05-12-2024  6:55 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
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NORTHWEST NEWS

Portland OKs New Homeless Camping Rules That Threaten Fines or Jail in Some Cases

The mayor's office says it seeks to comply with a state law requiring cities to have “objectively reasonable” restrictions on camping.

Safety Lapses Contributed to Patient Assaults at Oregon State Hospital

A federal report says safety lapses at the Oregon State Hospital contributed to recent patient-on-patient assaults. The report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigated a recent choking attack and sexual assault, among other incidents. It found that staff didn't always adequately supervise their patients, and that the hospital didn't fully investigate the incidents. In a statement, the hospital said it was dedicated to its patients and working to improve conditions. It has 10 days from receiving the report to submit a plan of correction. The hospital is Oregon's most secure inpatient psychiatric facility

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‘

NEWS BRIEFS

Governor Kotek Issues Statement on Role of First Spouse

"I take responsibility for not being more thoughtful in my approach to exploring the role of the First Spouse." ...

Legislature Makes Major Investments to Increase Housing Affordability and Expand Treatment in Multnomah County

Over million in new funding will help build a behavioral health drop in center, expand violence prevention programs, and...

Poor People’s Campaign and National Partners Announce, “Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls” Ahead of 2024 Elections

Scheduled for June 29th, the “Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C.: A Call to...

Legendary Civil Rights Leader Medgar Wiley Evers Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Evers family overwhelmed with gratitude after Biden announces highest civilian honor. ...

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. ...

Backcountry skier dies after being buried in Idaho avalanche

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A backcountry skier has died after being buried by an avalanche in Idaho, officials said. The avalanche occurred Friday when two experienced backcountry skiers were traveling on Donaldson Peak in Idaho's Lost River Range, the Sawtooth Avalanche Center said. ...

Seattle man is suspected of fatally shooting 9-month-old son and is held on million bail

SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of his 9-month-old son. Officers responded to reports of a shooting in the Magnolia neighborhood Wednesday evening, the Seattle Police Department said in a post on its website. A woman told officers...

Defending national champion LSU boosts its postseason hopes with series win against Texas A&M

With two weeks left in the regular season, LSU is scrambling to avoid becoming the third straight defending national champion to miss the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers (31-18, 9-15) won two of three against then-No. 1 Texas A&M to take a giant step over the weekend, but they...

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...

OPINION

The Skanner News May 2024 Primary Endorsements

Read The Skanner News endorsements and vote today. Candidates for mayor and city council will appear on the November general election ballot. ...

Nation’s Growing Racial and Gender Wealth Gaps Need Policy Reform

Never-married Black women have 8 cents in wealth for every dollar held by while males. ...

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...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Flooding forecast to worsen in Brazil's south, where many who remain are poor

ELDORADO DO SUL, Brazil (AP) — More rain started coming down on Saturday in Brazil’s already flooded Rio Grande do Sul state, where many of those remaining are poor people with limited ability to move to less dangerous areas. More than 15 centimeters (nearly six inches) of rain...

Controversy follows Gov. Kristi Noem as she is banned by two more South Dakota tribes

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is now banned from entering nearly 20% of her state after two more tribes banished her this week over comments she made earlier this year about tribal leaders benefitting from drug cartels. The latest developments in the ongoing tribal dispute come on...

They made one-of-a-kind quilts that captured the public's imagination. Then Target came along

Over the past two decades, Gee’s Bend quilts have captured the public’s imagination with their kaleidoscopic colors and their daring geometric patterns. The groundbreaking art practice was cultivated by direct descendants of slaves in rural Alabama who have faced oppression, geographic...

ENTERTAINMENT

Paul Auster, prolific and experimental man of letters and filmmaker, dies at 77

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Auster, a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1,” has died at age 77. Auster's death was confirmed by his wife and fellow author, Siri Hustvedt,...

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12-18

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 12-18: May 12: Actor Millie Perkins (“Knots Landing”) is 88. Singer Jayotis Washington of The Persuasions is 83. Country singer Billy Swan is 82. Actor Linda Dano (“Another World”) is 81. Singer Steve Winwood is 76. Actor Lindsay Crouse...

Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single. The dissolution of the couple’s marriage was finalized Friday by a Los Angeles County judge, nearly two years after the two were married. The judgment comes hours after the...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

A rural Ugandan community is a hot spot for sickle cell disease. But one patient gives hope

MBALE, Uganda (AP) — Barbara Nabulo was one of three girls in her family. But when a sister died, her mother...

Catalans vote in election to gauge force of separatist movement, degree of reconciliation with Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia is holding a regional election on Sunday whose outcome will reverberate in...

Local governments struggle to distribute their share of billions from opioid settlements

Settlement money to help stem the decades-long opioid addiction and overdose epidemic is rolling out to small...

A combustible Cannes is set to unfurl with 'Furiosa,' 'Megalopolis' and a #MeToo reckoning

The Cannes Film Festival rarely passes without cacophony but this year’s edition may be more raucous and uneasy...

Catalans vote in election to gauge force of separatist movement, degree of reconciliation with Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Catalonia is holding a regional election on Sunday whose outcome will reverberate in...

Haitians demand the resignation and arrest of the country's police chief after a new gang attack

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and...

Paul Vercammen and Stan Wilson CNN

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Two sheriff's deputies have been wounded in a shootout with a suspect believed to be renegade ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner, a high-ranking law official with knowledge of the investigation said Tuesday.
 

Dorner had stolen a vehicle from a house in the Big Bear area when he came upon a police roadblock, the source said. Dorner opened fire on the deputies and later was pinned down, the source said.
 

Dorner is accused of killing one police officer and wounding two others, as well as killing the daughter of his police union representative and her fiancé.
 

The violent spree, authorities say, was part of Dorner's campaign of vigilante justice for what he believes was his unfair termination.
 

Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Andy Neiman said Tuesday that the department had received more than 1,000 tips on Dorner's whereabouts. Some of the calls have come from Dorner's acquaintances or people who think they have spotted the fugitive.
 

The pace of tips being given to investigators increased by 400% after the city of Los Angeles put up a $1 million reward on Sunday for information leading to Dorner's arrest and conviction, Neiman said.

The search for the 270-pound, 6-foot Dorner has focused on the Big Bear Lake area, where authorities say his burning truck was discovered last week after he allegedly started carrying out his threats to kill police and their family members.
 

Over the past two weeks, the search, considered one of the largest in the history of Southern California, has taken authorities from Orange County to the border of Mexico and from Los Angeles to Big Bear Lake.
 

"Big Bear's still where we're looking right now," Neiman said Tuesday. The search area surrounds where Dorner's burning truck was discovered last Thursday.
 

"Until we can confirm that he's either there or he's not there, this investigation has to stick with what we know and what we know is that we found evidence that he was there," Neiman said.
 

While the LAPD spokesman told reporters he was "not ready to confirm" that a man seen in security camera video from a Southern California sporting goods store was Dorner, the Los Angeles Times quoted unnamed law enforcement sources saying it was him.
 

The video, published Monday by the celebrity news website TMZ.com, shows the man carrying what appears to be scuba equipment at the Sports Chalet store in Torrance, California, on February 1, two days before the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of the police union rep, and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence.
 

A "no bail" arrest warrant was issued for Dorner after the Riverside County district attorney filed a murder charge Monday against him in the killing of Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain.
 

"That allows him to be apprehended anywhere within California, out of state or out of the country," District Attorney Paul Zellerbach told reporters Monday.
 

The murder charge is accompanied by two "special circumstances," including killing a police officer on duty and firing a weapon from a vehicle.
 

Dorner was also charged with the attempted murder of three other police officers, including another Riverside officer who was wounded when Crain was killed. That officer, whose name has not been released, is in a lot of pain and faces "many surgeries," Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.
 

Dorner is also accused of opening fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburb of Corona.
 

There has been speculation, based in part on an arrest warrant affidavit filed last week, that Dorner could have crossed state lines into Nevada or made his way to Mexico.
 

Federal authorities, meanwhile, were asking anyone across the country with information about Dorner or his whereabouts to contact their local FBI or U.S. Marshals Service.
 

LAPD reopens case that led to Dorner's dismissal
 

Over the weekend, LAPD said it was reopening the case that resulted in his termination.
 

Dorner accused his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007. The LAPD ruled the complaint unfounded and kicked Dorner off the force for filing a false complaint.
 

Dorner challenged his firing in court and lost.
 

In a manifesto released last week, Dorner blamed racism and corruption in the LAPD for his termination and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him.
 

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had a different term for it Sunday.
 

"This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism," he told reporters Sunday. "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."
 

Targeting police
 

Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 3 when he allegedly killed Quan, 27, and Lawrence in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.
 

According to the manifesto, Randal Quan, Monica Quan's father, bungled Dorner's LAPD termination appeal.
 

Randal Quan represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.
 

The retired officer told investigators he received a call from someone identifying himself as Dorner who told him he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to a federal arrest warrant affidavit.
 

Investigators traced the call to Vancouver, Washington, but based on the timing of other sightings, they don't believe Dorner was in Vancouver at the time, the affidavit states.
 

Days later, early Thursday morning, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.
 

Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing Crain and wounding another.
 

Since then, the LAPD has provided security and surveillance details for more than 50 police officers and their families -- many of whom were named in the manifesto.
 

Additionally, the LAPD is no longer releasing the police chief's schedule to the public or the media.
 

'Ghosts' of the LAPD's past
 

It was Dorner's allegations of racism at the LAPD that led Beck over the weekend to reopen the investigation into his claims.
 

Beck said he was not doing it to "appease a murderer" but out of concern that Dorner's allegations will resurrect a painful part of the department's history.
 

For years, the LAPD was dogged by complaints of racism and corruption. In 1965 and 1992, the city was rocked by racial riots that were sparked, in part, by claims of police racism and brutality.
 

"I hear the same things you hear: The ghosts of the past of the Los Angeles Police Department," Beck said Sunday. "I hear that people think maybe there is something to what he says, and I want to put that to rest."
 

Despite numerous reviews of Dorner's case, he said it has "never been reviewed by me."
 

"If there is anything new, we will deal with it, and we will deal with it in a public way," Beck said.
 

CNN's Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

 

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast