05-05-2024  5:54 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

As Putin begins another 6-year term, he is entering a new era of extraordinary power in Russia

Just a few months short of a quarter-century as Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin on Tuesday will put his hand on a...

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...

A driver dies after crashing into a security barrier around the White House complex, authorities say

WASHINGTON (AP) — A driver died after a vehicle crashed into an outer perimeter gate of the White House complex,...

King Charles III’s openness about cancer has helped him connect with people in year after coronation

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III’s decision to be open about his cancer diagnosis has helped the new monarch...

Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list

Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday,...

London, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Mayor Sadiq Khan wins historic third term

LONDON (AP) — London Mayor Sadiq Khan has a lot of cleaning up to do. Khan, who made history...

Eric Ture Muhamad the Final Call

Black FarmersATLANTA (FinalCall.com) - George B. Hildebrandt is 72-years-old and comes from several generations of farmers.

He has diabetes. He has problems looking into direct sunlight. He struggles to maintain glucose levels to keep his "sugar up."

His sons were raised on his 242-acre soybean farm. They have moved on, carving out other professions and ending a family tradition of tilling the land.

Despite his ailments, Mr. Hildebrandt left his wife Patricia in Leavenworth County, Kansas and traveled nearly 900 miles to join a small group of Black farmers and agri-businessmen on the doorsteps of cable news giant CNN.

They are desperate.

They are hoping to draw attention to what they call a crisis in Black farming.

Blacks have lost millions of acres of land over the years; have been unfairly denied loans and assistance, and the group of largely aging farmers complain of more stalling on promises made by the United States Department of Agriculture.

They feel cheated. They fear the demise of a lifestyle they have loved and they want justice—whether they will get the justice they seek or not remains a question.

The farmers have engaged in daily protests in downtown Atlanta since Sept. 5 and call themselves "Filibuster," a movement organized by the USDA Coalition of Black Employees and Minority Farmers.

They call the Agriculture Department "the last plantation" and have vowed to protest until their demands are met. They want promised easy access to low cost loans that should have come alongside debt relief to keep their land. The promises were made by USDA as atonement for decades of denial of loans and support that the farmers qualified for.

The federal government promised to forgive debt incurred as farmers tried to survive the negative and costly impact of racial discrimination. Those promises were made in what is commonly called the Pigford II settlement, which was the result of a lawsuit alleging racially motivated wrongdoing by USDA employees and decision-makers, said protest organizers.

A long history of discrimination, and lawsuits beginning in 1999 led to promises to reverse and end denial of assistance Black farmers qualified for. The wrongs of the past have never been righted, the farmers charge. A highly touted USDA settlement with Black farmers announced by President Obama in February 2010 has been a failure, said the farmers.

Armed with dozens of individual filings against USDA and its farm loan programs—the small group of farmers from Georgia, Alabama, and Kansas say they are still denied loans, subjected to broken agreements and mistreatment.

They tried to post up on the steps of CNN to get mainstream media attention. CNN security told the mostly elderly group of Black men, they had to move and no protests are allowed on network property.

They were advised to protest in a front of a state park across the street. They moved. Georgia State Police forced the group to move again. Eventually they settled on a corner across from CNN and launched their campaign. Handing out fliers, they talked to whoever would listen, recounting their woes and the alleged abuses. People listened but the press didn't, said protest organizers.

Not one media outlet covered the demonstrations beyond The Final Call, said the farmers.

Several media outlets verified getting press releases from the group, but they didn't send reporters to hear the group's concerns.

In his 36th installment of the weekly lecture series, "The Time and What Must Be Done," the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Sept. 14 talked about the value God places on land, farming and animal husbandry.

"Farming and agriculture is the first profession that Allah (God) introduced to man," said Minister Farrakhan.

"And (Allah) God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it," the Minister said. But, he added, today farmers are aging, disrespected and Black land is dwindling, he said. Blacks must get back to farming and purchase land to ensure their survival, he warned.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast