page more than a decade ago, added that when Page would rant, "it would be about mostly any non-white person."

Page, born on Veterans Day in 1971, joined the Army in 1992 and left the service in 1998, according to Army spokesman George Wright. His service was marked by "patterns of misconduct," though he received an honorable discharge, according to a Pentagon official.

The suspect did have a criminal record, Edwards said. A background check showed Page had separate convictions for DUI in Colorado in 1999 and for criminal mischief in Texas in 1994.

Page's family said it was "devastated by the horrific events," according to the Journal Sentinel.

"While there can be no words of comfort that will make sense of what happened that day, please be aware that our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their families," the family said in a text message, according to the newspaper.

"We share in their grief for all who lost their lives that day and for those survivors, we hope for a speedy recovery. We have been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can. Please respect our privacy as we try to deal with the tragic loss of life and family."

The gunman's former stepmother spoke of a very different Wade Page she once knew before losing touch with him over a decade ago, when she and Page's father divorced.

"I would not have known this was Wade," Laurie Page told CNN affiliate KUSA in Denver, Colorado. "He had Hispanic friends, and he had black friends."

"What has changed him I have no idea, and obviously we're never going to know," she said, moved to tears.

The six victims of Sunday's attack were identified by police as five men -- Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65; Prakash Singh, 39, and Suveg Singh, 84 -- and one woman, 41-year-old Paramjit Kaur.

Two other Sikh victims remained hospitalized in critical condition, while a third was treated and released, Edwards said.

The wounded police officer, identified as 51-year-old Lt. Brian Murphy, also was in critical condition after suffering nine gunshot wounds, the police chief said, and had a "promising," but long, recovery ahead.

A Sikh human rights group said it would give Murphy a $10,000 reward.

One of the dead, Prakash Singh, was a priest who recently immigrated to the United States with his wife and two young children, said Justice Singh Khalsa, a temple member since the 1990s.

Relatives of Kaleka, the president of the temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said that he was killed fighting the attacker.

"From what we understand, he basically fought to the very end and suffered gunshot wounds while trying to take down the gunman," said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, his nephew.

Meanwhile in India, the birthplace of Sikhism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was "shocked and saddened" by the shooting.

"That this senseless act of violence should be targeted at a place of religious worship is particularly painful," Singh, himself a Sikh, said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by phone with India's foreign minister, and U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell met with Sikh community leaders in New Delhi and visited the largest Sikh temple in the city, said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell.

The United States is home to about 700,000 Sikhs, nearly all of Indian origin, according to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The men are often easily identifiable by their beards and turbans, a tradition that's lasted for 500 years.

CNN's Tom Cohen, Brian Todd, Harmeet Shah Singh, Poppy Harlow, Ed Payne, Ted Rowlands, Marlena Baldacci, Matt Smith, Steve Almasy, Greg Botelho, Phil Gast, Shawn Nottingham, Carol Cratty, Susan Candiotti, Deborah Feyerick and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast